Tag: Hempfield

WPIAL Alum Q&A – Dante Nania

October 12, 2015

Dante Nania enjoyed a prolific high school career as the quarterback for the Hempfield Area Spartans, and he has gone on to enjoy great success collegiately at both Youngstown State University and now Slippery Rock University. This week’s WPIAL Alum Q&A puts the senior signalcaller under the spotlight. While at Hempfield, Nania was a four-year letterwinner and earned first-team all-conference recognition. In his senior campaign in 2010, he threw for more than 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns.

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WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Two 2015

September 12, 2015

While Mother Nature held off on the fancy sky light shows and the rain that plagued many games on opening night, the second Friday of the season was an historic one in two ways. First, a tip of the cap 700 times to the Jeannette Jayhawks for becoming only the second district school and sixth school in Pennsylvania to mass that many wins. And one win has eluded Thomas Jefferson in the first two weeks of a season for the first time in the 21-year golden career of head coach Bill Cherpek. It was also a memorable Friday for these young men: Phil Jurkovec - Pine-Richland

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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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2015 MSA Sports Diamond Dolls

June 19, 2015

Take a glance at the players on the MSA Diamond Dolls team this year and it’s obvious that youth is served. The Diamond Dolls is MSA’s girls softball all-star team. It is made up of the top 10 players in the WPIAL, regardless of position. This year’s team includes six non-seniors. The player of the year is a freshman and the team also has a sophomore and four juniors. Four of the players on the team won WPIAL titles. Here is a look at the Diamond Dolls all-star team as well as the Player of the Year. PLAYER OF THE YEAR: BAILEY PARSHALL, BELLE VERNON Pitcher Fresh. Yes, a ninth-grader has won the Player of the Year award.

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PIAA Baseball & Softball Semifinals Wednesday Recaps

June 10, 2015

After being postponed twice over the previous 48 hours, Knoch baseball and Hempfield softball were finally able to hit the field, both playing at Mount Aloysius College with mixed results. WPIAL AAA baseball champion Knoch used an offensive explosion for the first time this postseason to advance to their first state title game while WPIAL AAAA softball champion had very little offense as their dreams of state gold came to an end. Here are recaps from the final two PIAA Semifinals contests played on Wednesday afternoon in Cambria County. A special thanks to Josh Rowntree and Don Rebel for their help on these recaps. BASEBALL:

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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.

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Scholastic Notebook – 05/29/2015

May 29, 2015

Spring is the time for things to bloom, right? This spring has been a time for a group of young WPIAL athletes to sprout. One of the storylines for spring sports in the WPIAL has been the young blood that has flowed through the league and made an impact. In case you didn’t notice, it has been a spring where an unusually a number of sophomores or freshmen did some terrific things in a few different sports. Let’s examine:

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2015 WPIAL SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS – Results

May 28, 2015

A tip of the cap to the WPIAL Softball Steering Committee. Three of the four title game matchups were #1 vs #2-seeds with the fourth being a #1 vs #3. And after the dust settled at Lilley Field. three of the four champions crowned were top-seeds who went the distance. While Jefferson-Morgan celebrated a first time championship, its was the second softball title in school history for Deer lakes and Belle Vernon and a third golden crown for Hempfield. Here are ALL the results from the 2015 WPIAL Softball Playoffs. All results marked with (MSA) after the score can be heard archived at any time at MSAsports.net 2015 WPIAL CLASS AAAA SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:

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4-run 7th Helps Belle Vernon Stun Yough 5-4 for AAA Gold

The Belle Vernon Leopards had one out in the bottom of the seventh of the Class AAA championship game with no runners on base and trailed 4-1. Five batters later the Leopards had a 5-4 victory after a two-run single by Emily Frederick capped a four-run rally to give Belle Vernon (20-2) its 17th straight win and its first WPIAL championship since 2007.  "This is so unreal," Frederick said after the game seemingly trying to grasp what just transpired at California University of Pennsylvania's Lilley Field . Belle Vernon actually didn't have a hit through the first five innings as Yough pitcher Macy Mularski held the Leopards in check, only allowing four walks in the first five frames.

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2015 WPIAL Scholar Athletes

May 22, 2015

The Class of 2015   On Monday, May 18th, twenty (20) student athletes were recognized by the WPIAL for their extraordinary achievements - both academically and athletically - throughout their high school careers.  This years scholarship recipients are listed below, including brief bios on each  (as provided by the WPIAL).      

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