Jerin Steele stories, Page 34

Listed at 5-foot-9, Devin Whitlock was the shortest player on the floor in Saturday’s game between Quaker Valley and Belle Vernon, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in many other areas. He has a good vertical leap, a keen eye and a feel for the big...

Chartiers Valley coach Brandon Sensor thought Shaler did a pretty good job on his standout guard Brayden Reynolds through the first three quarters of Friday’s WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal game. Sensor also knew that the all-section senior would come through for his team when they needed him to, because he’d...

A couple of years ago, Lacey Adamik gave up the everyday grind of training for competitive USA gymnastics, but as time went on, she started to miss the sport. With the convincing of some friends, Adamik got back into gymnastics at the high school level this year representing Penn-Trafford. She’s...

Dom Elliott was honest about what was going through his mind in as he toed the line for two foul shots with five seconds remaining and Bishop Canevin trailing by one. “It was thinking about a lot,” he said. “I was thinking about my team, because my team is my...

Samantha Coleman Class: Freshman School: Kiski Area Sport: Gymnastics Report card: Coleman placed second overall in all-around in the Intermediate II division at the WPIAL gymnastics individual championship Saturday at Moon. She placed 15th on vault, eighth on bars, fifth on beam and fourth on floor for a total score...

Greg Guzzo was checking his email randomly last year when he saw a message titled “Positive Athlete.” He didn’t know what it meant at the time, but the email turned out to be a gateway to a scholarship and an opportunity to tell the story of how he handled a...

Pine-Richland’s Samantha Alexander went into WPIAL individual gymnastics championships wanting to stay on her feet. She successfully completed her goal in her four events and landed on the top step of the podium. Alexander, a sophomore, won the all-around championship Saturday at Moon with a score of 37.65. “I wasn’t...

Plum’s Connor Moss eclipsed 1,000 career points Feb. 5 after scoring 25 in a 52-51 nonconference win over Baldwin. Moss joins another junior, the girls team’s Kennedie Montue, in hitting the milestone. Moss scored more than 20 points 13 times this season and had more than 30 points four times....

At every practice in the Franklin Regional wrestling room, Finn Solomon and Carter Dibert are paired. When they wrestle, it typically becomes a spectacle. “When we go, everyone is watching us, because they want to see what happens,” Solomon said. “It’s so intense. It almost feels like the state finals...

For a long time, Burrell has been represented at the WPIAL individual gymnastics championship. But when Renee Ruggeri took over last season, her goal was to build a program that could compete with the best teams in the district. In two years, the Bucs have found their way into that...

Sarah Sawhook Class: Senior School: Highlands Sport: Basketball Report card: Sawhook finished her high school career with a pair of 20-point efforts, scoring a personal-best 25 in a 73-48 loss to Apollo-Ridge and 22 in a 47-44 loss to Burrell. She was a four-year starter. What’s the most memorable moment...

In 20 years of being involved in hockey, Fox Chapel coach Cam Raidna never experienced anything like what his team pulled off Thursday night against Kiski Area. With the Foxes’ playoff hopes hanging by a thread, Andrew Rich and Reed Troutman scored 38 seconds apart with the goalie pulled —...

Madilyn Boyer Class: Sophomore School: Knoch Sport: Basketball Report card: Boyer twice led the team in scoring and was in double figures in three victories for playoff-bound Knoch last week. She had a game-high 16 points in a 59-39 win over Apollo-Ridge and followed with another game-high — 23 points...

Moments after Lauren Cihonski hit a game-winning basket with four seconds remaining to help Knoch beat Freeport 53-52, the magnitude of what transpired hit her. As teammates were hugging her and fans were screaming, tears started rolling down Cihonski’s face. For three years, the Knights had been trying to beat...

Kennedie Montue Class: Junior School: Plum Sport: Basketball Report card: Montue eclipsed 1,000 points for her career with a 23-point effort in a 44-37 win over Franklin Regional last Monday. She also had a game-high 28 points in a 47-43 win over Mars on Friday, helping the Mustangs avenge their...

Coming into Monday’s game, North Catholic girls basketball had won 54 section games in a row — all but one of them by double digits — so when Freeport tied the game with five minutes remaining, it presented a situation that hadn’t come up in a while. The Yellowjackets had...

Thomas Jefferson junior Eddie Pazo and North Catholic junior Quinten Shaffer had a hat trick each to lead Team Blue to a 9-5 win over Team Gold in the PIHL Class A All-Star Game Sunday at RMU Island Sports Center. Shaffer scored once in each period. In the second, he...

Typically going on the penalty kill late in a game down by two goals is not a successful strategy, but in the PIHL Class B All-Star Game, Team Blue made being down a player work in a major way. Team Blue scored four times shorthanded in the third period, including...

The Norwin girls basketball team was the top scoring offense in WPIAL Class 6A through 14 games, and the Knights ranked second in scoring average against. For coach Brian Brozeski, attitude is the reason for Norwin’s success. Sets and strategy are important, too, but what has stood out to Brozeski...

Armstrong girls basketball coach Kirk Lorigan joked that he started looking in the stands for James Naismith, because it felt like the cylinder hoops at Gateway’s gymnasium were replaced with peach baskets. Gateway coach Curtis Williams summed up the way the offense went for either team succinctly by saying it...

Maddie Clark Class: Senior School: Freeport Sport: Basketball Report card: Clark had a game-high 22 points to lead Freeport to a 65-38 Section 1-4A victory Thursday at Greensburg Salem. She also scored 15 points to help the Yellowjackets rally in the second half of a 54-43 win Monday at Indiana....

Kiski Area goalie Eric Petika got a nice wakeup call from his dad the morning after the PIHL All-Star teams were released a couple of weeks ago. “He said ‘Check out the list! Look you’re on it!,’ ” Petika said. “It was a great way to wake up.” Not only...

In his first full season playing junior hockey, Plum native Cole Oravitz has learned keeping a positive mindset is important to success. Oravitz transferred from the USHL’s Madison Capitols to the Minnesota Magicians of the NAHL and dealt with a nagging wrist injury for two months. He worked through the...

Even though Jeannette coach Adrian Batts was hoarse from imploring his team all game, it wasn’t going to stop him from talking about the enjoyment he got from watching his team execute Tuesday night. From strong defense, to good ball movement, to shooting well, the Jayhawks did pretty much everything...