Bill Beckner stories, Page 27

College coaches are turning up the volume to hear the cracking of pads on junior John Wetzel’s highlight film. “It’s similar to what you see with (Alex) Tatsch,” Latrobe coach Ron Prady said. “It’s violent. They hit, and guys go backwards.” Tatsch and Wetzel have been pillars in the Wildcats’...

Mike Iuzzolino remembers using the floor of coach D.P. Harris’ office as a pretend highway. “When I was 8, I used to play with my toy trucks under his desk,” the Saint Vincent junior guard said. “I grew up here.” Iuzzolino spent four years as a curious tag-a-long with a...

Greensburg Salem continued to show how much defense is wired into its grid by smothering another opponent in the Section 1-4A girls basketball opener. With full-court defensive pressure as the catalyst, the long-armed Golden Lions won going away 64-29 on Thursday night at Derry. Greensburg Salem (4-1, 1-0) came in...

A college softball career at Kent State awaits Ciara Camacho, who two years ago was new to the game. She didn’t know a slap hitter from a designated hitter, a courtesy runner from a pinch runner. The Franklin Regional junior played baseball for most of her youth sports career, mixing...

With four 30-point games this season, Derry’s Nate Papuga is one of the top scorers in the WPIAL. The senior guard had 27 points, and the game-winning shot, in a 56-55 win over Laurel Highlands, then added 31 in a 66-55 win over Connellsville, went for 33 as the Trojans...

Franklin Regional’s boys basketball coaches like to take a game film and pick it apart. They dissect it into dozens of short clips for instructional purposes. Some are examples of perfect execution. Others are used to emphasize what might have worked better. Either way, it gives the players something to...

One of the first things new Yough girls coach Brian Znavor did when he joined the team was move senior Autumn Matthews to point guard. Matthews had played two-guard and forward in the past, so the switch was big. The 5-foot-10 Matthews played AAU in the past, but even at...

She calls them her “Fab 5.” Jeannette girls basketball coach Anna Leonard began the season with five girls on the roster. The issue has been a curse and a blessing to the second-year coach, who has had to adjust the way she manages fouls, timeouts and rest. Cracking the starting...

Franklin Regional needed a little R&R. No, not rest and relaxation. If there is a tired boys basketball team out there, it is not this one. The Panthers went to Rowell and Rankin to keep their record perfect. Seniors Cam Rowell and Cooper Rankin each scored 21 points as the...

Kendall Berger said Norwin allowed Latrobe to dictate the tempo early in Monday night’s nonsection girls basketball matchup. Berger and Norwin, though, quickly changed the pace and flipped a close game in their favor. The Lady Knights, ranked No. 2 in Class 6A, picked up their defensive pressure, imposed their...

Remember Anthony Johnson? He was only at Jeannette for a short time after transferring from Allderdice and left for Cleveland Heights (Ohio) before his senior season. Johnson, enticed by friends to play football when he came to Jeannette after not playing since middle school, ended up playing at Youngstown State....

Gianni Rizzo has been playing college football since 2019 and still has a year to go. But the Duquesne junior linebacker out of Norwin will be hard pressed to top this season. Saving his best for late in the year when the Dukes made a push into the NCAA FCS...

The recruiting process ended just as quickly as it began for Riley Kerr. After the WPIAL girls soccer season concluded with a rare first-round loss for Greensburg Central Catholic, the junior forward began to get a feel for the lay of the land. She gauged interest and looked for the...

One-and-one free throws always have been a gamble. Make the first one, and you get a chance to make another. Miss, and you’re out of luck. The jury still is out on whether a new free-throw rule is a make or miss. A key change in the rulebook this season...

He rears back for a corner 3-pointer, stretching his arms high and behind his head, the basketball slightly tilted to the right. He lets it go and grins slightly to greet the swish. “Yes, it’s unorthodox and jenky,” Norwin senior guard Dylan McCullough said of his shooting motion. “I didn’t...

Corey Smith stepped out of the locker room, took a deep breath and came to the realization his team was fortunate to leave Hempfield with a victory. Fortunate to escape, even. A collective swipe across the brow was in line for Kiski Area after this one. “We went 1-0 today,”...

Autumn Matthews School: Yough Class: Senior Sport: Basketball Claim to fame: Matthews helped lead Yough (3-1) to a fast start, which included a pair of wins and a championship at the Deer Lakes tip-off tournament. She had 13 points in a 53-13 win over Valley, and chipped in eight in...

The ball went up in the jump circle and Franklin Regional took off. Showing a fast-paced style, the Panthers ran to a 2-0 start to open boys basketball season with a pair of wins at the 19th Hempfield Tip-off Tournament. “We’re trying (to run),” coach Jesse Reed said. “That is...

Life rewards hard. It’s a refrain Norwin wrestling coach Kyle Martin refers to often. The labor intensive nature of the sport comes with its benefits. “Wrestling is hard,” Martin said. “Every parent should want their child to wrestle.” At Norwin, a lot of them do. The Knights are in a...

The Norwin girls basketball team opened the season with a victory, which could be one of many for the Lady Knights. Bella Furno had 15 points, Ava Christopher added 12, and Lauren Palangio and Kendall Berger chipped in 10 apiece in a 66-27 win over Cameron (W.Va.) at the Wheeling...

Yough expects to see zone defenses this season. Deer Lakes sure knows how to run them. Using its trademark 1-3-1 zone, the defending WPIAL champion and fourth-ranked Lancers silenced No. 3 Yough, 53-32, in a matchup of Class 3A top-five boys basketball teams Friday night at Yough. “We have been...

Baseline to baseline, Penn-Trafford found a winning mix. Hassling team defense created mistakes and sound movement on the offensive end produced assists as the girls basketball team rolled past Hempfield, 66-41, in their nonsection home opener Thursday night. “A lot of people were creating for us tonight,” said Penn-Trafford sophomore...

A quick glance at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference men’s basketball statistics shows Saint Vincent is tops in assists per game (16.1) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.52). That makes sense for a team that shares the ball, plays at a breakneck pace and throws alley-oops in transition. Social media videos tell the...

In all of his years in coaching, Doug Kelly was almost certain he had never coached a double-overtime game in a season opener. “Oh, man, I don’t think so,” the Penn-Trafford coach said. He could guarantee he’d never coached two in a row to start a season. Who has? Talk...

It didn’t take long for new coaches to get their first win. Four local first-year coaches won in their season debut last Friday in Christy Hajjar (Ligonier Valley), Bob Madison (Hempfield), Mackenzie Livingston (Latrobe) and Brian Znavor (Yough). Hempfield, Yough and Latrobe doubled down with wins the following day to...