District College category, Page 9
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Saint Vincent’s Jaden Gales hits career milestone
Junior Jaden Gales came back to Saint Vincent to rejoin his former teammates and make more memories with the men’s basketball team. While he was at it, he pocketed a milestone. Gales, a 6-foot-7 forward, scored his 1,000th career point in the Bearcats’ 78-62 victory over Waynesburg, his team’s sixth...
Inaugural men’s volleyball season off and running in Presidents’ Athletic ConferenceVideo
Brett Heckathorn has had a lifelong love for volleyball. A player at Butler, he went on to be a captain of Grove City College’s men’s club team. But coaching a men’s volleyball team wasn’t on Heckathorn’s radar. He had served as an assistant for the Grove City women’s team and...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Seton Hill softball earns season-opening sweep
Yes, softball season is here again. Seton Hill wasted little time getting on the winning track, sweeping a doubleheader from the host team in Mount Olive, N.C. In a 6-5 win in eight innings, senior Brooklyn Fukushima went 3 for 4, homered and drove in three, including the go-ahead RBI...
Strong showing in Vegas, standout freshman class have Saint Vincent women’s bowling confident of title chances
There’s a popular ad campaign that says “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” The Saint Vincent women’s bowling team wants to turn that notion on its head. For several years, coach Jeff Zidek has taken his team to the Collegiate Shoot-Out in Las Vegas. It is, Zidek said, one...
Plum grad Ta’Rasi Means reaches 1,000 career points for Penn State New Kensington men’s basketball
When he played basketball at Plum, Ta’Rasi Means was not a 1,000-point scorer. Means didn’t get any varsity time as a freshman, so that reduced his chances of reaching the coveted milestone. At Penn State New Kensington, three years has been more than enough for Means to hit the millennium...
Women step into head coaching positions for area men’s volleyball teams, part of what could be a growing trend nationwide
When Kate McCauley was hired as the Saint Vincent men’s volleyball coach in October 2021, she couldn’t help but feel like she was on an island. A woman coaching a man’s sport, after all, was rare. McCauley hardly thought of herself as a trail blazer, but she did harbor hope...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Norwin grad Brianna Zajicek hits career-high in comeback win
A 15-point halftime deficit meant nothing to Brianna Zajicek. The Cedarville junior basketball player led a fervent comeback with a career day as the Yellow Jackets rallied past Findlay, 81-80, in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Zajicek, a Norwin alum, poured in a career-high 25 points on 7-of-13 shooting and...
Franklin Regional grad Kadyn Hannah helps steady ship after Cal (Pa.) men’s basketball team is ravaged by injuries
As a senior — one of only three on the roster — with two years of experience, Kadyn Hannah figured to take on a larger role with the Cal (Pa.) men’s basketball team this season. After spending his freshman season at La Roche then having his share of ups and...
Burrell grad Niko Ferra building skills, confidence under coach Vince DeAugustine with Seton Hill wrestling
The 2023-24 season might have been Vince DeAugustine’s first as a college wrestling coach, but after overseeing the Hempfield (16 years) and Norwin (two years) wrestling programs, he is no stranger to the talent around the WPIAL. So when he assumed the helm of Seton Hill’s program last season, he...
Gateway grad Jordan Edwards relishing opportunity on Princeton coaching staff
Jordan Edwards didn’t waste any time hitting the ground running after she was hired last June as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at Princeton. “Summer is the big evaluation period, and there is a lot of recruiting that goes into it,” said Edwards, a standout player at...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Seton Hill women’s basketball moves up to No. 5 ranking
Seton Hill vaulted four spots in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division II Coaches Poll, taking the No. 5 spot in the top 25. The Griffins (17-2, 11-1 PSAC) continue to look impressive in what has been one of their best regular seasons. The team also ranks fifth in the...
New Saint Vincent football coach Casey Goff comfortable with putting life into struggling programs
Casey Goff grew up the youngest of three brothers, so it would have been natural for him to try to keep up with the other two. In actuality, Goff, the new football coach at Saint Vincent, said he didn’t even try. Even the younger of his two older siblings was...
Kiski Area grad Abbie Johns shows plenty of promise in freshman season with Shippensburg women’s basketball
As college debuts go, Abbie Johns couldn’t have asked for much more. The Kiski Area grad opened her freshman season with the Shippensburg women’s basketball team by scoring 14 points in just 16 minutes against then-No. 10 Fayetteville State. In fact, Johns made her first shot: a 3-pointer late in...
Pitt-Greensburg men’s basketball team rights ship after rocky start, hopes to contend in AMCC
After winning its first two games, including a nail-biting overtime victory over Grove City in the opener, the Pitt-Greensburg men’s basketball team looked like it was on its way to a fast start. Then came the next seven games. The Bobcats won only one of them, a string that included...
A-K Valley grads help form foundation as Mercyhurst women’s bowling moves into Division IVideo
Ask a college freshmen about the biggest differences between their current level and high school, and the answers often are similar. Athletes are more accomplished. Game is faster. There’s more depth on rosters. But when Deer Lakes grad Tia Germanich donned a Mercyhurst bowling jersey and walked into her first...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: GCC grad Bailey Kuhns among NEC’s best at Mercyhurst
Holding a spot on a Division I roster and being a Division I player are different things. It’s about actions and results that go beyond landing a spot at a school. Bailey Kuhns found herself on a Division I team when Mercyhurst jumped from the D-II PSAC. Now, the junior...
Saint Vincent hires Casey Goff as new football coach
Saint Vincent canvassed the country, searching far and wide for the best candidate to take over its football program. Coaches with NFL, Big Ten and NCAA Division II experience were considered, officials said. But at the end of the day, SVC was won over by a guy who got his...
After 3 decades, Rick Bertagnolli steps down as Cal (Pa.) softball coach
The man who turned Cal (Pa.) softball into a national power is leaving the dugout. Longtime coach Rick Bertagnolli is calling it a career after 30 years leading the Vulcans. The veteran leader won 71.4% of his games, compiling a record of 972-389 and leading Cal to back-to-back NCAA Division...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: GCC grad Matt Metrosky draws interest in transfer portal
Looking for a new college football team, Matt Metrosky could still end up playing close to home. The junior lineman, who was a member of the Pitt football team the last four years as a walk-on, recently entered the NCAA transfer portal and immediately got a nibble on the line....
New crop of players, new style of play have Saint Vincent women’s basketball team trending in right direction
Even a coach who has been on the bench for 15 seasons doesn’t know everything. So no one could blame Saint Vincent women’s basketball coach Jimmy Petruska if he wasn’t sure what to expect from his 2024-25 group. The previous team, which had gone 11-9 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference...
Burrell grad Brandon Coury finally getting his chance to contribute for Seton Hill men’s basketball team
Stardom in high school doesn’t always translate instantly to college. Sometimes, players who were standouts in high school have to grind just to get playing time in college. Such was the case for Burrell’s Brandon Coury. Coury was a Valley News Dispatch first-team all-star selection after his senior season, when...
Plum grads Reed Martin, Josh George set sights on NFL Draft
Plum graduates and former Mustangs football teammates Reed Martin and Josh George hope to live out their dreams of playing in the National Football League. Both recently indicated through social media posts that they will take the steps over the next couple of months to get on the radar of...
Hempfield grad Jordan Crupie excels leading off 200 medley relay for IUP women’s swimming
As a junior at Hempfield, swimmer Jordan Crupie posted a time of 57.57 seconds in the 100 backstroke. That was her personal best at the time, and she anticipated trimming a few more ticks from that mark before she headed off to IUP to continue swimming. But she remained stalled...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Norwin grad Mike Shanahan honored at Indiana
Indiana football assistant Mike Shanahan (Norwin) was named the FootballScoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year after helping the Hoosiers (11-2) reach the College Football Playoff, where they lost to Notre Dame, 27-17, in the first round. Shanahan, who played at Pitt and served as a two-year captain for the Panthers,...
Saint Vincent basketball coach D.P. Harris earns 400th career win
Back from a 10-day break, Saint Vincent knocked off the rust and helped longtime men’s basketball coach D.P. Harris to a milestone victory. Harris chalked up win No. 400 in his 19th season leading the Bearcats, who put up 39 second-half points to down visiting Adrian (Mich.), 68-57, on Monday...
