High School category, Page 57
Changing of the guard: Jaxon Vargo takes reins as Leechburg’s starting quarterback
Leechburg has seen its football stock rise over the past several years, and while the Blue Devils have had elite skill position talent, the quarterback play has helped lift them to contending levels. Jayden Floyd, the 2024 Valley News Dispatch Player of the Year, graduated, ending his three-year run as...
2025 Trib HSSN football position-by-position breakdown: Scouting the linebackers
TribLive HSSN will break down the top players at one position per day until Week Zero. Here is a look at the top linebackers for the 2025 season. 1. Reston Lehman Peters Township Senior, 6-3, 225 The first-team all-conference outside linebacker was crucial to a defense that held opponents to...
Strayer, Pease, Schaum set tone for Mt. Pleasant’s physical offensive line
If the Mt. Pleasant football team hopes to be successful this season, then the trio of Strayer, Pease and Schaum will have to play well. No, they are not a law firm. They are more like a construction company ready to pave the way for the running game. The senior...
WPIAL Class 2A preview: Seton LaSalle roster changes leave title race wide open
As of the middle of July, there was a clear favorite in WPIAL Class 2A football this season. With 2,000-yard passer Anthony Smith throwing to game-breaking receiver Khalil Taylor, Seton LaSalle was looking like the team to beat. But sometimes life gets in the way, even at private schools. On...
A-K Valley football teams leaning on their lines this season
Nick Anderson felt confident at the start of last season. The 6-foot-4, 275-pound sophomore was a young pup playing on a veteran Kiski Area offensive line with four senior starters. But his first-year varsity status didn’t keep him from shining in the spotlight as he made his mark for a...
The Birdie offers up some preseason pigskin poetry for A-K Valley teams
Moments after The Birdie turned in his preseason prediction column, his phone rang. (Crazy Train ringtone. RIP, Ozzy.) It was the boss. The rest of the newsroom only heard one side of the conversation — the bird’s words — but it was enough to get the drift. “No. I am...
Power 4: Westmoreland County standouts, friends, foes eyeing Division I college careers
Samir Crosby and Kymon’e Brown have been exchanging jabs since they began playing Madden against each other in grade school. They are the ultimate friends and foes. They’ve shared dustups and daps, stories of big games and college visits, and a bitter dislike for one another that lasts a few...
The Birdie offers Westmoreland County season predictions that surely won’t crash and burn
Technology and the Birdie never got along. The fast-talking featherweight clings to his collection of classic rock vinyl records, still uses pencil and paper to keep stats, and prefers reading hard copies of the daily newspaper. (The ink stains on his bony fingers are decades old. Stacks of papers clutter...
WPIAL Class A preview: 3-peat within reach for Fort Cherry, but contenders are lurking
Fort Cherry defeated Clairton by the slimmest margin in the WPIAL football final at Acrisure Stadium last season. That 21-20 victory showed just how evenly matched the Class A powerhouses were. Expect much of the same this fall. The Rangers are chasing a three-peat while the perennial power Bears will...
WPIAL Class 6A preview: A decade in, 6-class system produces little big-school drama
Welcome to the 10th season of Class 6A football in the WPIAL and PIAA. The decision for the state to expand from four to six classes in football, boys and girls basketball and baseball and softball prior to the start of the 2016-17 school year was driven by bigger schools...
WPIAL Class 5A preview: Pine-Richland looks to break back-to-back curse
Can reigning WPIAL champion Pine-Richland break the Class 5A curse? No team has won back-to-back WPIAL titles in 5A since the classification was created nine years ago. Pine-Richland won in 2020, ’22 and ’24. Gateway was the champion in 2017 and ’19. Peters Township won in 2023, but its hopes...
WPIAL Class 4A preview: Star-studded McKeesport among contenders to Thomas Jefferson’s throne
Thomas Jefferson found itself in familiar territory last year. The Jaguars finished the regular season undefeated and went into the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs as the No. 1 seed. They then topped West Allegheny and Aliquippa in the quarterfinals and semifinals before upending McKeesport, 28-7, in the title game at...
WPIAL Class 3A preview: Defending champ Avonworth again looks like team to beat
Avonworth coach Duke Johncour may not want to hear this, or maybe he does, but opposing coaches say his Antelopes are the team to beat in WPIAL Class 3A. “It starts and ends with Avonworth,” said Central Valley coach Mark Lyons, whose team fell to the Antelopes in the WPIAL...
With bevy of returning starters, Washington looks poised for bounce-back year
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 Aug. 22. Due to production schedule conflicts, the Charleroi preview will be published later in the week. Mike Bosnic has been at this a while, entering his 17th...
Change sweeps through Waynesburg after back-to-back playoff seasons
The winds of change swept into Green County this past offseason, and Waynesburg was in the path of much of it. The Raiders graduated four all-conference starters, including starting quarterback Jake Stephenson, who led the team to back-to-back playoff appearances. Waynesburg also welcomed a new coach. Aaron Giorgi had been...
Productive offseason provides optimism as Sto-Rox rebuild continues
Brendan Blair knows the grind of football in Western Pennsylvania. Having grown up in Stowe Township, Blair played for Sto-Rox, graduating in 2014. After attending Cal (Pa.), where he earned a business degree, he returned to the area and got involved in coaching. Before long, Blair was announced as the...
Seton LaSalle to lean on defensive dominance
Seton LaSalle coach Tim Storino is anticipating that the team’s recent growth pattern continues in 2025. The Rebels were 0-10 and 5-5 in Storino’s first two years as field boss then made the leap to 11-1 and WPIAL finalists last fall. “Our expectations have not really changed,” Storino said. “The...
Keystone Oaks players adjusting to new roles after playoff season
Keystone Oaks coach Steve McCormick identified Owen Gearhart as a strong option at quarterback. The benefit of rotating players into different roles is that when a new year comes around, they are capable of handling a variety of tasks. Gearhart will be tasked with helping the Golden Eagles attempt to...
Expectations elevated for Carlynton after snapping playoff drought
Carlynton senior linebacker Grant Freidhoff has an idea of what things should look like when everything is going well. The Cougars closed out last season with three consecutive wins to end a 23-year playoff drought and earn a WPIAL Class 2A playoff spot out of the Century Conference. While Western...
Monessen’s Taylor provides passionate leadership
The clunking of dumbbells and iron plates in the Monessen weight room at 4 a.m. likely went unnoticed. Of course it did. Who is awake at that hour? The source of the clatter was rising senior football player T.J. Taylor. Throughout the school year, he was in the weight room...
2025 Trib HSSN football position-by-position breakdown: Scouting the defensive ends
TribLive HSSN will break down the top players at one position per day until Week Zero. Here is a look at the top defensive ends for the 2025 season. 1. Ashton Blatt Central Catholic Senior, 6-4, 230 Blatt is a dynamic pass rusher for a Central Catholic defense that celebrated...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Moe Rosensteel watch list released
The watch list for the Moe Rosensteel Most Outstanding Player Award — the top girls soccer player in the WPIAL — came out last week. Local players to make the list are Addison Ayres of Franklin Regional, Annalyse Bauer of Latrobe, Morgan Gesinski of Mt. Pleasant, Jiana Patterson of Hempfield...
Eden Christian grad playing college volleyball in Florida offers inspiration to small school players
Elena Arnold didn’t decide to transfer from Saint Francis to Rollins College for any one specific reason. It was, instead, due to a myriad of reasons. “Many things drew me to this decision,” Arnold, a former volleyball standout at Eden Christian Academy, said. “Ultimately, I was not making the on-court...
Sewickley Herald notebook: Quaker Valley volleyball has new look after championship season
Mike Vavrek is now in his 15th year as head coach of the Quaker Valley girls volleyball program. Vavrek will be helped out this season by longtime assistant Mike Hensler and first-year assistant Lanie French. The QV girls have a tough act to follow in 2025 as the Quakers captured...
Hampton girls tennis aims to extend historic run
The Hampton girls tennis team has a place to call home again, but the names and faces are a little different. Coming off the best two-year stretch in program history, the Talbots enter the 2025 season with a new-look lineup and some early question marks. Four of the top seven...
