Jonathan Bombulie stories, Page 3

Jake DiMichele is at First Love Christian Academy. OLSH is playing in Class 3A. It might sound harsh, but the rest of the WPIAL Class 2A field is no long playing for second place, which must be a refreshing change of pace after the reign of terror the Chargers visited...

There’s plenty of championship pedigree in WPIAL Class 3A basketball this season. Shady Side Academy brings back a good portion of the roster than won the 3A title at Petersen Events Center last year, and Ellwood City also returns key players from its surprise championship run in 2021. Then there’s...

A high school career that began with a storybook WPIAL championship in 2020 ends this season as Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher plays his senior year for the Mustangs. Gallagher burst onto the scene when he scored 24 points and won a duel with Mars senior Michael Carmody in an unforgettable...

Fox Chapel and North Hills, last year’s WPIAL finalists in Class 6A, moved into Class 5A in PIAA realignment in the offseason. But they’re not big-school bullies swooping in to steal the lunch money of smaller schools. Far from it. With one notable exception (see: Preseason Player of the Year),...

It’s more than a safe bet to predict that there will be a new WPIAL champion in Class 6A boys basketball this season. It’s a sure thing. Last year’s finalists, Fox Chapel and North Hills, both dropped down to Class 5A in PIAA realignment. A lean, mean crop of 12...

The Mapletown Maples heard what was being said about them in WPIAL Class A football circles. That the Tri-County South was a soft conference. That their 10-0 record was a mirage. That running back Landan Stevenson was a nice player by small-town, small-school standards. They heard it, they didn’t like...

Last year, the Washington football team was a case study in peaking at the wrong time. On the morning of Sept. 25, Washington was on top of its game: undefeated, having outscored its five opponents 237-40. That included blowout wins over perennial Class A power Clairton in a nonconference matchup...

Xander LeFebvre has a cool name. Sounds like an action movie star or maybe a linemate of Mario Lemieux during his junior hockey days. But how many local high school football fans are familiar with that name, even though he’s a four-year starter who threw for 1,000 yards for a...

Second-year coach Fran Ramsden has a tool he plans to use to liberally to help his Riverside team turn things around after a 1-8 season. Data. Ramsden is a believer in the idea that certain parts of the game correlate most directly with winning: explosive plays of 20 yards or...

New Brighton’s Tony Caltury speaks highly of Beaver County football, and there are a few really good reasons for that. First, he is the county’s newest head coach, taking the reins from Joe Greco, the program’s all-time wins leader who stepped down after last season. Second, he has previously been...

Rumor has it a major repaving project has been planned for Mitchell Road in Neshannock this fall. Over the last year or so, there have been so many championship parades in front of the high school that the traffic pattern has worn grooves in the pavement. OK, no such rumors...

After a successful season that included a third-place finish in the Midwestern Athletic Conference and a first-round WPIAL playoff victory, Mohawk comes into this year with a strong, veteran line and some inexperience at the skill positions. Coach Tim McCutcheon isn’t complaining. No, really. He isn’t. Like, at all. He’d...

After three coaching changes in the previous four years, the Freedom football team was looking to establish some stability last season. With athletic director John Rosa stepping in as head coach, did the Bulldogs do that? Yes. But they were one quarter away from making that a “yes” in all...

Looking to turn its program around after three consecutive winless seasons, it’s hard to imagine Ellwood City could have found a coach more suited for the job than Dan Bradley. In 2015, Bradley took over an Our Lady of the Sacred Heart program that was coming off an 0-9 season....

In one sense, WPIAL Class 2A football looks radically different this season. Four conferences have been consolidated into three with the total number of teams in the class dropping from 27 to 23. Nine of the 27 teams that played 2A football in the WPIAL last season moved out. That...

It’s hard to imagine a more satisfying regular season than the one Steel Valley had last year. The Ironmen rolled through four nonconference opponents and five Allegheny Conference foes to the tune of a 9-0 record with an aggregate score of 333-50. Star tailback Nijhay Burt led the WPIAL with...

Forward Drake Caggiula will get a chance to bounce back from injury with the Penguins next season. Caggiula, 28, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Penguins on Wednesday. It pays $750,000 at the NHL level. Caggiula is recovering from February surgery to repair a herniated disc in his neck....

Did re-signing franchise cornerstone Evgeni Malkin, as the Penguins did Tuesday night, guarantee the team will host a championship parade down Grant Street in the next four years? Of course not. The team’s superstars aren’t getting any younger, and besides, that’s not how the NHL works. But it did greatly...

When Southern California and UCLA sent shockwaves through college sports by announcing their intention to join the Big Ten on Thursday, Penn State officials — from the university president to the baseball and softball coaches — expressed their excitement about the move. Football coach James Franklin was no different. “This...

Sydney Mitchell, the speedy center fielder for Hempfield’s softball team, always figured she’d wear Pitt colors someday. She will do that in the fall, but the route she took had some twists and turns in it. As Thanksgiving of her senior year approached, Mitchell hadn’t received a scholarship offer and...

PIAA Class 2A softball championship Conwell-Egan (13-9) vs. Neshannock (25-0) 11 a.m. Friday at Beard Field, Penn State Road to the finals Conwell-Egan – The Eagles are the first team from the Philadelphia Catholic League to play for a state softball championship. The league joined the PIAA in 2008. Conwell-Egan...

PIAA Class 6A softball championship Spring-Ford (23-2) vs. Seneca Valley (16-6) 4 p.m. Friday at Beard Field, Penn State Road to the finals Spring-Ford – After losing to eventual champ North Penn in the semifinals and Haverford in the third-place game in the District 1 tournament, Spring-Ford came alive in...

PIAA Class 3A softball championship Lewisburg (19-3) vs. Avonworth (20-5) 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Beard Field, Penn State Path to Penn State Lewisburg – This is Lewisburg’s best softball season in decades. After winning the District 4 championship for the first time since 1996, the Green Dragons rolled to three...

PIAA Class 5A softball championship Pittston Area (24-0) vs. Armstrong (23-4) 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Beard Field, Penn State Path to Penn State Pittston Area – The District 2 champion Patriots have been a juggernaut all season, going 24-0 and outscoring opponents 239-28. They rolled through the state playoffs, beating...

WPIAL Class 2A softball championship 1-Neshannock (21-0) vs. 2-Frazier (17-0) 2:15 p.m. Friday at Lilley Field, Cal (Pa.) On the air: Trib HSSN (Video) Road to the finals Neshannock — The Lancers have been one of the most dominant teams in the WPIAL this season. Heading into the finals, they’re...