High School category, Page 627

It was a big day for Ringgold sophomore Ryan Pajak and South Fayette senior Melana Schumaker at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association Invitational on Thursday at West Mifflin. Pajak shined in the distance races, winning the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races, while Schumaker was part of three first-place finishes. She won...

Quaker Valley has hired Jason Cappa as its new football coach, the school announced Thursday. Cappa has worked at Quaker Valley since 2019, serving as offensive and defensive line coach for the football team, middle school softball coach and a paraprofessional in the life skills classroom at the high school....

Simplistic and fun, some trinkets around the clubhouse represent Latrobe baseball’s approach to the game. There’s the pink Barbie car, with Ken and Barbie nestled in and ready to roll, which is a postgame award that goes to the player or players of the game. The shoebox-sized toy has been...

Burrell baseball coach Mark Spohn wanted to get a message across to his players after a hard-to-believe 1-0 loss to rival Valley last Friday. The Bucs didn’t allow a hit – or allowed one hit, depending on the scorekeeper – and a ball didn’t leave the infield. Valley scored one...

Thursday marks another busy night of WPIAL boys volleyball as section play inches closer to the midway point of the regular season. First place or a share of the section lead is at stake in three matches: Perennial power Bethel Park (3-1) heads south on Route 19 to visit Canon-McMillan...

You can call it staying power, or you can acknowledge that Mother Nature has not permitted enough WPIAL baseball or softball games to be played over the past week. Whatever the case, the inaugural power rankings in district softball were so good, they remain unchanged into the second edition of...

Amy Scheuneman’s tenure as WPIAL executive director is ending this spring after two years. Scheuneman, who became the league’s top administrator in the midst of a pandemic, said she is resigning June 1 to accept an undisclosed position elsewhere. She said her new position would be announced Monday. “It would...

What if basketball sections were determined by a team’s talent level rather than its school enrollment? A group of WPIAL athletic directors presented that idea to the WPIAL board in a proposal that would group teams by ability instead of the number of students in the school, an idea meant...

High schools Baseball Wednesday’s results Class 6A Section 1 Central Catholic 4, Butler 3 Pine-Richland 11, Seneca Valley 10 Section 2 Baldwin 5, Hempfield 3 Upper St. Clair 7, Canon-McMillan 0 Mt. Lebanon 10, Norwin 6 Class 5A Section 1 Kiski Area at McKeesport, ppd. Penn-Trafford 7, Gateway 2 Section...

Pine-Richland erased a six-run deficit with seven runs in the bottom of the seventh, capped off by Tommy Zimmerman being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded with two outs, in an 11-10 victory over Seneca Valley in Section 1-6A baseball Wednesday. Tyler Armstrong had two hits and drove...

It was repeat Wednesday at the WPIAL singles tennis championships at the Pure Athletex Sportsplex in Wexford. South Fayette senior Jake Patterson retained the Class 3A title and North Catholic senior Nicolas Scheller the Class 2A crown, breezing to their second titles. They were the 18th and 19th players to...

Three Westmoreland teams remained among the undefeated in the WPIAL through Tuesday’s action. Hempfield improved to 4-0 with a home win over Seneca Valley and stayed atop Section 1-6A at 2-0. Penn-Trafford had a 7-0 mark and was 3-0 and tied with Thomas Jefferson for the top spot in Section...

Hempfield softball players kept barking like dogs from the dugout, a unique rallying cry implemented by first-year coach Tina Madison. Turns out, their bark was not louder than their bite. The top-ranked Spartans kept snarling, even as they watched three Norwin home runs sail over the fence Wednesday, and ended...

The racially charged dispute between Penn Hills and Kiski Area wasn’t resolved, so the WPIAL may keep those teams apart in future years. Kiski Area formally asked the WPIAL to keep its teams in separate sections from Penn Hills when new alignments are created, a request the WPIAL board will...

There is a youth movement in local softball this spring. Hempfield knows. Just look at first-year coach Tina Madison’s pitcher-catcher combo: Both are freshmen. Pitcher Riley Miller deals to catcher Allie Cervola, the pair revealing a been-there-before aura against Class 6A hitters that impresses Madison, one of the best pitchers...

Early last season, Deer Lakes suffered a 6-3 loss to Valley, and that ended up playing a big part in costing the Lancers a share of the Section 1-3A championship. North Catholic and Deer Lakes ended up splitting their season series, but the Trojans won the title outright with a...

The WPIAL on Wednesday announced winners of the James Collins Scholar/Athlete Awards. This is the 31st year for the awards, which include a $1,000 scholarship for each recipient. The WPIAL chose 20 scholar/athletes from among 142 nominees. The boys awards went to Anthony DiFalco of Franklin Regional, Jake DiMichele of...

After stints of 28 and eight years as head coach of the Washington boys basketball program, Ron Faust, one of the most successful coaches in WPIAL history, has stepped down again. Only this time, it’s for good. “This is definitely a retirement more than a resignation,” Faust said. “As this...

High schools Baseball Tuesday’s results Class 6A Section 1 North Allegheny 5, Allderdice 1 Butler at Central Catholic, ppd. Pine-Richland 10, Seneca Valley 7 Section 2 Hempfield 7, Baldwin 4 Canon-McMillan at Upper St. Clair, ppd. Mt. Lebanon at Norwin, ppd. Class 5A Section 1 Latrobe 4, Franklin Regional 3...

Seven years ago, the Neshannock softball team was in search of a trifecta of district softball crowns after winning WPIAL Class A championships in 2013 and 2014. This spring, Laurel is taking it a step further by trying to win a fourth straight district softball championship after winning Class 2A...

Most of the 30 teams in the inaugural Trib HSSN state softball rankings from last week found their journey to this week’s top five to be smooth sailing. Only two teams dealt with the sour taste of defeat, and only one of them survived the bitterness. North Hills, the 2021...

While the weather has been up and down, the weekly Trib HSSN state baseball rankings have been steady from the inaugural edition last week to this week’s version of the diamond fab five. Only four teams lost their grip on a state-ranking position, with two of those coming in Class...

Zack Karp went nine innings and Max Rocco pitched the 10th as Serra Catholic threw a 10-inning no-hitter in Section 3-2A baseball Tuesday, defeating Shady Side Academy, 5-1. Karp struck out 16. Joey DeMoss doubled, tripled and drove in a pair for the Eagles (6-0, 3-0). Rocco also had two...

South Fayette’s Jake Patterson and North Catholic’s Nicolas Scheller are in position to defend their WPIAL boys singles championships, having won three matches Tuesday to advance to the district finals at noon Wednesday at Pure Athletex Sportplex in Wexford. Patterson lost a total of three games in three matches en...

Latrobe had every reason to say “Cheese.” Wildcats baseball players were all smiles after a doubleheader sweep of No. 5-ranked Franklin Regional on Tuesday, including a Game 2 win powered by the battery of senior pitcher Chase Sickenberger — nicknamed “Cheese” long ago by his brother — and senior catcher...