A-K Valley football notebook: Longtime broadcasters change teams for 2025 season

By: Bill Hartlep
Thursday, August 14, 2025 | 4:38 PM

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After 25 years of calling Highlands sporting events, Mike and Mike have taken their talents across the Allegheny River.

The longtime broadcast team of Mike Choma and Mike Pavlik will be in the press box calling Burrell football games this fall.

Starting with Saturday’s scrimmage, the pair plans to livestream all of the Bucs’ games, home and away.

“After 25 years at Highlands, we’ll do 25 years at Burrell,” joked the 71-year-old Choma.

The game broadcasts will be streamed live on their BSD Athletics Livestream page on YouTube (@bsdathleticslivestream) and available through archive.

The pair also will film an “Inside Burrell Football” show each week that will include interviews with coaches and players and showcase Pavlik’s deep knowledge of Burrell history.

“I love doing this because it keeps me active,” Choma said. “The people at Burrell have been great so far.”

Choma and Pavlik worked together for Comcast TV3 doing pregame and scoreboard shows before their first on-air presence together in 2000.

They then started doing play-by-play and color commentary of Highlands football and basketball games that were replayed on Comcast Channel 190 and YouTube.

Choma also was brought onto the Bucs coaching staff by first-year coach Dom Girardi, who had previously coached at Highlands. Choma said he works with the players in seventh through 12th grade.

“It gives me an opportunity to mentor players and help them to get scholarships, something I have been doing for years,” he said. “I always said teams don’t win, programs win, and I don’t count wins or loses but instead scholarships, and Burrell School District is allowing me to do both.”

Scrimmages set for Saturday

Burrell will host Leechburg in an A-K Valley themed scrimmage at 10 a.m. Saturday to begin the 2025 season.

All 13 area A-K Valley teams will be in action Saturday morning.

Riverview will host Apollo-Ridge and Brashear for a tri-scrimmage at Riverside Park.

Deer Lakes will welcome Knoch, Kiski Area will host Connellsville, Plum will play host to Seton LaSalle and Valley will draw Jeannette in New Kensington.

Heading on the road are Fox Chapel at Hampton, Highlands vs. Southmoreland (at Connellsville), Freeport at Slippery Rock and Springdale at Jefferson-Morgan.

All games start at 10 a.m.

Blast from the past

Fresh off being named the Arena Football One’s offensive player of the year, Apollo-Ridge grad Duane Brown has signed to play in the United Football League.

The wide receiver who played at IUP will play for the UFL’s Memphis Showboats.

He finished his AFL season this summer with the Albany Firebirds by catching 61 passes for 909 yards and a league-leading 30 touchdowns, averaging 90.9 receiving yards.

Brown scored 50 touchdowns at IUP, including 18 in his final season in 2022. He started his college career as a running back before moving to receiver and totaled 3,539 yards of offense in four seasons.

At Apollo-Ridge, he was a two-time Valley News Dispatch offensive player of the year. He was named all-state as a senior in 2016 after he accumulated 1,500 yards and 20 touchdowns in just seven games. He also ran for 480 yards and eight touchdowns against Deer Lakes as a junior, finishing the season with nearly 1,600 yards and 30 scores.

Be on the lookout

Check out Sunday’s print edition of the Valley News Dispatch for the annual Game Plan high school football preview section.

It includes previews for every team in the A-K Valley as well as schedules, rosters, classification breakdowns, rankings, top players, games to watch and predictions.

Bill Hartlep is the TribLive sports editor. A Pittsburgh native and Point Park graduate, he joined the Trib in 2004, covering high school sports. He held various editing roles before assuming his current position in 2019. He can be reached at bhartlep@triblive.com.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Highlands, Kiski Area, Knoch, Leechburg, Plum, Riverview, Springdale, Valley