Michael Love stories

Twelve days went by between the South Park softball team’s final regular-season game and Monday’s WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals against Deer Lakes at Fox Chapel. The Eagles’ high-powered offense took a couple of innings to get going against the Lancers. If it was a little rust, South Park hitters shook...

Dino Nadarevic had already claimed one WPIAL title last Wednesday at the Class 3A track and field championships before he went for more. With a gold medal in the shot put already placed around his neck, Nadarevic, a Gateway senior, smashed the school record in the discus and dominated the...

WPIAL softball playoffs Class 2A Quarterfinals 1-Neshannock (19-0) vs. 8-Apollo-Ridge (14-4) 5 p.m. Monday at North Allegheny Winner plays: Winner of 13-Shenango (11-8)/12-Bentworth (9-9) on Wednesday in semifinals (site/time TBD) Players to watch: Mikaila Ditty, Apollo-Ridge; Addy Frye, Neshannock Extra bases: The Section 2 runner-up Vikings outlasted No. 9 Our...

Joe Lafko looked to the future and also the past for motivation to return to coaching high school boys basketball. Lafko, who was hired at Knoch on Wednesday, said his upcoming retirement in June after 35 years of teaching social studies at Hampton helped him in his decision. The WPIAL...

Apollo-Ridge junior Jaden McCray earned a fifth-place medal in the javelin at last year’s WPIAL Class 2A track and field championships. That came with an automatic trip to states. But in his return to WPIALs on Wednesday at Slippery Rock University, McCray was shooting for more. And more is what...

WPIAL softball playoffs Class 6A Quarterfinals 12-Fox Chapel (13-6) vs. 4-North Hills (16-4) 3 p.m. Wednesday at North Allegheny Winner plays: Winner of 1-Penn-Trafford (18-2)/9-Chartiers Valley (12-6) in semifinals (date, time, location TBD) Players to watch: Natalie Anzaldi, North Hills; Summer Burkhart, Fox Chapel Extra bases: Fox Chapel pulled a...

Mackenzie Magness capped her first varsity track and field season last year with a WPIAL Class 2A pole vault championship and a trip to states. She has not slowed down this spring, and the Freeport sophomore who extended her own school record with a top attempt of 12 feet, 3...

For Lily Duffill, seven was heaven, but eight is great. The Chartiers Valley junior catcher and clean-up hitter crushed a two-out, two-run home run – her eighth of the season – in the top of the third inning of a WPIAL Class 5A first-round matchup with Plum on Monday at...

WPIAL softball playoffs Class 3A First round 8-Deer Lakes (7-13) vs. 9-Charleroi (9-8) 5 p.m. Tuesday at Norwin Winner plays: 1-South Park (18-0) in quarterfinals (date. Site and time TBD) Players to watch: Siena Plummer, Deer Lakes; Lyla Brunner, Charleroi Extra bases: Charleroi returns to the WPIAL playoffs in Class...

After four years spent on the same court helping the Plum boys basketball team improve, seniors Max Grice and Will Beckner have both found a home at the next level. Grice will take his talents to Division II Seton Hill, while Beckner will play at Division III Saint Vincent. Grice...

Nine Alle-Kiski Valley baseball teams qualified for the WPIAL playoffs, and at the top of that list, Plum is the No. 2 seed in Class 5A. The Mustangs (18-2), the outright Section 1 champions, found out they will take on No. 15 Mars at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Fox Chapel...

North Allegheny and Shaler are the top seeds for their respective WPIAL boys volleyball tournaments. The WPIAL released the Class 3A and Class 2A brackets Friday afternoon after the regular season concluded with section finales Thursday evening. There will be a new WPIAL champion in Class 3A with Shaler, the...

The WPIAL Board of Directors will meet Monday afternoon, and the eligibility of two former Knoch students and basketball players is one of the items on the agenda. Jackson Bauman, a rising senior point guard who led the Knights to a runner-up finish in Section 1-4A, a fifth-place finish in...

The U.S. Open golf championship is coming back to Oakmont Country Club on June 12-15, and Plum’s Wes Lorish is going to do his best to be there on the course with the game’s greatest players. “That would be a dream come true, to play there right in my back...

The last week of the WPIAL boys volleyball regular season is here, and the final playoff picture will take shape over the next four days. With that in mind, the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its final top-10 team rankings for both Class 3A and Class 2A. The WPIAL...

For the second year in a row, Dino Nadarevic established a new meet record at the South Fayette Invitational on April 26. The Gateway senior throwing standout won the shot put with a top attempt of 58 feet, 4.5 inches, almost a foot further than the record 57-6 he tallied...

Jane Bareikis had a title defense on her mind as she took to the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh and its surrounding neighborhoods Sunday morning as part of the Pittsburgh Marathon’s series of races. The Chicago resident and American citizen who is a native of Kenya made her Dick’s Sporting Goods...

The Pittsburgh Passion women’s football team enjoyed an undefeated 2024 regular season and was victorious in its Women’s Football Alliance first-round playoff game against Tampa Bay. The victory over the Inferno propelled the Passion to the National Conference Championship game against the Boston Renegades. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, it wasn’t able...

Will Loevner returned to long-distance running two years ago after five years of success in mountain bike racing. The 2016 Winchester Thurston graduate who ran two years at Penn State won the Cleveland Marathon in 2023 and qualified for the Olympic marathon trials at the Philadelphia Marathon later that year....

A pair of top-five boys volleyball matchups in Class 3A highlighted the WPIAL section slate last Thursday as North Allegheny topped Butler, 3-0, and Seneca Valley swept Pine-Richland. Those four teams remained at the top in the latest Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association’s WPIAL boys top-10 rankings released Monday morning....

Things started out well for Ligonier Valley in a Section 1-3A softball game Monday at Deer Lakes High School. The Rams tallied three runs in the top of the first as Natalie Bizup and Abby Springer paced the early uprising with an RBI apiece. But the homestanding Lancers rallied from...

Emotions were flowing April 22 when Emma Kennedy and her Slippery Rock softball teammates took the field for a doubleheader at IUP. The Crimson Hawks program’s “Strikeout For Cancer” event that day honored those who have battled cancer, who are battling cancer or who have died from the various forms...

Mareana Pilyih made a seamless transition from high school bowling at Plum, where she was a two-time WPIBL Most Valuable Player honoree, to the collegiate game at Saint Vincent College. As a freshman this past fall and winter, she led the Bearcats with a 191.3 average over 105 games with...

When the Riverview baseball team has earned a win this season, the players have presented one of their own with a WWE championship belt signifying that player’s impact on the victory. The belt has been distributed numerous times since the Raiders’ first win March 19. The Raiders completed a dominating...

Last year, the Knoch softball team went 10-2 in section play. Their only two losses were to undefeated champion Indiana by scores of 2-0 and 7-0. Senior Grace Hensch said she and the other returning players kept those games in mind because of what the losses meant to their section...