Blogs

NEW CASTLE’S SEARCH New Castle boys basketball coach Mark Stanley resigned this week, leaving the Red Hurricanes to search for their second coach in four seasons. But there might not be much of a search. The leading candidate could be Ralph Blundo, an assistant principal in the district. Blundo, a New Castle graduate and former [...]

Private schools won five of the eight PIAA basketball championship games Friday and Saturday, with the South Fayette boys and Mt. Lebanon girls among the elite group of public schools bringing home trophies.The Class AAAA boys title game was contested by two public schools, Penn-Wood and Plymouth-Whitemarsh, the champion and runnerup of District 1. Bishop [...]

So far, the west has been best. For all the much-deserved praise eastern Pennsylvania basketball receives, the state’s western half more than held its own Friday during the first day of the PIAA basketball championships. Three of the four titles went to schools from the far west: Class AAAA girls: Mt. Lebanon (over Archbishop Ryan [...]

If the PIAA graded teams based solely on talent and potential and who should win, the quarterfinal game Saturday between Gateway and North Allegheny would have been canceled.

Math never was my best subject in school. In fact, I dreaded the day after tests when the math teacher cruelly read the grades out loud to the class — “DiPaola, 66.” To this day, I insist he was smiling when he said it. Anyway, I did learn enough to add up an interesting trend [...]

The second round of the PIAA Class AA boys basketball tournament has turned into a jumbled repeat of the WPIAL tournament.

The WPIAL proved to be a tough out in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA boys basketball tournament. Five of the six WPIAL qualifiers won, including another big victory for Chartiers Valley, 96-66, against Central Tech.

Pitt has landed another WPIAL football recruit. Bethel Park senior Adam Lazenga quietly committed to the Panthers a couple weeks ago, Lazenga said Thursday at the PIAA individual wrestling championship in Hershey. Lazenga, who starred at linebacker for Bethel Park, is also an outstanding wrestler in the 285-pound division. He will join Pitt as a preferred walk-on. [...]

The 19-day PIAA basketball tournament gets underway Tuesday with 20 play-in games, leading to the first round Friday and Saturday. The crowning of the eight WPIAL champions set up the seedings for the state tournament. The Class AA boys field looks like the deepest in terms of quantity (eight teams) and quality (a supremely talented [...]

The Palumbo Center crowd had already seen Lincoln Park’s Devontae Watson, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, block 13 shots during Friday night’s WPIAL Class A boys championship game. And 6-foot-6 junior Devon Cottrell, who will play for Gateway in its game at 9 p.m. tonight, blocked 16 shots during the Gators’ semifinal win. But we learned Saturday that one [...]