Ray Fisher stories, Page 46

Thomas Jefferson ended the first half of its section schedule as one of the hottest baseball teams in the WPIAL. The Jaguars won six of seven games in early April, including a 1-0 Section 3-4A victory April 18 at home against rival Belle Vernon. Junior hurler Dylan Mallozzi was masterful...

Maura Columbus is a steady goal-scorer for the Norwin girls lacrosse team. Through nine games, the senior midfielder had accounted for a team-high 23 goals, which included a seven-goal outburst April 18 in a 14-13 win in overtime against Indiana. Columbus scored five goals against Baldwin and Hempfield and four...

Norwin’s softball team opened the season with a tough 1-0 section loss at Seneca Valley. The Knights shook it off by winning six of their next seven, including a rousing 6-1 victory April 11 against four-time defending WPIAL champion Hempfield, which also has won three state titles in a row....

Fresh off her banner basketball season at Thomas Jefferson, junior Molly Wagner exploded out of the gate to start the outdoor track and field season. Wagner, one of the top sprinters in the WPIAL, took first place in the girls 200-meter dash at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association outdoor championships...

Notebook items from around the South Hills: • The Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its latest rankings Monday based on a vote of all 39 WPIAL coaches. Thomas Jefferson senior outside hitter Alex Territ recently was named as Class AA Player of the Week. The TJ netters are ranked...

Gateway softball was a member of Section 1-5A last year, going 8-7 and qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs. The Gators are still in Class 5A this spring but have moved into Section 2, tackling the likes of Hampton, Mars, Oakland Catholic, Penn Hills, Plum, Shaler and Woodland Hills. On April...

Their passion is softball. They display it regularly at practice and on the field before, during and after games. That’s just one of the reasons seniors Gionna DeLuca, Jordan Henderson and Mykaila Jackson were named captains of the Gateway softball team this season. Another is they are talented athletes. DeLuca,...

Lena Barakat, Kaylee Garofalo, Devon Schroeder and Gina Bolla are tireless distance runners on the Baldwin girls track and field team. Schroeder is a senior, Barakat and Bolla are sophomores and Garofalo is a freshman. The four girls banded together to win the 3,200-meter relay at the 15th annual South...

Brendan O’Malley is one of the most talented, dedicated and well-respected track and field athletes in the region. His athleticism was on full display April 6 at the 15th annual South Hills Classic held on a pleasant, sunny day at Baldwin Stadium. O’Malley, a senior, won four events, taking first...

Norwin’s girls lacrosse team worked diligently on fundamentals last year. This season, the Knights are more fundamentally sound, splitting their first four decisions to start 2-2. “The other coaches and I are extremely pleased with the team’s performance this season,” coach Drew Polczynski said. “Because we had so many players...

Offense was the name of the game at the Junior Roundball Classic held recently at Seton LaSalle. The East Region all-star squad won the 2019 championship, defeating the South and North in the two-night event. The two teams clicked for a total of 23 field goals from 3-point range East-North...

The Baldwin baseball team is aiming to make a stronger playoff push this season despite losing 10 seniors to graduation from last year’s club. The Highlanders started out 0-4 and 1-8 in 2018, then went 5-3 down the home stretch to end up 6-11 overall. “We expect to be improved...

Milan Yekich is in his first season as head coach of the Baldwin boys volleyball program. But his background in the sport goes back to his grade school days. Yekich started playing volleyball as a fifth-grader at St. Elizabeth. He continued his career through middle school and high school, and...

The Norwin girls have advanced to the WPIAL Class AAA final four in track and field in 13 of the past 14 years. “The expectations for both the girls and boys are always the same,” coach Brian Fleckenstein said. “Win all the section meets, win the Westmoreland County team title,...

Notebook items in and around the Thomas Jefferson High School campus: • The senior class has hit double digits. No less than 10 seniors have signed letters of intent for college, where they will continue their academic/athletic careers. They include Darius Barrett (Clarion/football), A.J. Meshanko (California, Pa./soccer), Jenna Clark (Yale/basketball),...

Planning began last June for the inaugural Baldwin Whitehall Youth Flag Football League. Now, it’s close to becoming a reality. The flag program is the initiative of Baldwin Whitehall Athletic Association Football and Cheer and is targeted for youngsters ages 5 to 14. Age divisions will be 7U, 9U, 11U...

March Madness for Thomas Jefferson meant a trip to the WPIAL girls basketball finals and historic run to the PIAA semifinals. It was the first time the team went that deep into the state playoffs. The Jaguars finished 22-8 overall, which included 3-1 records in the WPIAL and PIAA tournaments....

First-year coach Tim Vickers and his staff are looking to turn around the fortunes of the Thomas Jefferson baseball program. TJ finished 6-14 last season, coming in sixth place in Section 3-5A. The Jaguars are hoping to rebound behind four returning starters. “We have been working on every single facet...

Brentwood will field one of the younger high school softball teams in Western Pennsylvania this season. The Spartans have 10 freshmen and one first-year sophomore looking to fill the gaps made by the graduation of four seniors from last year’s playoff squad. “Our team is very young but very eager,”...

Back-to-back. It has a nice ring. It’s what the Baldwin inline hockey team rung up in 2018-19. Baldwin won its second consecutive Pennsylvania Interscholastic Roller Hockey League HS2 title recently, defeating Pine-Richland, 2-1, in a three-game championship series. The Highlanders won Game 1 6-2, dropped the second game 2-0 and...

One of Zoey Wilson’s goals for this season was to follow in her brother’s footsteps, but her season was plagued by injuries. Zoey Wilson, a senior on the Hempfield girls swimming team, specializes in the 200-yard freestyle. Her brother, Zane, had a decorated swimming career for the Spartans from 2013-17....

High expectations. After finishing as the WPIAL Class 5A runner-up and reaching the PIAA final four last season, that’s what the Thomas Jefferson softball team has for 2019. The Jaguars have dropped to 4A this season and lost only one starter to graduation. “Our expectations are always to reach the...

The seniors on the Thomas Jefferson hockey team wrung out heralded career numbers in their time. Counting the regular and postseason, the five seniors attained 60 wins in their careers at TJ. “That’s the highest total from any group to graduate from the program in my nine years of coaching,”...

The reconstruction project continued — and flourished — for the Brentwood girls basketball program. In her first five years at the helm, coach Rachel Thomas guided the Spartans to 15-7, 11-10, 13-9, 17-6 and 18-8 records, advancing to the WPIAL playoffs all five years. This season, Brentwood finished with a...

Baldwin has won four consecutive section titles in softball. The Highlanders, with new coach Gina Fuchs, expect more of the same in 2019. “Our expectation is to come out and compete every game, and to compete for a section title,” said Fuchs, who has stepped up from her assistant’s role...