Jerin Steele stories, Page 22

Chris Rotelli has been coaching for 25 years and in previous spots he’s had to build a program from the ground up. That’s exactly what he intends to do with Pine-Richland boys volleyball. It’s not going to happen overnight, but with the principles he’s putting in place both on and...

The fourth-grade Pine-Richland girls basketball team is a state champion. The Rams topped Whitpain Recreational Association, 16-12, in the state final March 20 in State College. Pine-Richland went 4-0 at the tournament. They defeated Whitpain in the first round, Chartiers Valley in the quarterfinals and Thomas Jefferson in the semifinals...

Without a senior on the roster, Valley softball managed to break into the playoffs last year for the first time since 2012. The Vikings were 5-9 overall and 5-5 in Section 1-3A. They fell 7-0 to South Allegheny in the first round of the playoffs. Getting to the postseason with...

Valley baseball coach Jim Basilone expects the Section 3-3A race to be exciting, and he is confident his team will be among those competing for the title. The Vikings return five starters from last year’s team that finished 13-8 overall and 6-4 in section play with a win over Mohawk...

Sam Hartsberg has coached travel softball for close to a decade and always had an interest in coaching at the high school level. But first he wanted to watch his daughter, Leah, play at Pine-Richland. When Leah graduated last year, he reached out to then Pine-Richland coach Gary Shepard about...

A rash of injuries to a large senior class last year contributed to a rare playoff absence for the Pine-Richland baseball team. It also allowed some younger players to receive varsity playing time a little earlier than they might have in a normal year, which could prove beneficial for 2022....

Dane Kelly is the all-time leading scorer in USL Championship history, and Kenardo Forbes is the all-time assist leader, but the two switched roles Saturday night. It was Kelly who dropped a pass to Forbes from well outside the 18-yard box, and he launched a rocket shot under the crossbar...

Burrell’s Lydia Flanagan found a groove and rolled to a state title Friday. Flanagan topped Warwick’s Taylor Miller, 223-156, in the championship match of the Pennsylvania girls singles bowling championship at 222 Dutch Lanes in Lancaster. It was the first time a girl from the western region won a girls...

When Aaron Albert started coaching at Beaver six years ago, he had a lineup featuring eight sophomores. That team won a WPIAL championship two years later. Fast forward to present day and Albert finds himself in a similar situation entering his fourth year with the Kiski Area baseball team. The...

John Kinnamon led Apollo-Ridge softball to four consecutive WPIAL playoff appearances, but this year he moved up the Kiskiminetas River a few miles to coach Kiski Area. Kinnamon is a Kiski Area graduate, and he’ll look to improve the softball program like he did when he was with the Vikings....

Freeport softball has been in the playoffs 12 consecutive times, and with an experienced core returning along with younger talent, it will look to continue the streak. “We’ve made playoffs every year that I’ve been here, which is a pretty good accomplishment, and that’s a credit to the girls and...

Freeport baseball started from scratch last year. The cancellation of the 2020 season because of the pandemic left a gap between the 2019 team that made the state playoffs and last year’s team. Ed Carr and his staff spent the season bridging that gap, and and the coach believes the...

A trio of Pine-Richland girls youth basketball teams will have a chance to take on some of the top competition in the state. The fourth, fifth and sixth grade teams qualified for the state youth basketball tournament March 18-20 in State College. Newly hired Pine-Richland football coach Jon LeDonne helps...

Tales of hockey players and their superstitions have been told since skates first hit ice, but Pine-Richland captain Alex Erlain wants nothing to do with them. “I hate superstitions,” he said. “It’s my goal not to have any. I don’t want anything to get in my head.” He wouldn’t even...

Kira Schrecengost Class: Freshman School: Freeport Sport: Swimming Report card: Schrecengost captured the 100-yard butterfly title at the WPIAL Class 2A championships last weekend at Trees Pool. She set a school record en route to winning the title with a time of 56.09. She has an older sister, Lexi, who...

Bob Lilley and his staff went into the offseason with the goal of improving the depth of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. They brought in Dane Kelly, the all-time leading scorer in USL Championship history, to pair with last year’s team leader in goals Russell Cicerone, as well as Alex Dixon and...

The 2022 college baseball season is big for Matt Wood for numerous reasons. It’s the draft-eligible year for the Pine-Richland grad ,and his name is popping up on plenty of scouting services as someone who will be selected by an MLB team in the first 10 rounds. That’s a humbling...

A few months ago, Kendyll Jerry never had been on a diving board, so leaving the WPIAL championships with a podium finish and a medal was quite a feat. Jerry, a freshman at Pine-Richland, placed eighth in the WPIAL Class 3A girls meet Feb. 26 at North Allegheny. She posted...

Nina Shaw Class: Junior School: Knoch Sport: Basketball Report card: Shaw scored 15 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter to help Knoch earn its first ever trip to the WPIAL girls basketball finals in a 56-45 win over Southmoreland on Tuesday in the Class 4A semifinals. Shaw...

Maddie Webber sensed early on that the third meeting between South Fayette and Chartiers Valley this season was going to be different. “I knew in the first quarter,” she said. “We were all attacking. Ava (Leroux) was getting rebounds, we pushed the ball on offense, we were all finishing, and...

The Pine-Richland girls basketball team fell short of reaching the playoffs, but it ended the season on a high note with a pair of victories. The Rams took down Shaler, 60-51, on senior night Feb. 10 and followed that with a 65-51 win over Franklin Regional on Valentine’s Day. Pine-Richland...

Anna Kreinbrook Class: Sophomore School: St. Joseph Sport: Basketball Report card: Kreinbrook scored the go-ahead basket with 50 seconds remaining and sank two free throws in the final moments to help St. Joseph complete a 19-point comeback in a 57-54 victory over three-time defending Class A champ and top-seed Rochester...

Markus Frank is quiet and modest off the court, but in between the lines, he is a monster. And Wednesday night, the 6-foot-6 senior added a historic achievement to a stellar career at Quaker Valley. Frank set a single-game school record by scoring 45 points to propel the top-seeded Quakers...

A big second quarter was more than enough to push Sto-Rox along further in the playoffs. The ninth-seeded Vikings clamped down on defense and held host Springdale to one field goal in the second frame en route to a 72-46 victory in the first round of the WPIAL Class 2A...

It’s already been a strong year for Pine-Richland wrestling, going 12-3 with a trip to the WPIAL team tournament, and with individual season approaching, a group of Rams have positioned themselves to make more noise. Pine-Richland has four wrestlers who won 30 or more matches this season, and that doesn’t...