Scholastic Notebook – 12/09/2013

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, December 9, 2013 | 11:05 AM

In 24 hours, basketball player Anthony Richards went from making nothing – to the New Castle record books.

It was one of the oddest starts to a season you’ll see from a player, a Jekyll and Hyde thing for Richards, a 5-foot-7 senior guard at New Castle who has been a starter on two WPIAL championship teams. The season started Friday and Richards went scoreless in a victory against West Middlesex. It was hard to believe from one of the best shooters in the WPIAL. He also was 0 for 2 from the free-throw line.

But the next night was a totally different story. Richards was “unconscious” from the field, making a school-record nine 3-pointers as New Castle crushed Perry, 88-34. Richards scored all of his 27 points on 3-pointers.

But not only did Richards set a school record for 3-pointers in a game, he also became the all-time leading 3-point shooter at New Castle. He now has 212 3-pointers, breaking the record of 207 set by 2013 graduate Brandon Domenick.

Richards is one of the reasons New Castle is still one of the top teams in Western Pennsylvania. Malik Hooker, an Ohio State football recruit, is another reason. The two wins this weekend stretched New Castle’s regular-season winning streak to 48 games.

After his senior year, Richards will play at West Virginia Wesleyan, where his brother, Dave, is in his first year as an assistant coach.

More Hot and Cold

Nick Miller’s first two games weren’t as drastically different as those of Richards, but he also had two totally different games. Western Beaver's Miller scored 43 points on Friday against Freedom, making 17 of 21 shots. The next night against Rochester, he scored 11 points and made only 3 of 15 shots.

Hot Starts

There is the big bad wolf. At Vincentian Academy, they have the little bad Wolf.

Ryan Wolf is a smallish, 5-foot-9 junior guard. But has he had a big enough start to the season? Wolf scored 33 points in an 82-66 victory against Wilkinsburg Friday. One night later, he scored 38 in a 91-85 victory against Butler.

Wilkinsburg girls Struggle

Think of this. The Wilkinsburg football team scored 14 points in its season opener. That’s nine more points than the Wilkinsburg girls basketball team scored in the first two games of the season.

On Friday, the Wilkinsburg-Serra game lasted only one quarter before Wilkinsburg left reportedly because school officials were worried about the snowy weather. The score after the first quarter was Serra 28, Wilkinsburg 0.

The next night, Wilkinsburg played Allderdice. The final score was Allderdice 61 – Wilkinsburg 5.

That’s two games and five points.

 Three for the Finals

Three teams from the WPIAL will play in the PIAA football championships this weekend. They are Pittsburgh Central Catholic (AAAA), South Fayette (AA) and Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic (A).

This is the 11^th time in the history of the PIAA playoffs that three WPIAL teams have made the finals. The PIAA playoffs started in 1988.

Quips’ Swanson Chooses Toledo

Aliquippa running back Terry Swanson thought he might be a few weeks away from making a college decision. Things changed this weekend.

Swanson made an official recruiting visit to Toledo and decided to make a verbal commitment while he was there. He had planned to visit Akron next weekend and possibly another school or two. But he liked Toledo so much that he canceled his visit to Akron.

Pitt had showed some interest in Swanson but the Panthers never offered a scholarship.

Swanson played running back and defensive back for Aliquippa but he was recruited by Toledo to play running back. He rushed for 4,333 yards in his career at Aliquippa and won two WPIAL titles.

He and fellow senior Dravon Henry were the first two running backs from the same team to rush for more than 4,000 yards. Henry will announce his college choice today (Monday). He will choose between Pitt and West Virginia. Although Henry had more than 5,000 career yards rushing, he is being recruited as a defensive back.

Militzer Out at Gateway

The biggest news on the WPIAL football coaching front so far came this past week when it was learned that Donnie Militzer is out at Gateway after only one season.

It seems like a messy situation at Gateway. Terry Smith resigned as athletic director and football coach in January to become an assistant coach at Temple. Gateway had trouble filling the football coach’s position.

Militzer was hired from Carlynton, where he was the defensive coordinator. Although he went 8-3 this season, Militzer said he was told by Gateway officials that his job would be opened and they would look for other candidates. He was told he could re-apply, but Militzer said he won’t.

“I’m surprised, but I’m proud of what I did there,” Militzer said. “I’m proud of the way I handled the situation because it wasn’t an easy situation to go into. I felt like we were doing some pretty positive things.”

Tags: Aliquippa, Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, Gateway, North Catholic, Vincentian Academy, Western Beaver, Wilkinsburg