Chris Harlan stories, Page 5

The WPIAL has set semifinal sites and times for all 24 basketball semifinals. The round starts Saturday with games in Class A and 4A boys and Class 3A and 5A girls. The semifinals continue Monday and Tuesday. Boys basketball Class 6A Monday’s games 1-Upper St. Clair (21-2) vs. 5-Central Catholic...

Five offensive and five defensive linemen were among the 23 WPIAL and City League football players selected for the 2025 PSFCA Big School East-West Game this spring. The roster was announced Friday. The Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association organizes two East-West all-star games each year, one for small schools (Class...

Central Catholic and Fox Chapel combined for five points in the first 5 minutes Thursday night, hinting at the struggle between two of the WPIAL best big-school defenses. They were tied midway through the fourth. A tie-breaking 3-pointer by Central Catholic’s Christian Williams sparked a late run for the Vikings,...

The PIAA eliminated its one-sentence transgender athlete policy and changed language in its handbook to no longer ask member schools to determine those students’ “gender” but rather their “sex.” The changes were approved Wednesday by the PIAA board to comply with an executive order signed Feb. 5 by President Donald...

B.J. Pugh, a former West Mifflin quarterback and current teacher in the district, is expected to be hired Thursday as football coach at his alma mater. The school board agenda lists Pugh as the recommended candidate. A 1995 graduate, Pugh teaches elementary school and has coached a variety of West...

WPIAL title-winning South Park teammates Eric Doerue, Troy Cunningham and Kenyan Brown were among 17 WPIAL football players chosen to compete in the PSFCA Small School East-West Game this spring. The roster was announced Thursday. The Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association organizes two East-West all-star games each year, one for...

Avonworth maybe didn’t win the game in the first 5 minutes, but its hot start Wednesday night certainly shaped the final three quarters. The Antelopes ran out to an early 11-point lead, putting Knoch in a hole it couldn’t quite escape. Avonworth’s Rowan Carmichael bolstered his status as the WPIAL’s...

Liam Sheely’s basketball coach is also a physical therapist, a combination that surely helped Mt. Lebanon’s leading scorer get back on the court this week. A 6-foot-3 junior and 18-point scorer, Sheely has endured a rather painful season. His latest setback was a shoulder aggravation one week ago that was...

Mt. Lebanon’s Sam Deibert scored a game-high 24 points as the sixth-seeded Blue Devils ran away with 61-34 victory over No. 11 Norwin in a first-round rubber match Monday night in the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. The section foes split their two regular-season matchups starting with a two-point overtime win...

Whenever Rick Frederick visits the Pine-Richland gym nowadays, he admires the baseball banner hanging on the wall, the one that lists 18 section titles. The first was in 1975. He knows with certainty that the Rams couldn’t have won a section title any earlier. That’s because the high school didn’t...

Five offensive or defensive linemen were among a dozen WPIAL players chosen Friday to represent Pennsylvania in the Big 33 Football Classic this spring. The 68th playing of the annual all-star game is May 25 at Cumberland Valley. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. The Pennsylvania roster includes South Park’s Parker Cunningham,...

West Mifflin intends to hire a football coach next week, but it won’t be incumbent Rod Steele. Steele was originally a finalist to retain his job but said Thursday he withdrew his name from consideration last month. All West Mifflin coaching jobs were open to applicants, with current coaches able...

Deer Lakes is still unbeaten in the WPIAL playoffs under coach Albie Fletcher, a remarkable three-year streak that added another win Friday night. The Lancers’ postseason poise was evident in this one. Seventh-seeded Deer Lakes upped its defensive intensity and scored 21 consecutive points in a decisive run that spanned...

Some WPIAL basketball teams won’t need to scout their playoff opponent much. Avoiding section rematches in the first round was an unwritten rule the WPIAL historically tried to follow, but this season the basketball steering committee at times moved away from that idea. The philosophical change was most obvious in...

Breaking down the 2025 WPIAL boys basketball playoffs Class 6A Favorite: Defending WPIAL champion Upper St. Clair has some impressive size that’s tough to match, starting with 6-foot-10 senior Tyler Robbins (16 ppg), a Miami (Ohio) recruit. His sophomore brother Ryan Robbins is 6-7, and senior Kaamil Jackson is 6-6....

South Fayette girls basketball coach Bryan Bennett was surprised by what he saw when the WPIAL released playoff brackets Monday. His three-time defending champions were favored to win again as the No. 1 seed in Class 5A. Sure, that could’ve surprised somebody, but that wasn’t what surprised him. Bennett was...

The 2025 boys basketball playoff field is set with 85 teams in the six classifications. Class A heads straight into the quarterfinal round while the five other classifications start with first-round games. Class 5A has 17 teams with one pigtail game and 3A has a full 16-team bracket with no...

The 2025 girls basketball playoff field is set with 84 teams in six classifications. Class 6A girls starts with eight teams in the quarterfinals while Class 5A has a complete 16-team bracket and 3A is one short with 15. Both 4A and 2A have 17 teams, which means pigtail-mania. Class...

Class 6A Rank, Team, W-L, Last 1. Upper St. Clair, 20-2, 1 2. New Castle, 18-3, 4 3. Imani Christian, 13-7, 3 4. Central Catholic, 13-8, 2 5. Mt. Lebanon, 14-7, NR Out: Fox Chapel (15-6, 5) Class 5A 1. Montour, 20-1, 1 2. Baldwin, 20-1, 2 3. Uniontown, 19-3,...

Class 6A Rank, Team, W-L, Last 1. Norwin, 13-7, 1 2. Upper St. Clair, 15-6, 2 3. Seneca Valley, 15-5, 3 4. Canon-McMillan, 12-8, 5 5. Mt. Lebanon, 12-9, 4 Out: none Class 5A 1. Peters Township, 19-2, 1 2. South Fayette, 21-1, 2 3. Penn-Trafford, 22-0, 3 4. Shaler,...

Brady Mayo found a way to let his coach know he wasn’t feeling stressed, even surrounded by a standing-room crowd in a nail-biting atmosphere that ultimately needed overtime. “He was at half-court guarding, and he looked at me and he winked,” Beaver coach Jason Bumblis said. “I swear to God....

The PIAA, which has allowed transgender high school athletes to compete in its state championships, will heed a presidential executive order barring them from women’s and girls sports. “We are tracking and assessing the law as it evolves and encourage all member schools to do the same,” PIAA executive director...

This was for second place in the section and maybe a much better seed in the playoffs, but Imani Christian’s R.J. Sledge felt another strong motivation, too. “I couldn’t lose on my senior night,” said Sledge, who punctuated the first half with a heave from beyond half-court and delivered again...

The Class of 2026 is on the clock. With the arrival Wednesday of signing day, most of the top high school seniors in the WPIAL and City League have finalized their college football plans. That leaves college recruiters free to focus on a talented junior class that’s largely uncommitted. Here...

The WPIAL’s tightest section race remains so thanks to a game that couldn’t get much closer. North Catholic’s Owen Maddalon blocked a shot with six-tenths on the clock Tuesday night, the last act in the frantic final seconds as the Trojans defeated visiting Knoch, 54-53, in a battle for first...