John Grupp stories, Page 17

In mid-January, Hampton senior Justin Hart couldn’t laugh without it hurting. One month later, he was smiling with no pain at all. Hart fought back from multiple cracked ribs that sidelined him for nearly three weeks to win the WPIAL Class AAA wrestling title at 189 pounds. He followed that...

The Hampton boys swimming team needed 1 minute, 36 seconds to set into motion something that hadn’t happened in 22 years. The Talbots won the 200 medley relay in the opening event of the WPIAL Class AA swimming championships March 6 and used the record-setting race as a springboard to...

After the final horn sounded on her senior season, Hampton guard Liv Bianco slowly walked off the court and placed the basketball on the scorer’s table. Behind her, on her home court, Latrobe players celebrated their 53-48 win over the No. 3-seed Talbots in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals March...

Things finally are getting back to normal for Hampton graduate Rachel Hornung. Normal means doing aerial cartwheels on a 4-inch wide balance beam and performing midair straddles and flips on uneven bars 8 feet off the ground. A junior on the West Virginia women’s gymnastics team, Hornung is returning to...

A season that began with a delay ended with a dud for the Hampton boys basketball team. One of the most demanding seasons in coach Joe Lafko’s 25 years at the school concluded with a 73-49 loss to No. 17 seed McKeesport in the opening round of the WPIAL Class...

For years, Brennan and Meghan Murray have squared off at the basketball hoop in the driveway of their Hampton home. Older brother vs. little sister. “I’ve always been taller than her,” Brennan said, “but it was always competitive no matter what. We never go easy on each other, and we’re...

When Koda Carslaw took up diving last season, he admits it was “more of a secondary thing.” Carslaw was, after all, a longtime gymnast and a qualifier in trampoline for the USA Gymnastics national championships in 2018 and ‘19. “One of my friends was like, ‘Hey, come dive with me,’...

Nearly every time Conrad Harold stepped on the wrestling mat this season, he was facing someone bigger than him. But few were better than him. The Hampton senior finished with a 24-7 record — by far the best mark of his high school career — despite being outweighed by nearly...

Every once in a while — it doesn’t happen often — one of the top players on the Hampton girls basketball team will toss up a wildly off-target shot at practice. That’s when it gets funny. “If it’s like an airball,” junior guard Sophia Kelly said, “we give each other...

The second-smallest school in WPIAL girls basketball is eyeing bigger things this season. One year after making school history, Aquinas Academy is seeking its first section title and another postseason run. “We don’t want to stop,” junior forward Elizabeth Russell said. “We want to keep going.” The first-place Crusaders were...

Aquinas Academy star guard Vinnie Cugini knows the Crusaders will make the WPIAL Class A playoffs this season for the first time in program history. But the WPIAL’s leading scorer has greater ambition than a mere appearance in the league’s first “open” tournament since 1984. “I’m really excited,” the sophomore...

There weren’t many fans to witness it, but Aquinas Academy sophomore Vinnie Cugini made WPIAL history Friday night. The 6-foot-1 guard scored his 1,000th career point in the Crusaders’ 84-76 loss to Leechburg, his 29th game at the tiny private Catholic school in Hampton. Cugini became the fastest player in...

Not even a pandemic — or having to run pregame drills in the school cafeteria — can slow down the Hampton girls basketball team. Coming off back-to-back losing seasons, the Talbots have sprinted to one of their best starts in at least two decades. A 71-27 victory over Central Valley...

The Hampton competitive spirit team still hasn’t started its 2020-21 season, when in any other year it would almost be over. Covid restrictions pushed back the WPIAL championships from early January to mid-March, and the PIAA and national championships — at which Hampton is a regular qualifier — were moved...

Hampton’s Dawson Dietz left the Powerade Wrestling Tournament two years ago with a season-ending torn labrum. Last year, he came home from one of the nation’s most prestigious wrestling events with a fifth-place medal. This year he’s thirsty for more success. Dietz, a 250-pound senior, will be one of the...

The slumping Hampton hockey team is slowing things down in hopes of heating things up. “We need to play a conservative game and get back to our style of play,” coach Luke Leya said. “When we try to go run and gun, it has not been too kind to us.”...

Hampton graduate Jason Goodman last winter won a PSAC indoor track championship. This winter, the Slippery Rock senior is doing something even more important. Goodman is working as a nursing assistant at a Pittsburgh-area nursing home during the covid pandemic that canceled all winter sports in the Pennsylvania State Athletic...

On a school night in early November, Hampton’s Jayden Resch disappeared into a spare bedroom for a few hours. The 172-pound junior wrestler had learned the home of classmate Jacob Premick was significantly damaged in a Nov. 3 fire, and he was driven to do something about it. “He’s been...

Hampton had the “best, most intense” three-week preseason in Tony Howard’s 14 years as a girls basketball coach. Then came three weeks with a whole lot of nothing. “They are ready to get back,” Howard said. “There was some excitement building around the team, and we had a lot of...

Joe Lafko has seen a lot in three decades as a basketball coach, but this is the first season he has held court at a computer screen. During a three-week shutdown of high school winter sports because of the covid-19 pandemic, the Hampton boys basketball team joined for twice-a-week Zoom...

After having its state title hopes dashed last season by the covid-19 pandemic, the North Allegheny girls basketball team isn’t worried about a couple of inconveniences. Wear masks at all times for practices and during games? Fine. Social distance and wash uniforms and equipment every night? No big deal. “I...

With most swimming pools shut down for much of the offseason, Hampton coach Morgan Zweygardt was unsure what to expect from her girls team when practices began. To her pleasant surprise, they’ve made a big splash. “I had no real expectations for this year,” she said. “I just wanted to...

The Hampton boys swimming team is looking forward to picking on someone its own size. Coming off a memorable season in which Hampton placed third at the WPIAL Class AAA swimming and diving championships, the Talbots are dropping into Class AA, where they are expected to be a serious title...

North Allegheny’s Spencer Stefko, the reigning PIAA Class 6A girls basketball coach of the year, will never forget this past Thanksgiving. “My wife and I ate 20 feet apart,” he said, “with each of us right next to an open window.” Stefko last week joined his defending WPIAL champion Tigers...

The most challenging, unusual sports season in WPIAL history included something else that has never been seen before. This fall marked the first time that Hampton’s football, boys soccer, girls soccer and girls volleyball teams all reached the WPIAL playoffs in the same season. “With everything that went on (with...