Tag: Imani Christian

MSA Sports Saturdays Scholastic Starz for Week Two

September 11, 2016

Any coach will tell you, versatility in a football player is huge. If you can play various positions at a high level in all three aspects of the game, that is a very good thing. Especially in Class 1-A where rosters sizes are small and the demand for versatility is not only appreciated, but needed. Here are the top five stand out performances from a gusty Saturday afternoon in Week Two as the play of these guys 'blew away' their opponents. Kenny Robinson - Imani Christian

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CTK ’16: 1-A Eastern Conference Preview

August 28, 2016

Most of the time, the Clairton Bears have a perfect view from the top of the Eastern Conference. Will anyone get in the way of that view this year? Clairton has won the Eastern Conference championship outright nine of the past 10 years. Every time, the Bears finished with a perfect record. Over the past decade, the only time Clairton didn’t finish perfect in conference play was 2013, when the Bears tied for first with Monessen and Fort Cherry. Just about everybody picks Clairton as the No. 1 team in WPIAL Class 1A this season. But Jeannette seems primed to give the Bears a challenge.

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2015-2016 MSA SPORTS GIRLS BASKETBALL ALL-NETTERS

March 25, 2016

The Girls All Netters all-star squad this season is certainly a sizeable one. While guards often dominate all-star teams, the first team of the All Netters has four players at least 5-11, including three who are 6-1 or taller and one who is 6-4. The team is picked by the MSA Sports staff from all WPIAL teams. Three of the first-team members won WPIAL championships. One of the second team members scored 1,000 points this season – as a freshman. Introducing the 2016 MSA Girls All-Netters squads: FIRST TEAM: EMILY ANDERSON, SOUTH FAYETTE 6-4 SENIOR, CENTER

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Scholastic Notebook – 01/31/2016

January 31, 2016

Cali Konek’s scoring average has opened eyes across WPIAL girls basketball, and here is another startling statistical fact from the freshman guard at Imani Christian: Konek has a good chance to become the first WPIAL girl to score 1,000 points in a season. And she might reach the milestone in the regular season. Scoring 1,000 points in the regular season seems surreal, but Konek already has 873 points and Imani Christian has three games left this week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday). Konek averages 45.9 points a game. So if she gets her average, she will break 1,000 points.

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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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Scholastic Notebook – 01/08/2016

January 8, 2016

It’s been a while since there has been this much of a roar coming from Cougar Mountain at this time of the year. The Yough Cougars basketball team is making a lot of noise this year. Yough is 9-3 overall and in first place in WPIAL Class AAA Section 3 with 4-0 record. Yough took over sole possession of first place with a 77-69 overtime victory against Indiana Tuesday. Indiana is the defending WPIAL champion. Yough is one of the biggest turnaround stories in the WPIAL, under second-year coach Casey Copeman. Yough was 6-16 last year and won only 49 games in the previous eight seasons. The last time they finished above .500 was 2006-07 when the Cougars were 15-9.

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Scholastic Notebook – 12/11/2015

December 11, 2015

There is a Wildcat strike in WPIAL boys basketball this season. Big things are expected of the Latrobe Wildcats and coach Brad Wetzel’s crew has been impressive in the first week of the season. Latrobe is 3-0, including Tuesday’s victory against Pine-Richland, which was the No. 2-ranked Class AAAA team in the MSA Sports preseason Class AAAA rankings. This could be one of Latrobe’s best teams in a while, at least the best since the 2009 team that went 19-4. Latrobe is the odds-on favorite to win Section 1. If Latrobe wins the section, it would be only their fourth crown in the past 30 years. The others were in 1987, 1990 and 2009.

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Scholastic Notebook – 02/20/2015

February 20, 2015

Highlands and Bishop Canevin are in the WPIAL boys basketball quarterfinals. Who would’ve thought you’d read that sentence this year? Highlands and Bishop Canevin are two of the biggest turnaround stories in the league over the past few years. Highlands (13-11) will play Indiana in the WPIAL Class AAA quarterfinals tonight. Two years ago, Highlands finished 1-21 under first-year coach Tyler Stoczynski. Highlands started to show signs of improvement last year, but still finished 9-13 and out of the playoffs.

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Scholastic Notebook – 02/06/2015

February 6, 2015

Penn State football coach James Franklin lost out on the top player in the WPIAL class of 2015 when Central Valley’s Jordan Whitehead signed with Pitt. Other than Whitehead, Penn State had plenty of success in the WPIAL. At least more than the Nittany Lions have had in recent history. Penn State signed four players from the WPIAL this season. That might not seem like a lot, but it is more than the past four classes combined. In fact, only twice in the past 10 years has Penn State landed four or more players from the WPIAL. In 2010, Penn State signed five WPIAL players and four in 2007. Two of the past four years, Penn State did not sign one WPIAL player.

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MSA Sports Countdown of Top 25 WPIAL Stories of 2013 – 12/28/13

December 28, 2013

It has become a tradition like no other...at least during the holidays here at MSA Sports. It's time to look back at another high school sports year with the top stories from around the WPIAL in 2013. We begin our countdown with the five stories that ended up #25 through #21. #25 - Playoff Drought Ends In a year when the Pittsburgh Pirates ended a long Major League Baseball playoff drought, a long WPIAL football playoff drought also came to an end when in Week 9, the Avella Eagles clinched a WPIAL playoffs berth with a 55-14 thrashing of Bentworth to clinch fourth place in the Class A Tri-County South Conference.

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