Michael Love stories, Page 34

Derek Burk Deer Lakes, sr., QB/S Burk hopes to start out with a strong game Friday at home against Keystone Oaks as the Lancers begin a journey that could ends with a second straight WPIAL playoff trip. Burk finished last season with 1,426 passing yards and nine touchdowns to go...

Rocco Cecere spent his freshman and sophomore seasons as a backup quarterback in the Riverview offense. He said that focus on his abilities and his improvement provided a lot of the motivation he needed to be ready when it was his turn to run the Raiders’ wing-T offense last year...

Katie Jo Stobert officially was hired Monday night as Highlands’ next athletic director. The school board vote was unanimous. But she has been busy in the position for the better part of a month getting the Golden Rams’ individual athletes and teams ready for the 2023 fall sports season as...

Michael Hanz first made contact with the West Virginia baseball program a couple of summers ago. The Freeport junior right hander’s pitching prowess at a camp on campus caught the eye of the Mountaineers coaches. Hanz attended several WVU camps since then. The most recent camp there this past weekend...

The graduation of 16 seniors from Springdale’s 2021 Class A quarterfinal-qualifying team left a void from which it was tough to recover. The 2022 Dynamos battled through youth and inexperience — only three seniors dotted the roster — and the season ended with the Dynamos at 0-10. But many of...

Riverview won four games in 2022, the most victories for the program since 2015 when it also won four times. The mission for a veteran group of Raiders players — only four seniors graduated from last year’s team — is to take that next step. Energy, enthusiasm and optimism, coach...

Julie Spinelli has one more high school basketball season remaining at St. Joseph, and she has set expectations high herself and her team, which returns every player from last year’s WPIAL Class A semifinalist. She also has her eyes focused on her future beyond high school as she now knows...

Legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant once said, “Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.” There are many examples in the history of football at all levels where a balanced offense and defense is key to bringing home a title. But one needs not look any further than last year’s...

Isaiah Gonzalez earned a baptism by fire as a freshman when he stepped into the varsity lineup at cornerback against Penn Hills when then-senior and one of Kiski Area’s top players that year, Kenny Blake, was out with injury. “That was a challenging game for him to be put in...

While some WPIAL offensive attacks look to incorporate both ground and air assaults, Burrell often loads up its tanks with the hopes of steamrolling opponents. The Bucs rushed for more than 3,000 total yards last year as they battled through Allegheny Conference play to a berth in the WPIAL Class...

When asked to appraise his team’s expectations for this season, Apollo-Ridge coach John Skiba didn’t pull any punches. “We will be young and inexperienced,” he said. But he was quick to add that the future is bright as several talented newcomers, he said, will join the few returning starters from...

Deer Lakes finished fourth in the Allegheny 6 Conference last year and earned a berth to the WPIAL playoffs for the first time since 2015. The Lancers, as the No. 10 seed in the Class 3A bracket, traveled to No. 7 Beaver hoping to pull the first-round upset, but they...

Rocco Cecere felt a ton of positive energy in the minutes and hours leading up to the Riverview football team’s first two-a-day practice Monday at Riverside Park in Oakmont. The Raiders senior quarterback and defensive back is part of sizeable group of returning starters who hope to lift Riverview to...

Ryan Cochran caught 31 passes last year in a Deer Lakes uniform. Wayne Love added 19 grabs in what turned out to be a balanced Lancers offense. The duo, both seniors coming into the 2023 season, combined for more than 850 yards and seven receiving touchdowns last year to help...

Devin Beattie hopes to have another big season for the Burrell football team. Connected to that goal is the bruising 200-pound running back’s desire to help lead the Bucs to a third consecutive WPIAL playoff appearance. “Devin is a perfect fit for our type of run-heavy offense,” Burrell coach Shawn...

Kiski Area hoped to fare better last season in its Greater Allegheny Conference debut. The Cavaliers broke into the win column just once — a 50-13 nonconference rout of Fox Chapel — in Week 8 and went winless (0-6) in conference play. But veteran coach Sam Albert said the returning...

Spencer Sells didn’t come out for the Apollo-Ridge football team his freshman and sophomore seasons. He said he was 50/50 with football at the time, weighing wanting to play with other factors, including the covid pandemic his freshman year in 2020. “I do have regrets about that looking back, 100...

Last fall was a banner season for the Gateway Midget Football and Cheerleading Association. All four of its football teams — flag (ages 5-6), Termites (7-8), Mites (9-10) and Midgets (11-12) made the Big East Youth Football League playoffs. The Termites, Mites and Midgets advanced to the semifinals. “We’re not...

Angela Franke said the past couple of days have been a whirlwind since the Leechburg School Board voted to officially hire her as athletic director Wednesday evening. “I am really excited to have this great opportunity at Leechburg,” said Franke, who served the past two academic years as the athletic...

St. Francis’ loss is Akron’s gain. Freeport senior Sydney Selker verbally committed to the Red Flash softball team in January, but a coaching change in June restarted the recruiting process for the Yellowjackets standout. After a whirlwind three-week process to find a new collegiate home, Selker settled in with the...

Ben Carlisle is no stranger to the experience of representing the Valley boys soccer team. He enjoyed a standout career with the Vikings before graduating in 2015. For the past several seasons as a coach with the Valley junior high co-ed program, he has shared the frustration of not having...

After league and regional tournaments where it won six of nine games, the Monroeville Junior Legion team set its sights on making some noise at the Pennsylvania state tournament in Berwick. Things started well with a win in its first game, but a pair of losses in the double-elimination event...

Jon Gratton’s first foray into ice hockey coaching came three seasons ago when the 2009 Plum graduate accepted a varsity assistant coaching position on college teammate Cam Raidna’s staff at Fox Chapel. “I can’t say right off the bat that coaching was a goal of mine,” said Gratton, a four-year...