George Guido: A-K Valley teams aim for return to WPIAL glory

By: George Guido
Saturday, August 20, 2022 | 6:09 PM

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The 124th season of local high school football is upon us, as all 13 area teams will have Week Zero games.

Four of those 13 teams have new coaches – Matt Bonislawski at Highlands, Dave Heavner at Valley, Ryan Tempalski at Springdale and Tim Burchett at Knoch.

Will any team come out of nowhere to be a contender? It would be nice to see a local team go far in the WPIAL playoffs.

No team from these parts has won a WPIAL title since Springdale in 2003, the longest drought in Alle-Kiski Valley history. That’s a far cry from 1960-75, when at least one team in this newspaper’s circulation area made the WPIAL finals. In 1968, four teams of a possible six made the finals: Kiski Area played Latrobe in 3A; Burrell and Freeport played each other in 2A; and Oakmont played Chartiers-Houston in A.

Knoch was the last team making the finals in 2011 against Montour.

Apollo-Ridge and Plum made the semifinals in the abbreviated 2020 season. Freeport made the semis in the full season of 2015.

While the A-K Valley has its football woes, what about Fayette County? Brownsville has joined Uniontown and Albert Gallatin in bolting WPIAL football and opting for independent schedules. That leaves Connellsville, Frazier and Laurel Highlands as the only Fayette schools playing WPIAL football.

I know, I know… tiny portions of the Belle Vernon Area and Southmoreland school districts bleed into Fayette County, but that’s not my point.

On the air

With football in the air, don’t forget about games on the air or on the internet.

Trib HSSN will have at least 20 live football games each weekend. Don Rebel has put together another card of excellent matchups for fans to enjoy. One can even go back and catch games already played by visiting tribhssn.triblive.com.

Mike Choma and Mike Pavlik return for their 22nd season of carrying all Highlands football games. All games will be shown on Comcast Channel 190 at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and on YouTube the following day by typing in Highlands High Sports.

Scott Briggs will return to do all Knoch football games live on WISR 680AM, except none of those games with Dave Bacon will be emanating from the Regis Scheibel press box at Knoch. The Knights will be playing all their games on the road this season while the home field undergoes renovation.

Add Tarentum

Last week in listing the Alle-Kiski Valley American Legion state champions, we unintentionally omitted Tarentum.

Post 48 won it all in 1941, the last baseball season before the U.S. entered World War II.

We thank the team batboy, Charles Stoops Jr., for contacting the office with the correction.

Tarentum actually was in the finals the following year, too. In a best-of-three, Tarentum beat Coplay in Game One. When the series shifted to Coplay, outside of Allentown, Tarentum manager Charles Stoops Sr. refused to play a game on a Sunday, much like Curtisville (West Deer) manager Bob Malcolm did at the time.

Legion officials moved the game to a Monday doubleheader, and Tarentum lost both ends.

Here’s a look at the local Legion state champs:

= Curtisville 1939, ’43, ’49, ‘53

= Tarentum 1941

= Lower Burrell 1965

= Springdale 1972