Ray Fisher stories, Page 4

Quaker Valley’s girls swim team improved to 4-0 in Section 2-2A thanks to recent dominating wins against Riverside and Blackhawk. The Quakers defeated Riverside, 79-42, after coasting by Blackhawk, 99-67. Led by senior Margaret Getty, QV racked up a dozen first-place performances against the Panthers. Getty finished first in the...

Quaker Valley held its annual college signing day Jan. 16 with 10 senior athletes formally announcing their college choices. All 10 are PIAA or WPIAL medalists, and each has a GPA above 4.0. Kirsten Close (tennis) signed with at Haverford, Margaret Getty (swimming) chose West Chester, Paige Juliano (rowing), opted...

Quaker Valley’s boys basketball team went on the road to earn perhaps its biggest win of the regular season. The Quakers stunned Class 4A No. 1 Avonworth, 59-56, on Jan. 28 for its fifth consecutive victory and improved to 13-4 overall. Avonworth entered the game with a 6-0 record in...

Oumou “Mimi” Thiero entered select territory in the Quaker Valley girls basketball progam. The 6-foot-5 Thiero, a junior guard/forward and Division I recruit, recently joined an elite group of Quaker Valley players in the school’s 1,000-point club. Thiero scored 29 points Jan. 20 to reach the career milestone and lead...

The Quaker Valley hockey team and coach Kevin Quinn won the 500th game in program history Dec. 2 in a 6-2 decision against Chartiers Valley at Mt. Lebanon Ice Arena. “We enjoyed the moment as a program,” said Quinn, the first and only coach of the QV hockey program. “It...

The bitterly cold temperatures in January haven’t curbed the efforts of the athletes in the Quaker Valley wrestling program. After celebrating the new year with a second-place showing at the Ed Driscoll MAC Tournament, the Quakers won section decisions at Avonworth, 51-24, and at home against Carlynton, 54-18. QV also...

Quaker Valley junior Bruce Anderchak has dominated in high school wrestling for the past two-and-a-half years. Case in point: Anderchak joined an exclusive club Jan. 15 at home against Carlynton when he secured his 100th career win as a QV grappler. “Bruce has wrestled for more than two-thirds of his...

Did you know that Matt Kwalick, a Quaker Valley assistant swim coach, competed for the Quakers swim team when he was a high school student? “We are super thrilled to have Matt Kwalick as a new assistant this year,” said Margaret Getty, a senior leader on the QV girls team....

Thomas Jefferson wrestlers Bode Marlow, Maddox Shaw and Shepard Turk made team history last season as all three won WPIAL championships. Can the three seniors do it again? “We have a balanced team this year with a lot of guys coming up from ninth grade and returning 10th graders,” TJ...

His 11th rebound in the game was his most important. Thomas Jefferson junior Nick Trklja grabbed an errant shot inside the paint and scored the game-winning basket at the buzzer to lift his team to a thrilling 73-71 Section 3-5A win Jan. 17 at Peters Township. Near-pandemonium followed as Trklja’s...

A tip of the cap (or is it helmet?) goes out to Thomas Jefferson football coach Bill Cherpak for being named Trib HSSN football coach of the year in Class 4A. Cherpak and his staff guided the Jaguars to a WPIAL 4A title, PIAA semifinal-round appearance, 10-0 regular-season record, the...

It could be considered the basketball game of the year at Baldwin. Trib HSSN Class 5A No. 4 Baldwin met Class 3A No. 1 South Allegheny in a nonsection clash Jan. 16 on the Highlanders’ home court. Two WPIAL hoops heavyweights. Baldwin, previously ranked No. 1 in 5A, prevailed with...

The Pittsburgh Elite 18 girls volleyball team started off its club season impressively. Coached by Maggie Smith and Alyson Londot, Elite 18 won the Pittsburgh Ice Breaker Tournament in its division Jan. 11 at the All American Fieldhouse in Monroeville. Not only did they go undefeated in the tournament, they...

It’s been a banner season for the Bethel Park wrestling team in 2024-25. And the Black Hawks’ success continued at the Allegheny County tournament held Jan. 17-18 at Fox Chapel. Bethel Park placed second to Thomas Jefferson, which won the tournament with a record-breaking performance. The Black Hawks racked up...

Hundreds of high school gymnasts and USAG competitors participated in the three-day Happy New Year Invitational on Jan. 3-5 at Kiski Area. It was planned and organized by coach Renee Ruggeri, owner of Ultimate Gymnastics in Delmont, with participants traveling chiefly from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. “This was not...

Sewickley Academy sophomore Emma Eannarino was averaging a team-leading 15 points, 4 steals and 5 rebounds per game earlier this season. A 5-foot-4 point guard, Eannarino picked up where her older sister and role model Libby left off at Sewickley. Libby, now a freshman at Vanderbilt, led the Panthers in...

Quaker Valley junior Bruce Anderchak has dominated in high school wrestling for the past two-and-a-half years. Case in point: Anderchak joined an exclusive club Jan. 15 at home against Carlynton when he secured his 100th career win as a QV grappler. “Bruce has wrestled for more than two-thirds of his...

The Quaker Valley boys swim team has just seven competitors, including three from neighboring Sewickley Academy. “Small but mighty” is the mantra for both the boys and girls squads at QV. “When you have a small team, everyone counts,” coach Mercedes McCarthy said. “I like to think we are small...

Quaker Valley’s Oumou Thiero has a rich basketball heritage. But she is inspirational both in and away from the gym. For example, the 6-foot-5 junior on the girls basketball team annually travels with her family back to her parent’s hometown of Segou, Mali, with basketball shoes, athletic equipment, food and...

On Jan. 1, Trib HSSN published its annual list of athletes who won WPIAL championships in the previous year. Seven Quaker Valley athletes and one at Sewickley Academy were included. At QV, Cecilia Montagnese starting things off in the fall season by taking first place in the girls cross country...

Michael Mastroianni, son of Quaker Valley’s athletic director/boys basketball coach with the same name, graduated from Ohio State in 2021. Mastroianni majored in finance and had a minor in coaching education. Since college, he has juggled career paths in both basketball and business. He currently is the chief of staff...

Quaker Valley’s wrestling team ended up second at the Midwestern Athletic Conference championships held Jan. 4 at Laurel. “I thought this year’s MAC tournament was exciting, fun and well-run,” QV coach Austin Heinl said. “We finished in second place as a team and finished with seven medalists. We had the...

Emma Eannarino has tackled an important role on the Sewickley Academy girls basketball team despite being only a sophomore. “Emma will continue to be called upon to display her leadership skills as the season progresses due to her position as the point guard,” SA coach Jill Capozzi said, “but also...

Nolan Donnelly has had an unconventional basketball career at Sewickley Academy as a four-year starter. The 6-foot-4 senior forward has had three different head coaches in charge of the program since his freshman season. Donnelly was coached by Win Palmer for two years, followed by Jim Dudas last season and...

Keira Watson loves to play basketball. And it shows. The 5-foot-7 freshman guard stepped into Quaker Valley’s starting lineup at the season’s onset and has displayed steady improvement since then for the Quakers. “Without that love, it’s hard to really improve consistently,” QV coach Ken Johns said. “Keira’s one of...