High School category, Page 577

After winning the sixth WPIAL team golf title in school history last fall, Fox Chapel boys coach Bryan Deal retired. But new coach Joe Farrell is anxious to continue the program’s legacy that includes 30 section titles. “The program is a very good program,” Farrell said. “We lost five starters,...

Are you old enough to remember when high school football carried a nice one-two punch every weekend? We had Friday night lights and sunny Saturdays filled with scholastic gridiron excitement. In the 1970s and ’80s, the number of schools that played on Saturday afternoon because they did not have lights...

When the PIAA awarded the state football championships to Cumberland Valley, the sudden exit from Hersheypark Stadium caught most by surprise. After 24 years in Hershey, the state finals are leaving the so-called “sweetest place on Earth” this fall for a high school stadium about 30 miles away. The PIAA...

By winning three consecutive WPIAL and PIAA championships, it’s clear that Mars girls soccer is one of the top programs in the state. The Fightin’ Planets are one of the top teams in the country, too. After going 20-0-1 last season, Mars is ranked sixth in the nation in the...

Many fans may think they are experts on the rules of high school football, making sure everybody in their section knows when they have witnessed a “bad call.” While we don’t condone that behavior, we do think it’s important to study up on the rules of the scholastic game before...

Tim Toy beams when he talks about the return of the Pack the Park high school girls volleyball game between Norwin and Kiski Area set for Aug. 29 at Ellen Toy Grass Court in Vandergrift’s Kennedy Park. While positive ventures are on the horizon, Toy said he also hopes a...

The term “wild card” has become synonymous with playoff formats. The NFL first introduced a wild-card team when the league merged with the AFL in 1970 to form two conferences with three divisions in each. Major League Baseball instituted a wild-card team in 1994 when it realigned from two divisions...

Pain is temporary. The long-used refrain has pushed many football players to overcome the rigors of training camp, the grind of preparation and long, sometimes injury-plagued seasons. The same words are motivating Joe Purdue to fight cancer. Purdue graduated from Franklin Regional in June. Less than two months later, during...

New faces, new places, new hopes, new dreams. Some are rookie head coaches replacing experienced coaches while other veteran coaches are starting over at new venues. Some schools have a new football coach for the first time in decades while others continue to play roulette with their head coaching position....

A teeth-gritting, 315-pound dead-lift had some angst behind it. Some pent-up irritation even. Katie Hutter was grinding through another WPIAL softball season, continuing to put up impressive numbers while making a sacrifice to move from center field to shortstop so Mt. Pleasant could increase its chances of winning. All the...

Thomas Jefferson quarterback Luke Kosko, a transfer from Seton LaSalle, was ruled ineligible for the upcoming football season after a hearing Monday with the WPIAL board. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound sophomore was in the running to start this fall for the Jaguars but instead must sit out the upcoming season. “The...

Put away the stopwatches. Instead, athletes in grades 7-12 can get an exact, electronically measured time in the 40-yard dash, the mile and a few other popular distances at a youth track event Saturday on Neville Island. The festivities at the RMU Island Sports Center are hosted by race organizer...

While the Trib HSSN staff prepares you like no other for the upcoming 2022 high school football season over the next three weeks, let’s start our Countdown to Kickoff 2022 with a refresher course on a historic season. Five new WPIAL champions were crowned in late November, with Central Valley...

A broken hand sidelined Seneca Valley linebacker Chris D’Appolonia for a couple of weeks last season and limited his game film, so he was determined this summer to show recruiters his full potential. The rising senior already shares his workout videos on social media, but he also embraced the camp...

The Quaker Valley volleyball team has it — the first full week of the season, that is — circled on the calendar. The Quakers open their Section 4-2A schedule Sept. 6 at Freedom, followed by their first home match two days later against Central Valley. QV is hoping to turn...

Steve DeCarlo has spent seven years with Penn Hills teams of various age groups in the Eastern Fastpitch Softball League. With half of his roster on the 15U team set to age out following this season, the league is considering adding an 18U division to have a recreational summer league...

A couple of years ago, the coaching staff at Beadling SC told Stephanie Cornelius and her parents that she had the potential to be a future NCAA Division I soccer player. “At the time, we were blown away and really didn’t believe it,” said Cornelius, an incoming senior at Pine-Richland....

Dannika Susko has taken a detour this summer in her preparation for her senior season with the Plum girls volleyball team. The 2021 All-WPIAL Class 3A honoree suffered a torn hamstring tendon during the early minutes of a WPIAL girls lacrosse playoff game against Hampton on May 18. “That kind...

Hampton’s Isabella McNutt only started wrestling a year ago, but that didn’t stop her from reaching the nation’s biggest event this summer. McNutt, who will be a junior at Hampton in the fall, qualified for the 2022 USA Wrestling 16U and junior nationals July 16-22 at the FargoDome in Fargo,...

The gold was flowing along Fox Chapel and Field Club roads during the 2021-22 scholastic sports year. And some silver, too. Fox Chapel Area High School and Shady Side Academy each had outstanding seasons on the fields of play. Fox Chapel The Foxes, in the school’s 60th anniversary year, copped...

Latrobe girls soccer is primed to make a splash as it drops to WPIAL Class 3A this season. Junior Regan Reilly has a lot to do with the raised expectations. The talented forward became the third Wildcats player to make a Division I college commitment this offseason, announcing her intentions...

Alayna Rocco is on the path to Division I college basketball. But where will she play? She has plenty of choices on a growing list of schools. The junior guard at North Catholic, who lives in Trafford, is having another big summer with the Western PA Bruins AAU club, and...

Football players’ safety was paramount in the eyes of rulesmakers from the National Federation of State High School Associations when planning seven changes for the upcoming season. Several tweaks to existing rules regarding “grounding” and “chop blocks” will take place. Now, a player purposely can throw an incomplete forward pass,...

Citing growth in his real estate career, particularly as it pertains to increased responsibilities in the spring housing market, Aaron Albert resigned Wednesday as Kiski Area head baseball coach after four seasons with the program. Albert publicly announced his decision Wednesday afternoon with a post on Twitter. In it, he...

Derry football coach Mike Arone enters his first season looking for passionate players. Not just any old players, but dependable kids with a run-through-the-wall mentality. They could be guys who’ve played in the past or guys who’ve never played. It doesn’t matter to Arone, but they’ve got to be guys...