Michael Love stories, Page 5

Gateway is closing in on the end of the PIHL Division 2 regular season, and the Gators find themselves in the heat of the chase for a spot in the PIHL postseason. The Gators, who won four in a row and five of six heading into a key matchup Monday...

Noah Odom will continue his football playing career at Division II Ashland University. The Plum senior said he’s excited to share this new venture with a couple of Mustangs teammates, as both Josh Curry and T.J. Futules also have signed with the Eagles football program. “It is truly a blessing...

The Plum girls basketball team is in playoff mode as the regular season has come to a close, and coach Rich Mull and his players are looking forward to what lies ahead. The Mustangs solidified their place in the postseason with a trio of Section 1-5A victories — over Armstrong,...

Kiski Area boys basketball’s section-championship drought is over. The Cavaliers captured the outright Section 2-5A championship Friday night, their first section title since 2012-13, with a 68-61 victory at Penn Hills. “It means so much that we worked so hard for this,” said Kiski Area coach Corey Smith, who won...

Tim Burchett has resigned as coach of the Knoch football team, and he said the decision was not an easy one but one that was the best for him moving forward. “It was a combination of a lot of things,” said Burchett who is a teacher in the school district....

Montrell Johnson said hard work and perseverance helped in his pursuit of an opportunity in college football at the Division I level. A dream became a reality Wednesday morning when the Highlands senior finalized a decision to attend Saint Francis with the hopes of getting on the field and making...

Highlands’ boys basketball players have taken all of the adversity they have faced this season and have turned it into a berth in the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. Three Golden Rams scored in double figures in a Section 1-4A contest Tuesday against rival Freeport at Freeport Middle School. Led by...

Burrell hockey coach Drew Burkett remembers well the trip he and his Bucs teammates made to the 2019 USA Hockey High School Division II National Championship tournament. The goaltender for that year’s Burrell team, Burkett helped the Bucs reach the championship game before losing to Boulder/Monarch from Boulder, Colo. Current...

Jordan Edwards didn’t waste any time hitting the ground running after she was hired last June as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at Princeton. “Summer is the big evaluation period, and there is a lot of recruiting that goes into it,” said Edwards, a standout player at...

The Gateway unified bocce teams hosted Fox Chapel on Thursday at the Furrie Sports Complex in front of a large contingent of junior and senior students. The special start time of 2 p.m. allowed for a vast cheering section for the two Gators teams in the thick of the chase...

Last season, Alex Wylly made a postseason push that saw him place fourth in his Class 2A section tournament, earn a sixth-place medal at the WPIAL championships, and compete at regionals. The sophomore and lone Springdale varsity wrestler in this year’s Springdale-Riverview co-op is on a mission to take that...

Mercyhurst athletics made the move from NCAA Division II to Division I last April, and its teams began play at the highest level during the fall season. The Lakers baseball team will hope to make its mark this spring against the likes of St. Francis (Pa.), Long Island, Central Connecticut...

With its playoff hopes on the line, Freeport responded in a crucial Section 1-4A game Friday at rival Burrell. But it was far from a runaway down the stretch for the Yellowjackets. Freeport led by as many as 14 in the third quarter before Burrell cut the lead to two...

Boyce Gym in Plum will be well represented Saturday at the eighth annual Punch Out Parkinson’s fundraising event at The Pittsburgh Shrine Center on Shriners Way in Cheswick. Seasoned Boyce boxers Gavin Alford, Johnny Trujillo and Anthony Carlisano will put it on the line as part of the charity event...

After a first quarter in which the Burrell and Freeport girls basketball teams combined for 26 points, scoring was a little harder to come by the rest of the way in Thursday’s Section 1-4A clash of rivals at Burrell High School. But the homestanding Bucs scored enough and made the...

James Conley is fondly remembered in the Michigan football community for his contributions as the captain of the 1964 Big Ten championship team that went on to win the Rose Bowl. Conley remained closely connected to the football program, the university as a whole and the surrounding region for the...

The Knoch girls basketball team began its season with five straight losses, leaving players and coaches looking for a spark to dig themselves out of their early struggles. The turnaround came in the form of a 56-30 home victory over Valley in the Section 1-4A opener Dec. 12. The Knights...

The Franklin Regional girls basketball team moved one game closer to its goal of a Section 1-5A championship Tuesday evening. The Panthers held off a challenge from playoff-bound section foe Fox Chapel and completed a season sweep of the Foxes with a 59-43 victory. FR moved to 13-5 overall and...

Courtney Jackson and Tui Faumuina-Brown shined during their time in a Gateway football uniform. Neither skipped a beat at the next level — Jackson at Syracuse and Arkansas State and Faumuina-Brown at UConn. Their impact was significant up to and including the final games of their collegiate careers, bowl victories...

Gateway wrestling coach Ryan Sula said he didn’t see a lot of good things early on during the two-day Allegheny County tournament Jan. 17 and 18 at Fox Chapel High School. “I thought we got out to a slow start in the first round or two and didn’t wrestle very...

Saphia Davis wrestled just two matches in December before being forced off the mat because of injury. She made quick work of Burrell’s Cierra Molnar with a 48-second pin in Plum’s season opener and pinned Norwin’s Avalin Barry in 5:55 of their 130-pound bout during a dual match Dec. 18....

Each year at the Allegheny County wrestling tournament, one can find Plum wrestlers contending for championships and podium finishes. This year was no exception, as multiple Mustangs were in contention on the second day of the two-day tournament Jan. 17 and 18 at Fox Chapel High School. When all of...

The Kiski Area boys basketball team had payback on its mind Friday night from a six-point loss to Section 2-5A rival Hampton on Dec. 20. Mission accomplished. The Cavaliers, ahead by six at halftime and nine at the end of three quarters, weathered a couple of Hampton second-half rally attempts...

A trio of Kiski Area individual swimmers and one relay team have the biggest targets on their backs as top seeds for Saturday’s Westmoreland County Coaches Association championships at Derry. Sophomore Leah Kunkle has the fastest time this season among Westmoreland swimmers in the girls 200-yard individual medley. Senior Riley...

Colyn Haugh remembers the tough, challenging games against Kiski Area during his days as a high school football player at Franklin Regional. Now, the newly hired Cavaliers coach hopes to bring the same intensity and high-level ability and effort he saw in his one-time rival more than two decades ago....