High School category, Page 299
Signal Item notebook: Chartiers Valley football to open season Aug. 23
Chartiers Valley’s varsity football team will open its season with a nonconference Week Zero matchup at neighborhood rival South Fayette on Aug. 23. Nonconference games at West Allegheny and Indiana will follow in Weeks 1 and 2 before the home opener against Baldwin on Sept. 13. Hampton will visit for...
After school’s 1st girls state title, Thomas Jefferson softball has summer to celebrate
It’s been a summer like no other for the Thomas Jefferson softball program. For the first time in the high school’s 65-year history, TJ has a state champion in a girls team sport. The WPIAL Class 5A runners-up Jaguars made an improbable run through the PIAA playoffs before attaining their...
Adventurous Baldwin softball alum to spend year in Thailand
Gemma Stypula has been dreaming of this trip for what seems like forever. She started to lay the foundation when she was 15 years old. Now, 17, the 2024 Brentwood graduate is only days away from seeing it become a reality. A four-year softball player at Brentwood, Stypula will be...
Baldwin grad making name for himself in sports broadcasting
There appears to be no limit to what Austin Bechtold can accomplish in his professional career. The 2019 Baldwin graduate is already climbing the ladder in the radio broadcasting field. Bechtold, 23, is a producer and part-time host at 93.7 The Fan. He has been putting in some long days...
Sewickley Herald notebook: Freshman makes all-section for Panthers lacrosse team
The Sewickley Academy boys lacrosse team was led in 2024 by freshman Nick Neavin, who was rewarded for his season-long efforts by being named first team all-section. Neavin was complemented by freshmen Eli Stephan and Jake Donesec, among others. Stephan and Donesec were second team all-section selections. There were no...
2024 Trib HSSN Preseason Football All-Star Team: Bethel Park’s Ryan Petras
The recruiting process can be a stressful time for top high school athletes as they try to determine which college to choose to continue their academic and athletic careers. The pressure can be twice as tough when they are sifting through offers from two different sports. Welcome to the world...
Pine-Richland wrestlers help teach sport to the visually impaired
Owen Long loves wrestling and appreciates any opportunity he can to share his passion with others. So, when Pine-Richland coach Ian Abplanalp approached the team about spending the day teaching the sport to visually impaired kids at the Envision Blind Sports Camp in Erie, he immediately volunteered to help. Long...
Plum using summer basketball to build foundation
The Plum boys basketball team had five or six open-gym workouts in May with new coach Dave Pucka before jumping right into the Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer league at Central Catholic and Gateway high schools. “We only had one offensive set in and, I think, two out-of-bounds plays. That was...
Norwin grads climbing college baseball ladder via transfer portal
A pair of former Norwin baseball players from the class of 2022 are changing college programs. Both tested the waters of the NCAA transfer portal. Ty Stecko, who began his college career at Mount St. Mary’s, recently announced a commitment to Eastern Michigan. The rising junior infielder leaves the Metro-Atlantic...
North Hills notebook: Indians football team to open season Aug. 23
The North Hills varsity football team will open its season with a nonconference Week Zero matchup with Hempfield on Aug. 23, at Martorelli Stadium. It will be youth night. Nonconference games against Seneca Valley in the Hall of Fame game and at Mars will follow in Weeks 1 and 2....
Hampton girls wrestling alum ramps up aggressiveness with college on horizon
Hampton’s Isabella McNutt is becoming a little bit McNasty. After graduating this year as the most decorated girls wrestler in school history, McNutt has added a new level of aggressiveness to her approach on the mat. “I realized that I had a lot more success when I was more aggressive,”...
New technology approved for high school softball, but Fox Chapel isn’t buying in just yet
Fox Chapel softball coach Chris Olbrich doesn’t anticipate being among the first teams to use the one-way communication devices given the go-ahead nationally. The National Federation of State High School Associations approved a rule change in early July that would allow high school softball coaches to use one-way communication devices...
Bethel Park’s Ryan Petras wraps up highly decorated junior year
The postseason accolades have been pouring in for Bethel Park superstar athlete Ryan Petras. As a junior shortstop in 2024, Petras recently was named the Trib HSSN Class 5A Baseball Player of the Year. Petras overcame a wrist injury to hit .452 (33 for 73) this spring with one home...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Pair of players earn camp honors
Two local football players were named most valuable players at the 2Tenths Speed & Agility Top 150 Camp last weekend at Shady Side Academy. The event featured some of the top returning players in the WPIAL, several of them from Westmoreland County. Southmoreland freshman quarterback Anthony Smith was the top...
2024 Trib HSSN Preseason Football All-Star Team: Latrobe’s Alex Tatsch
Alex Tatsch essentially has more stars in his recruiting rating (four) than he does years of high school football. The Latrobe stud linebacker didn’t play much as a freshman and didn’t catch the eye of major college coaches until he was a junior. “He was 5-10 when he was in...
Appellate judge denies PIAA request, keeping Aliquippa in Class 4A football
The injunction keeping Aliquippa in Class 4A football remains in place after a Commonwealth Court judge denied a PIAA request for a stay. Appellate Judge Patricia McCullough issued her decision Thursday, upholding a lower court’s decision and blocking the PIAA from using its competitive-balance rule to move Aliquippa into a...
Penn-Trafford wins WCCA 7-on-7 football tournament
The championship plaque and the balance of power at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Larry Sellitto Memorial 7-on-7 football passing tournament are back in the hands of Penn-Trafford. The Warriors, a perennial contender in the event, reached the final for the 10th time in 13 years and claimed their sixth...
2024 Trib HSSN Preseason Football All-Star Team: Aliquippa’s Larry Moon III
Aliquippa cornerback Larry Moon III’s stock continues to rise through the offseason. Moon is coming off a strong freshman season at Central Catholic that turned many heads across the WPIAL. His last game at Central Catholic was a loss in the WPIAL Class 6A championship game to North Allegheny. Moon...
WPIAL releases 2024-25 basketball schedules, updates section alignment for girls teams
The WPIAL released basketball schedules for the upcoming season Thursday and revealed an updated section alignment for girls that moved Greensburg Central Catholic to Class 3A. Greensburg Central Catholic was moved up a classification by the PIAA competitive-balance rule, which wasn’t reflected in the alignment released last month by the...
Knoch transfer Colt Sprankle earns postseason eligibility after PIAA board overturns WPIAL
The PIAA board overturned a WPIAL decision and granted postseason eligibility to Knoch junior Colt Sprankle, a football-playing transfer from Armstrong. Sprankle, his parents Ryan and Brandi, and Knoch administrators attended an appeal hearing Wednesday in State College where they testified that the family’s move into the district was a...
PIAA board favors 6 classes for girls volleyball, rejects plan to expand track to 3
STATE COLLEGE — The PIAA wants to increase girls volleyball to six classifications, but a request to expand track and field to three was rejected by the board. Girls volleyball has four classifications currently, but the board voted Wednesday to tentatively add two more. The proposal must pass two more...
Apollo-Ridge girls basketball making strides as it transitions to new coach Raevaan Mottley
Even before Raevaan Mottley arrived at Apollo-Ridge as the new varsity girls basketball head coach in late May, his players were taking part in open gyms. A pair of games in the St. Joseph spring/summer league also were scheduled. “Apollo-Ridge, they were doing things right,” said Mottley, a Greensburg Salem...
PIAA endorses potential changes to competitive-balance rule, could allow appeals on health and safety grounds
STATE COLLEGE — The PIAA board wants to remove some much-maligned words from its competitive-balance rule: those that have prohibited health and safety as grounds for an appeal. The Competition Formula currently says: “… a change in classification would not be cause for a health and safety concern. A claim...
2024 Trib HSSN Preseason Football All-Star Team: Imani Christian’s Dayshaun Burnett
A four-star linebacker committed to Penn State, Dayshaun Burnett is one of the premier recruits in the WPIAL entering the 2024 season. The Imani Christian Academy star’s first priority, though, is helping his team advance farther than it did last season. The Saints routed Waynesburg in the first round of...
PIAA asks appellate court to lift injunction that keeps Aliquippa in 4A football
A Commonwealth Court judge must decide whether there was a proper basis for a lower court’s ruling that kept the Aliquippa football team in Class 4A. Appellate Judge Patricia McCullough heard opposing arguments Tuesday from attorneys representing Aliquippa School District and the PIAA, which wants the preliminary injunction put on...
