Bill Beckner stories, Page 147

When Woody Hayes spoke, Vince Skillings listened. A former Derry football star who is taking the reins of his high school alma mater as a first-year head coach, Skillings played defensive back for the legendary Hayes at Ohio State. New coaches often bring new schemes. When asked if Derry will...

Two-sport athlete Claire Oberdorf, who just finished a decorated career at Marist, is among 259 Division I nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Athletes from Division II and II also are eligible, with 126 and 220 nominees for those divisions. Of all the nominees, 128 played multiple...

Asa Klimchock is chasing rings. But the former Greensburg Central Catholic basketball player will do so with a different college program. Klimchock is transferring from Clarion, a Division II school in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, to Bethany (W.Va.) of the Division III Presidents Athletic Conference. The 6-foot, 195-pound guard...

The Greensburg Salem track and field and cross country community, along with program supporters and friends alike, are rallying around recent alum Maddy Murtland, who was involved in a near-fatal ATV accident on July 6. Greensburg Salem track and field and cross country coach Nathan Snider started a GoFundMe page...

James Downer is set to take charge at St. Francis (Pa.) as the school’s new athletic director. He replaces Erika Renwick, who had been serving as interim AD. “This is a tremendous opportunity to join a university with a legacy of success and a profound commitment to intercollegiate athletics,” Downer...

Ethan Carr navigated unprecedented times in college football recruiting. He connected with coaches via his web cam and relied on his junior season highlights to do the rest of the talking during the most critical time in the process. Showcases and camps were wiped from his schedule and never happened....

The National Junior College Athletic Association is moving some of its fall sports to the spring due to health and safety concerns over covid-19. The adjusted plan for 2020-21 includes changing football, soccer and volleyball from fall to spring sports. Cross country and Division III women’s tennis will remain in...

Unorthodox and fluid, the first few months of Chris Chunko’s rookie year as a head football coach have been a slow but surprisingly steady process. The job did not come with a how-to manual, especially one that included a section on negotiating the effects of a global pandemic. Football has...

A PIAA wrestling championship scene-stealer has committed to an NCAA Division I program. Hempfield 113-pounder Ethan Berginc, the Class AAA state champion this past season, announced Thursday he will continue his mat career at Army. Berginc, an incoming senior who attends Jeannette but benefits from a co-op with Hempfield, defeated...

College athletes playing upcoming NCAA Division III sports during the covid-19 era will not have to burn a year of eligibility if their team completes 50% or less of its maximum contests. The decision to offer a blanket waiver for 2020-21 was announced Thursday by the D-III administrative committee. The...

Former Seton Hill All-American Brett Craig is extending his lacrosse career. Craig will play for the Philadelphia Barrage of Major League Lacrosse after spending the 2020 season with the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League. Philadelphia announced its roster this week. A defensive standout, Craig played in eight games...

As golf coaches at St. Francis (Pa.), Lisa Warrilow and Derek Tyson usually are the ones giving instruction, organizing practices, setting lineups and parading around in carts at college tournaments. But on July 22, they will be the players to watch. Warrilow, the women’s coach, and Tyson, who leads the...

Adeline Nicholson pushed a rock up a hill for the better part of three years. A worsening shoulder injury nagged her college career and threatened to stop it. But somehow, Nicholson did not let it slow her down. She played through some pain at Slippery Rock for two years and...

With growing concern over the widespread coronavirus spike that has made its way to Allegheny County, Carnegie Mellon will not participate in fall sports, the university announced Wednesday. Sports that will be shelved are football, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis and women’s volleyball. All but football and volleyball field men’s...

Penn-Trafford resumed athletic workouts Tuesday but with new provisions to its health and safety guidelines. The school’s voluntary summer conditioning for fall sports teams was paused Friday after Gov. Tom Wolf gave clarification on mask-wearing for indoor and outdoor workouts and discussed the importance of self-quarantining after out-of-state trips. Penn-Trafford’s...

The NCAA Division III Presidents’ Athletic Conference will limit its fall sports teams’ schedules to conference games only, a move announced by the league Tuesday. All fall sports, except football, are looking at a start date of Sept. 1. Football teams are set to begin their nine-game schedules on Sept....

Meadow Uncapher is hitting the reset button again on her college softball career. A rising junior out of Mt. Pleasant, Uncapher is leaving St. Francis (Pa.) to play at Alderson Broaddus (W.Va.). The move will take her from a Division I to a Division II program, but she believes it...

Late in his senior season at Seton Hill, Nate Davis said the stars would have to align for him to continue playing basketball past college. He must have wished upon one because it’s happening. Davis, the second-leading scorer in Griffins history, is set to embark on a professional career after...

La Roche turned to a former Seton Hill player and offensive-minded assistant to lead its men’s lacrosse program. The university announced the hiring of Cody Golon as its head coach. A former assistant at Peters Township High School and a Baldwin grad, Golon was an assistant at Seton Hill the...

Micah Till was a wrecking ball around the basket at Slippery Rock. The 6-foot-7, 250-pound forward could rebound with the best in NCAA Division II basketball, but he was far from one-dimensional. He graduated as the only Rock player with at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 100 blocks, 100 steals...

Aidan Bushey and Matt Federovich do not know each other, but they have more than a few things in common. Both were star athletes at their respective high schools, Bushey at Derry and Federovich at Norwin. They were playmakers and lead-by-example teammates. Each will play a sport in college and...

With an alarming increase of positive covid-19 cases surfacing daily in this corner of the state, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association thought best to postpone one of its marquee events. The 120th West Penn Amateur, scheduled for July 6-7 at Allegheny Country Club, has been shelved until a later date...

Yough has been spending a lot of time on the basepaths so far in the Westmoreland County American League. And even more time clearing them. Through eight games, Yough (6-2) had scored 66 times to take a substantial lead in runs over the other eight teams in the summer wooden...

Pro football legend Jim Brown was good at lacrosse. Jackie Robinson, long before he broke the color barrier in baseball, was a two-time tennis singles champion. Hockey suited pitcher Tom Glavine well, home run hitter Alex Rodriguez was a terrific quarterback, and NBA guard Danny Ainge, they say, could have...