Jerin Steele stories, Page 4
Freeport aims to rebound after missing out on postseason
A young Freeport football team took its lumps last year in a season that ended with a 3-7 record and a rare playoff miss. The Yellowjackets are still young on paper for 2024 with the majority of the team being juniors, but they are more experienced. Now the goal is...
Burrell’s roster deep but young in quest for 4th straight playoff bid
In coach Shawn Liotta’s first season at Burrell in 2018, he had 18 players come out for the team. Seven years later, he’s able to put down 60 names on the roster, which is a testament to what he and his coaching staff have built. Of those 60 kids, only...
Burrell’s Steve Hasson battling back from injury to lead Bucs offense
As the quarterback in Burrell’s Slot-T offense, Steve Hasson is the conductor. He isn’t asked to throw the ball as much as most high school quarterbacks, having only 69 pass attempts last season, but he orchestrates the play calls, making reads to get the handoff to the right ball carrier....
Knoch hopes to build on breakthrough season
Knoch football experienced a renaissance last season. After nearly a decade of playoff misses, the Knights broke through by contending for a conference title and getting back to the WPIAL postseason. There’s plenty of players returning and some new additions, and they’ll look to repeat the same success while moving...
Riverhounds play to another scoreless draw, tying San Antonio at home
A scoreless draw to end a stretch of three games in eight days like the one the Pittsburgh Riverhounds had Saturday night at Highmark Stadium may seem like an acceptable result in most circumstances. Especially since they were the stronger side statistically. But going up against a San Antonio FC...
Volleyball star, WPIAL championship team headline Pine-Richland hall of fame class
Jamel (Nicholas) Debri hasn’t been back to Pine-Richland since she graduated nearly two decades ago, but before going to Notre Dame, she left her imprint on the Rams’ volleyball program. Debri was a standout on Pine-Richland’s only state championship volleyball team in 2005 and is one of the members of...
Pieces in place for another strong season at Pine-Richland
Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Aug. 23. In his first two years at Pine-Richland, Jon LeDonne has guided the Rams to the WPIAL championship game. Following the WPIAL and state title run in...
Plum football again adjusts to new set of conference opponents
The last three realignment cycles have brought change for the Plum football team. They went from Class 4A in 2020-21, to 5A in 2022-23 and are in 5A again this cycle, but they have an almost brand new slate of conference opponents for which to prepare. After being in the...
Baseball standout Dale Mollenhauer set to join Pine-Richland Athletic Hall of Fame
Dale Mollenhauer lived a childhood dream by playing professional baseball for five years, but before that he helped build the foundation at Pine-Richland. Mollenhauer was a senior and key contributor to the Rams’ first WPIAL baseball championship team in 2005. Now he has a place in the Pine-Richland Athletic Hall...
Riverhounds miss out on key points after draw with Loudoun United
What could have been nine straight points turned into seven for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in a not too unfamiliar fashion for this season. They got an early goal, which resembled the last two wins, but the rest of the night was akin to a major chunk of the year with...
Rico Abreu claims title at Lernerville’s 33rd Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup
Rico Abreu didn’t know he had an extra $4,000 on the line if he could win from his eighth-place starting spot, but he certainly drove like it. Abreu had to survive a wild feature and had a little bit of luck on his side when James McFadden and Tyler Courtney...
16-year-old Jacob Begenwald ready to race High Limit’s best at Lernerville’s Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup
Jacob Begenwald will have the shortest commute to Lernerville Speedway of any sprint car driver entering the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup on Tuesday. He lives in Buffalo Estates, which is located across from the track in Buffalo Township, and now that he successfully passed his driver’s license test Thursday...
Fast start leads Riverhounds past Hartford Athletic
After seeing Hartford Athletic score twice in the first 20 minutes of a loss last month, Pittsburgh Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley implored his team to step on the pedal early in Saturday’s rematch. The Hounds responded by scoring three times in the first 21 minutes and turned the tables on...
Pine-Richland wrestlers help teach sport to the visually impaired
Owen Long loves wrestling and appreciates any opportunity he can to share his passion with others. So, when Pine-Richland coach Ian Abplanalp approached the team about spending the day teaching the sport to visually impaired kids at the Envision Blind Sports Camp in Erie, he immediately volunteered to help. Long...
Blowout win gives glimmer of hope in trying season for Riverhounds
A 5-0 shellacking of Oakland Roots SC on Saturday night was a welcomed reprieve for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in what has been the most challenging season in Bob Lilley’s time at the club. It ended a 10-game winless streak in USL Championship play where the Hounds went 0-6-4 and had...
Pine Creek Journal notebook: Pine-Richland grad racks up eagles to win at Nemacolin
A unique round of golf helped Pine-Richland grad Mike Van Sickle defend his title at the Falling Rock Classic at Nemacolin Woodlands on July 9. Van Sickle eagled all four par-5s in the final round of the two-day event to finish 5-under par and win by one stroke over Eddie...
Riverhounds earn resounding 5-0 victory to end long scoreless, winless skids
It’s been a while since “Chelsea Dagger” blared out of the Highmark Stadium speakers, but the Pittsburgh Riverhounds players put their goal song on repeat Saturday night. After going six games and going nearly 600 minutes of playing time without scoring, the Hounds put together a barrage of goals to...
Riverhounds welcome Hall of Fame class with ties to inaugural season
Paul Child’s name has been on the supporters section at Highmark Stadium since 2015, and, now, he has a place in the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Hall of Fame. An ambassador for soccer in Pittsburgh since his playing days with the Spirit in the 1980s and an original member of the Hounds’...
Riverhounds extend winless run with tough home loss
The anatomy of the latest Pittsburgh Riverhounds loss was similar to many on their current winless run that now has reached 11 in all competitions and 10 in the USL Championship. How it ended, however, may have been the most brutal moment so far. After a night of once again...
Pine-Richland notebook: Rams welcome new boys basketball section opponents
A new two-year cycle for WPIAL and PIAA sports brings some changes in section opponents for the winter athletics teams at Pine-Richland. New section alignments were announced by the WPIAL on June 18, and Class 6A in boys basketball jumped from 12 to 16 teams for the next two years....
Big summer for Pine-Richland volleyball ace includes Pitt commitment, spot on national team
The month of June has been pretty exciting for Isabelle Hoppe. Not only did she verbally commit to Pitt, but she also learned she’ll be a member of the USA Volleyball U19 national team. Hoppe, who will be a junior at Pine-Richland and one of the top women’s volleyball recruits...
Kiski Area 3-sport star Eliza Miller 3-peats as Valley News Dispatch girls athlete of the year
Reflecting on her time at Kiski Area brought a realization of the rapid pace the high school years went by for Eliza Miller. “Everyone always tells you that it’s going to go by fast, but you really don’t believe it until you’re actually graduating,” Miller said. “You look back and...
Freeport runner Michael Braun named Valley News Dispatch boys athlete of the year
Michael Braun had a couple of major goals he set for his junior year at Freeport. He wanted to earn a top 10 at states in cross country and a top five in track. Some challenges came his way, like a sprained ankle and tendinitis in his knee, but at...
Ricky Thornton Jr. captures 2nd straight Firecracker 100 title at Lernerville Speedway
Utter domination led to Ricky Thornton Jr. making history at Lernerville Speedway. Thornton won by over a dozen seconds to become the first driver to win back-to-back Firecracker 100’s and earned another $50,000 payday Saturday night in Buffalo Township. He took the lead from Mike Marlar on lap 45 and...
Springdale’s John Hughes again named Valley News Dispatch Baseball Player of Year
John Hughes had a season to remember at Springdale in 2023, winning the WPIAL batting title to go with 78 strikeouts on the mound. His encore was almost identical. Hughes backed up his junior season by hitting .558 this spring for the Dynamos with three homers, three doubles, two triples...
