Bolstered by 5 WPIAL championship teams, Quaker Valley captures Class 4A Trib Cup
Mike Mastroianni was in a no lose situation in this year’s race for the Trib HSSN Cup in Class 4A. He is the athletic director and boys basketball coach at Quaker Valley while he lives in the Montour school district. Those two schools finished first and second, with Mastroianni’s Quakers...
Moon’s Mia Cochran earns state’s top honor from track and field coaches
Moon senior Mia Cochran turned in quite a performance at the PIAA track and field championships the weekend of May 27-28. She won three distance races — 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters — in Class 3A, and for that effort she was named the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association’s...
New Castle’s Maria Owens turns triple jump frustration into PIAA long jump gold
SHIPPENSBURG — New Castle senior Maria Owens was upset with herself a day earlier after a 17th-place finish in the triple jump, disappointed largely by a foul on a big jump. “I couldn’t get over it,” she said. But eventually she decided to take that mistake, turn it into motivation...
Westmoreland WPIAL softball playoff capsules: Games for Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Class 6A Quarterfinals 8-Norwin (6-9) vs. 1-Hempfield (12-3) 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Penn-Trafford Winner plays: Winner of 5-Bethel Park (9-8) vs. 4-Seneca Valley (10-6), May 25 (time, site TBD) Players to watch: Angelina Pepe, Sr., Norwin; Margaret Howard, So., Hempfield Extra bases: Norwin overpowered No. 9 Baldwin in the first...
What to watch for on Trib HSSN for Monday, May 9, 2022: Baseball, softball, tennis on tap
Welcome to the final week of the WPIAL baseball and softball regular season. With weather not an issue, several district baseball teams hope to join the long list of schools that have qualified for the 2022 WPIAL baseball playoffs with a victory Monday. *Kiski Area can clinch a playoff berth...
WPIAL lands 3 players on Class 5A all-state boys basketball team
New Castle and Laurel Highlands combined for one of the most competitive WPIAL finals in recent memory, a matchup decided in double overtime by two last-second free throws. Laurel Highlands (27-1) celebrated the WPIAL title that day, but New Castle (27-3) went on to finish as the state runner-up. The...
2022 Trib HSSN Head of the Class: WPIAL boys basketball’s best in each classification
There were a lot of players and coaches who put in plenty of time on the basketball court this season to be the best they could be. While we salute all of those who participated in a memorable 2022 high school boys basketball campaign, we have a special seat in...
2022 TribLive HSSN Boys Basketball All-Stars | Terrific 10
This was a history-making year for WPIAL boys basketball with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart leading the way. The record-setting Chargers were one of three teams that won a WPIAL title with an undefeated record, joining Quaker Valley and Laurel Highlands. All three championships squads are represented here among...
Public school criticism of state basketball playoffs ‘sour grapes,’ says PIAA director
Traditional public schools won only two of the 12 state basketball titles celebrated this weekend in Hershey, the fewest since the PIAA expanded the sport to six classifications in 2016. The 10 others were won by private and charter schools, leading some public school coaches to question the fairness of...
What to watch in high school sports on March 28, 2022: Baseball revs up
Most WPIAL baseball teams will get a week of nonsection play in this week before starting their “section series” schedule next week. However, there are five sections that have a bloated seven teams. For those sections, there is no warm-up. Section play for those teams begins this week. The sections...
Nationally ranked Imhotep Charter dashes New Castle’s hopes for state championship
HERSHEY — New Castle wanted to hold for the final shot of the first half, yet Imhotep Charter grabbed a rebound, hit a buzzer-beating 3 and ran to the locker room up 11. “That shot described how the first half went for them,” New Castle senior Mike Wells said. “They...
2022 PIAA Class 5A boys basketball championship breakdown: New Castle vs. Imhotep Charter
PIAA Class 5A boys basketball final New Castle vs. Imhotep Charter 7:30 p.m., Friday, Giant Center, Hershey On the air: TV: PCN PIAA titles: New Castle 1 (2014), Imhotep Charter 7 (2009, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’17, ’18, ’19) New Castle (27-2) Coach: Ralph Blundo Probable starting lineup No., Name, Ht.,...
Trib 10 teams head to Hershey for PIAA championship games
Three boys and two girls WPIAL basketball teams saw their dreams of merging gold and chocolate together come to an end last week with a loss in the PIAA semifinals. However, nine district teams have booked their hotels and are heading east in search of a state championship…and chocolate. While...
Trib HSSN boys basketball state rankings for March 22, 2022
The stage is set for the final weekend of high school basketball in the 2022 season as the top 12 boys hoops teams descend on the Giant Center in Hershey in an attempt to win state gold. So before checking out the penultimate Trib HSSN rankings in which all six...
2022 WPIAL Class 4A softball preseason breakdown
Last spring was a celebration as district athletes returned to the diamonds after the 2020 season was canceled because of the covid-19 shutdowns. Softball was a success throughout as the WPIAL crowned four new champions, and Laurel and West Greene remained on top in Class 2A and A. District softball...
2022 WPIAL Class 4A baseball preseason breakdown
Last spring was a celebration as district athletes returned to the diamonds after the 2020 season was canceled because of covid-19 shutdowns. Baseball thrived throughout the WPIAL as six new champions were crowned, some in dramatic fashion. That success carried over to the state playoffs as WPIAL teams captured two...
Mike Wells shakes off sore elbow, leads New Castle to 1st PIAA finals since ’14
Mike Wells’ elbow was still hurting him, but that didn’t hide his happiness as New Castle fans rained Hershey’s Kisses on the Red Hurricanes’ postgame celebration. A day after falling hard at practice, Wells shook off the shooting-arm injury and scored a game-high 26 points Friday night with four 3-pointers...
Trib HSSN boys basketball state rankings for March 16, 2022
We have seen in the past, complete turmoil takes over this time of year when it comes to the state rankings with so many head-to-head clashes. For the most part, the latest Trib HSSN rankings held up. Nine teams dropped out after losses in the PIAA second round and quarterfinals,...
PIAA announces sites, times for Friday’s state basketball semifinals
The PIAA chose Norwin as host site for the rematch of New Castle and Gateway, one of two all-WPIAL pairings in the state basketball semifinals. They’ll meet at 7 p.m. Friday with the winner advancing to Hershey. New Castle defeated Gateway by 10 points when they played Feb. 28 in...
New Castle wins ‘fist fight’ over Penn Hills in low-scoring PIAA quarterfinal
How do you describe a game with more than a dozen blocks, more than two dozen turnovers, and the first team to score 40 points won? “A total fist fight,” New Castle coach Ralph Blundo said, “and we knew that’s what it was going to be.” At the end, his...
PIAA announces sites, times for Tuesday’s basketball quarterfinals
The WPIAL is guaranteed to have a boys team in the Class 5A state championship with Laurel Highlands, New Castle, Gateway and Penn Hills all reaching the quarterfinals. They’ll pair off Tuesday in two matchups in a doubleheader at Robert Morris’ UPMC Events Center. New Castle plays Penn Hills at...
Rodney Gallagher’s free throws in final second of double OT lift Laurel Highlands past New Castle in WPIAL Class 5A final
Same arena. Same prize. There was a little less time on the clock when Rodney Gallagher walked to the foul line this year, but he made sure the outcome was also exactly the same. The Laurel Highlands junior stirred memories of his freshman heroics by drawing a foul with three-tenths...
2022 WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball championship breakdown: Laurel Highlands vs. New Castle
No. 1 Laurel Highlands vs. No. 2 New Castle 9 p.m. Friday, Petersen Events Center On the air: Video livestream: TribHSSN.TribLive.com WPIAL titles: Laurel Highlands 2 (1968, 2020), New Castle 14 (1927, ’36, ’82, ’93, ’97, ’98, ‘99, 2012, ’13, ‘14, ’17, ’18, ’19, ‘21 ) Laurel Highlands (24-0) Coach:...
Defending champion New Castle reaches WPIAL finals for 8th time in 11 years
The road to the WPIAL championship winds through gyms all across Western Pennsylvania, but New Castle rarely gets lost along the way. They know the route better than most. “This is the road we take every year,” senior Mike Wells said Monday night, after the Red Hurricanes clinched their eighth...
Breaking down the 2022 WPIAL boys basketball playoff brackets
Class 6A Favorite: North Hills went undefeated and ran away with the Section 1 title, putting the Indians in position to maybe win their first WPIAL title. They’re led by a trio of double-digit scorers, including 6-foot-7 sophomore Royce Parham (20.9 ppg) and 6-3 senior guards Alex Smith (18.6) and...
