Michael Love stories, Page 102
High school basketball teams appreciate, take lessons from pre-shutdown games
Last Friday, 71 WPIAL and City League boys and girls basketball teams kicked off their 2020-21 seasons in the shadow of a looming shutdown that will extend through the first couple of days of the New Year. In the climate of covid uncertainties, the games were a chance for those...
Seniors who drove Plum football to new heights make college choices on signing dayVideo
Evan Azzara anchored the Plum offensive line with power for several years. Now, the 6-foot-6, 290-pound senior is signed, sealed and delivered for what he hopes is the same kind of success at Miami (Ohio). Azzara was one of nearly two dozen from the WPIAL and City League to sign...
Former Plum slugger pleased to be back in purple as coach at Evansville
Jordan Seneca had last worn purple in a softball-game setting in the spring of 2014 as a senior at Plum. This past fall, she again donned that familiar color, beginning a tenure as a graduate assistant coach with the softball program at Division I University of Evansville. It is a...
Burrell grad Scherer honored with education scholarship
Burrell graduate Nikki Scherer, a senior member of the Pitt women’s track and field team, is a recipient of $2,500 in tuition from the Go Teach Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway, a partnership of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the College Football Playoff Foundation, the conference announced Tuesday. She is one...
WPIAL contenders wonder how sports shutdown will impact swimming season
Ian Shahan hopes for big things in his senior swimming season. Like many others throughout the WPIAL, the Belle Vernon senior who is the defending WPIAL Class AA champion in the 100-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly, is keeping his fingers crossed that when the calendar turns to 2021, the season...
Gateway’s Summer Raymer has sights set on school swimming records
Summer Raymer’s name already is on the swimming record boards in the natatorium at Gateway High School. The Gateway junior standout is part of the 200-yard medley relay team that set the record last year with graduate Olivia Livingston and sophomores Ayva Harris and Morgan Holmes. Raymer, the runner-up last...
Gateway athletes pick up postseason honors after challenging fall
The Gateway boys and girls soccer teams and the Gators football team each earned WPIAL playoff berths in a fall season dominated each week by covid concerns, cancellations and delays. The teams overcame a week-long practice and competition stoppage in pursuit of postseason opportunities. Several individual standouts helped fuel the...
Valley News Dispatch Offensive Player of the Year: Apollo-Ridge’s Logan Harmon
Alle-Kiski Valley Offensive Player of the Year Logan Harmon RB, Senior, 5-8, 215 pounds, Apollo-Ridge Logan Harmon saved one of the best rushing performances of his career for Apollo-Ridge’s WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinal game against Washington on Oct. 30 at Owens Field. The 215-pound senior running back helped dash the...
Oakland Catholic girls hold off spirited Fox Chapel rallyVideo
The Fox Chapel girls basketball team gave host Oakland Catholic all it could handle in a nonsection game Friday night. The Foxes rallied from a double-digit deficit in the first half and were within two possessions heading into the fourth quarter, but the Eagles held off a final Fox Chapel...
St. Joseph girls ‘all-in’ on playing opener, lose to Neshannock
St. Joseph girls basketball coach Dennis Jones said there was no question his team wanted to take the court Friday to open its season less than 24 hours after Gov. Tom Wolf announced high school sports would shut down for four weeks as part of covid-19 mitigation efforts. “The girls...
A-K Valley teams disappointed, not shocked by high school sports shutdownVideo
Over the past few weeks, coaches, athletes and administrators from around the Alle-Kiski Valley have been battling the unknown. With the coronavirus pandemic looming large and cases continuing to spike in Allegheny and Westmoreland County, the outlook for the winter sports looked bleak and teams were preparing for the worst....
WPIAL standouts earn spots on all-state girls volleyball lists
More than three dozen from the WPIAL have earned all-state girls volleyball recognition by the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association. The four lists were released Monday and honor the top players from each of the 12 districts for accomplishments during a season unlike any other. Seneca Valley senior setter Sarah White...
Boys basketball preview: Valley wants redemption after missing playoffs
After three straight trips to the WPIAL playoffs, the Valley boys basketball team was not as fortunate last season as it skidded to a 4-17 overall record and a 3-9 mark in Section 3-3A. But veteran coach Mark Faulx sees a different path for the Vikings this year with several...
Girls basketball preview: Valley seeks 1st winning season in 17 years
Jada Norman is ready to take that next step, both in her personal game and for the team overall. The Valley sophomore forward feels this year’s team can raise its level of success higher than in recent seasons. The Vikings won just one game a year ago. “We’re working hard...
Bill Viola Sr., Viola Jr. to receive national karate recognition
Father and son will be honored together for their contributions to karate in a virtual awards ceremony Saturday. Bill Viola Sr. and Bill Viola Jr. are inductees into the 2020 American Martial Arts Alliance’s Who’s Who Legends Hall of Honors with martial arts legend Chuck Norris. They also are featured...
Girls basketball preview: Numbers shouldn’t be a problem for St. Joseph this season
The St. Joseph girls basketball team won just three games a year ago, but an opportunity to take part in the WPIAL Class A playoffs was a positive end to a season of growth for a team that lost just two to graduation. “I think we played as good as...
St. Joseph boys basketball eyes return to postseason after down year
Andrew Sullivan remembers the feeling two years ago when the St. Joseph boys basketball team won 18 games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 1A playoffs. Eight seniors graduated from that team, and a younger and less experienced Spartans squad slipped to six wins last season. With...
Gateway swimmers have medal ambitions, wait patiently to dive into competition
The last time Gateway swimmers competed in a high school meet, coronavirus impacted the proceedings. In the initial stages of what would become a pandemic, PIAA officials shortened the second day of March’s Class AAA state championship event at Bucknell University. Several Gators competitors were affected. Covid concerns have again...
Gateway boys look to build off WPIAL playoff berth
The Gateway boys basketball team made strides last season, going from just three wins in section and five victories overall the year before to 10 wins and a return berth in the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs. The Gators, junior Will Kromka said, now are ready to take the next step....
Girls basketball preview: Gateway has firepower to contend in loaded section
The Gateway girls basketball team opened its season with a practice Nov. 20, the first day winter sports teams were permitted to do so in the WPIAL and throughout Pennsylvania. Then things came to a halt as Gateway suspended all athletic activities for two weeks — through Friday — as...
Riverview boys basketball expects to contend when team gets to full strength
The Riverview boys basketball team missed the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs last season, but it was within a few points of forging a different outcome. The Raiders finished section play with a 4-10 record, but three games were decided by two points or less. Learning from those experiences, veteran head...
Riverview girls basketball team hopes to build off memorable season
Last season was one to remember for the Riverview girls basketball team. With a group of six seniors leading the way, the Raiders compiled a 15-10 overall record with several key section victories down the stretch in the regular season. A high-pressure, emotional win over Burgettstown followed in the first...
Boys basketball preview: Kiski Area hopes preseason competition leads to in-season success
Opportunity was a main theme as the Kiski Area boys basketball team began preseason practices Nov. 23. Three starters from last season — 6-foot-7 forward Jason Baker (Legacy Early College charter school in South Carolina), and guards Kyrell Hutcherson (North Allegheny) and Joe Lukas (Kiski Prep) — transferred in the...
Girls basketball preview: Kiski Area forced to adapt after injury sidelines top sophomore
Lexi Colaianni made the most of her freshman season with the Kiski Area varsity girls basketball team. Colaianni averaged 8.5 points through 22 games last year, tops among all underclassmen on the team. Cavaliers coach Nick Dizon said she worked hard in the offseason with hopes of raising her game...
Highlands’ Slepak gives baseball verbal commitment to Division I Mount St. Mary’s
The day after Thanksgiving, Highlands junior Jett Slepak gave thanks for the opportunity to make a verbal commitment to the baseball program at Division I Mount St. Mary’s. “This is a great opportunity for me,” Slepak said of the Maryland school, which is a member of the Northeast Conference and...
