Michael Love stories

Tim Toy was on the move Friday and Saturday, making sure everyone involved with the fourth annual We Serve First Foundation’s all-star girls volleyball classic had everything they needed, and the event went off without a hitch. At the same time, the foundation’s executive director was able to sit back...

The Plum girls basketball team, fresh off victories over Latrobe and North Hills on Friday and Saturday to win its tip-off tournament, hoped to keep things rolling Monday as it visited rival Kiski Area in the final tune-up before the start of section play. The Cavaliers hoped to quell the...

Curtis Williams has seen the tough times with the Gateway girls basketball team the past couple of years. The Gators went 0-19 last year, won just six games the past three seasons and are riding a 36-game section losing streak. But Williams sees the program turning the corner. He saw...

When Alvis Rogers surprised some within the Gateway boys basketball community with his resignation in late August for family and personal reasons after seven seasons as Gators head coach, the athletic administration didn’t have to look far for his replacement. Vern Benson, a trusted assistant to Rogers for several seasons,...

The Knoch hockey team lost its first three games of the 2025-26 season. Close setbacks to McDowell, 6-5, and Neshannock, 6-4, and a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Ringgold had the Knights searching for a spark that would point them in the right direction. That spark came in the...

When a high school athlete gives a verbal commitment to a school of his or her choice, it sets off a period of waiting until they can make it officially binding. For several of those local athletes, that signing-day period began Nov. 12, and it signified a major commitment and...

Hampton and Apollo-Ridge were two of the first girls basketball teams to open the winter sports season as the Talbots and Vikings met in a Friday afternoon contest at the Leechburg Tournament. A pair of early 3-pointers had Apollo-Ridge feeling good, but the Vikings went cold after that. Hampton, a...

Despite losing four seniors and a few other key members from its run to the 2023-24 WPIAL Class A title game at Petersen Events Center, the St. Joseph girls basketball team refocused its efforts last season, fused with youthful talent eager to keep up the success of the last several...

Chris Muir didn’t waste any time getting immersed in the St. Joseph boys basketball program when he was hired as the new coach in late September. He also made sure to get his youthful Spartans players on the court and playing together. Open gyms and competition against Class 5A Laurel...

The Riverview girls basketball team went through change in the offseason after the Raiders took part in the WPIAL playoffs for the ninth year in a row. Jill Catanzaro stepped down after four years at the helm of the program, and Andre Carter, also the school’s athletic director and a...

Rex Roberts feels a high level of excitement among the players on the Riverview boys basketball team. There’s a chemistry and camaraderie, the junior guard says, forged by the shared goal and expectation of returning to the WPIAL playoffs, a position they came so close to attaining last year. “We...

The Plum boys basketball team fell one win short of a WPIAL Class 5A playoff spot last year, and for coach Dave Pucka and his players, it felt even closer than that. Several tight losses in section, including a one-point setback to Shaler and a two-overtime loss to Hampton, contributed...

The Plum girls basketball team emerged last season from a challenging Section 1-5A schedule as a WPIAL qualifier for the third consecutive season. The Mustangs finished tied for third place in the section with Fox Chapel at 7-5 and entered the playoffs hoping to make some noise. But Penn-Trafford, a...

A-K Valley girls soccer all-stars Player of the Year Emily McKee Jr., Forward, Fox Chapel Emily McKee scored 48 goals this fall. She has 106 for her three-year varsity career. But the Fox Chapel junior’s most vivid memory of the season was the wins, no matter how they came, and...

A-K Valley boys soccer all-stars Player of the Year Collin Rodgers Sr., Forward, Deer Lakes As a freshman, Collin Rodgers felt the rush of Deer Lakes bringing home a WPIAL Class 2A boys soccer championship at Highmark Stadium. Three years later, as a senior, Rodgers had that feeling again as...

When a high school athlete gives a verbal commitment to a school of his or her choice, it sets off a period of waiting until they can make it officially binding. For several of those athletes in the Alle-Kiski Valley, that signing-day period began Nov. 12, and it signified a...

Members of the Kiski Area boys wrestling team worked out Wednesday in their spacious new wrestling room at the high school. Their Cavaliers female counterparts did the same in an adjoining room not far away. Some of them would pause for a moment, still taking in their new surroundings with...

The Deer Lakes girls basketball team experienced a big turnaround last season. The Lancers won just four games and went winless in section play two years ago. Dana Petruska returned to Deer Lakes in 2024 and began her second stint as coach of her alma mater. A spark was lit...

There again are high expectations for the Deer Lakes boys basketball team as another season is set to begin. The Lancers, WPIAL champions in 2023 and 2024, had another strong season last winter, but a tough loss to section rival North Catholic in the WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinals and a...

Reese Hasley is off to a strong start for the Grove City women’s basketball team. The Deer Lakes graduate and Wolverines senior guard is averaging 10 points, 7.5 rebounds and three assists through four games. She collected a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to go along with three...

There is a great deal of optimism surrounding the Apollo-Ridge girls basketball team, which returns four starters and several other key contributors after a trip to the WPIAL playoffs last season. “I think the group of girls that we have gets along really well from top to bottom,” Vikings second-year...

The Apollo-Ridge boys basketball team has endured some lean years recently in terms of wins and losses, but coach Greg Fox sees a program on the rise with experience throughout the lineup this season. “The summer and offseason were very productive for the players who put in the time,” said...

The Burrell girls soccer team members had a bittersweet feeling in their hearts and in the pits of their stomachs hours after the end of Friday’s PIAA Class 2A championship game against Archbishop Wood at Northeastern York High School. The bitter came from a battle that ended in heartbreak in...

MANCHESTER — Intensity, physicality, dangerous scoring chances, high-level defensive plays. That is what one would expect from two high school girls soccer teams going after a PIAA championship. Burrell and Archbishop Wood delivered on all of those Friday night as both came to Northeastern York High School seeking their first...

The Burrell girls soccer team received a police escort for the final few miles back to the high school after Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over section rival Freeport in a PIAA Class 2A semifinal clash at Fox Chapel High School. The Bucs didn’t let a seven-game losing streak to the Yellowjackets,...