Scholastic Notebook – 04/10/2015

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, April 10, 2015 | 11:48 PM

Beaver Falls High School is trying to make sure the school’s 1975 baseball team won’t be forgotten. At a baseball game in two weeks, the ’75 team that won a WPIAL title will be honored before a Beaver Falls game.

No one is quite ready to call this year’s Beaver Falls team championship caliber, but the Tigers are doing a pretty good job of grabbing some attention for themselves.

It’s still extremely early in the WPIAL baseball season, but Beaver Falls is 3-0. That might not sound like much, but considering the past few years, it is a gigantic step forward for Beaver Falls.

Rich Rowe is in his first season as Beaver Falls’ coach and is trying to light a fire in the Tigers’ program. In the previous four seasons, Beaver Falls didn’t win more than five games. The Tigers were 4-12 last year and were 4-13, 5-14 and 4-13 the previous three seasons.

This year’s team has defeated Rochester (6-5), Union (10-0) and South Side (6-1). Section 5 of Class AA has always-strong teams Riverside and Neshannock. But maybe the Tigers will leave some paw prints on the section race this year.

More Diamond Turnarounds

Kiski Area and South Allegheny are two other undefeated teams in the early going. Kiski Area is 5-0 and South Allegheny 4-0. Those are notable starts for both teams, especially South Allegheny.

South Allegheny hasn’t finished above .500 since 2007. Now, it should be pointed out that two of this year’s wins were against Clairton, certainly not one of the strongest baseball programs in the WPIAL But South Allegheny hasn’t won more than five games in the five previous seasons.

Kiski Area’s start is impressive, considering the Cavaliers haven’t finished above .500 since the 2011 season.

South Park Hires Football Coach

South Park has hired a football coach to replace Tom Loughran, who resigned a few months ago and eventually took the Fox Chapel job.

On Thursday night, South Park hired Marty Rieck, a former South Park player and also a former assistant under Loughran.

Rieck was a starting defensive back on South Park’s 1997 team that won WPIAL and PIAA  Class AA championships. Rieck also was an assistant coach under Loughran for nine seasons. He is a history teacher at South Park.

Quaker Valley Hires Soccer Coach

Quaker Valley, one of the top boys soccer programs in the WPIAL, has hired a new coach who used to play for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

Andrew Marshall is the Quakers new coach. He most recently was an assistant coach at Geneva College. Besides playing for the Riverhounds, he also played for pro teams in Harrisburg, Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore, Md.

Marshall takes over for one of the greatest coaches in WPIAL history. Gene Klein retired after last season. He is one of the few coaches in WPIAL history to win more than 500 games. He got his 500^th late last season.

Klein had two stints as Quaker Valley’s coach. In his 29 seasons, he won seven WPIAL titles, six PIAA championships and 18 section titles.

Games “For The Cure”

The 20^th annual “Hoops For The Cure” all-star games will be Saturday night at Chartiers Valley and will include many of the best boys and girls players in the WPIAL. The girls game is at 6 p.m. and the boys at 7:30.

The boys game includes seven of the 10 players who were on the MSA Sports All-Netters team. They are Chartiers Valley’s Matty McConnell, Hempfield’s Kason Harrell,  Jeannette’s Julian Batts, Mt. Lebanon’s Jonny David, North Allegheny’s Cole Constantinio, Aliquippa’s Stephon McGinnis and Seton-LaSalle’s Ryan Norkus.

The girls game has five players who were on the MSA All-Netters team. They are Sydney Bordonaro of Burrell, Sammie Weiss of McGuffey, Conor Richardson of Carlynton, Chassidy Omogrosso of Blackhawk and Cass Walsh of Seton-LaSalle.

Track Meet Saturday

One of the top track and field invitationals in the early WPIAL season will be staged Saturday when the Tri-State Coaches Association meet is held at West Mifflin. Some of the WPIAL’s best track and field athletes will be in the event.

Tags: Aliquippa, Beaver Falls, Blackhawk, Burrell, Carlynton, Chartiers Valley, Fox Chapel, Hempfield, Jeannette, Kiski School