High School category, Page 237
WPIAL Class 2A preview: Steel Valley tops new-look list of title contendersVideo
Steel Valley’s Ray Braszo is one of those old-school high school football coaches who generally has about as much use for preseason predictions as he does for a TikTok account. But tell him the Ironmen look like the favorites in WPIAL Class 2A football this season, and he’ll begrudgingly admit...
2024 HSSN football position-by-position breakdown: Scouting the defensive line
TribLive HSSN will break down the top players at one position per day until Week Zero. Here is a look at the top defensive linemen for the 2024 season. 1. Christopher Climes Elizabeth Forward Senior, 6-2, 305 The “Sack Sensei” is the fun moniker Climes added to his social media...
Experienced line, young skill players have Washington headed in right direction
Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Friday. Due to production schedule conflicts, the Charleroi preview will be published later in the week. When coach Mike Bosnic looks down the Washington roster, he sees the...
After huge turnaround in 2023, Waynesburg looking to sustain success
Waynesburg football went into last season with one goal in mind: to remain healthy throughout the season. The Raiders went 0-10 in 2022. Quarterback Jake Stephenson was lost for the whole year with an elbow injury and starting running back Breydon Woods missed a lot of time with nagging injuries....
New coach hopes to see experience pay off for young Sto-Rox team
Since taking over at his alma mater in May, Sto-Rox’s Brendan Blair has been caught up in a whirlwind that many in his position across the WPIAL can probably relate to. “To me, being a head coach, it hasn’t really sunk in for me because I’ve been so busy making...
Seton LaSalle looking to maintain momentum after .500 campaign
Seton LaSalle made a dramatic improvement as a team in 2023. The Rebels upgraded from a 0-10 record in 2022 in coach Tim Storino’s first year as field boss to a 5-5 overall mark last season. The Rebels made significant improvements on both offense and defense, going from scoring 114...
Smaller roster won’t stop Keystone Oaks from vying for playoff spot
Steve McCormick has worked to make every member of the Keystone Oaks football team versatile. With only 30 players on the roster, the Golden Eagles can’t afford to have many specialists. McCormick wants to ensure that when injuries happen, they aren’t catastrophic. That’s why the Golden Eagles have been learning...
Roster packed with seniors brings confidence to Carlynton
The Carlynton Cougars have a pack of seniors that are more than ready for the Friday Night Lights. The Cougars’ roster showcases 17 seniors. Senior Mark Jameson, who played at Bishop Canevin for the past three years, returned to Carlynton for his last year of high school football. He knows...
A-K Valley football teams work to find formula that brings consistent success
Deer Lakes football has qualified for the WPIAL playoffs four times in its history. Two of those trips have come in the past two seasons with the team hosting a playoff game for the first time last fall and scoring the program’s first postseason victory with a 30-point rout of...
The Birdie’s A-K Valley football picks are sure to be golden this season
Last season: 88-28 (75.9%) The Birdie spent much of August flying around the A-K Valley like a Canadian soccer drone, spying on high school football practices to build up his knowledge base before the season starts. But when he wasn’t in the air, he was watching the Olympics. “I could...
Thanks to program’s revival, ‘People are talking about Latrobe football’
Mention Latrobe and football in the same breath and, to most people, Pittsburgh Steelers training camp comes to mind. While the crowded summer staple where fans can get up close and personal with the pros was in full force again at Saint Vincent, the Latrobe Wildcats also were ramping up...
Birdie ponders big question: Who will carry on Westmoreland County’s winning streak?
Last season: 109-29 (79%) As legend has it, an editor once told the Birdie his picks column needed more substance, more “meat.” “It’s too mundane,” the editor said several years ago. “Use more statistics and facts. The whole thing is too contrived.” The Birdie, always up for a good debate,...
WPIAL Class A preview: Fort Cherry enters season with target on its backVideo
Fort Cherry got a taste of a PIAA championship game atmosphere last fall. Now the Rangers want to return to Cumberland Valley and raise a state championship trophy. A year after winning their first WPIAL football championship and finishing as PIAA runners-up, the Rangers again have the look of a...
WPIAL Class 6A preview: North Allegheny looks for 3-peat in beefed-up classVideo
For the first time since expansion to six classifications eight years ago, the number of teams playing in the highest class has actually gone up. In 2016 and ’17, there were 14 district teams playing in the newly formed Class 6A. That number dwindled to nine in ’18 and ’19,...
Belle Vernon pitcher wowed by Kent State baseball program
Parker Lind was on a campus visit when the magic happened. When he saw his baseball future flash before his eyes. Belle Vernon’s hard-throwing southpaw said he was close to committing to one of the top Division II programs in the country in Seton Hill, but the awe he felt...
Increased roster adds to expectations for Gateway girls soccer team
Caleb Kyper understood how lower-than-usual roster numbers coupled with youthful inexperience throughout the lineup conspired to limit the Gateway girls soccer team’s efforts toward qualifying for the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs last year. Only two seniors and one starter graduated from the 2023 squad which went 3-8-1 in Section 3-3A...
Knoch welcomes new quarterback with open arms
Colt Sprankle is probably the only current WPIAL quarterback to appear on a nationally televised game show. Sprankle and his family appeared on two episodes of “Family Feud” in April. It wasn’t long before those shows that he entered a new school, transferring from Armstrong to Knoch. There haven’t been...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Southmoreland QB situation settled
Caden Matthews, a junior who was competing with freshman Anthony Smith for the starting quarterback spot at Southmoreland, left the team during the first week of full-padded training camp. Smith will be the Scotties’ starter. Matthews (6-foot, 180), who was the Scotties’ backup last season, planned to transfer to Connellsville,...
‘Queens of the ‘Burgh’ volleyball tournament grows in popularity in 2nd year
The Sharks dominated at the second annual Queens of the ‘Burgh girls volleyball tournament. The event took place Aug. 2-3 at the All American Field House in Monroeville and was open to all incoming high school junior and senior girls for the 2024-25 school year. The Sharks beat last year’s...
Quaker Valley Rugby Club takes root as sport’s popularity grows
There’s a new sport in town that’s been growing at a steady pace. Sean O’Neill of Sewickley Hills is co-founder of the Quaker Valley Rugby Club, which is partnering with the Premier Youth & Community Center in Sewickley. “We just started the club earlier this year with a meeting with...
Quaker Valley senior has WPIAL golf championship in his sights
Ethan Dai finished as the WPIAL Class 2A runner-up in boys golf last year. Dai, a senior, certainly would like to take that next step to an individual championship this season. However, he’s all about a team-first mentality. “My personal goal for this year is to help take my team...
Pitt national champion John Falvo gets call from Pine-Richland hall of fame
The announcement for the 2024 Pine-Richland Sports Hall of Fame class was made a few weeks earlier, but John Falvo had no idea he was included. That was until he received a phone call from a family member. “Nobody knew where I was or my phone number, so they were...
Norwin notebook: Girls basketball standouts catch eye of college coaches
A pair of incoming senior Norwin basketball players are on the radar of NCAA Division II college coaches. Kendall Berger added a two more Division II scholarship offers, while Averi Brozeski added a trio of offers. Clarion and West Virginia Wesleyan joined Seton Hill and Wheeling as a potential destination...
Hampton girls tennis ready to be ‘road warriors’
Coming off the best season in program history, the Hampton girls tennis team has suddenly found itself homeless. Continued delays to a renovation project at the tennis courts at Hampton Community Park have forced the Talbots to plan for a promising 2024 season in which every match and practice will...
Fox Chapel’s Blake Krushinski commits to play baseball at West Virginia
Blake Krushinski has a clear path forward for his baseball career. By committing to West Virginia to play baseball before his junior season at Fox Chapel, Krushinski can focus on self-improvement. One of his first goals is to add 15 to 20 pounds before he graduates. Krushinksi, a right-handed pitcher,...
