Chris Harlan stories, Page 32

The WPIAL cleared Imani Christian transfer Damon Givner to play his sophomore basketball season with the Saints, but two others were ruled ineligible after separate hearings Tuesday in Green Tree. Kylan Holmes and Robert Sledge were both ruled ineligible in the sport for one year, said WPIAL executive director Scott...

The WPIAL ruled Serra Catholic transfers Matt McNeal and David Jordan fully eligible after the sophomores attended an eligibility hearing Monday in Green Tree. Their transfers raised flags with the WPIAL mainly because both transferred from Woodland Hills. “The board wanted more information because you had two kids leaving one...

The WPIAL chose Canon-McMillan and Gateway to host Class 5A semifinals Friday night. Allegheny Six rivals Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair will rematch at Canon-McMillan. Northeast opponents Pine-Richland and Woodland Hills will play at Gateway. The WPIAL on Saturday released sites for the next round of playoff games. Many...

The drive home from Burgettstown to Lawrence County takes about an hour, but the Union football team had a slight detour Friday night. “Our bus driver took a wrong turn, so it added some time,” coach Kim Niedbala said with a laugh, “but it’s all good.” Winning sure helps everyone’s...

North Allegheny swept the big-school WPIAL cross country team titles this fall for the fifth year in a row, adding two more banners to a long list of league championships. But coach John Neff points to another list that’s also remarkably long — the number of runners who’ve worn a...

Upper St. Clair quarterback Julian Dahlem lost his starting job last month and hadn’t attempted a pass in weeks, yet the sophomore threw a season-saving touchdown Friday night. With the offense needing a late spark, Dahlem was inserted at quarterback in the fourth quarter and led the Panthers on an...

In WPIAL Class 5A, is eight enough? Consider, Gateway and Upper St. Clair each lost only once in conference play, yet they’re matched head-to-head in the first round of a brutal WPIAL Class 5A bracket that was reduced this season to eight teams. “It’s hard to complain wherever you ended...

An injured ankle had Jamaal Brown sidelined at this time last year, making him an unhappy spectator when Upper St. Clair lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Panthers haven’t won a WPIAL playoff game since 2019, back when Brown was a freshman attending high school in Florida,...

The Butler football team will have a chance to win a District 10 championship thanks to a school district victory Thursday in court. A Commonwealth Court judge denied a PIAA request that would’ve kept Butler out of the District 10 playoffs, clearing the way for the Golden Tornado to take...

The WPIAL cleared Lincoln Park transfers Maddie Syka and Abbi Jannuzi to play girls basketball in the regular season this winter after holding separate eligibility hearings Tuesday in Green Tree. Blackhawk had flagged their transfers as maybe motivated by athletics since both played for the same AAU program, but the...

You might say the WPIAL is transferring offices. The league plans to move into a newly purchased building on Swallow Hill Road in Scott Township that’s about 6 miles south of the Green Tree office space the WPIAL has called home for more than 20 years. The cost was $340,000....

Some folks count sheep. As co-chairs of the WPIAL football committee, Norwin athletic director Mike Burrell and Brentwood principal Jason Olexa spent the final night of the regular season endlessly counting tiebreaker points before they could fall asleep. This year, there was more counting to do than usual after the...

Wayne Wade was already envisioning one more Friday night in Clairton under the lights and the festivities that accompany a home football game in the WPIAL playoffs. Now, he’s left to wonder what time the team bus must leave to beat traffic. “It’s unfair to our kids not to have...

Class 6A Favorite: North Allegheny, which is seeking its first WPIAL title since 2012, took care of business in the regular season. The Tigers went 4-0 in conference play to finish alone in first place, but didn’t blow anybody away in the process. They had a one-point win, a four-point...

Defending WPIAL champions Aliquippa and Bishop Canevin were among the six teams that earned No. 1 seeds for the upcoming football playoffs when brackets were revealed online Saturday on TribLive HSSN. Aliquippa is the defending Class 4A champion and Canevin is trying to repeat in Class A. The other top...

Someday, the state’s best female wrestlers will be crowned PIAA champions at Giant Center in matches held alongside the boys, if advocates for the sport get their wish. “We’d like it to be at Hershey with the boys, that’s the goal,” said North Allegheny coach Dan Heckert, part of a...

The WPIAL football playoff brackets will be revealed at 2 p.m. Saturday on TribLive HSSN. In the meantime, here’s a look at what those brackets might look like, according to HSSN’s Don Rebel and Chris Harlan. Class 6A Chris Harlan’s bracket No. 4 Canon-McMillan at No. 1 North Allegheny No....

Aliquippa’s DJ Walker saw fans standing rows deep along the fence, heard cheers of a capacity crowd and felt the excitement in the cold, October air. That fueled his big night. “It’s the energy,” he said. “You felt the vibe in the stadium. You felt the vibe on the field....

Butler earned its biggest win of the season hours before Friday night’s football game against Latrobe. A Butler County judge ruled that the football team can compete in the District 10 playoffs over objections from the WPIAL and PIAA. In a ruling Friday, Butler County Common Pleas Judge Robert Yeatts...

Almost everyone has an off year once in a while, yet Mars coach Eric Kasperowicz and North Catholic’s Pat O’Shea have never had a team miss the playoffs in their head coaching careers. That might change after this week. Kasperowicz’s teams reached the playoffs eight consecutive years at Pine-Richland from...

Two high school communities in Beaver County had Oct. 28 marked on their calendars since late February, when the WPIAL first released this season’s football schedules. Their day has arrived. At 7 p.m. Friday, Central Valley faces Aliquippa in a long-awaited regular-season finale at Freedom’s Jimbo Covert Stadium. The 2,500-seat...

Bracketology before the playoff field is set is a curious idea. One that some might think gives solid insight into what the WPIAL football steering committee might do when they meet on Saturday. Or it may be looked at with folly by others who see the ramblings of two guys...

The PIAA’s plan to remove the transfer criteria from its competitive-balance formula received support Tuesday from a Beaver County legislator who was an outspoken critic of the current rule. State Rep. Rob Matzie (D-Beaver County) wrote a critical letter to the PIAA last December when the Aliquippa football team was...

The hottest ticket in Beaver County isn’t for a British pop star or an 80’s rock band back on tour. The top ticket is for a high school football game between rivals Aliquippa and Central Valley, two undefeated state champions who’ll play for a conference title Friday night. When Aliquippa...

There were some dark days this fall for the Mohawk football program, but Saturday wasn’t one of them. The Warriors cemented their spot in the WPIAL playoffs by pulling off a 22-8 upset on the road against Western Beaver, an opponent that had lost once all season. Remembering where Mohawk...