District College category, Page 2

STATE COLLEGE — “Let’s talk about the west side.” With that, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft on Tuesday discussed at length what has transpired at Beaver Stadium since early January. James Franklin’s Nittany Lions open their season Aug. 30 against Nevada in State College. Penn State kicked off its...

Seton Hill running back Ky’Ron Craggette made a national preseason watch list. Craggette, a redshirt senior, was named to the D2Football.com Elite 100 preseason watch list. The list aims to begin the process of identifying All-­American-caliber players. There are first, second and “squad,” or honorable mention, teams. Craggette made the...

The men’s and women’s soccer teams from Pitt-Greensburg enter the 2025 season with plenty of optimism. With both squads returning several key players, they are setting their sights on Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference titles. Coach Marc Bucci’s men’s team got out of the gate slowly in 2024 but rebounded to...

Latrobe alum Chris Fite played professional basketball for more than a decade in Europe. Before that, he was a dominant post player at Rochester and won an NCAA Division III championship in 1990. His college exploits are getting recognized over three decades later. Fite, the men’s basketball coach at Shippensburg,...

Two years? Three years? No, new Saint Vincent women’s basketball coach Kam Gissendanner doesn’t want a grace period for the Bearcats. She wants to win immediately. “We’re going to hit the ground running, quickly,” Gissendanner said Wednesday from Carey Center on SVC’s campus. “Like, we want it right now.” SVC...

James Madison redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Sofia DeCerb (Latrobe) was named the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year. DeCerb started 21 games last season and made the Sun Belt all-tournament team. She produced a conference-best seven shutouts for the conference champion Dukes. She finished 12-4-4 in 21 starts with...

Dilveer Chaggar owes a lot to former Seton Hill men’s soccer coach Dan McCarty. McCarty, who headed the program from its inception in 2002 until the spring of 2022, brought Chaggar in as a player and later made him assistant coach. McCarty built Seton Hill into a perennial playoff team...

The Slippery Rock football team made a trip to the NCAA semifinals last season and, according to coaches in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, the Rock has the capability to find additional success this fall. Slippery Rock was voted as the favorite in the PSAC West Division in a preseason...

Wednesday’s annual Presidents’ Athletic Conference football media day was as much about honoring Geneva coach Geno DeMarco as it was previewing the 2025 season. In June, DeMarco announced that this, his 33rd season at the helm of the Golden Tornadoes, would be his last. So when it was their turn...

Cade Yacamelli was often said to have “freakish” qualities when he played at Penn-Trafford. His teammates were often in awe of how high he could jump vertically and how fast he could sprint. Now at Wisconsin, the budding running back has caught the attention of national pundits, including Bruce Feldman,...

Delaware lineman Fintan Brose is on the NFL radar. Not only that, but Brose, a Hempfield graduate, is eligible to get selected to play in college football’s longest-running all-star game. Brose (6-foot-2, 302 pounds) was named to the East-West Shrine Bowl 1000 list. The list is intended to highlight the...

Ethan Rose didn’t pull any punches when assessing his sophomore season with the Pitt-Greensburg men’s soccer team. He called it “underwhelming.” The Plum grad wasn’t even impressed by registering his first collegiate points. He posted a pair of assists before breaking through with his first goal late in the season...

For many athletes, having a foot stepped on is just an occupational hazard of their sport. That is particularly true for soccer players. So when Clarion forward/midfielder Alyssa Aquilio got her right foot stepped on during a preseason game against West Virginia Wesleyan last year, she didn’t think much of...

The Saint Vincent women’s soccer team was in cruise control. The Bearcats won 12 of their first 14 matches — the 12 wins represented the most in program history — and were on a 10-0-1 run heading into the home stretch of the 2024 season. That’s when the wheels came...

The ride of the Penn State New Kensington women’s soccer team is ending after barely getting off the ground. Previously a club team, the women’s soccer team became a full-fledged varsity program in 2024. Of course, since then, word has come down that the New Kensington campus is one of...

Seton Hill on Friday announced Mandy Sansbury as its new head softball coach. Sansbury brings an extensive resume to Greensburg, with 19 years of college coaching experience. Her stops, starting with the most recent, include Division I Indiana Indianapolis (two years), Division II programs Mount Olive (nine years) and Glenville...

Clay Martin spent three years at one of the nation’s premier NCAA Division II baseball programs, learning from widely respected head coach Marc Marizzaldi at Seton Hill. His time on the “Hill” — that connotation has more than one meaning — has prepared him for the next level. Martin was...

The Seton Hill women’s soccer team endured an enigmatic season in Year 2 under coach Riley Butler. On one hand, the Griffins had five fewer overall losses (six last season compared to 11 in 2023). On the flip side, Seton Hill had two fewer wins (five in 2024, seven in...

The news sent tremors throughout the Penn State community: Several branch campuses would close in a cost-cutting measure by the university system. Penn State New Kensington is one of those campuses. Founded in 1958, the branch will cease to operate after the 2026-27 academic year. As bleak as that news...

Anthony Johnson is no stranger to changing teams. He played basketball and football at several high schools in the WPIAL and City League, most notably Jeannette, before finishing his prep career at Cleveland Heights in Ohio. A key playmaker on Jeannette’s 2017 WPIAL and PIAA championship teams, the 300-pound defensive...

The Saint Vincent men’s soccer team struggled to a 2-11-6 record last season. But as rising sophomore midfielder Jack Billick sees it, that wasn’t an accurate reflection of the team’s ability. “We had a great preseason, and then I think in the regular season, we just got unlucky,” said Billick,...

One way to put a substandard season behind you is to follow it with a more catchy year. That is what Jack Whalen did this spring with Seton Hill baseball. “Jumpin Jack” got his flash back, canvassing the outfield and delivering clutch hits from the leadoff spot. The rising senior...

Referencing his legacy, Jimmy Petruska said he wants to be remembered as a coach who taught life lessons to his players. “I hope I inspired each one of them through the game that I love,” Petruska said in a news release Wednesday announcing his resignation as Saint Vincent women’s basketball...

After a short stint as a volunteer assistant on her father’s staff at NCAA Division III Waynesburg, Haylie Brunson is moving on to coach softball at the Division I level. The former Mt. Pleasant and Penn State slugger has accepted a graduate assistant coach position at Longwood University, a member...

Throughout her time at Burrell and into her freshman year at Edinboro, Kadi Bauer never had much love for long-distance running. The mile was her forte and her first love. The rising junior at Edinboro insists the 1,500-meter run/mile remains her favorite race, but she is starting to develop more...