Michael Love stories, Page 102
PIHL ready to get back to action
The PIHL, along with the WPIAL and other sports organizations, is returning to team activities Monday after a shutdown issued by Gov. Tom Wolf on Dec. 10 as part of overall efforts to slow the spread of covid-19. The league is scheduled to resume games Jan. 11. PIHL president John...
Robert Morris edges Milwaukee in Horizon League home opener
It wasn’t pretty, but Robert Morris men’s basketball coach Andy Toole and his youthful team will certainly take Friday’s 67-64 victory over Milwaukee in the first of a two-game Horizon League set at UPMC Events Center. “Obviously a hard-fought, well-earned win by our guys,” Toole said. “It certainly was ugly,...
Steel-High’s Mehki Flowers commits to play football at Penn State
Mehki Flowers started the new year by announcing a new journey with the Penn State football team. The junior from Steelton-Highspire in Harrisburg announced on Twitter a verbal commitment to the Nittany Lions on Friday morning. “Gear me up @coachjfranklin lol. Super excited to get started with you, Let’s make...
Chartiers Valley’s Perri Page commits to Division I Columbia
Chartiers Valley’s Perri Page is in a New York City state of mind. The daughter of former Pitt men’s basketball standout Julius Page committed Friday to continue her basketball career at Columbia in Manhattan. She announced her decision on Twitter. Page, a 5-foot-11 junior forward, had numerous Division I offers,...
Top 10 stories in A-K Valley sports in 2020
The year 2020 was one nobody soon will forget. The specter of the covid-19 pandemic brought about hardships and challenges both in and out of the sports world. But before and during those challenging times, local athletes and teams were able to make their marks, paying off many hours of...
Gateway’s Jayson Jenkins to kick for Robert Morris
A dream now is a reality for Gateway’s Jayson Jenkins. The senior place kicker will trade the black and gold of the Gators for Robert Morris red, white and blue. Jenkins enters the new year with a verbal commitment to the FCS Colonials. “It was a special feeling for me...
WVU’s Isaiah Cottrell to miss rest of season with Achilles injury
The end of 2020 has brought tough news to the West Virginia men’s basketball team. Isaiah Cottrell, the highly touted 6-foot-10 freshman from Las Vegas, will miss the rest of the 2020-21 season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in his left leg in the first half of Tuesday’s game...
Pitt’s Jones, WVU’s Stills named Sporting News first-team All-Americans
Pitt senior defensive end Patrick Jones II and West Virginia senior defensive tackle Darius Stills have been named first-team All-Americans by the Sporting News, the publication announced Tuesday. Jones is the 94th first-team All-American in Pitt football history. He finished the season with 44 tackles, 13 tackles for a loss,...
Monroeville bodybuilder claims Amateur Olympia title
When the Mr. Olympia and Amateur Olympia bodybuilding competitions were moved to this month from September because of covid-19 logistical concerns, Monroeville’s Ahmad Matour didn’t waver in his goal to compete at one of the world’s biggest events of its kind. “I knew it would give me plenty of time...
PSNK athletes cope with latest changes caused by coronavirus
Penn State New Kensington athletic director Megan Bratkovich said she wasn’t surprised when the executive committee of the Penn State University Athletic Conference voted unanimously Dec. 18 to cancel all sports for the 2020-21 fall and winter seasons. “Given the current state of the pandemic, I think we all knew...
Freeport hockey hopes to continue winning ways after shutdown
Excitement remains high for the Freeport hockey team despite having to work through a couple of stops and starts over the first two months of the 2020-21 PIHL regular season. Covid-19 concerns and Thanksgiving slowed the Yellowjackets in November, and then they and the rest of the league were affected...
Unbeaten Hempfield, rest of PIHL eager for return
Hempfield is one of three hockey teams without a loss in PIHL Class AA in a season heavily impacted by covid issues. The Spartans are 4-0 in league play after a 6-2 triumph over Shaler on Dec. 3. They are hoping, along with the rest of the league, things get...
Deer Lakes Youth Baseball Association gets Pirates grant
Safety is a top priority for the Deer Lakes Youth Baseball Association, and a matching “Fields for Kids” grant from Pirates Charities will help keep that mission going. Pirates Charities, the philanthropic arm of the Pittsburgh Pirates, announced Wednesday that the association will receive grant money to improve fencing on...
PSUAC cancels fall and winter athletic seasons
The athletic programs in the Penn State University Athletic Conference, including Penn State New Kensington, Beaver, Fayette, Greater Allegheny and Shenango, continue to come to terms with Friday’s decision by the conference’s executive committee to cancel all intercollegiate athletics competition for men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer and...
High school basketball teams appreciate, take lessons from pre-shutdown games
Last Friday, 71 WPIAL and City League boys and girls basketball teams kicked off their 2020-21 seasons in the shadow of a looming shutdown that will extend through the first couple of days of the New Year. In the climate of covid uncertainties, the games were a chance for those...
Seniors who drove Plum football to new heights make college choices on signing dayVideo
Evan Azzara anchored the Plum offensive line with power for several years. Now, the 6-foot-6, 290-pound senior is signed, sealed and delivered for what he hopes is the same kind of success at Miami (Ohio). Azzara was one of nearly two dozen from the WPIAL and City League to sign...
Former Plum slugger pleased to be back in purple as coach at Evansville
Jordan Seneca had last worn purple in a softball-game setting in the spring of 2014 as a senior at Plum. This past fall, she again donned that familiar color, beginning a tenure as a graduate assistant coach with the softball program at Division I University of Evansville. It is a...
Burrell grad Scherer honored with education scholarship
Burrell graduate Nikki Scherer, a senior member of the Pitt women’s track and field team, is a recipient of $2,500 in tuition from the Go Teach Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway, a partnership of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the College Football Playoff Foundation, the conference announced Tuesday. She is one...
WPIAL contenders wonder how sports shutdown will impact swimming season
Ian Shahan hopes for big things in his senior swimming season. Like many others throughout the WPIAL, the Belle Vernon senior who is the defending WPIAL Class AA champion in the 100-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly, is keeping his fingers crossed that when the calendar turns to 2021, the season...
Gateway’s Summer Raymer has sights set on school swimming records
Summer Raymer’s name already is on the swimming record boards in the natatorium at Gateway High School. The Gateway junior standout is part of the 200-yard medley relay team that set the record last year with graduate Olivia Livingston and sophomores Ayva Harris and Morgan Holmes. Raymer, the runner-up last...
Gateway athletes pick up postseason honors after challenging fall
The Gateway boys and girls soccer teams and the Gators football team each earned WPIAL playoff berths in a fall season dominated each week by covid concerns, cancellations and delays. The teams overcame a week-long practice and competition stoppage in pursuit of postseason opportunities. Several individual standouts helped fuel the...
Valley News Dispatch Offensive Player of the Year: Apollo-Ridge’s Logan Harmon
Alle-Kiski Valley Offensive Player of the Year Logan Harmon RB, Senior, 5-8, 215 pounds, Apollo-Ridge Logan Harmon saved one of the best rushing performances of his career for Apollo-Ridge’s WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinal game against Washington on Oct. 30 at Owens Field. The 215-pound senior running back helped dash the...
Oakland Catholic girls hold off spirited Fox Chapel rallyVideo
The Fox Chapel girls basketball team gave host Oakland Catholic all it could handle in a nonsection game Friday night. The Foxes rallied from a double-digit deficit in the first half and were within two possessions heading into the fourth quarter, but the Eagles held off a final Fox Chapel...
St. Joseph girls ‘all-in’ on playing opener, lose to Neshannock
St. Joseph girls basketball coach Dennis Jones said there was no question his team wanted to take the court Friday to open its season less than 24 hours after Gov. Tom Wolf announced high school sports would shut down for four weeks as part of covid-19 mitigation efforts. “The girls...
A-K Valley teams disappointed, not shocked by high school sports shutdownVideo
Over the past few weeks, coaches, athletes and administrators from around the Alle-Kiski Valley have been battling the unknown. With the coronavirus pandemic looming large and cases continuing to spike in Allegheny and Westmoreland County, the outlook for the winter sports looked bleak and teams were preparing for the worst....
