Chris Harlan stories, Page 92

The PIAA wants schools to use this downtime wisely. It’s unclear when Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration will release covid-19 guidelines to restart interscholastic sports, but in the meantime, the PIAA is asking school administrators to start making plans for their own districts, PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said Friday. That...

Athletes, coaches and high school administrators are growing impatient as more counties turn green, but they won’t see return-to-play guidelines for covid-19 until at least next week, according to a spokesman for the Pa. Department of Education. The PIAA has said it won’t clear teams to resume offseason workouts without...

The most dominant high school football team in the state last decade wasn’t from Western Pennsylvania, but six WPIAL programs did make the list. MaxPreps created a formula to rank the teams of the decade and crowned St. Joseph’s Prep as the winner Wednesday. Among WPIAL teams, North Allegheny was...

Where’s the rest of your team? It’s a lighthearted question that makes Quigley Catholic boys soccer coach Dave Baker laugh years later, thinking back to a time when his players shared the field with powerhouse Sewickley Academy. “They had two squads of 30,” Baker said. “They have a varsity team...

Kiski Area’s superintendent announced plans to start next school year online, an approach other districts may adopt, but that doesn’t mean sports are canceled. “If every other PIAA school in the WPIAL is ramping up for fall sports, we will be doing the same thing,” Kiski Area athletic director John...

Here are a few unanswered questions regarding PIAA sports and covid-19: When can Pennsylvania high school teams resume workouts? For now, PIAA teams must wait until July 1 to start working out together because Gov. Tom Wolf has school buildings closed for the rest of this school year in response...

Peters Township junior Donovan McMillon eliminated Pitt and West Virginia a month ago, and now Penn State also disappeared from his list of college football destinations. The 6-foot-2, 193-pound safety announced a top five list of finalists Monday that included Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas Tech and Virginia Tech. He’d eliminated...

June can be a busy month for college football commitments, but will this year be different? A year ago, 14 of the state’s Top 25 recruits made their decision in June, according to Rivals.com rankings. That 2019 list of June commitments included WPIAL stars Michael Carmody of Mars, A.J. Beatty...

Lawrence County has an abundance of grassy fields, without hash marks or end zones, and there’s probably kids throwing a football around on one. “There’s acreage and farms everywhere,” Laurel superintendent Leonard Rich said. “Could I see the quarterbacks and the receivers getting together and running routes? I’m not condoning...

School districts in Lawrence and more than a dozen other Pennsylvania counties will soon enter the green phase, but the PIAA remains in a “holding pattern” waiting to hear what that means for high school sports. Teams can’t resume workouts until cleared by the PIAA. Gov. Tom Wolf announced last...

Trey Ashby never set foot inside Wash High’s basketball gym, but the Nebraska resident can describe the banners on the wall, the paint colors on the floor and the wooden seats that give the place its character. In fact, Ashby built himself a replica. “In Nebraska, all of our gyms...

If a section opponent had a star pitcher, West Allegheny baseball coach Bryan Cornell always assumed his team would face him twice. Next spring, that will change. The WPIAL released revamped baseball schedules Tuesday that have section teams playing a two-game series on consecutive days in 2021. Now, a team...

Competitive spirit, which became a PIAA sport eight years ago, will see some changes next season. The PIAA board approved a new formula for grouping teams that measures both school enrollment and squad size. As a result, there will be five state champions crowned next winter rather than four. The...

Lawrence County is about to turn green, but the battery icon on Joe Cowart’s cell phone was trending toward red. The New Castle football coach’s phone started buzzing Friday after Gov. Tom Wolf named Lawrence among 17 counties moving into the green phase of his color-coded reopening system May 29,...

In WPIAL boys basketball, Butler vs. Pine-Richland has become one of the hottest section rivalries, with overtime finishes and single-digit margins driving up the drama. Next season, it’ll be 50% bigger. There are only five teams in Section 1-6A boys for the 2020-21 season, so the WPIAL will allow those...

The use of foul and vulgar language or physical contact with a PIAA game official, coach or opponent could become a two-game suspension for high school athletes and coaches. The PIAA board discussed a new disqualification rule at Wednesday’s online meeting meant to curb a rising tide of ejections statewide....

The PIAA board referred a proposal to reduce wrestling weight classes to the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for discussion. The proposal would cut the number of weights from 14 to 13. The PIAA would maintain weight classes 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152 and 160 pounds. However, it...

The Lincoln Park boys basketball team must move to Class 4A next season after the PIAA denied its final appeal Wednesday. Athletic director Mike Bariski argued in an online hearing that the PIAA competitive-balance rule shouldn’t force the Leopards or any other team into a higher classification because of the...

North Allegheny has never won a WPIAL boys basketball title. If Dan DeRose doesn’t fix that in his time there, the Tigers’ new coach admits he’d be disappointed. The NA school board officially hired the former Penn Hills coach Wednesday night, giving the team a leader who won a WPIAL...

The PIAA isn’t ready to endorse the return-to-sports guidelines issued Tuesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations. The lengthy NFHS guidelines cover everything from pre-workout screening, limitations on gathering sizes, requirements for cleaning facilities, the safe use of athletic equipment and athlete hydration. The guide was written...

The PIAA board of directors unanimously supports a county-by-county approach to restarting high school sports, once the governor gives his approval. If that approval comes soon, some schools might resume workouts before July 1. The board discussed Wednesday whether the PIAA should set one restart date for the entire state...

Players shouldn’t pass a basketball, hand off a football or share a baseball bat when high school sports workouts first resume, according to guidelines revealed Tuesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Also, workouts should include no more than 10 people, whether indoors or outside. The NFHS...