Jonathan Bombulie stories, Page 2

Ever notice how Aliquippa never really has a rebuilding year? “We graduated a lot of seniors. Going to be lucky to go 5-5,” said no Quip ever. Sto-Rox coach Marvin Mills is a former Aliquippa assistant, which explains how he’s approaching this season, his second with the Vikings. “I still...

More than two decades since the last time they had a chance to welcome their new head coach with the phrase, the Riverside football team is ready to again say, “Aloha, Mr. Hand.” A longtime coach and teacher in the Riverside School District, Bill Hand is about to begin his...

When a team goes winless like New Brighton did last season, it has two options. Players can either burn the memory into their brains and use it as motivation or they can burn the game tapes and immediately turn the page. Lions coach Tony Caltury decided to take a little...

If traffic is light, a trip from Neshannock to Cleveland takes less than 90 minutes, so maybe it makes sense for the Lancers to take on a motto catcher Jake Taylor made famous in the movie “Major League.” (Albeit with one word left out in polite company.) I guess there’s...

Forgive the Western Beaver football team if it comes into the 2023 season with a chip on its shoulder. For a couple of months, last season was going exactly as planned. With quarterback Xander Lefebvre leading the way, the Golden Beavers got off to a 7-1 start. Then, in Week...

Beaver Falls coach Nick Nardone has no idea who is going to end up as the top rusher and receiver for his team this fall. He’s kind of psyched about that. “It’s not, ‘I have no idea because we have no talent,’” Nardone said. “It’s, ‘I have no idea because...

In his 34th season as a head coach, Ray Braszo lifted the WPIAL championship trophy for the first time last November when Steel Valley beat Beaver Falls in the Class 2A finals. How did he celebrate that momentous achievement once practice began again in August? “You start all over and...

From the outside, it was hard to explain the ups and downs Washington experienced last season. How did a team that finished the regular season with consecutive losses to Keystone Oaks and rival McGuffey suddenly knock off defending WPIAL champ Serra Catholic in the first round of the playoffs? How...

Neal Brown didn’t even wait for the question to be asked. During his opening remarks at Big 12 football media days Thursday, the West Virginia coach immediately stared down the elephant in the room – the fact that his Mountaineers had been picked, in a preseason vote of media members,...

Between now and the Aug. 1 MLB trade deadline, one topic figures to be the subject of plenty of debate amond Pittsburgh sports fans: Should the Pirates trade All-Star closer David Bednar? MLB.com got the ball rolling Thursday, naming Bednar one of the six All-Stars most likely to be dealt...

Is Penguins director of hockey operations Kyle Dubas holding a pocket pair or is he just drawing to an inside straight? In an appearance on NHL Network on Monday night, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said he believes the race to acquire Norris Trophy winning defenseman Erik Karlsson from the San Jose...

For the better part of the past five decades, on radio and television, Stan Savran provided some of the most insightful commentary on the Pittsburgh professional sports scene. Within hours of his death at age 76 on Monday, it became clear how far his voice had reached. In addition to...

Five weeks into the USFL season, the offense might be catching up to the defense for the Pittsburgh Maulers. After falling behind on an early touchdown sparked by a special teams play, the Maulers shut down the Michigan Panthers the rest of the way, winning 23-7 on Saturday afternoon at...

Here is a look at the significant deals made by Ron Hextall in his two-plus years as general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins: April 11, 2021 Penguins acquire: Forward Jeff Carter Los Angeles Kings acquire: 2022 third-round pick (conditional), a 2023 fourth-round pick Carter was good at first, filling in...

There’s a trope that gets trotted out this time of year that goes something like this: Why am I laboring over my March Madness office pool picks when it’s probably going to be won by a receptionist who makes her selections based on whose uniform is prettier or whose mascot...

One of the most revered records in WPIAL sports in on thin ice on the Class A hardwood this season. Aquinas Academy scoring machine Vinnie Cugini is back for his senior year, having already racked up 2,078 points in his career. The WPIAL scoring record has stood since Valley’s Tom...

Jake DiMichele is at First Love Christian Academy. OLSH is playing in Class 3A. It might sound harsh, but the rest of the WPIAL Class 2A field is no long playing for second place, which must be a refreshing change of pace after the reign of terror the Chargers visited...

There’s plenty of championship pedigree in WPIAL Class 3A basketball this season. Shady Side Academy brings back a good portion of the roster than won the 3A title at Petersen Events Center last year, and Ellwood City also returns key players from its surprise championship run in 2021. Then there’s...

A high school career that began with a storybook WPIAL championship in 2020 ends this season as Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher plays his senior year for the Mustangs. Gallagher burst onto the scene when he scored 24 points and won a duel with Mars senior Michael Carmody in an unforgettable...

Fox Chapel and North Hills, last year’s WPIAL finalists in Class 6A, moved into Class 5A in PIAA realignment in the offseason. But they’re not big-school bullies swooping in to steal the lunch money of smaller schools. Far from it. With one notable exception (see: Preseason Player of the Year),...

It’s more than a safe bet to predict that there will be a new WPIAL champion in Class 6A boys basketball this season. It’s a sure thing. Last year’s finalists, Fox Chapel and North Hills, both dropped down to Class 5A in PIAA realignment. A lean, mean crop of 12...

The Mapletown Maples heard what was being said about them in WPIAL Class A football circles. That the Tri-County South was a soft conference. That their 10-0 record was a mirage. That running back Landan Stevenson was a nice player by small-town, small-school standards. They heard it, they didn’t like...

Last year, the Washington football team was a case study in peaking at the wrong time. On the morning of Sept. 25, Washington was on top of its game: undefeated, having outscored its five opponents 237-40. That included blowout wins over perennial Class A power Clairton in a nonconference matchup...

Xander LeFebvre has a cool name. Sounds like an action movie star or maybe a linemate of Mario Lemieux during his junior hockey days. But how many local high school football fans are familiar with that name, even though he’s a four-year starter who threw for 1,000 yards for a...

Second-year coach Fran Ramsden has a tool he plans to use to liberally to help his Riverside team turn things around after a 1-8 season. Data. Ramsden is a believer in the idea that certain parts of the game correlate most directly with winning: explosive plays of 20 yards or...