Jerin Steele stories, Page 35

Sydney McDonough Class: Sr. School: Riverview Sport: Basketball Report card: McDonough scored a game-high 22 points to help Riverview earn a crucial Section 2-2A win at Brentwood on Thursday. She also had a team-high 12 points in a 43-22 nonsection win over St. Joseph last Tuesday. McDonough is the all-time...

After spending some time in the junior hockey ranks this season, Tyler Stewart made a surprise return to the ice for Burrell hockey last Monday. What wasn’t a shock was his production. Stewart, who was the PIHL scoring champion the last two years, netted six goals in his season debut,...

Every Saturday in the fall, the Plum competitive spirit team met in the gym for a 7 a.m. practice after cheering the night before at football games with a determination to get stronger. Waking up early to get together after a long night on the sidelines was just one of...

Trinity Lockwood-Morris Class: Sophomore School: St. Joseph Sport: Basketball Report card: Lockwood-Morris scored a game-high 21 points to help St. Joseph earn its first win of the season in a 42-39 overtime victory over Propel Andrew Street on Thursday. She also had a team-high 13 points in a 50-34 loss...

Blackhawk girls basketball coach Steve Lodovico loves to run a press and trap defense with the goal of creating turnovers and racking up points off them. Facing a familiar foe in Central Valley on the road, he decided to adjust the gameplan. Instead, the Cougars relied on a tough half-court...

The Fox Chapel hockey team has played its share of close games this season. Of the Foxes’ 11 games, eight have been decided by two goals or fewer, six have been one-goal games and four have gone to overtime. Through it all, the Foxes have a 4-5-2 record and are...

About an hour removed from a 41-31 victory over Armstrong on Thursday, Plum girls basketball coach Steve Elsier provided a list of reasons it was their best performance to date. “We had better possessions in the half court,” he said. “We communicated well in the half court. We pushed the...

Nesbit’s Lanes has pretty much become a second home for Shannon Small. When she isn’t there practicing, like she did most days during summer break, or bowling in a match for Plum, she’s picking up shifts working at the snack bar. “I’m there almost every day,” Small said. Aside from...

Andrew Sullivan School: St. Joseph Sport: Basketball Class: Junior Report card: Sullivan became the first junior in the WPIAL this season to eclipse 1,000 points for his career during a 31-point effort Saturday in a 78-70 win over Aquinas Academy in the consolation game of the St. Joseph tournament. He...

Entering the season, perhaps no team in the PIHL lost more key pieces than Burrell. Gone were players such as dynamic forward Tyler Stewart, who led the PIHL in scoring two years in a row, stalwart defensemen Bryce Schueler and goaltender Andrew Burkett. They led the Bucs to two consecutive...

Nevaeh Ewing Class: Jr. School: Knoch Sport: Basketball Report card: Ewing helped Knoch to two Section 1-4A victories last week. She had 13 points in a 39-37 win over Indiana on Monday and 27 in a 64-42 victory over Greensburg Salem on Thursday. Ewing also had a team-high 16 points...

Jack Mason can still remember the nervousness he felt playing varsity hockey as a freshman. “I was 14 years old playing against guys with beards, so it was a little intimidating at first,” he said. It’s the same feeling many of Mason’s Freeport teammates are working through this season and,...

First-year Plum boys basketball coach Mark Marino has been happy with the buy-in level from his players in the early part of the season. That’s led the Mustangs to be in a lot of games. Now, the next step is to figure out how to close them out. Aside from...

Demitri Morgan Gamble Class: Junior School: Apollo-Ridge Sport: Basketball Report card: Gamble scored at least 20 points for Apollo-Ridge in two wins last week. She had a game-high 22 points in a 55-27 win over Burrell and followed that with a 20-point night in a 64-19 win over Valley. Apollo-Ridge...

As Plum hockey reached the midpoint of the PIHL Class AA season, it found itself tied atop the Northeast Division standings with Armstrong with a pair of games in hand. There’s a long way to go, with plenty of games to be played and the schedule running into late February,...

The Minnesota State football team had an interesting journey to Slippery Rock on Friday that featured an hour-and-a-half delay after a truck carrying team equipment bumped into the charter airplane it was scheduled to take. The Mavericks had to wait for a new plane to arrive before taking off in...

Chad Kuhn never played a down of defense at Kiski Area. As the Cavaliers quarterback, he focused solely on offense, but when Slippery Rock coach Shawn Lutz saw the type of athlete Kuhn was — combined with his wrestling background — Lutz thought the potential was there for a transition...

Tori Johnson Class: Freshman School: Valley Sport: Basketball Report card: In her second varsity start, Johnson scored a game-high 24 points for Valley in a 49-26 win over Springdale on Saturday in the consolation game of the Springdale Tip-Off Tournament. She also had 16 points in her varsity debut, a...

Lernerville Speedway has a virtual twin on the most popular sim-racing platform in the world. On Tuesday, iRacing released Lernerville on its platform, giving fans around the world an opportunity to drive on the track without getting behind the wheel of a race car. The Buffalo Township speedway has been...

When Slippery Rock quarterback Roland Rivers III had to sit out all of 2017 with a shoulder injury, he passed the time by playing a lot of the video game “Madden.” But he didn’t play the usual way. “I played practice mode with all 32 (NFL) teams for three hours...

Kurtis Phipps showed his toughness by battling through a foot injury in last year’s PIAA Class AAA championship match. He suffered the injury a day earlier in his semifinal win. Phipps lost a 9-5 decision to Nazareth’s Sean Pierson in the championship match, but he experienced the atmosphere of a...

Franklin Regional coach Matt Lebe had to stop for a moment and count back through the years to figure out how many seasons in a row the Panthers have had a representative in the PIAA wrestling finals. The number he landed on was 11, and the reminiscing allowed for a...

One thing in particular that stands out from the many things that Central Valley coach Mark Lyons loves about his football team is that they enjoy playing together and not one player believes he is above another. On Friday, the Warriors took that mentality onto the field and earned a...

In his opening remarks at the first practice of the season, Plum girls basketball coach Steve Elsier challenged his team. “One of the first things out of my mouth was that the goal for us is to put up a section championship banner in this gym,” he said. The Mustangs...

With plenty of seniors on the roster, it might look like the Plum boys basketball team has a lot of experience. In reality, almost everyone will be new to varsity this winter. The Mustangs graduated seven seniors who got the bulk of the playing time last season and have only...