Chris Harlan stories, Page 96
National association issues detailed guide for reopening high school athletics
Players shouldn’t pass a basketball, hand off a football or share a baseball bat when high school sports workouts first resume, according to guidelines revealed Tuesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Also, workouts should include no more than 10 people, whether indoors or outside. The NFHS...
WPIAL adopts 2-game series for section baseball schedules, reveals realignment
The WPIAL adopted a revamped baseball schedule Monday meant to keep teams from pitching their ace twice against the same section opponent. Now, rather than play every team once and then rematch later in the season, WPIAL baseball teams will play a two-game series on consecutive days against every section...
North Allegheny expected to hire Dan DeRose as boys basketball coach
Another high-profile WPIAL basketball coach is expected to switch schools this week. Dan DeRose is expected to be hired as North Allegheny’s boys basketball coach Wednesday, pending school board approval, according to a source. DeRose coached at Penn Hills for the past five seasons and won a WPIAL Class 6A...
PIAA board of directors to discuss restarting sports county by county
Could the PIAA take a county-by-county approach to restarting sports, or should the entire state resume summer workouts at the same time? “We want to have that discussion,” said PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi, who expects that question and others related to the coronavirus shutdown will be addressed Wednesday when...
Dek hockey athleticism earns North Hills lineman 1st college football offerVideo
At 6-foot-5 and around 230 pounds, North Hills’ Matt Hummel is bigger than most dek hockey players. Off-the-shelf sticks are often too short. But the athleticism that lets him play multiple sports also has college football coaches interested in recruiting the offensive lineman. The junior added his first Division I...
Air Force Academy football makes recruiting push into Western Pa.Video
Two military service academies have successfully recruited Western Pennsylvania football players for years. Combined, Army and Navy had seven former WPIAL athletes on their rosters last fall. The Air Force Academy wants to join them. The Falcons have extended offers to a number of WPIAL juniors this spring including at...
Pine-Richland’s Luke Miller wastes no time making commitment to Kent StateVideo
Pine-Richland junior Luke Miller didn’t need long to decide. Two days after receiving a Kent State offer, Miller committed Saturday to the Golden Flashes. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound linebacker and receiver chose the Mid-American school over more than a dozen other Division I offers. Miller took an unofficial visit to the...
Thomas Jefferson linebacker Preston Zandier commits to Youngstown StateVideo
Not often does a university president get involved in football recruiting, but these are unusual times. And of course Youngstown State’s president isn’t your usual school administrator. Thomas Jefferson junior Preston Zandier committed Saturday to YSU, two weeks after a video-conference call with new Penguins coach Doug Phillips, his assistants...
Trinity junior Courtney Dahlquist adds 2 college basketball offersVideo
Trinity junior Courtney Dahlquist, who saw her season cut short by the coronavirus outbreak, added two college offers this week. The 6-foot-3 forward received a Division I offer from UMass Lowell and a Division II offer from IUP, which finished last season ranked seventh nationally. Her AAU team announced the...
Coronavirus pandemic speeds up recruiting for Western Pa. Bruins girls basketball players
If this were any other spring, Corinne Washington would be traveling to Detroit this weekend with her Western Pa. Bruins teammates for an AAU basketball tournament in the Motor City. Instead, the Quaker Valley junior is limited to one-on-one games with her brother and father on an outdoor neighborhood court....
WPIAL reveals new basketball sections for 2020-21 season
Central Catholic coach Brian Urso will use this stay-at-home time to binge watch some game film. He spent his first season at Central learning all about the boys basketball teams to the north and now will study Westmoreland County. “I‘ll have the time,” Urso said. The WPIAL revealed updated boys...
NFHS votes down shot clock mandate for high school basketball
High school teams can still hold the basketball for as long as they’d like. A proposal that would’ve mandated use of a shot clock in high school games wasn’t approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations basketball rules committee, the organization announced Monday. Another proposal that would’ve...
Lincoln Park wants PIAA to define ‘participation’ in competitive-balance rule
Lincoln Park athletic director Mike Bariski is curious about the PIAA’s definition of the word “participation.” Under the PIAA competitive-balance rule, Bariski’s boys basketball team was awarded two success points for participation in this year’s state quarterfinals, exactly enough to force the Leopards into a higher classification next season. Bariski...
PIAA won’t force Chartiers Valley, North Catholic girls into higher classifications
The Chartiers Valley and North Catholic girls basketball teams won’t be forced into a higher classification next season, the PIAA told the schools Monday. The WPIAL teams were initially targeted for promotion under the PIAA competitive-balance rule but both won their appeals, said Chartiers Valley athletic director Mike Gavlik and...
North Allegheny’s Nathan Hoke adds 2 more Division I football offersVideo
North Allegheny junior Nathan Hoke, the son of a former Steelers defensive lineman, added two more football teams to his growing list of Division I offers. Akron and the Air Force Academy both extended offers this week to Hoke, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound linebacker who’s seen his recruiting status heat up...
7 schools file PIAA appeal contesting competitive-balance rule promotion
Seven schools statewide, including three from the WPIAL, filed appeals this week with the PIAA, all hoping their basketball teams can avoid being promoted by the competitive-balance rule. The deadline to file was noon Friday. The Lincoln Park boys, Chartiers Valley girls and North Catholic girls were among 15 schools...
Baldwin fires girls coach Kyle DeGregorio after defeating state’s top-ranked basketball team
Exactly two months after Baldwin’s girls basketball team upset the No. 1-ranked team in the state, coach Kyle DeGregorio lost his job. When the Baldwin school board voted Wednesday night to hire Jeff Ackermann as the boys basketball coach, it also opened DeGregorio’s girls coaching job to applicants. The Highlanders...
Justin Walther resigns at Serra Catholic, seeks big-school basketball job
If you’re a big-school athletic director, Justin Walther would like to talk. The former Central Catholic star and all-time leading scorer at Pitt-Johnstown wants a job coaching WPIAL boys basketball in the largest classifications, so he resigned at Serra Catholic after four seasons with the Class 2A school. Serra announced...
Basketball coach Bill Sacco retires after 18 seasons at Cornell
Bill Sacco had already retired from teaching and coaching when he noticed Cornell was hiring a boys basketball coach and decided to apply. On interview day, the candidates lined up. “I sat there that whole time waiting for guys to go in and explain what they were going to do...
WPIAL board member, retired school administrator Enrico Antonini dies
Enrico “Rego” Antonini, a member of the WPIAL board of directors and a retired Beaver County school administrator, died Tuesday. He was 81. A former principal at New Brighton and superintendent at Western Beaver, Antonini served on the WPIAL board for nearly two decades. He joined the board from 1990-2004...
Baldwin hires 5-time WPIAL champion Jeff Ackermann as boys basketball coach
Until this week, Jeff Ackermann coached basketball at Pine-Richland, lived in South Fayette and taught at Chartiers Valley, a commute that saw him and his family crisscross the county. With an 8-year-old son, a daughter who’s 6 and another son who’s 2½, that arrangement couldn’t last forever. “The drive kind...
PIAA forcing 3 WPIAL basketball teams into higher classification, pending appeal
Three WPIAL basketball teams will be forced to play in a higher classification next season unless those schools can win a PIAA appeal. The Chartiers Valley girls, North Catholic girls and Lincoln Park boys are among 15 teams statewide that the PIAA marked for promotion under its competitive-balance rule. It...
Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame postpones induction banquet to 2021
The Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet will be postponed until next year, organizers announced Monday, in response to the covid-19 outbreak. The banquet was rescheduled for May 16, 2021. The 45th induction class includes Sam Bechtel (sports journalism), Ron Brown (basketball), Barry Cox (football), Arthur Jason DeLuigi...
Could coach Jeff Ackermann turn around another basketball program in Baldwin?
Baldwin’s boys basketball team hasn’t won a WPIAL playoff game since 2003. The Highlanders reached the postseason only four times in the 17 years since, with four first-round losses. Clearly, there’s room to improve. This past winter they went winless in the section, a year after finishing 1-9. But Baldwin...
Quaker Valley’s Corinne Washington commits to Boston University
There’s a third Division I basketball player in the Washington household. Quaker Valley’s Corinne Washington, one of the WPIAL’s top juniors, committed Sunday to Boston University over offers from Duquesne, Robert Morris and others. Her brother, Coletrane, was a sophomore this winter at Drexel and her father Jesse played basketball...
