William Whalen stories, Page 5
Norwin’s Walker ahead of schedule, key to Knights’ chances
Norwin baseball standout Jayden Walker readily admits he was nervous stepping up to the plate last season as a freshman starter, but the 6-foot-3, 220-pound slugger sure didn’t look it. Nowadays, the Knights’ clean-up hitter steps into the box, taps his cleats with his bat and stares at the pitcher,...
Greensburg Salem athletes to use familiarity to their advantage at WCCA championships
When the Greensburg Salem track and field team steps off the bus Saturday morning at Latrobe’s Memorial Stadium to compete in the Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association track and field championships, the Golden Lions will be entering familiar territory. The 97th edition of the meet will mark Greensburg Salem’s third trip...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Burrell’s Elizabeth Clark, Leechburg’s Cameron Curfman
Elizabeth Clark School: Burrell Class: Sophomore Sport: Softball Report card: With one out and Burrell trailing by two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Clark sent a 2-1 pitch over the left-field fence for a three-run walk-off homer to lift the Bucs (6-2, 4-1) past Section 1-3A rival...
Rocco ‘humbled’ to enter Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame
Former Fox Chapel standout, Penn State quarterback and Highlands coach Frank Rocco is just a VHS tape away from his Alle-Kiski Valley roots. Rocco, a high school football coach and athletic director at Liberty Christian Academy in Virginia, was looking ahead to the 2019 football season and realized next year’s...
New philosophy has Penn-Trafford baseball excelling at plate
In the lead up to the 2019 season, Penn-Trafford baseball coach Dan Miller was preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. Miller didn’t expect his Warriors to be a particularly powerful team at the plate. He was OK playing some “small ball” to manufacture runs and hoped to...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Deer Lakes’ Josh Probst, Leechburg’s Aubry Skeel
Josh Probst School: Deer Lakes Class: Senior Sport: Baseball Report card: Probst was key for No. 2 Deer Lakes (4-3, 4-0) last week. A team captain, Probst paced the Lancers’ offense with a bases-clearing double in a 10-6 win over Section 1-3A rival Burrell. Probst also drove in the tying...
Winless Plum boys volleyball team strives to reach potential
The Plum boys volleyball team held its annual invitational tournament Saturday. For a team that has yet to win a set in section play, the tourney acted as a midseason break, an opportunity to get out of section play and try new things against some of the WPIAL’s top teams....
‘Instant offense’ sparks Franklin Regional baseball to 6-1 start
There’s a new after-school work program for Franklin Regional high school students. Once the final bell rings and classes let out, 15 students head to the ball field and start swinging bats at the aluminum factory. It’s a dirty job, but it does have rewards. “This is probably one of...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Kiski Area’s Ryan Rametta, Apollo-Ridge’s Kylee Wynn
Ryan Rametta School: Kiski Area Class: Junior Sport: Baseball Report card: Rametta delivered a pitching gem last week: a 61-pitch, two-hit shutout to help lead Kiski Area (3-4, 0-2) past nonsection opponent Indiana, 8-0. The right-hander leads the Cavaliers pitching staff with a 2.80 ERA. In the fall, Rametta is...
Trip to Tarentum football game changed Paul Killian’s life
Long before he became a doctor and a football star, Paul Killian was just a kid from West Tarentum looking for a way out. Killian remembers the moment when he was a child and his father, Paul, took him to Tarentum’s Dreshar Stadium for a Friday night football matchup between...
Thin Gateway track and field roster still boasts plenty of talent
When it was all said and done last season, longtime Gateway track and field coach Tom LaBuff felt good when he looked ahead to the 2019 season. And then, football standouts Courtney Jackson and Jeremiah Joseph chose to early enroll this past January at Syracuse and Miami (Ohio), respectively. A...
Franklin Regional track teams reload after heavy graduation losses
Most high school track and field programs would not only struggle to survive, but also struggle to compete if they were to lose a senior class of more than 20 athletes from the year before. And then there’s the Franklin Regional track team looking like a battalion of soldiers on...
Young players bolster lineup for Latrobe girls lacrosse
It was a long and quiet bus ride back to campus from Sewickley Academy last May for the Latrobe girls lacrosse team. The Panthers handed Wildcats a 23-3 shellacking in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs. Egos were bruised, and the Wildcats were humbled. “I think that loss...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Springdale’s Alexis Hrivnak, Freeport’s Jarrett Heilman
Jarrett Heilman School: Freeport Class: Junior Sport: Baseball Report card: Heilman is picking up where he left off last season. The 6-foot-2 righty delivered a gem for Class 3A No. 2 Freeport (3-1) by striking out 13 and giving up five hits in the Yellowjackets’ 5-0 win over nonsection rival...
Beall having a ball for Franklin Regional softball
Franklin Regional softball standout Angalee Beall has never been one to show off. It’s not her style. The senior pitcher prefers to let her play do the talking. But last Thursday against Connellsville, she couldn’t help herself. With the scored tied 6-6 in the top of the seventh inning, Beall...
Plum’s Yocca wants to go out a Division III volleyball champ
The last four years have gone by quickly for 2015 Plum grad and current Rivier volleyball standout Khaynen Yocca. He’s dominated from the moment he hit the court at the Nashua, N.H., campus. Now that the 6-foot-6 middle hitter is making his last tour through the Great Northeast Athletic Conference,...
Talented Norwin boys volleyball still playing like underdogs
The Norwin boys volleyball team is hoping to end the season the way it began, and there’s a good chance that could happen. On March 23, the Knights invited some of the WPIAL’s most talented teams to their annual tournament, and they won the whole thing. It was nothing personal...
PSNK softball team takes early lumps
The Penn State New Kensington softball team took its annual spring trip to Florida a few weeks ago. Twelve players and four coaches hopped a plane to the Sunshine State with two goals in mind: bond as a team and play some softball. The Lions accomplished both goals on the...
Early turbulence unable to rock resolve of Penn State New Kensington baseball team
The college baseball season is a three-month roller-coaster ride, and unfortunately for Penn State New Kensington, it started with a deep drop right out of the gate. Four days before the Lions’ trip to Florida, fourth-year coach Jim Perry was relieved of his duties. The surprising news was a setback...
Johnson, Sharrow pace East girls to Cager Classic win
The West might be the best, but the beast is still the East. The East girls team put its six-game winning streak on the line Saturday evening at the 23rd Annual A-K Valley Cager Classic, and for 30 minutes, it looked like the East might run away with an easy...
Gateway boys tennis sets eyes on WPIAL playoff spot
It’s been nine seasons since the Gateway boys tennis team showed up in a WPIAL Class AAA postseason bracket and, for the Gators, that’s long enough. Gateway coach Rochelle Seilhamer feels if her team can beat the teams it should and upset a few along the way, the Gators can...
Valley’s Carter sweeps Cager Classic skills competition
It was never a secret Valley senior Nyjewel Carter was one of the top shooters the Vikings had this season; now he can stake his claim as one of the top shooters in the Alle-Kiski Valley Carter made history by becoming the first person to win all three events at...
Young Valley lineup looks to maintain momentum from trip to quarterfinals
Valley coach Jim Basilone trotted his Vikings off Washington & Jefferson’s Ross Memorial baseball field following a gut-wrenching, 6-5 loss to Brownsville in the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals and delivered his most important speech of the season. “I pulled them off to the side, through the gate, and I told...
Valley softball ready to take next step toward success
Nine years have passed since Valley won the WPIAL softball title; it’s been eight years since the Vikings made an incredible run through the state bracket and captured a PIAA Class AAA title. That wave of players who came through won a couple of titles and consequently created a standard...
GCC grad Tyler Balla hoping to continue career in footballVideo
New Kensington resident and former Allegheny football standout running back Tyler Balla woke up in his childhood bed Monday morning and continued his pursuit of fulfilling his boyhood dream of becoming a professional football player. Balla, along with 50 other NFL hopefuls, showed up at the second annual Cal (Pa.)...
