District College category, Page 34
Highlands grad Jaci Bowser will be driving force in growth of Clarion women’s soccerVideo
To be clear: The Clarion football team has not approached Jaci Bowser about becoming its kicker. Not yet, at least. Bowser, a senior on the Golden Eagles women’s soccer team, gained a measure of fame around the WPIAL for being one of the few girls to kick in varsity football...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Hempfield grad Justin Sliwoski on top performer watch listVideo
St. Francis (Pa.) redshirt junior quarterback Justin Sliwoski will leave it up to science. Sliwoski, a Hempfield graduate, is up for a national award that uses scientific rankings to measure how players “increase overall effectiveness of their team.” It is the College Football Performance National Performer of the Year and...
District college football roundup: Carnegie Mellon upsets No. 22 Rensselaer
Ben Coyne had three sacks of Carnegie Mellon’s seven sacks, and the Tartans (2-0) upset No. 22 Rensselaer (1-1), 10-7. The win was the sixth straight for Carnegie Mellon over a ranked opponent. Hayden Hairston’s 23-yard field goal in the first quarter for CMU accounted for the game’s only points...
Former WVU, IUP coach Frank Cignetti Sr. dies at 84
Frank Cignetti Sr., whose playing and coaching career spanned 50 years at IUP, Leechburg, Pitt, West Virginia and, finally, back to IUP where he enjoyed his greatest success, died Saturday. He was 84. So Proud to be your son, player & assistant. You are my Hero, Love You So Much...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Norwin grad Eva Frankovic transfers to Bucknell
Junior Eva Frankovic (Norwin) joined the Bucknell women’s soccer team after transferring from Pitt. A defender, she appeared in 15 games over the last two seasons for the Panthers and played 45 minutes last year against Duke. Frankovic said she left Pitt for “a better opportunity” at Bucknell. She goes...
UPG women’s tennis team hoping to continue recent run of successVideo
There could be a dynasty in the making at Pitt-Greensburg. Last fall, the women’s tennis team won its second consecutive Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference regular-season title. The Bobcats followed that with their first AMCC Tournament title. Fifth-year coach Doug Smeltzer’s team seems poised to continue its recent dominance with every...
Former Norwin soccer standout Harrigan finds satisfaction, peace in life after sports
This is the story of a “retired” soccer player with a cautionary tale to share and a message she hopes has a long reach: “It’s OK not to be OK.” The mental demands of high-end college sports and their effects on athletes, she said, deserve more attention. Finally healthy, Emily...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Former Seton Hill coach to lead Berry softball team
Jess Strong stepped down as the head softball coach at Seton Hill after four seasons. The “other coaching endeavor” mentioned last week turns out to be an opportunity with one of the nation’s top Division III programs. Strong will be the head coach at Berry College in Mt. Berry, Ga....
District college football roundup: Dayton rallies past Robert Morris
Luke Brenner and Dante Casciola scored touchdowns a couple minutes apart in the third quarter to lift Dayton to a 22-20 win over Robert Morris on Saturday in a season-opening game for both teams, giving lifetime Flyer Rich Chamberlin his 100th career victory. Brenner, a slotback, scored on a 63-yard...
Experienced roster returns to lead Saint Vincent football into 2022 campaign
For Saint Vincent football fans, there’s a lot to like about the Bearcats this year. For starters, they return 17 of them from a team that made just its third all-time postseason appearance, a 38-19 loss to FDU-Florham at the ECAC James Lynah Bowl in Madison, N.J. But it ended...
Deer Lakes grad Maxx Hammond leads Allegheny football into Presidents’ Athletic ConferenceVideo
For the first time since 1984, Allegheny’s sports teams will be playing in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. The move back from the North Coast Athletic Conference will enable the Gators to forge rivalries with schools closer to home. And like their new PAC counterparts, the Gators have a number of...
District college roundup: Cal (Pa.) rolls in opener; St. Francis (Pa.) puts scare into Akron
Serra Catholic grad JaQuae Jackson caught 10 passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns as Cal (Pa.) jumped out to a three touchdown lead in the first half and rolled to a 35-15 victory over Fairmont State on Thursday night. Noah Mitchell was 18 for 25 for 212 yards and...
Seton Hill football aims to build on last season’s 5-6 finish
Jaylen McDuffie remembers the first time he and his Seton Hill teammates met with football coach Dan Day. The previous staff had been fired. A number of players were ready to move on, many were “pretty good,” McDuffie said. They were planning to either transfer or just quit. It was...
Seton Hill softball coach Jessica Strong steps down
Jessica Strong has resigned as the head softball coach at Seton Hill after four seasons. She is leaving to pursue another coaching endeavor but did not want to comment until the end of the week, when her tenure at Seton Hill is complete. Strong guided the Griffins to a memorable...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Former Norwin soccer players join new teams
A pair of former Norwin girls soccer standouts has transferred to new programs. Lacey Bernick and Katelyn Kauffman began their college careers together at Pitt, but the sophomore forwards have gone separate ways. Bernick was looking for a full reset. She made the move to Akron of the Mid-American Conference....
Westmoreland campus clippings: Saint Vincent adds Samantha Kelly to volleyball staff
Saint Vincent added some local knowledge to its women’s volleyball coaching staff. Samantha Kelly, a former Penn-Trafford and Westminster volleyball standout, will join the Bearcats as a graduate assistant. Kelly was a three-time All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference player and racked up 2,293 assists, 101 kills and 120 service points in her...
Justin Sliwoski, Jack Salopek see big things ahead this season
Maybe it was when Peyton Manning made him look at route-running differently. Or when Eli Manning discussed the mindset of third-and-long or second-and-short. There were a number of “eureka” moments for Justin Sliwoski when he attended the exclusive Manning Passing Academy in June at Nicholls State in Louisiana. The rising...
Trio of Westmoreland County running backs poised for big things in PAC
When Kyrie Miller, Justin Flack and Justin Huss were playing football in high school in Westmoreland County, they torched opposing defenses. Now the trio is doing the same in the NCAA Division III Presidents’ Athletic Conference. Miller starred at Ligonier Valley, where he rushed for 3,742 yards and 58 touchdowns...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Norwin grad Nick Nguyen to coach college golf
Nick Nguyen is set to take over the coaching reins for a golf team he used to lead into the postseason. A Norwin graduate, Nguyen is the successor to the retiring Joe Martin at Thomas Jefferson University, a Division II school in Philadelphia. Martin is stepping down after 14 seasons....
Westmoreland Campus Clippings: Norwin’s Reilly Parker to coach at W&J
Norwin graduate Reilly Parker is joining the women’s volleyball coaching staff at Washington & Jefferson, giving her a return to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in a new capacity. Parker was a standout player at Bethany, where she was a three-time All-PAC First Team selection. She was named the 2022 Ohio...
Duquesne 2nd, St. Francis 3rd in Northeast Conference preseason football coaches poll
Duquesne is a strong contender to claim another Northeast Conference championship this season, according to the league’s annual preseason coaches poll. After going 8-4, 6-1 in the NEC last season, Sacred Heart finished in the top spot in the poll with five first-place votes. After finishing second with a 7-3...
Saint Vincent looks to continue to grow in PAC; Westminster picked 1st in preseason poll
If Brady Walker has anything to say about it, the Saint Vincent football team will be hoisting up the Presidents’ Athletic Conference trophy at the end of the season. The veteran quarterback, a four-year starter from Gateway, completed 192 of 323 passes for 2,738 yards and 22 touchdowns in helping...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Derry grad earns preseason honors for W&J
Justin Huss is primed for a big junior season at Washington & Jefferson. The running back and return specialist out of Derry was named to the Division III Preseason Starting Lineup, which is presented by College Football America Yearbook — one of 27 players from NCAA Division III to make...
With baseball playing career complete, Latrobe’s Ryan Shawley follows path into coaching
When Ryan Shawley played baseball for Latrobe, he was a calming voice in the dugout and an animated, rah-rah teammate on the field. Maybe that’s why he gravitated to coaching. It seemed like a natural progression, wearing a hard helmet inside the third-base box and waving runners around, or advising...
Pitt-Greensburg tabs Conroy to coach women’s volleyball team
Kevin Conroy will lead the Pitt-Greensburg women’s volleyball program into the future. The position was opened in the offseason after it became full time and, after an extensive search, UPG found its man. A Flint, Mich., native, Conroy has been the girls head volleyball coach at Potomac State High School...
