John Grupp stories, Page 11

It was supposed to be all fun and games. Two-time all-state volleyball player Emmy Schrom joined Hampton’s bowling team as a freshman because she knew it would be enjoyable. Junior Charlotte Lomb, the school’s starting softball pitcher, joined this season as a welcomed distraction from the pressures of travel ball...

The Hampton boys and girls swimming teams seem to be headed in different directions, but they have one thing in common. Senior Ben Sheets is the top swimmer for the rebuilding two-time WPIAL Class 2A champion boys team, and his freshman twin sisters, Lainey and Libby, are off to fast...

The Hampton competitive spirit team has something to cheer about. The Talbots qualified for the PIAA championships for the first time in five years after a clean routine and top-five finish at the WPIAL competitive spirit finals Jan. 7, at Hempfield. Hampton, which already had qualified for the Universal Cheerleaders...

The Hampton girls basketball players received a Christmas present they will never forget. The Talbots competed in the Pensacola Beach Christmas Tournament in Pensacola, Fla., the first time the program has traveled to an out-of-state tournament in at least two decades. “It was great,” junior guard Kathleen Milon said. “We...

The Hampton boys basketball team is hoping a season that began with a memorable win ends with a whole bunch more. The Talbots headed into their Section 1-4A showdown with No. 3 Highlands on Jan. 3 with a 7-2 record, the program’s best start to a season since going 12-0...

For the longest time, Hampton’s Ava Vitiello believed a Division I scholarship was out of her reach. But she kept running and eventually caught up to one. “I never really thought I was going to be D-I athlete,” she said. “It was never a dream of mine. It kind of...

Because Hampton’s Dawson Dietz was a sophomore first-year starter at Washington & Jefferson, opposing quarterbacks and running backs probably didn’t know too much about him. So he introduced himself. After playing only two games as a freshman on a senior-stacked depth chart, the 6-foot, 245-pound defensive tackle burst onto the...

Former Hampton volleyball star Anastasia Russ has come out of her shell. After three years at Pitt as an underused backup, Russ transferred to Maryland in January and flourished in her first season with the Terrapins. The 6-foot-5 redshirt junior middle blocker emerged as one of the best defensive players...

The best player on the Hampton girls basketball team spent this summer getting even better. Junior point guard Meghan Murray, a first-team all-Section 2-5A pick last season, devoted countless hours to putting up thousands of shots to improve her perimeter game. “I had problems last year with the 3s,” Murray...

At some point early this winter, Hampton boys basketball coach Joe Lafko will achieve something “that’s been a career goal with me forever.” The WPIAL Hall of Famer will earn his 500th victory spanning 32-plus seasons, including the past 26 at Hampton. Lafko, 56, will celebrate with his players, his...

For the first time in program history, the Hampton wrestling team can try to pick on someone its own size. The Talbots will compete against similar-sized schools after being dropped to Class 2A during the offseason WPIAL enrollment-based realignment. This is the first season since the program formed that Hampton...

The Hampton boys swimming team will need to take a different lane to a third consecutive WPIAL Class 2A title. The Talbots are without much of the star power they used to win each of the past two WPIAL crowns. Instead, they will rely on one standout Division-I bound swimmer...

The Hampton girls volleyball team made history during a season that turned into the past sooner than anyone expected. Hampton rolled to its first undefeated regular season and brought home its first outright section title before suffering a deflating 3-1 upset loss to No. 10 seed South Fayette in the...

Hampton senior defensive lineman Gabe Harris was surprised to earn all-Greater Allegheny Conference honors, but maybe he shouldn’t have been startled at all. “There were a lot of nights where my friends were going out to eat or hang out,” he said, “and I just decided to keep lifting.” The...

Hampton senior Eric Weeks has replayed the final moments of the Talbots’ 34-33 gut-wrenching last-second WPIAL Class 4A playoff loss to Montour over and over again. But the ending never changed. “I’ve watched that play probably 50 times, thinking of anything I could have done better,” the wide receiver/defensive back...

Hidden beneath the emotional hugs following Hampton’s first-round playoff loss was a sense of pride and accomplishment. The Talbots finished 14-4 and reached the girls soccer playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, losing to No. 11 seed Montour, 2-1, on a late goal in the WPIAL Class 3A opener Oct....

The Aquinas Academy field hockey team last year became the school’s first team to reach the WPIAL finals in any sport. The Crusaders lost to Shady Side Academy, 1-0, in that unprecedented Class A final, but this season they gained a measure of revenge. Actually, it was revenge times three....

The struggle was real last season for Hampton all-conference wide receiver Benny Haselrig. It was his junior season, by far the most important for potential college recruits, and while the Talbots were rolling to one of the best seasons in program history, Haselrig was rarely targeted in the run-first offense....

Hampton boys soccer coach Matt McAwley is practical enough to know this season wasn’t going to end anything like last season. “It’s very, very rare that a (player’s) last moments on a soccer field is a moment of winning everything,” McAwley said. “We were fortunate last year to experience that...

The Hampton hockey team will be skating uphill this season. With only 14 players, the Talbots have the thinnest roster in the 56-school PIHL under first-year coach Buck McKee. But the Talbots have shown no quit in the early going of the 20-game season. After being routed by Indiana, 9-0,...

Hampton senior quarterback Joey Mayer climbed into an ambulance in mid-September with a dislocated left elbow and a broken heart. “The whole night, the whole ambulance ride to the hospital, I thought my season was over,” he said. “They initially said, ‘You are not going to be playing again.’ “...

The defending WPIAL and PIAA champion Hampton boys soccer team is ready to try to make another postseason run. Most of the names are different, but the goal remains the same. “These boys have worked very hard to put themselves in a position to be successful,” coach Matt McAwley said...

Hampton senior Joey O’Donnell’s disappointing 23-over 94 at the WPIAL Class 3A individual golf semifinals was only a letdown if one ignores how far he came just to get there. “He didn’t do real well (at WPIALs),” Hampton coach Bruce Steckel said. “But that doesn’t make the whole season. …...

When Aquinas Academy junior Alexis Abbett was a toddler, she loved to run. She would dart around, with her parents trying to stay hot on her heels. “I would run away,” Alexis said, “a lot.” Abbett is still running, and she still has a lot of people trying to catch...

As libero for Hampton’s No. 2-ranked girls volleyball team, Avery Koontz is not allowed to jump above the height of the net or attack the ball. Instead, she does her best work much closer to the ground. Koontz, a 5-foot-3 junior, is a defensive specialist and energetic fireplug for the...