Scholastic Notebook – 05/01/2015

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, May 1, 2015 | 3:44 PM

Apparently, Bo knows softball.

Bo Teets is in his sixth year as the girls softball coach at Monessen High School and is conducting one of the biggest turnaround stories in the WPIAL in any sport.

Earlier this week, Monessen qualified for the WPIAL Class A playoffs. It is a monumental feat for the Greyhounds when you consider this will be the first time they will be in the postseason. It’s also quite impressive when you consider how far the Greyhounds have come under Teets.

Teets was hired as Monessen’s coach before the 2010 season. He took over a program that was, in a word, horrible. The Greyhounds were 9-88 in six years before Teets.

Monessen struggled mightily in Teets’ first two years, going 2-15 and 0-12. During the 0-12 season in 2011, nine of the losses were by 10 runs or more.

Then things started to turn in 2012 when the Greyhounds went 4-12. It was progress. It was followed by two 8-9 seasons, and then the Greyhounds entered this season thinking about the playoffs. Now, the postseason is a reality.

Monessen has an 8-3 overall record and a 6-3 mark in WPIAL Class A Section 2. The Greyhounds have won five of their past six games and are tied for second place in the section with Greensburg Central Catholic. Frazier is in first place.

Monessen may be no danger to winning a WPIAL title, but the Greyhounds turnaround is one of the feel-good stories in WPIAL softball this season.

This coaching job has gone much better for Teets than his other one. In 2013, he was named California’s football coach. But he lasted only two seasons before the school opened his position.

Leechburg Again

While Monessen is in the playoffs for the first time, the Leechburg softball team is in for the 29^th consecutive season. The streak ties a WPIAL record for consecutive playoff appearances. Sto-Rox also qualified 29 seasons in a row from 1985-2013 before the school dropped the softball program.

But Sto-Rox is re-joining the WPIAL next spring for both softball and baseball.

Clearing Hurdles

It was only a year ago that Hempfield’s Maddie Holmberg became one of the top 300-meter hurdles in WPIAL history. Now it’s Maddy’s turn.

Latrobe senior Maddy Mueseler has established herself as one of the best hurdlers in WPIAL history. In fact, only Maddie Holmberg has been faster.

At last Saturday’s Westmoreland County Coaches Association championship meet, Mueseler won the 300 hurdles in 42.86 seconds. The only better time in WPIAL history was run by Holmberg last year at 42.73. Holmberg is a senior at Hempfield, but is not running this spring while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee.

But Mueseler does more than hurdle. She also is one of the WPIAL’s top sprinters. She has the top 200 time in WPIAL Class AAA at 25.26 seconds and also has the sixth-best 100 at 12.42.

Baldwin Invitational Friday Night

The 42^nd Baldwin Invitational is today at Baldwin. It is annually one of the top track and field invitationals in the country. More than 2,000 athletes will compete in the event. Finals in running events start tonight at 6:15. The meet started at 12:30.

Another Sophomore Sensation

Knoch shot putter Jordan Geist and Connellsville javelin thrower Madison WIltrout have burst onto the track and field scene this year as sophomore sensations. Geist has the third-best shot put throw in the country this year and WIltrout the second-best javelin throw.

Another sophomore has emerged this spring, but he makes his impact on the track and not the field.

Isaac Elliott is a sophomore at Ambridge who has an impressive 100-meter time of 10.74 seconds, which was the best in the WPIAL. He also is one of the top 200 runners with a time of 21.64.

Making Their Pitch

The WPIAL baseball playoff pairings come out next Friday. Right now, it looks like Mt. Lebanon is a good bet to get the No. 1 seed in Class AAAA. The Blue Devils are 14-1 this season and will probably be extremely tough to beat because of their pitching.

Mt. Lebanon has one of the WPIAL’s top pitchers in Austin Kitchen, but they also appear to have a good staff. Over the past eight games, Mt. Lebanon has scored 55 runs and allowed only nine. That’s pretty impressive in Class AAAA.

Bears to Bethel Park

They’ll be having Bears at Bethel Park boys basketball games next season.

No, Bethel Park isn’t serving alcohol. It’s just that Josh Bears is ready to serve as the Black Hawks’ new coach.

Bears takes over for Ben O’Connor, who resigned after this season. Bears comes to Bethel Park after one season at Blackhawk, but he is best-known for his 10 years at West Allegheny. At West Allegheny, Bears won a WPIAL championship and made it to the semifinals two other times. His record was 127-106, but the school board opened his position after the 2014 season.

Bears landed the job at Blackhawk, not long before the season started. His team was hurt by a number of injuries and the Cougars finished only 4-18.

John Challis Award

Canon-McMillan senior Luke Blanock is the winner of this WPIAL Baseball Coaches Association’s John Challis Memorial Award.

The award is named after Challis, a former Freedom High School athlete whose courageous battle with cancer seven years ago made national news.

Blanock was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, but came back to play basketball at Canon-McMillan. The cancer has since returned, but Blanock has still pitched a little for Canon-McMillan’s baseball team this season.

Girl Can’t Play With Boys

The California boys tennis team is in the WPIAL Class AA playoffs today, but the Trojans’ chances at a section title were dashed recently when they had to forfeit four victories for using a girl on a doubles team, which broke new PIAA mixed-gender team rules.

The new rule says a girls can play on a boys team only if the school doesn’t offer that sport for girls. A school principal can waive the rule if the principal believes the girl would not get meaningful competition while playing for the girls team.

California has a girls team and the school principal never waived the rule.

Tags: Bethel Park, California, Canon-McMillan, Connellsville, Hempfield, Knoch, Leechburg