Dave Mackall stories, Page 11

Jeannette’s steady climb back to respectability took another step forward Friday night. Is the WPIAL’s winningest football team all the way back? “I’m not ready to say it yet,” Jayhawks coach Tommy Paulone said. “The progress is pleasing, but we know there’s still work to do.” Payton Molter threw three...

Washington coach Mike Bosnic cracked a smile when reminded of his team’s elevated standing in the WPIAL rankings as the Pennsylvania high school football season nears the halfway point. The top-ranked Little Prexies have built quite a resume in the first half. “We actually talked about that this past week,”...

It’s been 23 years since Greensburg Salem has won a WPIAL playoff game in football, long enough for Ty George maybe to remember. After failing to qualify in 2022, the Golden Lions are attempting to make it back to the postseason in George’s first year as their coach. They took...

The spotlight on a pair of Westmoreland County running backs with 200-yard games last week during the opening night of high school football shifted Friday night to Southmoreland’s Da’sjon Craggette. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior ran every which way again, finishing with 193 yards and three touchdowns to lead the visiting...

ALTOONA — Paul Skenes’ highly anticipated Double-A debut with the Altoona Curve on Saturday turned out to be a dud. The No. 1 overall pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in July’s MLB Draft failed to get through the first inning of an Eastern League game against the Akron RubberDucks before...

Thomas Jefferson is hoping to extend its string of WPIAL playoff appearances in football to 29 this season. Judging by Friday’s opening night performance, the Jaguars could be well on their way. Running an offense using alternating quarterbacks, Thomas Jefferson, the No. 2-ranked WPIAL Class 4A team, jumped on Class...

Baby steps. For Brownsville, taking a patient approach appears likely to be the best method for attempting to halt a long losing streak and reverse the negative trend plaguing the school’s once-proud football program. So says second-year coach Scott “Skooter” Roebuck, whose first season resulted in an 0-8 record that...

After participating in some light stretching and then booting a couple of balls high into the air at the onset of Thursday’s Pitt football practice, Caleb Junko took a timeout and headed to a familiar spot occupied by his grandfather, legendary former Pitt assistant Bob Junko. “How are you doing?”...

Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec, a Pine-Richland grad, is among the preseason candidates for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. It marks the second award to recognize Jurkovec as a preseason candidate. The Unitas Award is presented annually to the top senior or upperclassman quarterback set to graduate with his class....

First, it was the Pitt offense that stood out. This time around, the defense took center stage. The Panthers’ second scrimmage of the preseason has been tickling the senses of coach Pat Narduzzi — a defensive-minded guy, mind you — and creating a stir at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex ever...

This is a story about mutual respect and admiration, an examination of the tight bond of high school football teammates at Mt. Pleasant. There are cornerbacks and safeties. Outside and inside linebackers. Quarterbacks and linemen. Offensive linemen, that is. Speaking of which, Mt. Pleasant takes an abundance of experience into...

At this time a year ago, the Mohawk football team was grappling with the effects of a hazing incident that resulted in disciplinary action for multiple students and forced the cancellation of the Warriors’ first two regular-season games. Fast-forward to the present. “We’re focused on the current season,” Mohawk coach...

A total of 16 returning lettermen, including 13 starters on offense and defense combined, have the Mt. Pleasant community buzzing. With all that experience coming back, there’s hope among the faithful that this could be a special year. Coach Jason Fazekas, entering his seventh season, was his usual subdued self,...

Growing up in Lancaster County, Brian Hanson saw Western Pennsylvania high school football from afar. A former walk-on linebacker at Pitt, Hanson finds himself now coaching the sport in the WPIAL. “Good players on both sides of the state,” he said. “I think Western Pennsylvania has a way of making...

Excuse Dom Pecora if he tends to fret at this time of year. Ultra competitive in nature, the East Allegheny football coach sizes up the demands of young players, many craving some proper direction. As the Wildcats prepared for another season, their streak of seven WPIAL playoff appearances loomed large,...

He won a state championship years ago at Steel Valley, and he’s been tasked to return West Mifflin’s status to a legitimate playoff contender. Rod Steele knows all too well the process, sometimes, is slowed. As he enters the fifth year as coach of a program that’s seen its share...

The positivity resonates throughout Dan Knause’s lingo: • “Make today count.” • “Team chemistry is so important.” • “Person-student-player,” in that order, he says. It’s been Knause’s calling card wherever he’s been, and it’s no different at Trinity, where he serves as assistant high school principal and is entering his...

Louie Amatucci, a rising senior at Latrobe, in at least one respect, is like many of his American Legion baseball teammates. He’s young and eager to return. “A lot of these guys are eligible to come back,” said the Latrobe Legion team’s leading hitter. Coincidentally, Amatucci’s older brother, Vinny, is...

One night after an impressive victory over Wesleyville, the Latrobe Jethawks got knocked down Tuesday in a five-inning shortened, 10-0 loss to Harrisburg Paxton in a winners’ bracket nightcap of four games in Pennsylvania’s American Legion State Tournament at Rosa-Oglietti Park in Derry Township. Latrobe, coming off that 7-1 victory...

Stop Jason Bush if you’ve heard him say this before: “A lot of people have baseball teams. No disrespect to anybody else, but I think we have a baseball program.” The Latrobe American Legion coach continued to abide by that axiom Sunday at Latrobe High School as his two-time defending...

Years of tossing batting practice to players on his Latrobe American Legion baseball teams has trained longtime coach Jason Bush to throw strikes. So, naturally, even at the ripe age of 51, Bush continues to play competitively — sort of, he mused — as a pitcher in the Latrobe-Derry Old...

Among Todd Bunner’s nuances is a habit of hand-writing his team’s season statistics on a homemade chart, a practice that defies logic in an era of electronic saturation. You could say Southmoreland’s old-school softball coach is set in his ways … And it’s not such a bad thing? After all,...

You can call him Jim Bob or even by his real name, if you like. But please, don’t refer to James Domer as Jim or Jimmy or any other variation. It’s not that Pitt-Greensburg’s sensational freshman outfielder wouldn’t answer to those names, but virtually no one uses them to refer...

Since claiming its only state championship in softball in 2010, Chartiers-Houston has been close to winning another one several times. The Buccaneers made a run to the semifinals in 2017 and to the quarterfinals in 2019. And they advanced that far again this season. But it ended there for the...

At any level of baseball, there are pitchers (i.e. throwers) and there are pitchers (i.e. the real McCoys). In other words, the real McCoys put some thought into the matter. It’s not just, “wind up and fire darts.” Which brings us to Jarrett Heilman, the former Freeport right-hander who continues...