Bill Beckner stories, Page 106

Derek Orndorff has become known for his highlight catches in center field. The grad student baseball player at Liberty has made ESPN SportsCenter’s Top Plays three times in less than a year. He even grabbed the show’s No. 1 highlight on Feb. 19 with a diving snag on the warning...

Matt Frey finally connected with the lineup at Michigan, then connected for his first home run in Blue and Maize. Frey, a grad student from Franklin Regional, launched his first homer, a three-run blast in the ninth inning of a wild, 20-13 victory over Florida Atlantic. He was 2 for...

Some say luck is when preparation crosses paths with opportunity. For many WPIAL basketball teams, luck had a lot to do with their state playoff fate. It was, after all, in the hands of other teams. With the league’s follow-the-winner format to determine PIAA qualifiers and their seedings back in...

Class 2A Quarterfinals 8-Hempfield (9-9) vs. 1-Thomas Jefferson (17-1) 7 p.m. Monday at Ice Castle Arena, Castle Shannon Winner plays: Winner of 5-Meadville/4-Penn-Trafford in semifinals, 7 p.m. March 15 at Robert Morris Island Sports Center, Moon Ice chips: Hempfield finished fourth in the East Division with 19 points despite allowing...

Norwin’s boys basketball team couldn’t hold off Butler for a second time this season and fell 81-73 in a rematch with the Golden Tornado in the WPIAL Class 6A first round, bringing the Knights’ season to a close. Junior Adam Bilinsky scored 27 points to pace the Knights, who finished...

Norwin had momentum, a nine-point halftime lead and its sights on a return to the WPIAL Class 6A girls basketball semifinals. But Bethel Park wasn’t ready to fold with two quarters to play. The fifth-seeded Black Hawks rallied to take down the No. 4 Lady Knights, 42-36, in the quarterfinals...

Westmoreland County did not produce a WPIAL champion in basketball this season. Not so fast, says Eli Teslovich. A sophomore at Shady Side Academy, Teslovich helped lead the Bulldogs — remember, they aren’t the Indians any more — to the program’s second district championship Friday night with a 66-54 victory...

Anyone who follows Latrobe girls soccer will not be surprised to hear the news: Sofia DeCerb will stop shots at the NCAA Division I level. The junior goalkeeper announced she verbally committed to play at James Madison. Her high school coach knew she would find a spot with a high-level...

Jake DiMichele cracked open a cold Pepsi before meeting a gaggle of reporters. It looked like a Name, Image, Likeness type of deal as the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart star sipped and answered questions in the media room at Petersen Events Center. “Nah, it’s just my favorite drink,”...

Peter Kramer saw Eli Teslovich dribble into the open court with only one defender ahead. Kramer quickly sped up as the fast break developed. When Teslovich spotted his trailing teammate, the pair of Shady Side Academy guards orchestrated the play of the night. Dare they call it, “The Pete”? Kramer...

North Allegheny (Class 3A), Thomas Jefferson (2A), Fox Chapel (A) and Bishop Canevin (Division 2) are the top seeds for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League Penguin Cup playoffs, set to begin Monday at various league-used rinks. The semifinals will be March 14, 15, 16 and 17, and the finals March...

Sam Breen went from the Big Ten to the Atlantic 10. Ten and 10, that’s right up Breen’s alley. The former North Catholic star is a double-double producer and durable post presence for Massachusetts in her fifth season of college basketball, and her counterparts have noticed. The 6-foot-1 Breen, who...

With three sub-70 rounds, Greensburg’s Mark Goetz chiseled out a two-shot victory at the Lake Las Vegas Intercollegiate, an event his West Virginia team also won in a runaway. Goetz, a fifth-year senior, shot 65, 67 and 69 to finish at 15-under-par 201 at Reflection Bay Golf Club in Henderson,...

Keep chasing the life you want to live. That is one of the core messages Tim Cortazzo and Colin Jonov want to push in a new podcast they created called “Identity Impact.” The pair of former Division I football players from Westmoreland County high schools want to assist former athletes...

Bryce Butler was thrust into the starting lineup at West Liberty this season in a full-time role. One could say he embraced the opportunity. Another way to put it might be: He took a defining season and owned it. The third-year sophomore out of Latrobe has been dominant for one...

Greensburg Central Catholic ended Monessen’s 16-game winning streak in the semifinals. Transpose that number and that is what GCC was up against in the semis against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Teams have been trying for weeks … months … years … to make the Chargers look human, but...

Saint Vincent senior Sydney Green ran to a pair of top-two finishes at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships in Youngstown, Ohio. The Latrobe product clocked a personal-best mark of 5 minutes, 17.76 seconds in the mile to win by more than five seconds. She added a...

Teams that have played against Southmoreland the last several seasons rarely have hit their scoring averages. If they did, it was probably because they were equally as talented or better, they shot the lights out or they caught the Scotties on an off night. “We’re disciplined on defense,” said junior...

Semifinals Boys Class A 4-Greensburg Central Catholic (18-3) vs. 1-Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (21-0) 8 p.m. Tuesday at Gateway Coaches: Christian Hyland, Greensburg Central Catholic; Mike Rodriguez, OLSH Winner plays: Winner of 3-Carlynton (20-2)/2-Fort Cherry (22-2) in championship 1 p.m. March 5 at Petersen Events Center Layup lines:...

Saint Vincent College is looking for new leadership in its men’s basketball program. The college announced Monday it will not retain Terrance Smith as head coach and will immediately begin to search for a replacement. Smith led the Bearcats for three seasons, compiling a record of 19-44, including a 3-22...

Haylie Brunson did not need a beginner’s manual to play college softball at the Division I level. Brunson, a freshman at Pitt who was the Trib Westmoreland softball player of the year only eight months ago after leading Mt. Pleasant to WPIAL and PIAA titles, is on an early season...

Schedules for the 2022 WPIAL football season came out last week, giving some teams in new classifications, and their fans, a glimpse of what lies ahead. Norwin and Hempfield will be new to Class 5A and play in a conference with Franklin Regional, Gateway, returning WPIAL and PIAA champion Penn-Trafford...

Greensburg Central Catholic players and coaches watched Our Lady of the Sacred Heart celebrate a WPIAL boys basketball title last year at Peters Township — right in front of them. The dog pile celebration followed a 71-52 victory over the Centurions in the Class 2A final. As if GCC needed...

If the shoe fits … write a book about it. That is what collector Drew Phipps did to share his unbridled passion for something most take for granted. Something to which many will never give a second thought. Wrestling shoes. Not baseball cards, coins or comic books. Phipps has been...

Organizer Kurt Kimmich longs for the return of the Special Needs Awareness Day at Franklin Regional. The unique event celebrates the students of Clelian Heights School for Exceptional Children in Greensburg, through basketball. Sister Charlene Celli of Clelian Heights told Kimmich, “Definitely next year,” when asked if the event would...