Bill Beckner stories, Page 24

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...

Two local football players were named most valuable players at the 2Tenths Speed & Agility Top 150 Camp last weekend at Shady Side Academy. The event featured some of the top returning players in the WPIAL, several of them from Westmoreland County. Southmoreland freshman quarterback Anthony Smith was the top...

Division champions Latrobe and Bushy Run each had seven selections as District 31 American Legion baseball league announced its all-star players for the season. District champion Latrobe, along with Hempfield East, Bushy Run, and Murrysville will play in the Region 7 tournament this weekend in Claysburg. District 31 held its...

Alex Tatsch essentially has more stars in his recruiting rating (four) than he does years of high school football. The Latrobe stud linebacker didn’t play much as a freshman and didn’t catch the eye of major college coaches until he was a junior. “He was 5-10 when he was in...

The championship plaque and the balance of power at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Larry Sellitto Memorial 7-on-7 football passing tournament are back in the hands of Penn-Trafford. The Warriors, a perennial contender in the event, reached the final for the 10th time in 13 years and claimed their sixth...

Duquesne’s Emily Brozeski (Norwin) is one of 17 graduating student-athletes from the Atlantic 10 Conference nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year award. A track and field standout, Brozeski will look to advance with the winner’s fate in the hands of a selection committee. The NCAA award originated in...

Surprised wasn’t the right word, but Darren DeRiggi did not fully expect to have all-state honors arrive on his doorstep at the conclusion of high school baseball season. He had just completed a crackling junior campaign where he accomplished his initial goal of starting for the Panthers. That was the...

Get this. A six-touchdown game last season against Burrell could have been a nine-touchdown game for Donald Barksdale. Nine touchdowns. A heaping 54 points — from one guy. “Three were called back,” Barksdale said with a sigh. “Penalties.” There is a reason Steel Valley football coach Ray Braszo calls his...

Hempfield second-year football coach Nick Keefer has assembled a unique mix of assistants for a new season. One will be of interest to local basketball fans. Longtime hardwood coach Jim Nesser has joined the Spartans and will work with defensive backs. Nesser, who previously helped out at Greensburg Central Catholic...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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 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,...

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,...

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 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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...