Michael Love stories, Page 54

Jacksen Reiser was focused on making the most of his senior season with the Freeport football team. Preseason practices provided promise and potential. But a torn ACL suffered in the Yellowjackets’ scrimmage with Slippery Rock put a halt to his gameplan. The outlook was bleak. Reiser’s season appeared to be...

Here’s a look at the Valley News Dispatch’s 2022 football all-stars: First team Devin Beattie Burrell, RB/DB, jr. Beattie broke out as a workhorse this year with 1,441 yards and 18 touchdowns on 222 carries as the Bucs earned a trip to the WPIAL playoffs in Class 2A. He rushed...

Lernerville Speedway will host a high-stakes sprint car evening race late in the 2023 season that will pay out $50,000 to the winner. The Commonwealth Clash on the High Limit Sprint Car Series schedule is set for Tuesday, Sept. 26, and is the highest-paying sprint car event ever held at...

With 5 minutes, 14 seconds left in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s nonsection girls basketball game between Kiski Area and Mars, the Cavaliers led by nine and had designs on putting the game away. But the Planets had other ideas. Mars regrouped with a timeout and proceeded to outscore Kiski...

The Burrell wrestling team last beat neighboring rival Kiski Area in 2011. The Bucs hope this year’s clash — the teams meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kiski Area High School — can be the end of the decade-long winning streak by the Cavaliers. “This is always a highlight of...

Four months from now, fans will hear the firing of motors at Lernerville Speedway as the 2023 season gets rolling. Lernerville officials over the weekend released the upcoming season’s schedule of events. The slate is highlighted by additional Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger Farm Dairy events on Friday nights. That...

The Fox Chapel girls basketball team lost its season opener, falling by seven to Highlands at the Freeport Tip-Off on Dec. 2. The Foxes have reeled off four straight since then. The latest triumph came Monday evening at Plum. Led by a balanced effort where five players had at least...

At a gathering at Freeport Middle School shortly after the Yellowjackets girls volleyball team captured the 2017 PIAA Class 2A championship, then-sixth graders Josie Russo and Grace Beach posed for photos holding the title trophy. Five years later, the duo, now juniors on the Freeport team, again took photos together...

Gateway graduate Courtney Jackson recently announced that he is entering the NCAA Transfer Portal and has concluded his playing career at Syracuse. The graduate student, with two years of eligibility remaining, made the announcement Nov. 29 on Twitter. The wide receiver said a lot of prayer and consultation with those...

Alex Keeling-Oliver finished seventh in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League’s East section last year with a 184.03 average with a high game of 242 and a top series of 644. The Gateway junior used those totals to earn a trip to the WPIBL and Western Regional singles tournaments. Keeling-Oliver,...

Plum wrestling coach Mike Supak said the Eastern Area Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Dec. 2 and 3 at Gateway was a strong first step for his young but experienced group. The Mustangs finished a close second to Bethel Park in the team standings and produced three champions, one runner-up, a...

Plum swim coach Shawn Haupt looks up and down his girls roster and is excited for what could transpire throughout the 2022-23 season. “It is exciting because not only is our core and leadership coming back, but our freshmen coming in are just as excited and enthusiastic and are expected...

Highlands graduate Brayden Thimons was a defensive force again this past fall for the Westminster football team. The Titans graduate student defensive end, a two-time Presidents Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, recently was selected to the D3football.com All-Region 2 team. A three-time first-team All-PAC selection, he ranked third...

You can’t fault Sydney Joyce if she gets a little emotional or is overcome with nostalgia when she takes the court Friday and Saturday as part of the inaugural We Serve First All-Star Classic girls volleyball event at Kiski Area High School. “This is very exciting, especially since it is...

Freeport’s Kira Schrecongost didn’t let the bright lights and pressurized atmosphere of the WPIAL Class 2A swimming championships get to her last year as swam to gold in the 100-yard butterfly and second in the 200 individual medley as a freshman at Pitt’s Trees Pool. She followed that up with...

The Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association recognized the top players from each of the four girls volleyball classifications Tuesday with the release of the all-state selections. Five members of the team from North Allegheny, which captured its sixth straight Class 4A state title with a 3-1 win over Garnet Valley on...

The St. Joseph girls basketball team hoped to build on Friday’s victory over Class 4A Belle Vernon at the Play 4 Mae Tournament at Woodland Hills as it hosted Aquinas Academy on Monday in an early season clash of top five Class A teams. But those hopes were dashed by...

Arontay Heningcamp broke out last year for the Gateway wrestling team. After winning just five of 11 matches as a sophomore, he rose to the occasion and went 25-11 at 113 pounds and qualified for WPIALs where he produced a 2-2 mark. Now, as a new season ramps up, the...

Hunter Raymer entered his high school freshman season last December already experienced in a number of high-level club swim meets. So when it came time to deliver at the WPIAL championships in early March, he was ready. And he was golden. Raymer, also a prominent member of the local Racer-X...

Postseason honors have been piling up for Deer Lakes senior Ryan Hanes. The WPIAL Class 2A Player of the Year was selected to the All-WPIAL team for a second straight year and picked to the all-state team last week. Now, he can add another postseason award to the list. The...

Kaitlyn Killinger works with a girl in her neighborhood, a member of the Plum youth soccer program, on several aspects of the game. “She tells her mom all the time about me and how she looks up to me,” said Killinger, who recently completed a standout four-year varsity career with...

The bank was open late for Riley Stephens, and the Plum freshman made a deposit she won’t soon forget. Stephens’ 3-point shot at the buzzer deflected off glass and went in to give the Mustangs a come-from-behind 49-48 victory over Freeport on Friday in the second game of the Freeport...

The WPIAL basketball season opens Friday. Here are some of the top players, teams and storylines to watch this winter in the A-K Valley. Boys 5 players to watch Mackey Bennis, Jr., G, Burrell: With four starters lost to graduation, including VND first-team all-star Brandon Coury (21.9 points per game),...

It was a productive fall season for the Kiski Valley Lancers youth football teams as three of the four made the Big East Youth Football League playoffs and the 10U Knights captured the championship of their division. The Knights defeated Penn-Trafford, 24-8, in the Super Bowl Nov. 5. Kiski Valley...

Only one team had scored a goal against the Moon girls soccer team before the Tigers faced Plum in a PIAA Class 3A quarterfinal Nov. 12 at Peters Township’s Confluence Financial Partners Stadium. The Mustangs were up for the challenge and put the first goal on the board within the...