Michael Love stories, Page 42
Shady Side outlasts Freeport in Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference opener
The Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference was one of two in the WPIAL to have none of its teams play a conference game before Friday night. Shady Side Academy and Freeport hoped to get off to a winning start in conference action after five nonconference contests to start the season....
Leechburg athletic director Angela Franke resigns
Angela Franke’s brief tenure as athletic director at Leechburg has come to a close. Her last day in the position was Friday, high school principal Doug Rodgers confirmed. Rodgers said he believes Franke is leaving for a full-time athletic director position in eastern Pennsylvania. The Leechburg AD job is part...
Top 4 teams in WPISL standings pair off for Sunday doubleheaders
Mt. Lebanon brought previously undefeated Plum back to the pack in a doubleheader sweep of the Mustangs last Sunday in Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League action. The wins bumped the Blue Devils up to 6-2, while Plum fell to 6-2. West Allegheny dominated North Hills over two games to also...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2023 Week 5
Player of the week Cooper Hornack Burrell, Sr., RB/DB Hornack, the reigning two-time Valley News Dispatch wrestler of the year and the 2023 PIAA Class 2A champion at 127 pounds, was a difference-maker last Friday as Burrell won its third straight game after an 0-2 start. Burrell ran the ball...
Conference title in focus when Knoch, Deer Lakes renew rivalry
Deer Lakes and Knoch waged a frantic, down-to-the wire battle last season at Lancers Stadium to open Allegheny 6 Conference play. The teams combined for 38 points in the fourth quarter — 22 from Knoch and 16 from Deer Lakes — as the Lancers pulled out a 37-36 victory. “Looking...
St. Joseph volleyball keeps improving, sets sights on WPIAL playoff spot
In 2020, the St. Joseph girls volleyball team went 0-12 in section play. It was 0-14 the year before and in 2018. The Spartans won just three section matches in 2021, but things were looking up. Last year, they recorded four victories in section play, and a late-season 3-1 loss...
Serra Catholic ascends to No. 1 in coaches association WPIAL Class A girls rankings
There is a change at the top in Class A as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 4 WPIAL girls rankings Monday morning. Serra Catholic, last year’s WPIAL runner-up, unseated Bishop Canevin. The Eagles improved last week to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in Section 4-A. Defending WPIAL...
Gateway grad Courtney Jackson finding success at Arkansas State
Courtney Jackson is playing his first season with the Arkansas State football team, and on Sept. 16, he hauled in his first touchdown pass for the Red Wolves in a 31-7 victory over Stony Brook. Arkansas State collected 485 yards of total offense with the receiving corps gaining 140 of...
After slow start to season, Gateway offense gets on track in Big East opener
The Gateway football team was in an unfamiliar 0-3 hole after losses to Mt. Lebanon, Woodland Hills and North Hills. But the Gators, who worked through several points of adversity, including the loss of senior tight end/linebacker Remy Bose and not having senior starting quarterback Brad Birch for two weeks,...
Alle-Kiski Valley high school notebook: Allegheny 6 about to enter conference play
The Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference, of which Freeport, Deer Lakes, Valley and Knoch are members, is one of two in the WPIAL to not have any of its teams play a conference game through five weeks. The other is the Class 3A Interstate Conference with Elizabeth Forward, Mt. Pleasant,...
Plum girls golf team shows improvement in inaugural season
In past fall seasons, female golfers at Plum would get their opportunity to compete, but they would have to share the course with their Mustangs male counterparts and challenge for positions in the starting lineup. That started to change last year when a group of Plum girls gathered to test...
Plum boys soccer passes tests in 1st round of section play
It wasn’t easy — Raf Kolankowski would be the first one to say it never is — but the Plum boys soccer team passed all of its tests in the first cycle of Section 4-3A play and sits at the top of the standings in its quest for another section...
Gateway football makes short work of Plum on road
The Gateway football team is hitting its stride at the right time. The Gators improved to 2-0 in the Big East Conference on Friday at Plum after their three nonconference setbacks to start the season. Brad Birch threw for 358 yards and two touchdowns, Jaquon Reynolds added three short TD...
Top distance runners among field for City of Pittsburgh Great Race
Jennifer Bigham won the City of Pittsburgh Great Race in 2016, 2017, 2019 and last year, and she hopes to add win No. 5 on Sunday. Bigham has become one of the fastest masters runners in the country, winning the 2022 USA Masters Half Marathon Championship and USA Masters One...
Lola Abraham’s 4 goals lift Riverview to dominant win over No. 1 Springdale
The Riverview girls soccer team rode a wave of momentum into its Section 1-A clash with unbeaten rival Springdale on Thursday. The Dynamos came in 6-0 overall and ranked No. 1 by TribLive HSSN, but the homestanding Raiders had won seven in a row. In front of a large homecoming...
Best races are ahead for Freeport junior cross country runner Michael Braun
Michael Braun was the seventh-fastest underclassmen and the third fastest sophomore at last year’s WPIAL Class 2A cross country championships at Cal U (Pa.). The Freeport junior placed 11th overall, an improvement of 20 places from his WPIAL debut in 2021. He also ran at the PIAA championships in Hershey...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2023 Week 4
Player of the week Derek Burk Deer Lakes, Sr., QB Deer Lakes won its third in a row with a 48-14 nonconference win over Greensburg Salem last Friday, and Lancers senior Derek Burk’s influence was all over the victory. Burk completed 11 of 12 passes for 251 yards and five...
Leechburg aims for 1st victory against Eastern Conference rival Clairton
Leechburg returns home Friday hoping to add a second Eastern Conference victory. The Blue Devils, 3-1 overall after last week’s 48-25 victory at Springdale, also hope to add a first-ever win over a team that has been a dominant force in the conference. Clairton has won 28 of the 29...
Robert Morris Athletic Hall of Fame announces 4-member Class of 2023
A decade before Jon LeDonne became a head football coach in the WPIAL, he made an impact on the field at Robert Morris University. The four-year Colonials letterman finished his career as one of the all-time RMU leaders in career tackles with 256. LeDonne, an Aliquippa native, earned numerous athletic...
Springdale girls soccer team building on last season’s success
The Springdale girls soccer team is the hunted this season coming off of what it did last year as a WPIAL Class A finalist and a PIAA quarterfinalist. The Dynamos, the No. 1 team this week in the TribLive HSSN Class A rankings, also is a team with a target...
Plum remains lone unbeaten team in Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League
Plum swept Baldwin in a doubleheader Sunday to remain the lone unbeaten slow-pitch team in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League. The Mustangs scored a combined 37 runs in the two games against the Highlanders and have outscored their opponents 104-24 through six games. North Allegheny and Mt. Lebanon split...
Plum girls soccer earns tightly contested win over Franklin Regional
The Plum and Franklin Regional girls soccer teams met twice last year in section play, resuming a local rivalry that was dormant for three years. The Mustangs swept the Panthers en route to their fourth straight section championship. Franklin Regional hoped to change that narrative Monday evening at home as...
Leaders hang on to top spots in latest coaches association WPIAL girls volleyball rankings
North Allegheny, Hampton, Freeport and Bishop Canevin each held on to their No. 1 rankings in the latest Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association WPIAL girls top-10 polls released Monday morning. There was a shakeup near the top in Class A as Frazier moved up to No. 2 from its No....
Gateway girls soccer finding offensive rhythm in early going
Gateway girls soccer coach Caleb Kyper said his players were a little shell-shocked after a 6-0 loss to Plum, a 2022 WPIAL semifinalist and PIAA qualifier, in the season and Section 3-3A opener Aug. 28. The Gators had a quick turnaround against Penn Hills just two days later, and Kyper...
Gateway boys soccer players learning from early-season tests
The Gateway boys soccer team has been up and down and everywhere in between so far in Section 4-3A play. They took care of business against Penn Hills and McKeesport, suffered tough losses to section powers Franklin Regional and Plum, and forged a key tie against a Penn-Trafford team they...
