Bill Beckner stories, Page 57

New Greensburg Salem football coach Ty George has filled out his staff of assistants for his debut season. George, a former Hempfield and Seton Hill standout, was an assistant under former Golden Lions coach Dave Keefer. He is retaining some of the former staff and bringing in some new faces....

Maddie Moore School: Southmoreland Sport: Basketball Class: Senior Claim to fame: Moore poured in a career-high 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Scotties to a 62-53 victory over Ringgold to snap a 19-game losing streak. She added 15 points in a 39-35 loss to Uniontown. “Maddie played...

Upper St. Clair played six games in January and senior forward Colin Ruffner scored in every one of them. His efforts earned him PIHL Class 3A Player of the Month honors for January. He joined Franklin Regional senior forward Matt Knizner (2A) and McDowell senior forward Braeden Martin (A) as...

Adam Bilinsky was hoping his 1,000th point would come on a dunk. So were his family, friends and fans. After all, clips of some of his high-rising jams have gone viral. The slams have become his calling card. But the senior from Norwin — they call him “Bomber” — settled...

Franklin Regional did not qualify for the WPIAL girls basketball playoffs, but you would have thought the team won a championship after the final buzzer sounded Thursday night. The players yelled, squirted water bottles and giggled as they left the court. Whether it’s a case of a team peaking too...

A number of Westmoreland County teams still had a shot at the WPIAL boys basketball playoffs in the final week of the regular season. Friday night’s action will fill out the full list of qualifiers. County teams that already have clinched are Norwin (12-8) in 6A, Kiski Area (11-10) in...

Franklin Regional has been banged up, thrown out of rhythm and backed into a corner. The Panthers are on an eight-game losing streak. Yet, despite all of that, they can still get into the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs. “It’s hard to believe,” coach Jesse Reed said. “I have never been...

The WPIAL will announce playoff pairings beginning at 3 p.m. Monday via Trib HSSN, and postseason games could begin as early as next Thursday, according to the league calendar. Local teams that have clinched spots in the playoffs are: Norwin (18-3) in Class 6A, Penn-Trafford (13-5) and Latrobe (14-7) in...

Practice is over, and her teammates have gone home for the evening. But Tiffany Zelmore is still firing up shots, rebounding for herself in an echoing gym and making sure she doesn’t leave on a miss. “You good, Tiff?” Mt. Pleasant girls basketball coach Scott Giacobbi says as he waits...

From the bottom of the section to the WPIAL playoffs? Penn-Trafford just might pull it off. The Road Warriors did it again. Penn-Trafford, saving its best for last, won for the third time in four games to keep their flickering postseason hopes alive. The Warriors rallied from a slow start...

With a hop, a skip and a jump, Rayna Todero earned herself a championship. Todero, a sophomore at Robert Morris and a Franklin Regional graduate, won the triple jump at the Bob Shannon Invitational at Denison. Her winning distance was 11.15 meters. Todero also finished second in the long jump...

Greensburg Central Catholic rolled out a Spalding TF-1000 Legacy basketball for Monday night’s game against visiting Clairton. It is the ball the WPIAL requires teams to use in the playoffs. The Lady Centurions looked playoff ready but only partially because of the ball they were using. Third-ranked GCC was motivated,...

Sophomore Austen Swankler, a Norwin graduate, was named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Forward of the Month for a second time this season. Swankler extended his NCAA-leading scoring streak to 18 games. During that run, the Bowling Green forward has 11 goals and 20 assists for 31 points. He had...

Norwin’s Noah Vogel had his top schools all lined up and was about to make a decision on his football future when a new opportunity came in. An opportunity he could not refuse. IUP had been interested in Vogel since his junior year but increased its financial offer only a...

Norwin graduate Max McDowell will be with a new team this baseball season. The journeyman catcher, who will begin his eighth season in the minor leagues, will play for the Reading Fightin Phils, the Double-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. After spending most of last season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRaiders,...

Lily King School: Mt. Pleasant Sport: Swimming Class: Sophomore Claim to fame: King was dominant for the second straight year at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association championships at Derry, winning the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races in record fashion. She set county records of 49.63 seconds in the 100 free...

A bout of adversity didn’t stop the Norwin hockey team from winning, and it didn’t stop an offensive player from suiting up and playing goaltender. Norwin had to face Freeport without junior goalkeeper Owen Burmeister, who suffered a concussion while playing for his youth team the previous weekend. Knights coach...

It was only last year when Michael Fleming was firing in 3-pointers for Norwin, and two years ago when Nick Fleming was contributing key points and rebounds for the Knights. Now, the brothers are calling fouls and wearing stripes. Like their father, who has officiated basketball, football and other sports...

The playoff race in WPIAL Section 3-5A boys basketball just got a lot more interesting. Latrobe was one of the teams throwing wrenches into the works. The Wildcats clearly aren’t ready to call it a year just yet, as evidenced by their 66-53 win over reeling Franklin Regional on Friday...

Norwin girls basketball players recently filled out and read a Google form report about finding their roles on the team. It was a topic the Knights know well. The exercise gave the players a better idea of what their collective personality is. Norwin is ranked third in WPIAL Class 6A...

With just over a week to go in the WPIAL regular season, the Westmoreland County playoff picture is coming into greater focus. Only four county teams had secured spots at the beginning of the week: Burrell and Yough in Class 3A, Greensburg Central Catholic in 2A and Monessen in Class...

A search for continuity is a seemingly ongoing adventure at Belle Vernon this season as the boys basketball team tries to grow into its expectations. The journey has been met with flared locker room discussions, a maddening sense that the Leopards (9-9) should be better and the coach trying to...

Seton Hill women’s basketball players used to walk across the road to the Armory near downtown Greensburg to play intrasquad games. Later, they would hop a train to play in Pittsburgh, Indiana or Ohio. Dressed in their blooms, skirts and tiny caps, they would weave around creaky courts, pass to...

Mike Gerdich, walking gingerly in front of his team’s bench, watches a loose basketball roll out of bounds and into the near corner during a home game against Charleroi. He makes his way to the ball, bends down with a cringe and grunts under his breath, “Oh, that hurt,” as...

Seven Westmoreland County teams have secured WPIAL playoffs spots with just more than a week remaining in the regular season. Norwin clinched a berth in Class 6A, and Penn-Trafford wrapped up a a spot in Class 5A. Belle Vernon (4A), Greensburg Salem (4A), Yough (3A), Greensburg Central Catholic (2A), and...