Chris Harlan stories, Page 72

The PIAA overturned one WPIAL decision and told the WPIAL board to reconsider another. Gateway freshman Brad Birch, a football standout who transferred from Jeannette, was ruled eligible Wednesday following an appeal hearing with the PIAA, reversing a WPIAL decision that would’ve made Birch ineligible for one year. Separately, the...

Hempfield got an early look at right-hander Kyle Demi a few weekends ago, but that sneak peek at the North Allegheny ace didn’t help much Tuesday night. Once again, Demi was dominant. The hard-throwing senior struck out 11 in six shutout innings as top-seeded North Allegheny defeated No. 3 Hempfield,...

Steve Campos, an assistant football coach at Seneca Valley, is expected to be the recommended candidate to fill the vacant head coach job at Pine-Richland, according to a source. The school board has called a special meeting for Wednesday to replace ousted coach Eric Kasperowicz. According to the source, when...

SHIPPENSBURG — When Amy Allen qualified for states as a sophomore, she ran one event and went home. “I didn’t even medal,” said the South Fayette senior, thinking back to 2019. “I was ninth and I was like, ‘So close.’ I just put in the work my junior year since...

SHIPPENSBURG — Plum thrower Logan Parker returned Saturday to Seth Grove Stadium and felt right at home. Soon, it will be his home. A Shippensburg recruit, Parker placed fifth in the boys shot put at the PIAA Class AAA track and field championships. “I got there, and I was walking...

SHIPPENSBURG — While his competitors endured the cold rain and wind inside Seth Grove Stadium, West Mifflin hurdler Dontae Lewis found a way to escape. “I kind of sat in my coach’s car all day with the heat all the way up,” Lewis said with a laugh, “and wasted a...

SHIPPENSBURG — Nora Johns ran the 300 hurdles for the first time this spring, and the Quaker Valley sophomore can remember the thoughts running through her head at the time. “I was like, I just hope to make it to the finish line,” Johns said with a laugh. Two months...

Batting cleanup comes with added responsibility in any baseball lineup, but there’s a little extra burden for North Allegheny’s No. 4 hitter. He’s got to make teams pay a price for avoiding No. 3 batter Cole Young, a Duke recruit and one of the WPIAL’s top juniors. Tigers senior Danny...

SHIPPENSBURG — Trevor Paschall’s state championship meet wasn’t going quite how he’d imagined. The North Catholic sprinter saw his relay team disqualified for a missed handoff, and then he was edged at the line in the 400 meters, finishing second by six-hundredths of a second. But along came the 200,...

SHIPPENSBURG — Waynesburg pole vaulter Taylor Shriver needed three tries to clear her first bar at the state championships, an 11-foot jump that’s normally routine for the senior. But then she soared to new heights. Shriver cleared 13 feet to set an outdoor personal record Friday and won the state...

SHIPPENSBURG — Matching the speed she showed circling the track, the public address announcer at Seth Grove Stadium declared Melissa Riggins a three-time state champion in the 1,600 meters as soon as she crossed the finish line. A little later Friday, Riggins also won the 800 meters for the third...

SHIPPENSBURG — In hindsight, Carson McCoy decided he probably made his move too early at the WPIAL championship, ultimately finishing second. Given a do-over at the state meet, the Deer Lakes junior took a more patient approach to the 1,600 meters. McCoy ran with a crowd for much of the...

Aliquippa’s track team arrived Thursday in Shippensburg, a day ahead of the state championships, but the Quips made the trip with one fewer sprinter than they’d hoped. Antonyo Anderson wasn’t with them, yet his teammates were thinking about him, coaches Sherman McBride and Vashawn Patrick said. The 16-year-old was shot...

The state softball championships are scheduled for next month at Penn State, but there’s a chance the PIAA will need to find an alternate site. The university currently has the total capacity at Nittany Lion Softball Park capped at 190 people, PIAA associate executive director Melissa Mertz said Wednesday when...

The WPIAL baseball finalists in Class 6A and 4A will play under the lights at Wild Things Park next week. The schedule for the six championship games has North Allegheny and Hempfield playing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and Montour and New Castle meeting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Also playing Tuesday...

North Allegheny’s Joe Manesiotis surely was a little surprised when Butler intentionally walked the batter ahead of him to load the bases. The senior already was 3 for 3 with three RBIs before delivering the game-ending hit, a run-scoring single in the sixth that brought on the 10-run rule as...

With two runners on, no outs and trailing by a run, Montour’s Mason Sike was told to be ready to lay down a bunt. To his surprise, the bunt sign never came. “I was really thinking it was going to happen, and he gave me the green light,” said Sike,...

Rain forced the WPIAL to revamp Monday’s playoff schedules for baseball and softball, moving some games to new sites and postponing others to Tuesday. In baseball, the Class A and 4A quarterfinals will be played Monday — some at new sites — while semifinal games in all other classifications were...

Boys basketball coach Gary Goga, who built Peters Township into a WPIAL championship program in his 15 seasons there, is ready for another challenge. His next project: Keystone Oaks. Newly hired, Goga scheduled his first open gym for Monday night, the first step in building up a basketball program that...

A few weeks after its coach resigned midseason, the Woodland Hills boys basketball team made a trip to Ringgold for a nonsection game this past winter. Woodland Hills was on its way to a winless season and lost by 10 points. But as Ringgold’s coach that day, Eugene Wilson saw...

There’s plenty about junior Dwayne Taylor that impresses North Allegheny’s track and field coaches: He’s 6-foot-5 with long limbs and the speed of a sprinter. Taylor has all the physical tools needed to be one of the state’s top jumpers. But it’s quiet conversations at practice that make coach John...