Jerin Steele stories, Page 36

Kiski Area girls basketball coach Nick Dizon couldn’t have been happier with the work his group put into its offseason. Whether it was mandatory or voluntary, Dizon saw his girls putting in max effort, whether it was getting into the gym after school in the spring, playing AAU basketball in...

Entering year two of his tenure at Kiski Area, Will Saunders is ready to let his team run. The Cavaliers will be young this year, but Saunders is excited because he has a team that fits his style of up-tempo basketball that’ll combat a lot of half-court offenses in a...

The Penn-Trafford football team has high standards, and with that comes championship aspirations. So, when the clock hit zeros Nov. 15 and a 28-10 loss to Peters Township in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals marked the end of the road for the Warriors, it provided a tough ending to an...

At the end of practice, most teams come together in a circle, put their hands in and say one, two, three and then their team name. The Fox Chapel boys basketball team puts its own twist on it. They say, “One, two, three, defense!” To those who follow the Foxes,...

When Marty Matvey arrived to take over the Fox Chapel girls basketball program this summer, he quickly realized there was talent from top to bottom in the lineup. His goal from that point forward has been to put that talent in the best possible position to be successful on the...

When 6-foot-10 Ben Pollock finished his Cheswick Christian Academy boys basketball career in 2016-17 after rewriting much of the school’s record book, longtime Chargers coach Todd Rosio had a three-year plan to build the team back up to contending status. The Chargers have arrived at Year 3 of that plan....

Jacque Willis thought she might become a basketball coach someday, but she never expected it to be just a few months after she graduated college. But when Clinton Blazevich had to step down for health reasons, Willis, 22, was elevated from assistant status to head coach of the Cheswick Christian...

After Washington’s Zahmere Robinson fumbled for the first time this year in a third quarter that saw Brentwood surging, he went to the sidelines and told his teammates he’d make up for it. “I told them that (fumble) was my fault, but I had their back,” he said. Robinson was...

There wasn’t another team in the WPIAL that played a schedule like Franklin Regional did this season. Panthers coach Greg Botta dubbed his team “the traveling football show,” because they were road warriors for most of the year. The Panthers played only three games at home due to losing a...

The day after North Catholic girls volleyball lost to Freeport in the WPIAL Class AA finals by surrendering a 2-0 lead, coach Amanda Fetter told her players they deserved to have a banner hanging in the gymnasium, and the only one left to get was a PIAA banner. The Trojans...

Skylar Burkett Class: Senior School: Knoch Sport: Volleyball Report card: Burkett totaled 22 kills in Knoch’s two 3-0 sweeps in the PIAA playoffs last week. The Knights topped South Fayette in the first round and Franklin Regional in the quarterfinals. Burkett is an outside hitter and setter, and she possesses...

At practice Monday, Knoch girls volleyball players sat on the gym floor in a circle around coach Diane Geist as they prepared for their state semifinal opponent, District 3 champion Palmyra. The Knights are in the PIAA semifinals for the third year in a row and will be seeking an...

The Mars girls soccer team has been dominant against WPIAL opponents all season, and in its final meeting against a district foe this season, it wasted little time establishing the tone. The Fightin’ Planets scored twice in the first five minutes Saturday, which went a long way towards breaking a...

As Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz was giving his postgame speech with his players surrounding him on a knee, the assistant coaches started tossing Heinz ketchup packets into the huddle. The ketchup-themed celebration has become semifinal tradition as of late for the Rams, and after a career night from junior quarterback...

The last time Kennedy Christy was in the Shaler gym, she was injured on the final night of the regular season in a nonsection match against the Titans and it caused her to miss Knoch’s entire WPIAL playoff run. Christy was cleared to play Monday and made her return on...

After having to come back from two-set deficits to win in the WPIAL semifinals and finals last week,the Freeport girls volleyball team had a much less stressful opening to the state playoffs. Behind a balanced attack, the Yellowjackets cruised to a 3-0 sweep of District 9 champion Brookville in the...

Isabella Russo Class: Sr. School: Freeport Sport: Volleyball Report card: Russo had the match-clinching kill for the Yellowjackets, who rallied after dropping the first two sets in a 3-2 win over North Catholic in the WPIAL finals Saturday at Fox Chapel. She had 17 kills in the match. Russo also...

In its playoff run, Knoch girls volleyball proved how strong a team it is by grinding out wins without standout hitters Kennedy Christy and Hannah Rowe. On Saturday in the WPIAL finals, Rowe showed how good a player she is, and delivered a three-peat for the Knights. Rowe, surrounded by...

If someone had told Plum boys soccer coach Raf Kolankowski before the season that his team would have been leading in a WPIAL Class AAAA semifinal with five-plus minutes remaining, he would’ve taken it in a heartbeat. What happened in those final five-plus minutes, where Canon McMillan scored twice to...

The Big Macs had one more comeback in them and it was one that they’ll remember for a long time. Trailing by a goal with just over a minute remaining, Luke Gladden found some open space and scored a goal from 18 yards out before Joey Fonagy scored on a...

Kaitlyn Killinger Class: Fr. School: Plum Sport: Soccer Report card: Killinger scored twice and had an assist for No. 2 Plum in a 4-2 win over Hampton in the WPIAL Class AAA quarterfinals on Thursday. She also was one of six girls that scored in penalty kicks in Plum’s 2-1...

Deer Lakes boys soccer has used “unfinished business” as its mantra after narrow misses on the road to a WPIAL championship appearance the last few years. Lancers junior Michael Sullivan provided the finishing touch Saturday, when he scored all three goals in a 3-0 victory over South Park in the...

A few minutes after the Plum boys soccer team’s magical season ended Saturday with a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in the WPIAL Class AAAA semifinals that saw Canon-McMillan score twice in the final six minutes, Mustangs coach Raf Kolankowski used the moment as a teaching tool. “It’s disappointing, but I told...

Logan Deri got a text from his younger brother, Peyton, on Tuesday, and the message hit home with regard to how he’s been able to carve out a strong career on the football field at West Liberty. The text read: “There’s always going to be someone bigger, faster and stronger...