Paul Schofield stories, Page 75

When Penn-Trafford baseball coach Dan Miller talked in the offseason about his team being young and inexperienced, he wasn’t kidding. Penn-Trafford has one player returning that was on the varsity team in 2019 when the Warriors (18-5) played for the WPIAL Class 6A title and played in the PIAA playoffs....

The Penn-Trafford boys tennis team is off to a 4-0 start with victories against Hampton, Thomas Jefferson, Latrobe and Kiski Area. The Latrobe and Kiski Area matches were both 4-1 section wins. Alex Turowski (3-0) is unbeaten in singles action while Ryan Litzinger (4-0) is undefeated in doubles. Brian Lee...

Vinny Kilkeary Latrobe, so., 113 pounds 2020-21 record: 26-3 Career record: 56-10 Kilkeary won the 2019 PIAA title with a pin in the finals against Erie Cathedral Prep’s Jake Van Dee. This year he placed third, losing in the semifinals. He was the Section 2 and WPIAL 113-pound champion. All...

Mt. Pleasant junior Dayton Pitzer didn’t pin every opponent he faced. It just seemed that way. Pitzer finished his junior season with a state-high 31 pins and his second PIAA Class AA wrestling title. It was a great bounce-back year after a knee injury took away his sophomore season and...

Mac Church Waynesburg, so., 120 pounds 2020-21 record: 29-2 Career record: 76-8 Church was upset in the WPIAL Class AAA 120-pound final, but undaunted, he came back to win a PIAA title. He defeated Chambersburg junior Karl Shindledecker in overtime. He was the WPIAL champion at 106 in 2020. Church...

Early on in Alejandro Herrera-Rondon’s wrestling career at Seneca Valley, he was content to win low-scoring matches. Many of them ended up 1-0 or 2-1 victories. Herrera-Rondon frustrated opponents with his dominance in the top position. If opponents didn’t get off the bottom, they didn’t win. But as the Oklahoma...

Veteran Hempfield softball coach Bob Kalp is facing a daunting task this season. The coronavirus continues to put up numerous obstacles in front of his teams, and an injury to his star pitcher, senior Callie Sowers, has him scrambling. “We have 30 players on the roster, and I only know...

There is a new challenge facing the Hempfield baseball team in 2021: a new section with four new opponents. Class 6A in the WPIAL went from 18 teams to 12 teams for the next two seasons. Section 1 stayed intact with Allderdice, Butler, Central Catholic, North Allegheny, Pine-Richland and Seneca...

Penn-Trafford junior Troy Hohman finished the 2021 season with a PIAA medal. It wasn’t quite the medal he wanted. He’ll look for golden one during his senior season. Hohman (26-6, 68-30) finished fourth at the PIAA Class AAA wrestling championships March 13 by going 2-2 in the tournament. He lost...

Penn-Trafford’s hockey team is looking to finish strong after going through a six-game losing streak. The Warriors improved to 9-8 with wins over Southeast Division rivals Hempfield, 1-0, on March 11 and Latrobe, 3-2, on March 15. Penn-Trafford won three of its last four games heading into its final regular...

Iowa senior Spencer Lee is used to beginning a wrestling match. He’d rather set the tone for his Iowa teammates. But the NCAA wrestling championships had other ideas. They decided to put the 125-pound final at the end Saturday at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The ESPN broadcast team called...

While practice for the start of the high school baseball season is underway, Westmoreland County District 31 teams are holding sign-ups for the start of their season May 20. There will be 11 teams participating in the league this summer, after the league held an unofficial season in 2020 because...

A pair of Franklin Regional graduates and a pair of Pitt teammates from WPIAL schools will wrestle for national championships Saturday night. Spencer Lee and Michael Kemerer, both top seeds for Iowa, and Panthers wrestlers Jake Wentzel from South Park and Nino Bonaccorsi from Bethel Park won their semifinal matches...

Penn-Trafford’s Patton Graziano and Mt. Pleasant’s Reegan Brown will have a busy weekend. The two are competing in the PIAA swimming championships on Friday and Saturday with their high school teams and then will represent the Greensburg YMCA in the West Regional Championship. The duo is among the 23 swimmers...

A handful of Westmoreland County wrestlers advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships with a pair of wins Thursday in St. Louis. Iowa’s Spencer Lee (Franklin Regional) and Michael Kemmerer (Franklin Regional), Pitt’s Micky Phillippi (Derry), Ohio State’s Ethan Smith (Latrobe) and Bucknell’s Zach Hartman (Belle...

The Pennsylvania and WPIAL teams were announced for the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic and six WPIAL wrestlers were named to the state team. The Classic will be April 2 at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe. The WPIAL team will face the Maryland All-Stars at 4 p.m. and the Pennsylvania team...

It was about a year ago when the NCAA shut down its championships because of the coronavirus. Wrestlers, basketball players, swimmers and hockey teams were able to complete their winter seasons, and spring sports were stopped before they got going. The National Wrestling Coaches Association honored wrestlers as All-Americans in...

Penn-Trafford senior Austin Prokopec and two boys relay teams qualified for the PIAA swimming championships at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg. Prokopec, who finished third in the WPIAL 200 freestyle, was chosen because of his time of 1:42.81. The relay teams that qualified were the 200 freestyle and 400...

Late-season shooting woes cost the Penn-Trafford girls basketball team a longer WPIAL playoff run. Competing in Class 6A, the Warriors (10-7, 9-5) ended the season with a 46-43 loss to Baldwin in the opening round of the WPIAL playoffs. Penn-Trafford lost five of its final six games after starting 9-2....

Franklin Regional graduates Spencer Lee and Michael Kemerer won Big Ten wrestling titles to help Iowa to its 37th conference championship March 7 at Penn State. It was the Hawkeyes’ second consecutive conference title. But neither is satisfied, their work not done. They want NCAA titles. Lee already owns two...

HERSHEY – Waynesburg proved why it is ranked No. 1 in the state at the PIAA Class AAA Wrestling Championships Saturday at the Giant Center. The Raiders had five finalists and three champions in running away with the team title. It wasn’t, however, the most wrestlers that the Raiders ever...

HERSHEY – Kiski Area senior Sammy Starr ended his high school career with a pin and a fifth-place finish at the PIAA Class AAA wrestling championship Saturday. It was Starr’s 27th pin of the season. He finished the season 39-6 and 113-46 for his career. “It’s a little bittersweet,” Starr...

HERSHEY — The finals are set in the upper weights at the PIAA Class AAA wrestling championships Saturday at the Giant Center, and the WPIAL will be represented in four of the seven weight classes. There will be all-WPIAL finals at 145 and 152 pounds. Waynesburg had three more wrestlers...