Josh Rizzo stories, Page 36
Deer Lakes baseball using last season’s shortcomings as motivation
Josh Tysk doesn’t want the Deer Lakes baseball team to lament missed opportunities. The Lancers saw the Section 3-3A title slip away late last season after a pair of one-run losses to eventual champion Derry. “We want to close games better,” Tysk said. “We were right there and didn’t close...
Deer Lakes softball team leans on experience from last season’s playoff run, healthy Guthrie
There are many ways to play softball, but playing with a cast on her wrist isn’t the type of adversity Deer Lakes senior outfielder Lydia Guthrie wanted to deal with again. Guthrie’s 2021 season was abbreviated because of a gym class injury. She didn’t get fully healthy until the Lancers’...
Greensburg Central Catholic baseball seeks to defend section title and disappointing finish
Greensburg Central Catholic senior pitcher/infielder Zach David is driven by what kind of player he could be fully healthy. When he got surgery to repair a torn UCL last October, the doctor told David there was a chance it could have been torn for two years. David’s injury likely will...
All-state pitcher Emma Henry, Greensburg Central Catholic softball eye next step
Emma Henry went into last season with the Greensburg Central Catholic softball team not knowing what to expect. After losing her freshman season to the covid-19 pandemic, Henry expected there to be a learning curve. However, she proved to be a quick study, earning Class A second-team all-state honors in...
Penn Hills grad’s swimming career hits high note at Edinboro
Edinboro’s Stephanie Sipple doesn’t like to slap the water at the end of races. During her swimming career, the Penn Hills graduate couldn’t remember doing it many times. However, after placing fourth at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships in February in the 100 fly, Sipple let some emotion out....
Penn Hills road warriors savor upset win in state playoffs
Penn Hills coach Chris Giles dismissed the idea that the PIAA should try to tailor the Class 5A state playoff brackets to limit travel. Despite a travel mishap following the game, Giles enjoyed what 476-mile trek provided for the Indians. Packed into a gym with little support, Penn Hills, which...
Penn Hills wrestler hits reset button, earns spot in WPIAL tournament
Not placing at the Allegheny County Wrestling championships earlier this season didn’t sit well with Penn Hills sophomore Aidan Pham. The 189-pound Indians sophomore wrestler decided to refocus on training after bowing out quicker than he hoped. “It made me work harder,” Pham said. “I believed I had more potential...
Penn Hills boys basketball takes stock after WPIAL loss to Highlands
Penn Hills boys basketball Chris Giles was ultimately unconcerned with how the WPIAL chooses to determine which teams go to the state basketball playoffs. It doesn’t matter if it is the follow-the-leader system in place now or if there is a play-in tournament like there was previously. When it comes...
Playoff berth shows how far young Riverview girls basketball team came
Maddie Deem looked around during the preseason and quickly realized her role for the Riverview girls basketball team was going to be different. In the past, the 5-foot-6 senior guard had plenty of other players to look up to. But this year, the Raiders were looking up to Deem, who...
Mt. Pleasant’s Dayton Pitzer dominates en route to title at Class 2A Southwest Regionals
Complacency never is a problem for Mt. Pleasant senior wrestler Dayton Pitzer. “I don’t think I’m at a point where I’ve been bored with wrestling,” Pitzer said. “I think there’s always room for improvement. I think working hard in the practice room with teammates and stuff and learning new moves...
Burrell’s Hornack navigates tough road at PIAA Class 2A Southwest Regional
Quaker Valley’s Logan Richey shot was quick, and Burrell’s Cooper Hornack found himself defending furiously in the first period of a 120-pound bout Saturday at Peters Township High School. The PIAA Class 2A Southwest Regional match between the two served as a reminder for Hornack how much more difficult things...
Penn Hills swim team looking to improve with more time in pool
Entering this season, Penn Hills swimming coach Nick Page wanted to see the Indians make solid progress throughout the year. With the makeup of the preseason roster, Penn Hills wasn’t going to be a team that won many meets or qualified a ton of swimmers for the WPIAL Class 3A...
Penn Hills notebook: Shot putter’s strong indoor season continues
Having already qualified for the state indoor track championship didn’t mean Angelo Allen was done stacking up strong results. The Penn Hills senior thrower’s distance of 57 feet, 5 inches won him the Tri-State Track Coaches Association title Feb. 19 at Edinboro University. Allen, who has the top throw in...
Vegas trip a rewarding experience for Pittsburgh Elite youth flag football teams
Changing venues for the NFL Flag Bowl didn’t sour the experience for members of the Pittsburgh Elite flag football program. Instead, having the event moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas provided some good opportunities for the four teams that qualified. The Pittsburgh Elite team, which featured 9U, 11U, 12U...
Shaler swimmer finds success in pool, open water
Circumstance didn’t keep Noah Long out of the water. Opportunities to swim inside were limited by the pandemic, so the Shaler junior decided to try an open water event. Moraine State Park holds monthly races during the summer, and Long signed up in 2020 to give it a go. Long...
Shaler hockey team overcomes slow start to get back in playoff race
Shaler’s push for the hockey playoffs was one that seemed distant at the start of the year. The Titans lost seven of their first nine games, including four losses by four goals or more. But Shaler shook that off and found its footing, running off five consecutive wins to get...
Allderdice boys look to fend off upset-minded Brashear in City League championship game
Devin Crummie, a Central Catholic graduate, never played for a City League championship, but is well aware of the importance. Crummie, now in his third year as Allderdice head coach, yearns to help his kids earn the feeling he heard so much about growing up in the city. “There’s a...
In City League title game, Obama Academy girls look for 3rd win of season over Allderdice
Ellen (Hall) Guillard pulled herself out of retirement to help toughen up the Allderdice girls basketball team. Lacking size — the Dragon’s tallest player is 5-foot-7 — Guillard would routinely get on the blocks in practice to help her team practice rebounding. Guillard, in her day, was a 6-foot forward...
Penn Hills shot putter keeps pushing limits
Lee Zelkowitz already watched Angelo Allen break his own school record for the Penn Hills indoor track team in the shot put several times before his final throw Feb. 5 at Youngstown State. He thinks Allen’s best throw of 58 feet, 7 inches could have been surpassed by another throw...
Penn Hills’ Jaden Dugger finds Division I fit at Georgetown
Developing into a leader as a senior wide receiver at Penn Hills didn’t mean Jaden Dugger had to be a rah-rah guy. All Dugger ever wanted to be was himself. Encouraged by Indians coach Jon LeDonne, Dugger became a leader on his terms. “It was about being more confident,” Dugger...
Penn Hills boys basketball looking for another gear in season’s final days
Penn Hills 6-foot-4 guard Daemar Kelly believes the Indians have more to give. Entering a Section 3-5A game against Gateway on Feb. 4, Kelly believed Penn Hills had yet to play its best game. How to identify what that game will look like, Kelly said, will be obvious to anyone...
Penn Hills’ A.J. Palumbo finds success on mat while balancing busy schedule
A.J. Palumbo asks the Penn Hills wrestling coaches for an intense practice. Palumbo, a 215-pound senior wrestler, only has about 40 minutes to put work in before he heads to his job at Don Kuhn Auto Body. Palumbo is working as an apprentice painting cars. The Indians, who don’t have...
Penn Hills notebook: Bowling team building for future
The Penn Hills bowling team is trying to lay a foundation for future seasons. The Indians don’t have enough bowlers to make an impact in WPIBL play. However, the bowlers they do have on the roster have an opportunity to get a lot of work in at the varsity level....
Penn Hills indoor track team hits ground running
Penn Hills indoor track coach Lee Zelkowitz was disappointed when the first meet of the season got canceled due to covid-19 precautions. The Indians coach thought his team was on pace to have a strong season and looked forward to getting started. When the season got going Jan. 14 at...
Hempfield grad eager to take reins of Penn Hills softball program
Ashley Banner couldn’t overstate the impact her high school softball program had on her. Banner, a 2001 Hempfield graduate, hopes to leave a new generation of players with the same impression Bob Kalp had on her. Kalp, who recorded a 431-111-1 with the Spartans during a tenure that stretched from...
