John Grupp stories, Page 4

Pennsylvania will be a swing state in November, but Butler this fall is strictly independent. After four seasons as an “associate member” in District 10, the Golden Tornado will play an independent schedule this season and are ineligible for the D-10 playoffs. “Every game becomes a playoff game for us,”...

Coming off the best season in program history, the Hampton girls tennis team has suddenly found itself homeless. Continued delays to a renovation project at the tennis courts at Hampton Community Park have forced the Talbots to plan for a promising 2024 season in which every match and practice will...

The drop to Class 3A could have prompted North Catholic to conclude winning will come easier this season. But it has done exactly the opposite. “Our mindset is that it’s going to be harder,” Penn State-bound senior tight end Brady O’Hara said. “We’ve got to push ourselves even more to...

Avonworth knows well the path to Acrisure Stadium. But after back-to-back lopsided losses in the WPIAL Class 3A championship game, the Antelopes are determined to complete the journey. “For us to be there and be 0-2 (in the WPIAL finals), it’s going to be big-time and a lot more motivation,”...

The Hampton Talbots return their starting quarterback from last season, but you might not recognize him. Second-team all-conference QB Porter Kelly hit an offseason growth spurt that transformed the senior, lifting the Talbots’ hopes along with it. “He was a little guy,” Hampton coach Steve Sciullo said. “He looks like...

A national championship girls soccer team this summer had a lot of Hampton flavor to it. Northern Steel, coached by two former Hampton soccer stars and led by three Talbot middle schoolers, won the 2024 National Cup XXIII Premier Division U13 finals July 21-25, in Denver. A never-in-doubt 5-1 victory...

Hampton first-year golf coach Terry Hales has much in common with his golfers this season. Almost all of them are new to the Talbots. Hales, who replaced longtime coach Bruce Steckel, inherits a roster that returns only one golfer from a 5-11 team. “I’m just really excited and looking forward...

The inaugural Talbot Shuffle fundraiser hopes to hit the ground running. The Aug. 10 event, which benefits the Hampton cross country program, is the first of its kind in the school district. “We were talking, the boosters and the coaches, and we wanted to do something to fundraise for Hampton...

Hampton’s Isabella McNutt is becoming a little bit McNasty. After graduating this year as the most decorated girls wrestler in school history, McNutt has added a new level of aggressiveness to her approach on the mat. “I realized that I had a lot more success when I was more aggressive,”...

Hampton teen Ella Lattimore enjoyed gymnastics long before she became any good at it. “It definitely took some time,” she said. “I really liked to do it, but I wasn’t very good. I just kind of showed up at the competitions, I did OK, and I left.” Now she leaves...

Hampton’s Braeden Ballintine was about 10 years old when his dad challenged him to try something with a football. Throw a spiral between your legs while looking upside down. “Before I even started playing football,” Ballintine said, “he was trying to mess around and show me how to snap a...

Tyler Bischke’s college baseball career took him thousands of miles away before bringing him back to nearly where he started. And right back to where he wanted. After playing at three schools in four years, including programs in southcentral Oklahoma and New Orleans, the Hampton graduate spent his final season...

When Bella Henzler set a goal of making all-conference in the Sun Belt, the James Madison sophomore had to know the odds were stacked against her. Of the 278 softball players in the Division I conference, only 15 will earn first-team recognition. But the former Hampton star made the decision...

When two-time state champion Dale Hall was a freshman, he got kicked out of Hampton track practice one day. He wanted to run hills with the Talbots, but there was one problem: He wasn’t even a Hampton student. “That might not have been my brightest move,” said Hall, an Aquinas...

The Hampton girls lacrosse team wobbled into mid-April, putting its streak of WPIAL playoff appearances in jeopardy. But the Talbots found their footing. Hampton won its final four Section 1-2A matches, including a do-or-die showdown with Winchester Thurston in the finale, to salvage an up-and-down season. “At the beginning of...

One of the biggest challenges for the Hampton skaters in the PIHL girls league is something most athletes take for granted. “We didn’t know each other’s names,” junior forward Danica Gynn said of her WPIAL-scattered teammates on Team Central. “Usually we just yell, ‘Yeah,’ or ‘Here,’ or just scream random...

Central Catholic senior defender Mike Kistler “felt a pop” in his right leg at preseason lacrosse practice in February. In that split second, the Hampton resident would go from looking forward to his senior season in high school to working toward his freshman year in college. “I got an MRI...

The WPIAL track and field championships started about as well as could be expected for the Hampton boys. Then things got crazy. In the meet’s opening event, the Talbots’ 3,200 relay team took second in Class 3A with a near-school record time and qualified for the PIAA championships before Mother...

Former Hampton star Laryn Edwards made national headlines over the winter when she transitioned from coach to player for the Providence women’s basketball team. Little did she know, in a roundabout way, it would bring her all the way home. “I would never have thought this was going to happen,...

Because first-year coach Kate Hedderman runs a batting cage facility in Hampton, she was confident the Talbots would hit the ball this season. She wasn’t so sure about catching it. “That made me nervous,” she said. “We didn’t get a lot of fielding practice because we were stuck inside with...

The Hampton boys tennis team traveled to Philadelphia for a mid-April match, running up the “Rocky” steps and visiting the Liberty Bell during a day of sightseeing. The Talbots were something to see this season. Paced by an experienced senior class and the second PIAA singles qualifier in program history,...

One day after Hampton’s WPIAL playoff hopes ended with a walk-off loss at Knoch, senior Matt Erka searched for a bright spot. “We tried our best, and we just couldn’t get it done,” the outfielder/pitcher said. “I guess it just wasn’t enough.” Needing to win one of its final two...

Hampton senior AJ Prodente has gone from sprinting 94 feet to racing 400 meters. The starting point guard on Hampton’s 25-5 WPIAL Class 4A runner-up basketball team this past winter, Prodente has swapped his sneakers for spikes in only his second season competing in track. “I wish that we’d had...

When a group of Hampton girls desired a fun, low-stress spring sport, they found exactly what they were looking for. With a little help from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hampton is a first-year club team in the high school girls flag football league, which is sponsored by the Steelers and the...

Hampton’s Jessica Lange made a name for herself doing the little things for the Talbots softball team. The fleet-footed senior center fielder earned all-Section 3-4A honors last season thanks to excellent defense and being skilled at bunting and putting the ball in play. “I used to be a really big...