Michael Love stories, Page 16

The high school bowling seasons for the Plum boys and girls teams and the Freeport girls team didn’t end in March at the state championships. All three extended their runs to this past weekend and faced the best from the country at the U.S. High School Bowling Foundation’s National Championships...

The Mars and Meadville boys volleyball teams entered Tuesday’s PIAA Class 2A semifinal winners of a combined 39 matches without a loss. Something had to give as the WPIAL champion Fightin’ Planets and District 10 champion Bulldogs met at Shenango High School with a trip to Saturday’s PIAA championship match...

Brookelyn Kotch, Josey Michalski, and Bailey Snowberger were the only three seniors on a rather young Norwin softball team that upended No. 1 Hempfield in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinals before suffering a 4-3 extra-inning heartbreaker to No. 2 Seneca Valley in the title game. The Knights’ season came to...

The Burrell baseball team rose from the No. 14 seed for the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs to a top-four finish while earning a PIAA tournament berth for the first time since 2010. The Bucs saw their postseason run end last Monday with a tough 7-3 first-round loss to District 10...

The 2023-24 school year featured a number of standout moments for the Gateway School District athletic programs. With section titles, WPIAL medals and trips to states, individuals and teams produced top results and raised the level of pride for those who support the Gators in black and gold. Here is...

Norwin rising junior Jakob Howard toed the rubber Friday morning at No Offseason Sports in Russelton and fired 10 to 12 pitches in front of more than 40 local and regional college coaches. A right ankle injury suffered a month ago during the high school season had healed, and, he...

Bentworth and Laurel met for the second time in two weeks Thursday in a PIAA Class 2A quarterfinal at Gateway. The first matchup went the way of the Bearcats in a low-scoring, one-run classic in the WPIAL semifinals. Monday’s rematch featured a few more runs — and a different result....

Plum athletic director Drew Karpen was not surprised with the number of student-athlete nominations for the Positive Athlete Western Pennsylvania Awards. A total of 30 from parents, coaches, community members and school administrators were given to Positive Athlete, and that number, in addition to the positive quality of the stories...

Carlo Buzzatto graduates Thursday with the Riverview Class of 2024. It closes one chapter of his life before he makes the transition to St. Francis (Pa.). But before he heads to the Loretto campus and joins the Red Flash football team, he will get the chance to represent the United...

The Burrell baseball team went down swinging in the seventh inning of Monday’s PIAA Class 3A first-round game against District 10 champion Fairview at Mercyhurst. Down by seven, the Bucs tallied three runs on three hits in the final inning off of Tigers reliever Aari Fox and had two runners...

Current Burrell baseball players were 4 years old or younger when the program made its most recent trip to the PIAA playoffs. The year was 2010, and the Bucs, the WPIAL Class 2A runner-up to Beaver Falls, won a first-round contest at Slippery Rock over District 10 Sharpsville. Burrell returns...

Last year, Dino Nadarevic didn’t make the WPIAL championship meet as he was starting out throwing the shot put and discus in his first season with the Gateway track and field team. It’s been a whole new ballgame for Nadarevic this spring, and this season of firsts concluded May 24-25...

In a way, it was déjà vu for Gateway in the PIAA Class 3A doubles tournament at the Hershey Racquet Club. Last year, the Gators team of Zidaan Hassan and Adam Memije made it to the semifinals where the duo fell to the twin-brother combination of Aidan and Tyler Mahaffey...

Members of the Riverview track and field teams competed in five events at the PIAA Class 2A championships in Shippensburg, and the boys 3,200-meter relay came the closest to making it onto the medals podium. Junior Holden Deasy, sophomore Braden Longstreth and juniors Christopher Barnes and Micah Ivy came in...

Last July, during the busy week of the Freeport International Baseball Invitational, a youth team from France, the Hawks of La Guerche de Bretagne, played several competitive games with a number of local clubs from the Alle-Kiski Valley. Greg Penfornis, the manager of the team, noticed the talent level of...

The Chartiers-Houston softball team saw its goal of a WPIAL Class A championship dashed last year with a loss to eventual champion Union in the semifinals. There was no stopping the Bucs against the Scotties this time around. Chartiers-Houston, behind 11 hits from its potent offense and the pitching of...

Riverview baseball coach Bill Gras said the mood was somber — as would be expected — after his team’s 1-0 loss to No. 2 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinals May 20 at Seneca Valley. The Raiders and Chargers played scoreless baseball into the...

2024 WPIAL Class 4A softball championship No. 1 Elizabeth Forward (19-1) vs. No. 2 Hampton (17-4) 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Cal (Pa.)’s Lilley Field On the air: Trib HSSN How they got here: Elizabeth Forward defeated No. 9 West Mifflin, 10-0, in the quarterfinals; and No. 4 Chartiers Valley, 7-2,...

2024 WPIAL Class 2A softball championship No. 1 Neshannock (21-0) vs. No. 2 Bentworth (17-2) Noon Thursday at Cal (Pa.)’s Lilley Field How they got here: Neshannock defeated No. 9 Riverside, 11-1, in the quarterfinals; and No. 5 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 5-0, in the semifinals. Bentworth defeated...

There was no greater compliment Tony Despotakis could pay Richard “Dick” Dilts than to compare him to Vince Lombardi. The former Kiski Area football coach shared many similarities to one the NFL’s greatest coaching minds. “He was a big fan of Lombardi, and he studied Lombardi and his coaching style,”...

Because of the forecast of rain at Cal (Pa.)’s Lilley Field, Wednesday’s Class 6A, 3A and 1A softball champ­ionship games were postponed and moved to Friday. The game times also were changed. The Class A title game between No. 1 Union and No. 3 Chartiers-Houston will be at 11 a.m.,...

Adam Jackowski shook off some early rough patches and started to cruise. The South Allegheny sophomore, who surrendered two runs on five hits and a pair of walks while throwing 61 total pitches over the first three innings of Tuesday’s WPIAL Class 3A consolation game against Burrell, settled down after...

2024 WPIAL Class A softball championship No. 1 Union (20-1) vs. No. 3 Chartiers-Houston (16-2) 11 a.m. Wednesday at Cal (Pa.)’s Lilley Field How they got here: Union defeated No. 8 Jefferson Morgan, 11-2; and No. 5 West Greene, 10-0. Chartiers-Houston defeated No. 6 Jeannette, 16-0; and No. 2 Carmichaels,...

Burrell baseball players were given the day off last Wednesday, one day after a tough 2-1 loss to Avonworth in the WPIAL Class 3A semifinals at North Allegheny. The brief respite from the rigors of the postseason gave them a chance to recharge and refocus. The immediate focus for the...

Monroeville’s CCAC Boyce baseball team started the 2024 season 3-11. Austin Long, who returned to the program last fall after having previously coached Boyce in 2018 and 2018, said he saw the team come together more in the second half of the schedule, and they went 9-10 over their final...