High School category, Page 573

Fox Chapel has a list of superb quarterbacks over the school’s six decades. Start with 1977 first-team all-stater Frank Rocco Jr. and continue to Rick Strom, who played for the Steelers and was a two-year starter at Georgia Tech. Now, Ben DeMotte wants to add his name to the Foxes’...

Gino Caesar still has the game ball from the night nobody could stop him. “My mom is going to get some stats engraved on it,” the Hempfield senior running back said. “My confidence really went up after that game.” Hempfield fans were yelling, “Hail, Caesar,” when he carried 39 times...

High school football season is fast approaching, and Tribune-Review writers and photographers are traveling around Western Pa. to preview the 2022 campaign. Check out the Trib’s preview features for every team in the WPIAL and City League, as well as several independent programs. We also will have classification breakdowns with...

West Mifflin has been a fixture in WPIAL Class 4A football, but due to realignment, the Titans are competing in 3A for the next two seasons. They are looking forward to and are reinvigorated to meet the unknown challenges that lie ahead. “We have a team that grew up and...

South Park enters the new season in rebound mode. After splitting their first four games in 2021, the Eagles lost their final five contests by a combined score of 171-27, keeping them out of the WPIAL postseason for the first time since 2018. “I commend our kids for doing the...

Tim Storino appears to be in the right place at the right time. Storino was hired in March as Seton LaSalle’s coach following a tumultuous 2021 season, as the Rebels lost six of their first seven games before finishing with a 3-7 record in Class 2A. Storino was hired in...

Jason Cappa, who comes from a family of coaches and educators, was hired in April as Quaker Valley football coach. His father, Jake, was a football coaching legend at Riverview from 1986-2001, leading the Raiders to three WPIAL Class A finals in four years. Cappa has been with the QV...

Hopewell football comes into the 2022 season more motivated than ever. The players and the coaches want to prove they can play with anyone in the Western Hills conference. Defensive lineman and tight end Sonny Kasanzale, a rising senior, wants to showcase his and the team’s talent. “We’re so hungry...

In Cort Rowse’s first season as head coach last year, Beaver went 7-3, finished second in the Parkway Conference and made the playoffs. Rowse has prioritized continuing Beaver’s winning culture. Rowse was an assistant coach for 15 years under coach Jeff Beltz and played under coach Pat Tarquinio. Both were...

When it comes to consistently excellent football programs in the district, Avonworth is right there in the conversation. The 2019 WPIAL Class 2A champions and PIAA runners-up have reached the playoffs every season since 2007 with the exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign when the Antelopes finished tied for second...

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The race for the 2021 WPIAL passing title was a three-way battle between Gateway’s Brad Birch, Beaver Falls’ Jaren Brickner and Armstrong’s Cadin Olsen. This year’s race might look very similar. All three quarterbacks passed for more than 2,500 yards a year ago and all three return this fall. Combined,...

High schools Golf Monday’s results Boys Jerry Roman Memorial Chairman’s Cup At Cedarbrook GC Team scores Class 3A: 1. Peters Township 372; 2. Bethel Park 417; 3. Hempfield 426; 4. South Fayette 427; 5. Baldwin 449 Class 2A: 1. Sewickley Academy 407; 2. Ligonier Valley 435; 3. South Park 447;...

One thing a person can’t see is the size of a football player’s heart. At 5-foot-6, 125-pounds, not many people would fear Greensburg Salem senior Jerome Wallish. But don’t be fooled: Wallish isn’t afraid of a challenge. In fact, he relishes it. “You have to keep putting the work in,”...

Ryan Tempalski experienced numerous first official football practice days as an assistant coach at schools throughout the region. But Monday was a new experience for the first-year Springdale head coach who was hired in March to lead a young and relatively inexperienced Dynamos squad hit hard by graduation after reaching...

Westmoreland County’s five new high school football coaches had an uneventful first day of training camp. Players usually are greeted with hot, humid weather, but Monday was cool and damp. Things went so smoothly at Derry that Mike Arone gave his team an early dismissal. “It was a good day,”...

Derek Burk didn’t wait long to try and make improvements after last year’s close home loss to Burrell. The 28-24 setback factored into the Lancers missing a WPIAL Class 3A playoff spot in a tiebreaker with the Bucs and East Allegheny in the Allegheny Seven Conference. “My wife texted me...

Craig Spisak is a Pennsylvania State Police trooper. He will be patrolling a new dugout next baseball season. Spisak is leaving Yough after six seasons as the head baseball coach to take the same position at Norwin. He was approved at Monday night’s Norwin School Board meeting. The upper-class lure...

The WPIAL has chosen Norwin to host the Class 5A and 6A football finals, the two championship games that won’t be played at Acrisure Stadium this year. The list of fall sites was revealed Monday. The WPIAL already had scheduled four games at Acrisure Stadium on Nov. 25 but needed...

With new coach Dan Knause in town, the Trinity Hillers are looking to end a drought this season. Trinity, which has missed the playoffs for four straight seasons, is looking to turn the program around with Knause now running the show. “When I came into this program, I focused on...

Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher used to say, “there is a fine line between winning and losing in the NFL.” The same could be said for high school football. One district team that found out the hard way how true that statement was in 2021 was McKeesport. The...

It is better to be the shark than the minnow, and Latrobe might be ready to raise its fin in a new classification. A conditioning drill, implemented by Wildcats team partner FSQ Sports Training, is called “sharks and minnows.” “It’s fun,” Latrobe senior tight end and linebacker Corey Boerio said....

The 2021 season was not a customary prize-winner for the Thomas Jefferson football team. The Jaguars fell short on all three of their annual goals of winning conference, WPIAL and PIAA titles, and the TJ coaching staff hopes that fact doesn’t bode well for opponents this fall. “Now is when...

You can keep your entitlement. If you want something, you earn it. Roughly, these are the philosophies Ryan Kimmel lives by and seeks to perpetuate on and off the football field. The hard-hitting senior at Greensburg Central Catholic has brought a blue-collar work ethic and no-nonsense approach to the Centurions,...

Ian Quinn started organized tackle football in third grade in the Lower Burrell Flyers youth football organization. He found himself blocking on the offensive line. “I was always a bigger kid. I was destined to be a lineman,” Quinn said. “I wasn’t too good at first, actually. I was a...