Michael Love stories, Page 117
WPIAL alums earn PSAC spring honors
A trio of WPIAL alums were among 10 student-athletes from schools in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference selected as spring 2020 Top 10 Award recipients. Slippery Rock’s Lacey Cohen (tennis, Fox Chapel), Seton Hill’s Tommy Pellis (baseball, Greensburg Central Catholic) and Cal (Pa.)’s Nick Riggle (baseball, Keystone Oaks) were among...
Freeport International Baseball Invitational plans continue to move forward
With counties throughout southwestern Pennsylvania moving forward in the green phase of coronavirus recovery, next month’s Freeport International Baseball Invitational also continues to move forward with its mission to host the 26th annual event. FIBI president Chuck Sarver said Wednesday that while field locations continue to be finalized, more and...
New Western Pa. high school QB award honors trailblazer Willie Thrower
Starting this fall, the top quarterback among schools in the WPIAL and City League will receive an award named in honor of the NFL’s first African-American signal-caller. The annual Willie Thrower Award will honor the memory of the New Kensington native who first gained local notoriety by helping New Kensington...
Penn Hills Midget Football releases registration information
The Penn Hills Midget Football Association has set registration dates and times for the 2020 season. Signups for each football and cheerleading division will be June 18 and 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. both evenings, and June 20, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the William McKinley Citizens...
Renovations underway on Buccaneers Stadium in Burrell
As soon as the Burrell School Board voted unanimously in March to renovate Buccaneers Stadium with artificial turf and replace the surrounding track, anticipation began. A time to begin the project was negotiated, taking into account the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and ground finally was broken late last month....
Cheswick Christian Academy pastor and ex-basketball coach ‘doing well’ after heart transplant
Clinton Blazevich returned to Allegheny General Hospital on Thursday for a test to see how everything is progressing with his new heart. His numbers, he said, continue to move in the right direction. It has been a month and a half since the April 22 transplant, and the pastor at...
Lernerville Speedway calls off pair of events
Despite counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania moving to the green phase of reopening Friday, racing at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver again is on hold as the track announced Friday’s Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger night of racing and Tuesday’s School Bus/Kid’s Bike/Enduro events have been called off. Lernerville made the announcement...
Eastern Swim Association cancels summer schedule
Add the Eastern Swim Association (ESA) to the long list of sports organizations deciding to cancel summer events in the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The ESA decided Monday in a Zoom meeting of the 11 member clubs to call off the dual-meet schedule, set to start June 16, as...
Senior Spotlight: Final tennis season wiped out, but South Park senior’s golf game in full swing
Editor’s note: Each day, Trib HSSN will spotlight WPIAL spring athletes whose senior years were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Stone Ellis was a rock for the South Park boys golf and tennis teams the past several seasons. He hoped to cap his prep athletic career this spring with...
Love of basketball, family carries Jennifer Bruce Scott into Pitt hall of fame
Jennifer Bruce Scott began her AAU and high school girls basketball coaching career more than two decades ago, hoping to pass along the same passion and dedication to the game that drove her to four standout seasons at Pitt in the early 1980s. The Monroeville resident started in high school...
Peters Township’s Connor Bruce gets early start to college tennis career at Dayton
Connor Bruce made quite a debut for the Dayton men’s tennis team during the shortened 2020 season. The Peters Township product, who graduated high school in December to get an early jump on his college career, exploded onto the Division I scene, earning five Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week...
Senior Spotlight: Norwin outside hitter follows 5 siblings into college volleyball
Editor’s note: Each day, Trib HSSN will spotlight WPIAL spring athletes whose senior years were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. The youngest of six siblings, Joey Ferragonio saw his brothers and sisters forge successful high school volleyball careers at Norwin and continue on at their respective colleges. Mike played...
Despite cancellation of Run Across Haiti, Pittsburgh-area runners continue with event close to home
The country of Haiti is 1,550 miles from Pittsburgh, but a group of local runners who had hoped to participate in this year’s Run Across Haiti eight-day ultra-marathon were unable to travel that distance because of the coronavirus pandemic. The event, organized since 2015 by the non-profit organization Work, raises...
Presidents Athletic Conference working on plan for return to sports
The Presidents Athletic Conference has begun work on a return-to-play plan for intercollegiate sports for the 2020-21 academic year. The league has approved the formation of working groups involving conference executives, administrators, health professionals and coaches to address issues and report back to the Presidents’ Council with recommended guidelines, best...
Senior Spotlight: Ambridge libero gets jump-start into workforce
Editor’s note: Each day, Trib HSSN will spotlight WPIAL spring athletes whose senior years were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. When schools closed in March as part of the coronavirus pandemic response, Kevan Rotthoff’s education shifted, like thousands of others, to online learning. It also opened the opportunity for...
Virtual Best of the Burgh bodybuilding competition puts focus on body transformation
Stasi Longo had a lot to look forward to as she promoted her latest Pittsburgh-based bodybuilding competition. The Organization of Competition Bodies (OCB) Best of the Burgh earlier this month was to be on stage at Boyce Middle School in Upper St. Clair Township. But safety regulations relating to the...
Waynesburg’s Miller, a Bethel Park grad, to continue baseball pursuits at Division I Gardner-Webb
When the NCAA announced that collegiate athletes affected by the cancellation of spring seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic would receive an extra year of eligibility, it created an opportunity for Bethel Park graduate Mason Miller, a senior on the Waynesburg University baseball team. After three-plus successful seasons for the...
Longtime Carnegie Mellon ‘D’ coordinator Terry Bodnar seeks solace in retirement
For years, Terry Bodnar coached a Carnegie Mellon defense that put toughness on display and made life difficult for opposing offenses. These days, the gameplan for the recently retired longtime Tartans defensive coordinator is spending relaxing days with his son, Jon, and his family in Texas and chasing down his...
Plum grad Gino Marra relishes experience during 1st season at UNC Asheville
Gino Marra is set to spend a majority of his summer on the gulf coast of Florida. The Plum graduate and left-handed pitcher for Division I UNC Asheville hopes several weeks of work during his first foray into collegiate summer baseball will help him take the next step in his...
Senior Spotlight: Tennis phenom hoped to make impact in lone season at Greensburg Salem
Editor’s note: Each day, Trib HSSN will spotlight WPIAL spring athletes whose senior years were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Loren Byers hopes to get on the court for a couple of high-profile tennis tournaments this summer before beginning his studies and joining the men’s team at Penn State....
Senior Spotlight: All-state honors were a highlight for Shaler volleyball teammates
Editor’s note: Each day, Trib HSSN will spotlight WPIAL spring athletes whose senior years were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Steven Hoffman and Billy Dadowski were selected to the All-WPIAL Class AAA first team and Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association all-state squad last spring after helping Shaler reach the WPIAL...
Keystone State Games joins list of canceled summer sporting events
For more than three decades, athletes of all ages from the Pittsburgh region have tested themselves against the best in the state at the Keystone State Games Festival of Sports and PA Senior Games. However, those events will not take place this summer as both have been canceled by organization...
Valley seniors planning for careers in service of others
Editor’s note: This is the 17th in an 18-part series profiling nominees for the Westmoreland County Scholar-Athlete Excellence Awards. Madison Gatto’s goal of making a collegiate tennis roster is on hold. The Valley senior and her sister Casey, two-thirds of the Gatto triplets, were accepted into a nursing program at...
New South Park girls soccer coach excited for opportunity at alma mater
For T.J. O’Brien, there’s no place like home. No, he didn’t have to click red glass slippers like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. He simply had to say yes when offered the girls soccer head coaching position at South Park. O’Brien, a 2006 South Park graduate and former Eagles...
In the midst of challenges, Don Holl settling in as Gateway’s athletic director
Don Holl’s first official day as Gateway’s new athletic director was March 13. It also was the day Gov. Tom Wolf announced all schools in the state would close temporarily and all school-related activities suspended as part of the early response to the coronavirus pandemic. The state made that ruling...
