WPIAL Year in Review – Top 25 Stories of 2010: 15 through 11

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 | 12:00 AM

The year 2010 in high school sports in the WPIAL was very memorable. It was a year where some familiar champions were golden again while some new faces surfaced in the championship picture. There were battles with forces on and off the field in which the athletes had no chance of winning. It was a year in which we said so long to some familiar faces and schools while welcoming in some new teams to the district. Over the final few days of 2010, we here at the MSA Sports Network, who were there for it all, count down the Top 25 stories from around the WPIAL continuing with #15 through #11.

#15 – SHADY SIDE ACADEMY's MATT CUNNINGHAM JOINS WRESTLINGS 4-TIME CHAMPIONS CLUB

More than seventy years ago, Andy Puchany of Canonsburg won his fourth WPIAL individual wrestling title. Last February, Dane Johnson of Shady Side Academy won the 140-pound WPIAL AA title, his fourth championship and went on to win a third-straight PIAA title. Over the 70 years that separate Puchany and Johnson, only 16 other WPIAL wrestlers have captured four individual WPIAL titles. Back in February, Shady Side Academy's Matthew Cunningham added his name to the list of WPIAL Wrestling immortals. As much as Cunningham treasures that status, his ultimate goal is a PIAA title, something that's eluded him the past three seasons. With Cunningham winning his fourth crown, a 5-3 decision over Dakota DesLauriers, it marks the fourth consecutive year that membership has increased in this exclusive club, something that had never happened before. In fact, early on, nearly four decades passed between induction ceremonies. Puchany won four consecutive WPIAL individual wrestling championships from 1936-1939. Waynesburg's James Conklin started his four-year run the next season. Canonsburg's Donald Haney (1947-1950) and Manuel Pihakis (1949-1952) soon followed. And then, membership applications were denied, year after year after year. Conklin and The Canonsburg Trio waited 36 years before John Dasta, Penn Hills, joined their ranks. John Richey (Connellsville) and Cary Kolat (Jefferson-Morgan) entered in back to back seasons. Mark Angle (Canon-McMillan) and Justin Tracanna (Jefferson-Morgan) went back to back. Then, Shawn Whyte (West Greene) and Troy Letters (Shaler) followed in three-year intervals. Two years later, it was Joe Makara (Burrell). Larry Hall (Jeannette) and Coleman Scott (Waynesburg) became the first duo to enter the same year, 2004. Troy Dolan (Derry) joined one year ahead of Colin Johnston (Canon-McMillan) and Jordan Shields (Burrell), the only pair to win their fourth titles on the same night.

#14 – MOTHER NATURE WINS

One of the top overall news stories in Western Pennsylvania in 2010 was the February blizzard. More than 20 inches of snow fell in the area on February 5th and 6th, with smaller amounts falling over the next week. With the exception of a couple of games here and there, players and fans suffered through five straight day of WPIAL boys and girls basketball games, wrestling matches and PIHL high school hockey contests being wiped out due to poor weather. All of the weather-related postponement forced the WPIAL to extend the section basketball schedule by two days.

#13 – WPIAL PRESIDENT PASSES AWAY

Western Pennsylvania high school sports fans lost a true ambassador in late August when WPIAL President and Uniontown High School athletic director Richard Constantine lost his battle with cancer and passed away at the age of 63. Constantine was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1947 and graduated in 1965 from Uniontown Area High School. He was a member of the Big 33 football team and was the state runner-up in wrestling. He attended the University of Virginia on a full athletic scholarship where he played on the football team as a guard. He was Atlantic Coast Conference runner-up in the heavy weight wrestling class his sophomore year of college. After graduating from UVA in 1969, Constantine joined the Uniontown Area High School as a social studies teacher. While teaching he earned his Master's Degree from West Virginia University and then went on to get his Principal Papers. He taught for ten and a half years, worked as an assistant football coach for eight years, ten years as the head wrestling coach, two and a half years as an assistant principal, nineteen years as principal, four years as assistant to the superintendent and five years as Administrative Director of Athletics. In addition, he was a PIAA football and wrestling official. He was President of the WPIAL, sat on the PIAA Board of Directors and was a PIAA District VII Chairman.

#12 – OAKLAND CATHOLIC AND SHADY SIDE ACADEMY CONTINUE THEIR POOL DOMINANCE

Ho-Hum…Oakland Catholic girls and Shady Side Academy boys once again won the WPIAL Class AA Swimming Championships. Nothing new there as the Eagles captured an 11th straight WPIAL crown while the Indians have now won nine straight district titles at Trees Pool at the University of Pittsburgh in early March. Oakland Catholic beat out runner-up West Allegheny by 81.5 points while Shady Side Academy bested second place Indiana by a gaping 103.5 points. While SSA would finish a distant second to Hershey in the PIAA Class AA boy's team swimming championships, Oakland Catholic captured its 8th state swimming team crown in the past eleven years with a 30-point advantage over Wyomissing.

#11 – T.J. McCONNELL TRULY IS THE GOLDEN BOY

Tim McConnell had already won four WPIAL gold medals as head coach of the Chartiers Valley Colts. While he'll tell you they were all memorable, his fifth title may be his sweetest. He finally has