Jerin Steele stories, Page 37
A-K Valley high school athletes of the week: Knoch’s Nevaeh Ewing, Apollo-Ridge’s Keighton Reese
Nevaeh Ewing Class: Jr. School: Knoch Sport: Basketball Report card: Ewing helped Knoch to two Section 1-4A victories last week. She had 13 points in a 39-37 win over Indiana on Monday and 27 in a 64-42 victory over Greensburg Salem on Thursday. Ewing also had a team-high 16 points...
‘Building year’ for youthful Freeport hockey
Jack Mason can still remember the nervousness he felt playing varsity hockey as a freshman. “I was 14 years old playing against guys with beards, so it was a little intimidating at first,” he said. It’s the same feeling many of Mason’s Freeport teammates are working through this season and,...
Plum boys basketball seeks secret to closing out games
First-year Plum boys basketball coach Mark Marino has been happy with the buy-in level from his players in the early part of the season. That’s led the Mustangs to be in a lot of games. Now, the next step is to figure out how to close them out. Aside from...
A-K Valley high school athletes of the week: Morgan Gamble and Demitri Fritch
Demitri Morgan Gamble Class: Junior School: Apollo-Ridge Sport: Basketball Report card: Gamble scored at least 20 points for Apollo-Ridge in two wins last week. She had a game-high 22 points in a 55-27 win over Burrell and followed that with a 20-point night in a 64-19 win over Valley. Apollo-Ridge...
Plum in prime position midway through hockey season
As Plum hockey reached the midpoint of the PIHL Class AA season, it found itself tied atop the Northeast Division standings with Armstrong with a pair of games in hand. There’s a long way to go, with plenty of games to be played and the schedule running into late February,...
Slippery Rock’s run ends against Minnesota State in Division II semis
The Minnesota State football team had an interesting journey to Slippery Rock on Friday that featured an hour-and-a-half delay after a truck carrying team equipment bumped into the charter airplane it was scheduled to take. The Mavericks had to wait for a new plane to arrive before taking off in...
Slippery Rock’s Chad Kuhn tackles challenge of going from QB to DE
Chad Kuhn never played a down of defense at Kiski Area. As the Cavaliers quarterback, he focused solely on offense, but when Slippery Rock coach Shawn Lutz saw the type of athlete Kuhn was — combined with his wrestling background — Lutz thought the potential was there for a transition...
Alle-Kiski Valley Athletes of the Week: Valley’s Tori Johnson, Fox Chapel’s Arnold Vento
Tori Johnson Class: Freshman School: Valley Sport: Basketball Report card: In her second varsity start, Johnson scored a game-high 24 points for Valley in a 49-26 win over Springdale on Saturday in the consolation game of the Springdale Tip-Off Tournament. She also had 16 points in her varsity debut, a...
Lernerville Speedway joins virtual ranks on iRacing
Lernerville Speedway has a virtual twin on the most popular sim-racing platform in the world. On Tuesday, iRacing released Lernerville on its platform, giving fans around the world an opportunity to drive on the track without getting behind the wheel of a race car. The Buffalo Township speedway has been...
Slippery Rock advances to D-II semifinals with wild 65-59 victory
When Slippery Rock quarterback Roland Rivers III had to sit out all of 2017 with a shoulder injury, he passed the time by playing a lot of the video game “Madden.” But he didn’t play the usual way. “I played practice mode with all 32 (NFL) teams for three hours...
Phipps, Norwin wrestling ready to take next step
Kurtis Phipps showed his toughness by battling through a foot injury in last year’s PIAA Class AAA championship match. He suffered the injury a day earlier in his semifinal win. Phipps lost a 9-5 decision to Nazareth’s Sean Pierson in the championship match, but he experienced the atmosphere of a...
Franklin Regional wrestlers look to add to program’s Hershey history
Franklin Regional coach Matt Lebe had to stop for a moment and count back through the years to figure out how many seasons in a row the Panthers have had a representative in the PIAA wrestling finals. The number he landed on was 11, and the reminiscing allowed for a...
Central Valley dominates Bald Eagle Area to earn trip to Hershey
One thing in particular that stands out from the many things that Central Valley coach Mark Lyons loves about his football team is that they enjoy playing together and not one player believes he is above another. On Friday, the Warriors took that mentality onto the field and earned a...
With three top starters returning, Plum girls planning banner season
In his opening remarks at the first practice of the season, Plum girls basketball coach Steve Elsier challenged his team. “One of the first things out of my mouth was that the goal for us is to put up a section championship banner in this gym,” he said. The Mustangs...
Unusual Plum boys roster packed with senior leadership but lacking experience
With plenty of seniors on the roster, it might look like the Plum boys basketball team has a lot of experience. In reality, almost everyone will be new to varsity this winter. The Mustangs graduated seven seniors who got the bulk of the playing time last season and have only...
Kiski Area girls hope experience, work ethic lead to growth
Kiski Area girls basketball coach Nick Dizon couldn’t have been happier with the work his group put into its offseason. Whether it was mandatory or voluntary, Dizon saw his girls putting in max effort, whether it was getting into the gym after school in the spring, playing AAU basketball in...
Kiski Area boys plan to pick up the pace
Entering year two of his tenure at Kiski Area, Will Saunders is ready to let his team run. The Cavaliers will be young this year, but Saunders is excited because he has a team that fits his style of up-tempo basketball that’ll combat a lot of half-court offenses in a...
Successful season falls short of ultimate goal for Penn-Trafford
The Penn-Trafford football team has high standards, and with that comes championship aspirations. So, when the clock hit zeros Nov. 15 and a 28-10 loss to Peters Township in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals marked the end of the road for the Warriors, it provided a tough ending to an...
Fox Chapel boys basketball team rallies around defense
At the end of practice, most teams come together in a circle, put their hands in and say one, two, three and then their team name. The Fox Chapel boys basketball team puts its own twist on it. They say, “One, two, three, defense!” To those who follow the Foxes,...
New coach works to instill confidence in talented Fox Chapel girls roster
When Marty Matvey arrived to take over the Fox Chapel girls basketball program this summer, he quickly realized there was talent from top to bottom in the lineup. His goal from that point forward has been to put that talent in the best possible position to be successful on the...
Rebuilding plan has Cheswick Christian boys ready to contend again
When 6-foot-10 Ben Pollock finished his Cheswick Christian Academy boys basketball career in 2016-17 after rewriting much of the school’s record book, longtime Chargers coach Todd Rosio had a three-year plan to build the team back up to contending status. The Chargers have arrived at Year 3 of that plan....
Cheswick Christian girls dedicate season to former coach in need of heart transplant
Jacque Willis thought she might become a basketball coach someday, but she never expected it to be just a few months after she graduated college. But when Clinton Blazevich had to step down for health reasons, Willis, 22, was elevated from assistant status to head coach of the Cheswick Christian...
Central Valley stops Aliquippa in overtime in tense WPIAL title gameVideo
On the first play of overtime, Michael Barbuto was pushing toward the goal line when he felt something strange happen. “I got to the 3-yard line and from there I slowly felt myself rising off the ground,” Barbuto said. No, Barbuto didn’t suddenly learn the art of levitation. The feeling...
Washington leans on Zahmere Robinson to stop upset-minded Brentwood
After Washington’s Zahmere Robinson fumbled for the first time this year in a third quarter that saw Brentwood surging, he went to the sidelines and told his teammates he’d make up for it. “I told them that (fumble) was my fault, but I had their back,” he said. Robinson was...
Franklin Regional not satisfied with first-round playoff exit
There wasn’t another team in the WPIAL that played a schedule like Franklin Regional did this season. Panthers coach Greg Botta dubbed his team “the traveling football show,” because they were road warriors for most of the year. The Panthers played only three games at home due to losing a...
