John Grupp stories, Page 16

For more than a decade, the only way a WPIAL team could reach the PIAA lacrosse championships was with a ticket. The Mars boys this season decided to invite themselves. The undefeated Fightin’ Planets will play District 11 champion Allentown Central Catholic (20-1) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at West Chester...

Hampton senior Gage Galuska was a little slower — and a lot colder — at the PIAA Class AAA track and field championships. But the WPIAL 400-meter champion left Shippensburg University with a warm feeling. He brought home a state medal and a season full of memories. The Edinboro football...

Hampton girls lacrosse coach Kelsey Viets felt disbelief as she tabulated star midfielder Megan Cook’s career statistics. “You look at the stats on paper and you think, ‘There’s no way this kid did this in three years,’” Viets said. “It’s truly incredible.” Despite losing her junior season to the covid...

Hampton All-WPIAL attack Max Saltrelli realized four years ago his then-freshman class was going to be “something special.” Little did he know exactly what was in store. The Hampton boys lacrosse Class of 2021 had a four-year career unlike any in the program’s history. They reached the WPIAL finals twice,...

The final out of Hampton’s 2021 baseball season was a deep drive against West Allegheny in the WPIAL Class 5A playoff opener. Senior Brock Mattiuz hit the ball “as far as I’ve ever seen the kid hit it,” coach Kellen Wheeler said, but West Allegheny’s outfielder tracked down the bases-loaded...

Two Hampton seniors showed at the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships that a fraction of an inch or a hundredth of a second can be the difference between elation and heartache. Gage Galuska shocked Butler star Guinness Brown to win the 400-meter title by one-hundredth of a second,...

The most prolific home run-hitting Hampton softball team in at least two decades picked a lousy time to go quiet. The Talbots, who this season hit a “mind-boggling” number of home runs, struggled down the stretch and saw their year end with a 10-0 five-inning loss to top-seeded Penn-Trafford (15-4)...

Hampton senior defender Gus Wolf hopes history repeats itself in the WPIAL Class AA boys lacrosse playoffs. But only some of it. “Obviously, our big goal is to be able to see Mars again in the WPIAL championship,” Wolf said. “That would be ideal.” They just want the outcome to...

The Hampton boys track and field team last month won its first section title in 36 years. Next up for the Talbots is the chance for some individual accolades. Hampton heads into the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships May 19 at Slippery Rock with a number of highly...

Hampton’s Hannah Bradfield hit six home runs in a four-game stretch in late April, but only one of them left nearly everybody shocked. When the senior shortstop drove a ball over the 10-foot outfield fence 225 feet from home plate during a 9-3 senior night victory over visiting Knoch on...

April Fool’s Day was no joke for Hampton lacrosse player Jillian Stennett. The senior midfielder suffered a concussion when she fell to the frozen turf and hit the back of her head in the Talbots’ second game of the season, a 17-6 victory at Butler in an April 1 snowstorm....

The pizza and cupcakes started to taste a little bit better to the Hampton boys tennis team. The Talbots were holding a post-match birthday celebration for senior teammate Coray Bennett on April 23 at their home tennis court when they received a text from coach Grant McKinney. The players learned...

A pair of lefties have the Hampton baseball team on the right side of the WPIAL playoff picture. Senior Michael Kosko and junior Cam Marshalwitz are a steady 1-2 punch for the Talbots, who sit on the verge of a fourth consecutive WPIAL postseason berth for the first time in...

Former Hampton infielder Tyler Bischke took the long way to end up “in the middle of nowhere.” After playing an abbreviated season at Division I Kent State, the 2019 Hampton graduate has found a new home following a transfer to Murray State, a tiny junior college in Southeastern Oklahoma. Bischke...

The first time Hampton coach Ron Fedell saw star catcher Bella Henzler playing softball he wondered if the diminutive seventh-grader had a future behind the plate. “I thought, ‘I don’t know about catcher, but maybe we can move her somewhere else,’ ” Fedell said. “I’m thinking she’s so small. But...

Hampton senior Hannah Schepner still is unsure about her best event in track and field. She finished seventh in the high jump in the WPIAL Class AAA championships as a sophomore. Then, the first time she tried long jump this spring, she came within six inches of matching the school’s...

If the Hampton boys track and field team can reach the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs for only the second time in a decade, it will have another Hampton team to thank. Roughly half of the athletes on the track squad also played for the Talbots football team, which last fall...

On the eve of each home section game, the Hampton girls lacrosse players gather after practice for a team dinner. On game day, all eyes are on the Cook. Hampton midfielder Megan Cook is one of the most exciting players in Western Pennsylvania and is a key reason why the...

The Hampton boys lacrosse team waited 667 days between matches. But after a 12-0 victory over North Hills in the 2021 season opener March 29, all appears well for the perennial WPIAL title contender. “It’s just good to be back on the field,” coach Jim Vollberg said after an energetic...

The Hampton boys tennis team is hoping to make a racket this season. After playing in a loaded Class AAA section for most of the past decade, the Talbots are competing in Class AA as part of the enrollment-based realignment. Four-time defending WPIAL Class AAA champion Fox Chapel, perennial power...

The youthful Hampton hockey team endured a lot of growing pains this season. The Talbots finished 4-14 in a season that started one month late because of the pandemic. They were shut down for two weeks in mid-February when a player tested positive after a practice, and two key players...

The Hampton 100-yard breaststroke record stood for 25 years until senior Richie Donato broke it March 6. It lasted about two weeks. Donato topped his own record in the event on the way to a second-place finish at the PIAA Class AA swimming championships March 19 at Cumberland Valley High...

They were simple get-well cards. Some were store-bought, some caringly drawn by hand. But when Hampton softball coach Ron Fedell returned home in mid-January after a frightening two-week hospital stay with complications from covid-19, the stack of well-wishes meant the world to him. “Some of these kids sent me cards,”...

Turns out the pandemic isn’t finished with the Hampton baseball team. A year after covid-19 canceled all spring sports, the Talbots had only 27 players try out this spring, by far the lowest number in third-year coach Kellen Wheeler’s 12 seasons associated with the Hampton baseball program. “I usually have...

Draven Malcolm is proof that mom knows best. When the Hampton 13-year-old was in fourth grade, his mother, Dawn, suggested he give lacrosse a try. Draven’s passion was dek hockey, and he wasn’t thrilled with the proposal. “My mom kind of said I had to,” he said. “I pretty much...