Bill Beckner stories, Page 40
Experienced assistant ready to move into head coaching role with Ligonier Valley boys
Ligonier Valley’s new boys basketball coach could feel a magnetic pull, almost a calling to be the loudest voice from the bench. The game is in his bloodline. The glimmer in Dante Porter’s eye began to show in his third season as an assistant with the Geibel boys basketball team...
Head-clearing trip to Japan helped refocus Spencer Lee for Olympic bid
Frustrated with nagging injuries, Spencer Lee said he thought about putting wrestling down for a while, maybe even shelving it altogether. Had he done that, though, he wouldn’t be heading to Paris to represent his country and compete for Olympic gold. He took a break, reflected and let his body...
Belle Vernon braces for life after Quinton Martin
Begrudgingly, Belle Vernon braced for the departure of No. 25. When Quinton Martin’s high school playing days were over. The Leopards knew the time would come, so they prepared for it. But reality is setting in with training camp just over a month out. “Life without Q, I’ve said that...
Jeannette’s Ciara Gregory soars to coaching position at Kentucky
The astonishment of what she is doing, the gravity of the situation she finds herself in, is not lost on Kentucky assistant women’s basketball coach Ciara Gregory. Sometimes at practice, she looks around Rupp Arena and pinches herself. The dream-chasing kid from Jeannette continues her ascent in the college coaching...
Latrobe grad Jared Kollar racking up wins for Padres’ Double-A affiliate
Jared Kollar is not considered a top 30 prospect in the San Diego Padres’ farm system, but his stock certainly isn’t falling, either. The right-hander from Latrobe who starts for the San Antonio Missions in Double-A has 15 wins in two seasons in the minors. This season, he is 8-3...
Derry senior doesn’t need high school soccer to earn scholarship to Robert Morris
Derry doesn’t have a girls soccer team. But the school has at least one outstanding girls soccer player. A Division I player, at that. Alayna Williams, a rising senior who plays for and trains with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Developmental Academy, will continue her playing career at Robert Morris. Williams, a...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Norwin grads Ty Stecko, Noah Czajkowski transferring
A pair of former Norwin baseball players from the class of 2022 are changing college programs. Both tested the waters of the NCAA transfer portal. Ty Stecko, who began his college career at Mount St. Mary’s, recently announced a commitment to Eastern Michigan. The rising junior infielder leaves the Metro-Atlantic...
Norwin dual-threat QB Tristyn Tavares is ‘just a gamer,’ coach says
Norwin has a new boxed-in monitor to watch replays from its sideline camera during games. If the team had the high-tech screen last year, players might have gotten distracted watching playbacks of Tristyn Tavares slinging the football around. The rising junior quarterback had a season to remember for the Knights,...
High school notebook: Westmoreland players included in all-state softball, baseball selections
Westmoreland County had impressive representation on the Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association All-State teams. In Class 6A, three Hempfield girls made the first team: senior first baseman Emily Griffith (.410, 25 hits, 4 HR), junior shortstop Allie Cervola (.397, 5 HR) and senior outfielder Maggie Howard (.571, 32 hits,...
College notebook: Latrobe grad Butler set for 3×3 Nations League Americas tournament
Bryce Butler has shown over the years that he is made for big moments on the basketball court. Whether he’s finding ways to score, creating offense off the ball or setting up teammates, the Latrobe product is an all-around talent. Which makes the college graduate an ideal pick for the...
Lance Maha hired as West Mifflin’s athletic director, resigns as Norwin boys basketball coach
Lance Maha is as West Mifflin as Kennywood. So, him staying home to be the high school’s athletic director should not come as a surprise. He lives there, has worked there and put roots down decades ago. Now, he will run the sports programs at his alma mater. Maha, a...
Mt. Pleasant’s Scott Giacobbi retires after 19 seasons coaching girls basketball
A military man, Scott Giacobbi is saluting the Mt. Pleasant girls basketball program one last time. The longtime authority of the Vikings is retiring from coaching and teaching. He became coach in 2005, and his career spanned 19 seasons, 13 of which saw the Vikings reach the WPIAL playoffs. Mt....
Tim Keefer stepping down as Carlow men’s basketball coach after 10 seasons
Results, Tim Keefer said, did not always come in the form of wins and losses on the court. The only men’s basketball coach in Carlow University history didn’t try to squeeze everything into one bay. A narrow thinker he is not; a bloodhound who detects the hardest workers on the...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Jeannette’s Marcus Barnes earns preseason honor
HeroSports.com came out with its top 30 FCS safeties for 2024 and a local player made the list. Marcus Barnes, a redshirt senior at William & Mary, checked in at No. 29 after an impressive ‘23 season. Barnes, a Jeannette graduate, is on pace to be a future NFL Draft...
Franklin Regional notebook: Panthers to move into new-look basketball section
The WPIAL announced its winter sports realignment for the next two-year enrollment cycle. In basketball, the returning WPIAL runner-up Franklin Regional boys will be in a new-look Section 1-5A along with Albert Gallatin, Gateway, Latrobe, Laurel Highlands, McKeesport, Penn-Trafford and Uniontown. The Panthers’ girls team will compete in Section 1-5A...
Greenburg Central Catholic competitor Tyree Turner named TribLive Westmoreland boys athlete of the year
While he lives in Indiana, Tyree Turner often feels more like a Greensburg kid because he spent so much time in and around the city. It’s tough to argue that he hasn’t been the face of Greensburg Central Catholic basketball and football, and a key player in baseball, for the...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Latrobe girls golf to debut; Terek Crosby picks Saint Vincent
The new fall season will come with a new varsity sport at Latrobe. A girls golf team will begin play in WPIAL Section 4-3A with Armstrong, Fox Chapel, Indiana, Kiski Area, Oakland Catholic and Plum. Plum also is a first-year program. Latrobe will start as a self-sustaining club team. This...
Championship softball coach Chris Brunson leaving Mt. Pleasant for Waynesburg University
Championship softball coach Chris Brunson is making the jump to the college level as he leaves the Mt. Pleasant high school team to head to Waynesburg University. Brunson resigned after leading Mt. Pleasant for the last six seasons and accepted the Yellow Jackets’ head coach position. He replaces Brett Shimek,...
Highlands goes with the Flow, finds new boys basketball coach teaching English class
Highlands likes to play fast, up-tempo basketball. It always has, even when a new coach took over. From the late Rich Falter and Shawn Bennis to Tyler Stoczynski and Corey Dotchin, the team just liked to get it and go. For their next coach, the Golden Rams will go with...
Fierce QB competition brewing at Southmoreland between Caden Matthews, Anthony Smith
There is a good old-fashioned quarterback competition brewing in Alverton, and the top preseason storyline for Southmoreland football already has people chewing the fat at gas stations and mini-marts. “It’s the talk of the town,” Scotties coach Tim Bukowski said. “People are asking me, ’Coach, who’s it going to be?’...
Latrobe QB/DB John Wetzel verbally commits to Marshall for football
Rising senior John Wetzel has seen first hand the resurgence of the Latrobe football program. He has noticed the change in attitude. The shift in perception. The wins. “We have a lot more we want to do: A state title is the main goal,” said Wetzel, a quarterback and defensive...
Southmoreland grad Vanessa Abel promoted to Duquesne basketball associate head coach
She once talked about becoming an FBI agent or working for the secret service. But the magnetism of basketball kept pulling Vanessa Abel back to the bench. Abel’s calling appears to be coaching, and her ascent in the profession continued Monday with a promotion. The Southmoreland graduate was named associate...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Seton Hill baseball players honored for defense
Three Seton Hill baseball players were lauded for their outstanding defensive play this season. Grad students Jack Oberdorf (Greensburg Salem) and Owen Sabol (Norwin), the Griffins’ third baseman and shortstop, and senior catcher Braden Durham were named to the All-American Baseball Coaches Association Atlantic Region Defensive Team. Seton Hill tied...
Penn-Trafford soccer goalie Rease Solomon commits to Robert Morris
Rease Solomon will be stopping shots in the Horizon League. The rising senior soccer goalkeeper at Penn-Trafford announced a verbal commitment to Robert Morris. Solomon, a Pittsburgh Riverhounds Academy player, was an all-section performer last season. She allowed 16 goals, made 113 saves and posted six shutouts for the Warriors...
Westmoreland H.S. notebook: Latrobe’s Andy Tatsch receives offer from West Virginia
College football recruiting has become a perpetual motion machine in the Tatsch household. First, Latrobe rising senior Alex Tatsch (6-foot-3, 220) became inundated with FBS scholarship offers, welcoming 20 of them before the standout linebacker committed to Penn State. Now Andy Tatsch, his younger brother, is beginning to draw Division...
