Tag: Connellsville

Scholastic Notebook – 02/24/2017

February 24, 2017

It’s unusual for the Canon-McMillan boys basketball team to still be playing in late February. It is certainly a fun time for the Big Macs. For the Bell family, it’s twice as nice. Canon-McMillan’s coach is Rick Bell. His son, R.J., is a 6-foot-4 senior guard who has played a big role in getting the Big Macs to the WPIAL 6A quarterfinals. They play No. 1 seed Pine-Richland Saturday. The younger Bell had six 3-pointers in a first round victory against North Allegheny. R.J. is averaging in double figures. The victory against North Allegheny was only the third playoff win in school history for Canon-McMillan. The others were in 1996 and 2008. This is only the ninth time the Big Macs have been to the postseason.

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Scholastic Notebook – 01/13/2017

January 13, 2017

Over the next five days, WPIAL boys basketball has three of the top games of the entire season and all three are on MSA Sports.  While the teams make the matchups big, the players involved make the contests bigger than big. The big games are Friday and Tuesday. They are: Pine-Richland (No. 1 in the MSA 6A rankings) at North Hills (No. 3) Friday night at 7:30. Chartiers Valley (No. 1 in 5A) at Mars (No. 3)  Friday night at 7:30. Latrobe (No. 2 in 6A) at Penn Hills (No. 4) Tuesday night at 7:30.

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CTK ’16: 5-A Big East Conference Preview

August 19, 2016

The 5A Big East Conference bares a strong resemblance for the former Quad-A Foothills Conference, as Connellsville, Greater Latrobe, Kiski Area, McKeesport, Penn-Trafford and Plum all remain intact. The other three spots, though, are comprised of teams previously in the AAA Greater Allegheny Conference, Franklin Regional, Gateway and Armstrong. Six of the nine squads qualified for the postseason last year, with Penn-Trafford reaching Heinz Field for the Quad-A title game and McKeesport also ranking among Quad-A's best. If the Warriors and Tigers take even a slight step back this year, though, the conference could be wide open.

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CTK ’16: New WPIAL Football Coaches

August 15, 2016

New Faces - New Places - New Hopes - New Dreams. While there were two fewer coaching changes this off-season then before the 2015 campaign, there were a couple of big names that hung up the whistle after last fall. Legendary McKeesport coach George Smith retired for a second time while record setting coach Tom Nola exited at Gateway. There are a lot of rookie head coaches getting their first crack, and some coaches who are just changing hats and addresses. Whatever the case, there are 17 coaching changes coming into this 2016 season. Here are the new football coaches that will be running the sidelines in the WPIAL this fall. CLASS 6-A: ALTOONA - Nick Felus replaces John Franco

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Scholastic Notebook – 05/13/2016

May 13, 2016

Plum High School’s nickname is Mustangs. But when it comes to athletes, Plum has a thoroughbred in Ashley Amato. The MSA Sports staff doesn’t name a female athlete of the year until late June. But you would think Amato will get serious consideration. There are three-season rooms in houses, but Plum houses a three-sport standout in Amato. And in the spring, she shines brightest. So far this track and field season, Amato has the best 200-meter time in WPIAL Class AAA at 25.3 seconds. She has the third-best 100 hurdles time of 14.69 and is tied for the third-best 100 time at 12.2.  She is has the third-best AAA long jump at 18-2 ¾. At the Baldwin Invitational last Friday, Amato won the long jump, was second in the 100 hurdles and sixth in the 200.

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Scholastic Notebook – 05/06/2016

May 6, 2016

It was against lowly competition, and each game lasted only five innings. But still, the recent pitching performances of Zach Bowen were ones for the national record book. Bowen is a sophomore at Serra Catholic who pitched back-to-back perfect games. Both games were blowouts and lasted only five innings because of the 10-run rule. Bowen’s first perfect game came April 27 against Clairton in a 17-0 win. Then this past Monday, Bowen pitched another perfect game in another 17-0 win, this time against Geibel Catholic. According to the National Federation of High School Associations record book, only two other pitchers are known to have thrown consecutive perfect games. Mike Bradley of Fort Bragg, Cal., did it in 1991 and Anthony Velasquez of Bayside, N.Y., in 2006.

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Scholastic Notebook – 01/17/2016

January 17, 2016

Maybe just call this a saga of Penn-manship. Jim Rocco resigned in the spring as the boys basketball coach at Penn Hills High School in order to become coach at Penn-Trafford. He is enjoying success at his new job. Dan DeRose took over for Rocco at Penn Hills. DeRose came to Penn Hills from South Park, and DeRose is enjoying success at his new job. So it’s two new coaches at two schools with Penn as the first name. This really is a Jim Dan-dy story. At Penn-Trafford, the Warriors are 10-4 under Rocco, who won two WPIAL titles and one PIAA championship in his 19 years at Penn Hills. Penn-Trafford is tied for second place in Class AAAA Section 1.

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MSA Sports Top 25 WPIAL Stories From 2015 Countdown: #10 – #1

January 1, 2016

It has become a tradition like no other...at least during the holiday season here at MSA Sports. Here is a look back at another great high school sports year with the top stories from around the WPIAL in 2015. We conclude our countdown with #10 through #1. #10 - GOLDEN TRIBE

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Scholastic Notebook – 10/25/2015

October 25, 2015

The irony of it. Deer Lakes came into Friday night’s game with the leading rusher in the entire WPIAL this season Hunter Burns. When it ended, Apollo-Ridge had the top rusher ever in a WPIAL game. Duane Brown, a junior at Apollo-Ridge, put himself in the history books when he rushed for a WPIAL record 460 yards in a 56-35 victory over Deer Lakes. Brown was certainly a workhorse in the game, carrying the ball 47 times. Brown broke a 15-year-old WPIAL record. Connellsville’s Marcus Furman ran for 455 yards in a 2000 game. What’s funny is that Apollo-Ridge coach John Skiba and his team had no idea how many yards Brown had or that he had broken the WPIAL record until an announcer from your very own MSA Sports staff came on the field and told him after the game.

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CTK 2015 – Class AAAA Foothills Conference Preview

August 19, 2015

The Foothills Conference hasn’t had a repeat champion since Gateway in 2008-09. The trend may end this season. The Foothills is alive with Warriors. The Penn-Trafford Warriors. Coach John Ruane’s team made it to the WPIAL semifinals last year and many are pointing to the Warriors as the favorite to win their second consecutive conference title. Penn-Trafford has experience, skill and some size. McKeesport looks like Penn-Trafford’s top competitor. Plum’s program could continue to move upward under fourth-year coach Matt Morgan. The Mustangs have some key players back from last year’s team that finished 6-5 and won a playoff game. After Penn-Trafford, McKeesport and Plum, things look pretty open in the Foothills. Here’s a look at the teams in the conference:

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