Basketball
PIAA Approves 6 Classes for Football, Hoops, Baseball & Softball
October 8, 2015
Are you ready for six classifications in Pennsylvania high school football? And boys basketball? And girls basketball? And baseball? And softball? Six classifications in all of those sports will be a reality in the 2016-17 school year. That was the gigantic news that came out of a PIAA board of directors meeting Wednes day in Mechanicsburg. Heading into the meeting, the main topic on the agenda was supposed to be a final vote on the expansion of classifications in football from four to six. The PIAA had already passed that in two other votes, and needed only to pass one more vote before going into effect for the 2016-17 season. That proposal easily passed by a 26-4 vote. But there was more big news to come.
WPIAL Coaching News – North Allegheny Girls Hoops
July 15, 2015
After two golden years as head coach of the Seton-LaSalle girls basketball team, Spencer Stefko is headed north to bigger and what he hopes are even better things. Stefko was named the new girls basketball coach at North Allegheny High School on Wednesday. Stefko replaces Sherri McConnell, who resigned in April after eight years as Tigers head coach. Coach McConnell enjoyed great success in her tenure, guiding North Allegheny to an overall record of 147-48. While NA was always a contender, they fell short of winning a district and/or state title. In 2014-2015, North Allegheny was 24-4 overall but lost in the WPIAL Semifinals and the PIAA Quarterfinals.
2014-2015 MSA Sports Male Athlete of the Year
June 27, 2015
Riley Stapleton comes from a family of athletes. Growing up, he and his three brothers used to play every sport imaginable and even invent their own events. “My oldest brother [Kevin] used to come up with competitions like who can race around the block the fastest or who can touch the highest spot on the wall,” said Stapleton. But never mind the brothers. If you could put all of the athletes in the WPIAL on a wall, Stapleton would be at the highest spot. Stapleton, who graduated from Indiana High School earlier this month, is the MSA Sports Male Athlete of the Year. All athletes in the WPIAL are eligible for the award. Stapleton competed in three sports at Indiana High School and had a big impact in every one.
2014-2015 MSA Sports Female Athlete of the Year
Madison Wiltrout’s right arm always seemed to have some magic in it. It is what enabled her to play years of baseball with the boys. She was a center fielder and pitcher before giving up the sport after eighth grade. Then in the spring of her ninth-grade year, Wiltrout picked up a javelin and started throwing it with the right arm. Different sport. Different object to throw - and a magic act that had never been seen before in the history of U.S. high school track and field. WIltrout was a state champion in the javelin at the end of her freshman year. Before her sophomore year was finished this year, that right arm had put Wiltrout in the national record book.Scholastic Notebook – 06/05/2015
June 5, 2015
Four WPIAL baseball teams have made it to the PIAA semifinals. The main ingredient to their postseason success is simple. Pitching. Of course, pitching always is key in baseball, but you might be scratching your head to come up with a group of WPIAL teams that made it this far and that have such a strong common thread of stellar pitching between them. The four are Shaler (Class AAAA), Knoch (AAA), Neshannock (AA) and Quaker Valley (AA). Of the four, only Neshannock has really made a huge impact offensively, scoring 45 runs in six postseason games. But the pitching of all four teams has been impeccable.Scholastic Notebook – 05/22/2015
May 22, 2015
Neshannock High School’s baseball team has made it to the WPIAL Class AA championship game. It’s another chapter in one of the most successful coaching stories in the WPIAL. You might not think of Mike Kirkwood as one of the elite coaches in the WPIAL. Maybe because Neshannock is on the edge of the WPIAL and doesn’t get a ton of publicity in the Pittsburgh area, the heart of the WPIAL. But consider this: Kirkwood has won four WPIAL championships. No other active coach has four WPIAL titles. And next Tuesday, Kirkwood will go after one for the thumb when Neshannock plays Quaker Valley for the WPIAL Class AA championship. Making it to the title game this year is impressive for Kirkwood. The Lancers had competed in Class A, but moved up to Class AA in 2013.
2015 Positive Athlete Awards
May 19, 2015
2015 Positive Athlete Awards On Wednesday, May 13th, 27 Western PA High School students were recognized at the John Heinz History Center by Hines Ward as “Positive Athletes” . These athletes were nominated by coaches, teachers, administrators, parents, and friends for their ability to meet the following criteria in their day-to day lives as athletes, students and members of their communities.Scholastic Notebook – 05/15/2015
May 15, 2015
The name is Aaron, as in Hank. The hitting this baseball season has been Hank Aaron-esque. California senior Aaron Previsky had a regular season for the ages. A year ago, Norwin’s J.J. Matijevic became the first known player to win the WPIAL triple crown (first in batting average, home runs and RBIs). Previsky didn’t do that, but his regular season also was terrific. Previsky finished with a .545 batting average, which was good for 13th in the WPIAL. But he was second in home runs with six and third in runs scored with 35.Scholastic Notebook – 05/01/2015
May 1, 2015
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.Scholastic Notebook – 04/25/2015
April 25, 2015
It opened some eyes in October when Bailey Parshall accepted a scholarship from the Penn State softball team. Parshall is a freshman and when she accepted the scholarship, she had yet to pitch an inning in high school. But after a month of the WPIAL softball season, it has become clear why Penn State went after Parshall. Parshall already has established herself as one of the WPIAL’s top pitchers – as a ninth-grader. In the latest WPIAL statistics published by the Post-Gazette, Parshall leads the WPIAL in strikeouts with 115 and she is tied for the WPIAL lead in wins. She has a 10-1 record. Chartiers-Houston’s Kaitlyn Dittrich also is 10-1.Scholastic Notebook – 04/17/2015
April 17, 2015
Life in Section 1 of WPIAL Class AAAA baseball is full of close calls. The WPIAL season is a little less than a month old and it’s remarkable how many close games there are in Section 1. Heading into Friday’s action, there have been 12 games played in the section. Two-thirds were decided by two runs or less and five had been decided by one run. The close games certainly reflect the balance of the section. But they also reflect the strength of the section. This should tell you the strength of Section 1: It includes four teams – Moon, North Allegheny, Pine-Richland and Seneca Valley – that have made 17 WPIAL championship appearances in either Class AAAA or AAA over the past 11 years. The other members of the section are North Hills and Butler.Scholastic Notebook – 04/10/2015
April 10, 2015
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.
WPIAL Hall of Fame Class of 2015
April 9, 2015
Four athletes who would later go on to professional careers, several multi-sport athletes, four coaches who won nearly 40 WPIAL championships between them, an old-school baseball player whose son continued his Major League Baseball legacy and a team that won nine WPIAL and PIAA playoff games en route to a state basketball title by an average margin of victory of 25.8. Those are some of the headliners of the WPIAL Hall of Fame class of 2015. The WPIAL held a news conference Thursday morning to announce its ninth annual class. You can watch the video stream archived here on MSA Sports. All inductees will be honored at a banquet June 12 at the Doubletree Hotel in Greentree.Scholastic Notebook – 04/03/2015
April 3, 2015
Look at the list of WPIAL tennis champions over the past decade and you’ll see the name Kissell at various places on the girls side. But Chad Kissell is on the cusp of proving that this championship stuff is not just a girl thing in the Kissell family. Kissell is a senior at Latrobe High School and is the No. 1 seed for the WPIAL Class AAA boys tournament Tuesday and Wednesday. The tournament starts Tuesday at North Allegheny and lasts through the semifinals. The championship matches in Class AAA and AA will be Wednesday at Norwin.Scholastic Notebook – 03/28/2015
March 28, 2015
The best distance runner in WPIAL history might not compete in track this season because of an illness and injuries. That leaves the door open for someone. Madeleine Davison has her foot in the door. Davison is a junior at North Allegheny. While Shaler’s Brianna Schwartz was running her way to records last year, Davison was often close behind, sometimes just a second or two away. Now, Davison could gain a reputation as one of the best distance runners in the WPIAL in recent history.This Week on the MSA Sports Network – 03/22/2015
March 22, 2015
We have said so long to the winter sports season and a gradual hello to the high school and college spring sports season all this week MSA Sports Network. While we still have some postseason women's college basketball action featuring California University of Pa, we also have the debut of WPIAL baseball, WPIAL softball, WPIAL boys volleyball and WPIAL boys and girls lacrosse, plus we have more college baseball with the Geneva Golden Tornado ALL here at MSAsports.net Monday, March 23rd:
Roman Cath, Neumann-Goretti, Conwell-Egan & Constitution Bring 2015 PIAA Boys Hoops Titles Home to Philly
Last year, the WPIAL sent three boys teams to Hershey where two of them came home with gold. This year, there was only one District 7 team playing in Chocolate Town. That team was Aliquippa and the WPIAL champs were undefeated and looking to make perfect history, until they tasted defeat for the first time with a loss to Conwell-Egan Catholic, leaving the Quips with silver and a final record of 29-1. Here are ALL of the results from the 2015 PIAA Boys Basketball Playoffs. All of the games with (MSA) after the result can be heard archived here on the MSA Sports Network. 2015 PIAA CLASS AAAA BOYS BASKETBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:
Blackhawk and Vincentian Academy Repeat as 2015 PIAA Girls Basketball Champs
Two out of three ain't bad. In 2014, Blackhawk in AAA, Seton-LaSalle in AA and Vincentian Academy in A not only won WPIAL championships, but also added PIAA state crowns to their trophy case. The golden girls once again captured another WPIAL crown last month before winning four games to advance back to Hershey and the state finals. While Seton-LaSalle fell shot in Class AA, both Blackhawk in AAA and Vincentian Academy in A were successful in winning another PIAA state championship. Here are all of the results from the 2015 PIAA Girls Basketball Playoffs. All results marked with (MSA) after the score can be heard archived on MSA Sports. 2015 PIAA CLASS AAAA GIRLS BASKETBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:
Blackhawk Girls Golden Again In Hershey
March 21, 2015
It was truly a team effort as the Blackhawk Cougars (28-3) rallied from a first half deficit to defeat the Archbishop Wood Vikings, 46-40, in the PIAA Girls Class AAA Championship Game on Saturday evening at Giant Center in Hershey. The win gives Blackhawk back-to-back PIAA Championship Game victories over Archbishop Wood (26-5), as the Cougars won 51-43 in last year’s title game. Blackhawk has now won four girls state titles, going back-to-back in 1999 and 2000 as well. The Cougars missed their first six shots and trailed 7-0 and 14-4 in the opening quarter. But Duquesne University recruit Chassidy Omogrosso led the comeback with 23 points, while Courtney Vannoy, a Loyola (Md.) recruit, added 17 points for Blackhawk.
Quips Quest For Perfection Ends With Loss in PIAA AA State Title Game
Aliquippa won its first 29 games of the 2014-15 season, but the Quips suffered their lone defeat to Conwell-Egan Catholic 62-51 in the PIAA Class AA Boys Championship at the Giant Center in Hershey. After falling behind by double digits in the first half, Aliquippa staged a furious comeback bid in the second half, frequently trimming the deficit to two points. The Eagles never relinquished their lead, though, and capitalized from the charity stripe to seal the victory. The Quips (29-1) started the contest strong, scoring six straight points to take an 8-2 lead. Conwell-Egan responded with a run of its own, however, as the Eagles scored the final eight points of the stanza to take a four-point lead through the first quarter.
