Jerin Steele stories, Page 40

South Park football coach Marty Rieck isn’t one to make excuses for shortcomings, but the fact of the matter is that his team was young last season. The Eagles had only four seniors a year ago and as a young team they went through trials and tribulations en route to...

Tim Burk is a Deer Lakes guy through and through, so he took great pride in watching the Lancers’ boys soccer team make a run to the state championship game and the boys basketball team win the first PIAA playoff game in school history and advance to the quarterfinals. Now...

When you come as close to playing for a championship as North Catholic football has only to see it slip away, it’s hard not to look back at the small moments that swayed the game. Two years ago, it was a tight, 19-14 loss to Washington in the Class 2A...

It took only two weeks for Frank Fabian to realize he made a mistake after resigning as Armstrong’s coach. Fabian, the only football coach in the River Hawks’ four-year history, will be back in his spot in the coach’s booth this fall for a fifth season, guiding a team he...

Deer Lakes football coach Tim Burk is never exactly sure what his tight end Jack Hollibaugh is going to say when he enters the locker room, but he knows it likely will be something funny. “He’s the team jokester, and he lights up a room,” Burk said. “His personality is...

Cole Kelly does his best to split his time for his two passions — soccer and music — because he loves them equally. Kelly, a rising senior at Plum, was an All-WPIAL defender last year and plays saxophone in the marching band. Every once in a while, the disciplines nearly...

Alexa Sarsfield spent a few years in the corporate world after her soccer career at Robert Morris ended in 2013, but her passion for the game was always in the back of her mind. Ever since she started kicking a ball around she knew she wanted to stay involved with...

Tsugu Tatekawa is making his third appearance at the Freeport International Baseball Invitational this week for the Tri-Con Roos and what keeps him coming back from his home country of Japan every year is a little bit of everything that captures the spirit of the event. “We have a nice...

Sprint cars don’t have rear-view mirrors, so David Gravel couldn’t see how far he was pulling away from the field. Had he been able to look behind his No. 41 machine, all he would have seen was the dust coming off his rear tires. Gravel rolled through lapped traffic with...

When the World of Outlaws come to Lernerville for the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup, they bring a challenging field of cars. With the potential of NASCAR driver Kyle Larson returning to defend his win from last year, competition rises. Add Danny Dietrich and Logan Wagner from the PA Posse...

Every year, Ed Lynch Jr. gathers with family and friends to watch his win in the 2002 Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup at Lernerville, but he doesn’t need the video to recall every detail of the night he beat the World of Outlaws. “I remember it like it was yesterday,”...

Last week, the Apollo-Ridge girls soccer team held its fifth annual youth skills camp, which has become a benefit not only for the future of the program, but the present, as well. The skills camp is one of the fundraisers for the Vikings, who are not sponsored by the school...

One man’s heartbreak was another man’s fortune Saturday at the Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway. World of Outlaws Late Model rookie Ricky Weiss looked poised to win one of the series’ crown jewel events, but suffered a flat right rear tire with six laps to go, which opened the door...

The “Crusher Kid” did it again. A year after thrilling the hometown Lernerville Speedway fans with an upset victory over the World of Outlaws, Michael Norris provided an encore Friday night by winning the 30-lap $6,000-to-win preliminary feature in Night 1 of the Firecracker 100 weekend. Norris, a 2010 Knoch...

Last year, Michael Norris stood on top on top his car waving the checkered flag to a chorus of cheers from the Lernerville Speedway crowd after successfully beating the World of Outlaws touring regulars in the Friday night 30-lap preliminary feature during the Firecracker 100 weekend. It was a popular...

When Ricky Weiss takes the track with his super late model Thursday for the opening night of the Firecracker 100 weekend, it will be his first lap at Lernerville Speedway. That has been the case at most places this year in his rookie season on the World of Outlaws circuit,...

In a way, baseball can be broken down to a variable equation: pitching, defense and hitting. Kiski Valley Legion coach Den Montgomery feels his team has two-thirds of the puzzle with pitching and defense, but the hitting remains a work in progress. The Vikings have a deep pitching staff and...

The three-sport athlete has become a rare breed with many specializing in one sport to try to make it to college, but Hunter Linhart saw the benefits of diversifying. In the fall, he studied the playbook as Plum’s quarterback. In the winter, he traded in his cleats for a rifle,...

With teams intentionally walking standout catcher Mark Black regularly in the playoffs, Serra Catholic baseball coach Brian Dzurenda decided to move him from third in the order to the leadoff spot, which put Pat Brennan in Black’s old spot. Brennan accepted his new spot as a challenge to become the...

Michael Klingensmith led off first base after drawing a walk in the top of the first inning in Monday’s PIAA first- round game when Cathedral Prep pitcher Colin Kelly made a pick-off throw to first. Klingensmith dove back to the bag, easily beating the attempt and right on cue all...

It often has been said good things come to those who wait, and Franklin Regional baseball proved that in a couple of ways Monday. The Panthers had to wait 18 years to get back to the state playoffs, and in their return, patience at the plate was key to making...

Kristen Knapp, Aubry Skeel and Kiera Jones left Leechburg on Thursday night as graduates. A few days earlier, they were part of another graduation of sorts with the Blue Devils softball team, who, after falling in the consolation game two years in a row, broke through for a 3-2 victory...

Seton LaSalle first baseman Dan Boehme knew he had a good day, but he was unaware it was a historic one until he got back into the dugout after crushing a two-run homer over the left field fence. That’s when his teammates broke the news to him. “They started telling...

Leechburg softball coach Debbi Young has found it can be tough at times to get a team energized for a consolation game after a difficult loss in the semifinals, but she doesn’t foresee that being a problem with her current group. Considering this is the Blue Devils’ third straight year...

With the score tied 11-11 in the final minute of the WPIAL Class AAA girls lacrosse final between Upper St. Clair and Shady Side Academy, Mother Nature decided to put a halt on the night and add some suspense. With 28 seconds remaining in regulation, lightning followed by heavy rain...