George Guido: More Hall of Fame inductions in near future

By: George Guido
Saturday, January 22, 2022 | 5:48 PM

On the heels of the WPIAL Hall of Fame rollout this past week that included local figures such Chuck Tursky, Jason Nolf and Micah Mason, several other halls of fame will recognize area people.

The Pittsburgh Basketball Club will induct Valley’s Tom Pipkins to its hall of fame on Feb. 5 at Chartiers Valley Country Club in Robinson Township.

Pipkins, a 1993 Valley graduate, remains the WPIAL’s all-time leading basketball scorer with 2,838 points.

On Friday, the Highlands Basketball Boosters will welcome three new members to its hall of fame before the boys game with Armstrong.

Kirk Witucki, a three-year starter who played from 1995-97, remains the school’s third all-time scorer and was a starter on the 1995 WPIAL title team.

Speaking of that team, Greg Koprivnikar, who will be remembered for “The Shot” that lifted Highlands to the WPIAL title over heavily-favored Blackhawk with 3 seconds left in the ’95 Class 3A game at Duquesne’s A.J. Palumbo Center, will be inducted.

The other inductee will be Mike Pavlik, who has broadcast more than 500 Highlands football and basketball games in the past 21 years. He will join his color analyst, Mike Choma, in the hall. Choma was part of the inaugural 2013 class.

Name change

The final measures are being taken to change the name of the South Butler County School District to the Knoch School District.

Supporters have said though the geographic reference will be gone, people will recognize the name change with the familiarity of Knoch’s athletic teams.

A school district name change must go through the state legislature, according to state Department of Education protocols. State Rep. Marci Mustello, R-Butler, said she will introduce legislation in the state House within the next month. If passed, the measure needs to be approved by the state Senate before heading to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk.

Schools don’t change names often, but one example is Knoch’s neighbor, Seneca Valley.

Originally known as the Southwest Butler School District when Evans City and Zelienople merged in 1964, the district was rechristened Seneca Valley in 1987.

Montour was known as Robinson Township High School until the name was changed in 1956 to recognize the formal adoption of Kennedy, Ingomar and Thornburg into the school district confines.

By contrast, when the Franklin Regional School District was created in 1962 as a merger between Franklin Township and Export high schools, the name became obsolete in a way because Franklin Township changed its name to the Municipality of Murrysville in 1974.

Schools officials kept the Franklin name and so did the sewage authority.

Snowden High School changed its name to South Park in 1965, and Upper St. Clair was known as Fort Couch High School for its first year in 1958.

The Pine Richland Joint School District changed its name to Babcock School District in 1971, then changed it back to Pine-Richland, formally adding the hyphen, in 1982.

Valley football

Valley could be closer to naming a new head football coach.

The New Kensington-Arnold School Board’s athletic committee is scheduled to meet Thursday at 6 p.m.

As of Dec. 7, there were 28 applications for the position.

Interviews were set to begin the following week.

The next school board meeting is slated for Feb. 1.

The Vikings move up to Class 3A over the next two seasons in a conference with Deer Lakes, Freeport, Knoch, Shady Side Academy and East Allegheny.