High School category, Page 210

Four-star Penn State commit Tiqwai “Tikey” Hayes is expecting to ride out as a back-to-back state champion at Aliquippa. Hayes said another state championship is the only thing on his mind for his senior season. “Another state championship is the expectation,” Hayes said. “Win states, or it’s a bust. That’s...

Three-star linebacker and West Virginia commit Daiveon Taylor is a problem any offense will have trouble blocking. Committing early to the Mountaineers was a no-brainer for Taylor, a junior at Bishop Canevin. “They made everything feel like home,” Taylor said. “Every time I go up there, it feels like I’m...

A PIAA custom since its inception in 2013, “heat week” is the unofficial start to high school football training camp, and it opens Monday around the state. Players, who will don helmets and shoulder pads but can’t hit, are required to attend five consecutive days of heat acclimatization before the...

McKeesport sophomore Kemon Spell can’t sign with for two more years, but the highly recruited running back and defensive back has already picked his college. Spell committed Friday to Penn State, making him the school’s first commitment in the 2027 class. The 5-foot-9, 195-pounder had a growing list of Division...

The PIAA has ended its appeals-court efforts to move Aliquippa football into a higher classification this fall. The PIAA on Friday notified Commonwealth Court that it no longer wanted to appeal the injunction issued by a Beaver County judge that kept Aliquippa in 4A for the upcoming season. The decision...

Jaiden Brown-Demery is taking nothing for granted as he enters his senior season at West Mifflin. The 6-foot-4, 315-pound lineman missed his entire sophomore season after suffering an ACL injury. He didn’t return until the fourth game of last season against Ringgold, but the feeling of getting back on the...

Sewickley Academy’s Severin Harmon is the reigning WPIAL Class 2A champion in boys tennis. He’d like to add another prestigious title to his resume this fall, joining Sewickley grads Jason Li (2015), J.F. Aber (2019) and Tim Fitzgerald (2020) as WPIAL individual golf champions. “Personally, my goal is to improve...

Dale Mollenhauer lived a childhood dream by playing professional baseball for five years, but before that he helped build the foundation at Pine-Richland. Mollenhauer was a senior and key contributor to the Rams’ first WPIAL baseball championship team in 2005. Now he has a place in the Pine-Richland Athletic Hall...

The inaugural Talbot Shuffle fundraiser hopes to hit the ground running. The Aug. 10 event, which benefits the Hampton cross country program, is the first of its kind in the school district. “We were talking, the boosters and the coaches, and we wanted to do something to fundraise for Hampton...

Elijah Faulkner won a WPIAL title last spring as the league’s long jump champion, but the Central Catholic senior wants gold in football, too. As one of the more explosive athletes on the football team, the running back has spent his summer working toward that goal. “I just want to...

North Catholic football coach Chris Rizzo had nothing but praise for senior tight end/defensive end Brady O’Hara. “He’ll do anything you ask to help the team,” Rizzo said. “He’ll play anywhere, and he’s a leader. He wants to be good.” O’Hara has started at defensive end for the Trojans since...

The WPIAL will require an eligibility hearing for record-setting quarterback Jaivin Peel. The sophomore set a WPIAL freshman passing record last season at Western Beaver and transferred this summer to Central Catholic. He was a student at Lincoln Park and played football at Western Beaver through a co-op. The WPIAL...

When Nick White was an assistant boys soccer coach at Fox Chapel, the Foxes took late-summer trips to team camps. It became part of their voluntary training schedule. The week-long bonding events were a build-up to the start of the WPIAL season. “Getting to know the boys on a deeper...

Greensburg Central Catholic transfer Anthony “A.J.” Tarpley is fully eligible to play basketball for the Centurions this winter. The sophomore guard who transferred from Greensburg Salem had an eligibility hearing Monday at the WPIAL office in Scott. His transfer paperwork hadn’t received a sign off from Greensburg Salem administrators, but...

A team that didn’t have a playoff win for 54 years has two in the past two seasons, and John Wetzel has a lot to do with it. Latrobe’s quarterback and three-star safety has developed into of the WPIAL’s top dual threats. Last year, he passed for 1,289 yards and...

The WPIAL released new section alignments for the next two-year cycle in all sports, and changes will be implemented starting this fall. This summer, the Tribune-Review will break down changes for each of the WPIAL sports. Here’s a look at the upcoming WPIAL cross country season. 2023 WPIAL boys champions...

The WPIAL released new section alignments for the next two-year cycle in all sports, and changes will be implemented starting this fall. This summer, the Tribune-Review will break down changes for each of the WPIAL sports. Here’s a look at the upcoming WPIAL rifle season. 2023-24 WPIAL champions WPIAL team...

A key rule change could alter the way coaches and catchers communicate on the softball field. If the PIAA adopts a new rule, starting next season teams will be permitted to use electronic devices for one-way communication to the catcher during games. The rule was passed by the National Federation...

The Quaker Valley girls track and field team hit a grand slam in 2002, winning a fourth consecutive WPIAL team championship. And some of QV’s underclassmen would go on to capture three more WPIAL titles over the next five years. “The 2002 team was deep in talent, certainly with a...

So what does one do for an encore after rushing for 4,371 yards and passing for 2,891 yards with a WPIAL championship and a PIAA runner-up trophy in his first two high school football seasons? For Fort Cherry junior quarterback Matt Sieg, the foundation is strong as he hopes to...

Greensburg Central Catholic was a class above the competition in WPIAL Class 2A last girls basketball season when it captured its sixth district championship. Next season, the Centurions won’t be able to defend their title because they are moving up a classification, to 3A. The move is because of a...

Christopher Climes works out with a professional soccer trainer, which wouldn’t seem unusual if the senior were a midfielder on Elizabeth Forward’s soccer team. But he’s not. The 6-foot-2, 305-pounder is one of the top defensive linemen in the WPIAL, yet he credits a soccer background for some of his...

Eight months before the world’s top golfers converge on Oakmont Country Club for the U.S. Open, some of the WPIAL’s best players will try to tame the historic course. The WPIAL will hold its Class 3A boys individual golf tournament there Oct. 1, part of a fall championship schedule announced...

Central Catholic’s Xxavier Thomas committed to play cornerback at Penn State next fall, hoping to follow in a long line of talented defensive backs playing at the next level. The three-star defensive back, according to 247Sports, chose the Nittany Lions over an offer from Akron. “It was mainly coach Terry...