Greg Macafee stories, Page 32

Burrell’s wrestling team turned in quite the weekend at Canon-McMillan on Friday and Saturday. First, the Bucs competed in the Section 3-AA individual tournament Friday. They had four wrestlers win section championships, five were runners-up and two finished in third. Burrell followed up that performance Saturday with a strong effort...

Brownsville’s Tessa Dellarose continues to stack up invites to prestigious camps and games all over the country. Now, Dellarose has been selected to the U.S. U-16 Girls National Team for a UEFA Development Tournament from Feb. 19-24 in Loughborough, England. The U.S. team will take on teams from England, Spain...

For the past three years, the Geibel boys basketball team qualified for the playoffs. But each time, the Gators lost in the first round. Facing No. 8 Leechburg on Saturday at Thomas Jefferson, the ninth-seeded Gators (15-8) changed their fortune. They used a 29-point fourth quarter to earn a 65-58...

WPIAL Class 3A No. 1 seed Lincoln Park is the defending PIAA champion for a reason, and Friday night in the first round of the district playoffs, the Leopards showed why. The Leopards (19-4) came out slowly, and No. 16 seed Deer Lakes took advantage in the first quarter. By...

Last Friday at Pitt-Johnstown, Pat Pecora did something he never thought would’ve been possible when he started coaching wrestling 44 years ago. With several alumni in attendance, Pecora’s No. 4-ranked Mountain Cats defeated No. 11-ranked Mercyhurst, 22-12, and the longtime UPJ coach earned his 617th career win, making him college...

When Chip Ganassi was a young kid, he always found himself on something with an engine. Whether it was a go-kart, a dirt bike, a snowmobile or a car, Ganassi loved to just go. “I sort of had a fossil-fuel-fired youth,” Ganassi said. “I was always racing one thing or...

Boys Class 2A First round No. 4 Springdale (19-3) vs. No. 13 Sewickley Academy (7-12) 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Shaler Winner plays: No. 5 Laurel (14-8) vs. No. 12 Winchester Thurston (10-10) Friday in the quarterfinals Coaches: Aaron Epps, Springdale; Win Palmer, Sewickley Academy Points scored/allowed: Springdale, 64.3/53.8; Sewickley Academy,...

Earlier this week, Highlands, Knoch and Fox Chapel were named among the top two seeds in each of their brackets for the WPIAL basketball playoffs. Highlands (19-3) and Knoch (19-3) were given the first and second seeds, respectively, in the Class 4A tournament and the Foxes (21-1) nabbed the No....

Just last year, the Apollo-Ridge boys basketball team was on the verge of breaking a four-year playoff drought, but when it came down to the waning moments of the regular season, the Vikings barely missed. They finished the season with the same Section 1-2A record as Springdale, but the Dynamos...

When Burrell’s Mikey Scherer was in eighth grade, he decided he didn’t want to wrestle anymore. Looking back, he said he wasn’t having any fun in the sport. So as he stepped into the high school corridors as a freshman, he thought he never would step on the mat again....

WPIAL Class AA wrestlers will converge on Canon-McMillan high school this weekend for their sectional and WPIAL individual tournaments. The sectional tournaments will take place Friday, and when the seedings were announced Wednesday, a few Burrell Bucs found themselves atop the Section 3-AA brackets. Juniors Ian Oswalt (132 pounds) and...

In his team’s run to the state championship, the Raiders’ 160-pounder went 4-0 and picked up two pins, a technical fall and a 2-1 second tiebreaker win in the state championship match against Nazareth Area. All season long, Augustine has been a staple for Waynesburg. He’s produced an overall record...

The Raiders finished as the runner-up in the PIAA Class AAA state championship this weekend in Hershey, falling just short of their ultimate goal. They took down District 3 third-place finisher Central Dauphin, 40-21, in the first round. Then, the Raiders advanced to the quarterfinals to take down Cathedral Prep,...

After jockeying back and forth this season atop the WPIAL Class 4A boys basketball rankings, Highlands and Knoch claimed the top two spots in the tournament when the WPIAL revealed the brackets Tuesday night at the annual pairings meeting in Green Tree. Fox Chapel and Springdale also earned top-four seeds....

The Riverview Raiders have found their new football coach. On Monday, the Riverview school board approved Trevor George, a former offensive coordinator for Ambridge and assistant for Blackhawk, to lead the program. “(Riverview) is a great place to be, and that’s the most attractive thing about it,” George said. “One...

For a majority of this season, the Fox Chapel boys basketball team produced a spotless record. The Foxes have defended with an intensity that has allowed them to produce the best scoring defense in the WPIAL at 43.5 points per game, which is just over two points lower than the...

Since he was 8 years old, Fox Chapel’s Sammy Brown hoped to play college football for a hometown school. On Thursday, Brown achieved his goal when he signed a national letter of intent with Division I FCS Duquesne, where he likely will play linebacker or safety. Has Always been a...

Fox Chapel’s Sammy Brown has found his home for the next four years, and he won’t have to go very far to continue his football career. Just one day after National Signing Day, Brown officially signed his letter of intent to continue his athletic and academic career at Duquesne. He...

It has been a special week for a few players in the A-K Valley as they eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in their careers. On Tuesday, Leechburg senior Jake Blumer and Springdale junior Demitri Fritch hit the milestone. A day later, Plum junior Connor Moss did the same. Blumer earned his...

On Jan. 28, the No. 2 Knoch Knights dropped a Section 1-4A contest to No. 1 Highlands, losing just their second game of the season. It was a tough back-and-forth battle between two of the top teams in the classification and it determined that the two teams would split the...

The Pitt-Johnstown wrestling team will host No. 11 Mercyhurst in a PSAC matchup Friday. If the No. 4 Mountain Cats are victorious, coach Pat Pecora will earn his 617th victory and become the all-time winningest coach in college wrestling history. Pecora tied former Oregon State coach Dale Thomas, who took...

For the second time in school history, Deer Lakes is heading to the WPIAL basketball playoffs for a fourth straight year. Thanks to an intense defensive effort in the second half Tuesday at Valley, the Lancers (11-8, 6-5) were able to hold off an inspired Vikings (3-17, 2-9) squad and...

The Burrell wrestling team has been in this position a time or two. In fact, for the 14th straight year, the Bucs are heading to the Giant Center in Hershey as the WPIAL Class AA champions. Over the past decade and a half, they’ve built a certified dynasty, and the...

The Raiders were trailing Saturday in the WPIAL Class AAA team championship at Canon-McMillan. With three bouts remaining, Waynesburg needed three wins and they needed bonus points in the process. Decisions by Nate Stephenson (152 pounds) and Luca Augustine (160) put Waynesburg in position, trailing by three points. Freshman Eli...