MSA Sports Countdown of Top 25 WPIAL Stories of 2013 – 12/31/13

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, December 31, 2013 | 4:58 PM

It has become a tradition like no other…at least during the holidays here at MSA Sports. It’s time to look back at another high school sports year with the top stories from around the WPIAL in 2013. We continue our countdown with the five stories that ended up #10 through #6.

#10 – Sto-Rox Cuts Spring Sports

School district budget cuts led to Sto-Rox High School dropping its baseball and softball programs in late June. While the district is looking for a co-op with another school district for both programs, returning baseball and softball players can either move to another district, attend a private school or just not play this upcoming spring.

Officials said there was talk about eliminating the entire athletic department before a proposal to just drop the two spring sports was passed on an 8-1 vote by the school board. Also part of the district wide cuts were eight teaching jobs and the school librarian.

The decision is a stunning blow to what is one of the top softball programs in the district. Bill Palermo is the winningest softball coach in both WPIAL and PIAA history.  He led the Vikings to one state championship and WPIAL Class AA titles in 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993 and 2006 plus five straight Class A championships from 2000 through 2004. Palermo retired after this past season in which Sto-Rox finished 13-4 during the regular season and were upset in the WPIAL Class A First Round by the Shenango Wildcats 7-6 in 8 innings.

#9 – Record Mat Streaks Continue

When it comes to WPIAL team wrestling, the golden domination by two programs continued in 2013.

With his team trailing by a single point, Canon-McMillan junior Dalton Macri pinned Franklin Regional’s Dan Turner just one minute into the final bout of the night at 120 pounds, nailing down the top-seeded Big Macs’ record fourth straight WPIAL Class AAA team wrestling title in the team finals back in February. Macri’s victory capped off a dual meet that featured the Panthers (17-3) building a 12-point lead midway through the match, only to see Canon-McMillan (15-0) battle back for a hard-fought 31-26 win.

With the championship win, Canon-McMillan eclipses the record of three straight WPIAL Class AAA crowns previously shared with the storied 1986-88 North Allegheny teams. The Big Macs now possess a total of nine WPIAL team championship trophies. The Connellsville Falcons (7 titles) and North Allegheny (5 titles) have also fared well in the WPIAL AAA team dual meet tournament that was first contested towards the end of the 1978-79 season.

The Burrell Buccaneers had a one goal in mind when beginning the 2012-2013 wrestling season, continuing their dominance in Class AA on their quest to climb the stairway to seven. They were successful, with a 35-30 victory over the South Fayette Lions, Burrell continued its winning streak of seven straight WPIAL Championships while winning its ninth overall WPIAL Gold.

The match clincher came at 106 pounds, Burrell sophomore Jason Roberts wanted to be a difference maker, and he was just that. After a scoreless first period against South Fayette freshman Jasper Wolfe, Roberts gave up a quick escape to trail 1-0. But a big takedown for Roberts would put him up 2-1. After a locked hands penalty, the match was tied at two heading into the 3rd period. Roberts showed resiliency in the final period, escaping from the bottom and holding off Wolfe for the final seconds to win the match 3-2 to clinch another district title for Burrell. South Fayette would receive two forfeits to end the match but it would not make a difference, as Burrell won its 7th straight and 9th overall WPIAL Championship with the 35-30 win.

A week later in the PIAA team wrestling playoffs, Canon-McMillan captured a second straight AAA state championship while Burrell was stunned in Round One of the AA playoffs.

#8 – Golden Career

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, who graduated from Hopewell High School in June, ended her incomparable high school career by being named the MSA Sports Girl Athlete of the Year for an unprecedented third year in a row. She was a three-sport star in the sports of volleyball, basketball and track and field. She was superb as an individual athlete but also led her teams to a great deal of success.

There is no doubting that Walker-Kimbrough did more than any three-sport athlete in the WPIAL in a long time. In her career, she won one WPIAL basketball championship, one WPIAL volleyball championship and three individual championships in track and field. She won the WPIAL Class AAA long jump as a sophomore and senior and also won the triple jump as a senior.

Walker-Kimbrough, who is 6 feet tall, certainly came a long way from her first experience with sports. When she was in fourth grade, she tried out for an Aliquippa girls basketball team, wearing jeans and a sweater. She made the team but she said, “I was bad when I first started playing.”

By the time she was a freshman at Hopewell, she was agile and had plenty of skills in basketball. Then she added volleyball and track and field to her resume – and she eventually starred in everything.

Not far into her high school career, she was all-state in basketball and volleyball, and a WPIAL champ in track and field.

Although Division I colleges were interested in her for volleyball and basketball, she figured out basketball was her best sport. She finished her career with 2,427 points. As a senior, she did everything for Hopewell but work the scoreboard. She averaged 28 points, 10 rebounds, 6 steals and 4 blocks.

Walker-Kimbrough was ranked among the top 100 basketball players in the country in the 2012-2013 season and she signed with the University of Maryland basketball team. Maryland has a top womens program and was ranked in the top 10 in the country some last season. Walker-Kimbrough has some lofty goals now, ones that are affected by what she did in high school. But no matter what Walker-Kimbrough accomplishes the rest of the way, she left an everlasting impression on WPIAL sports.

#7 – The Golden Tigers

North Allegheny High School has had GREAT success in athletic this century has witnessed by winning ten MSA Sports Class AAAA Cup in the ten years the network has hosted the competition. But what the Tigers athletic teams accomplished in the 2012-2013 school year my never been done again.

There are 20 sports in which schools can earn points in the MSA Sports Cup and for the first time in ten years, a school earned points in ALL of them.

North Allegheny scored a mind-numbing and record 1,115 points this year, ‘edging’ runner-up Peters Township by a mere 635 points. Mount Lebanon finished third, Canon-McMillan fourth and Hempfield fifth. The rest of the top ten was Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, Latrobe, Gateway and Fox Chapel.

Where do you start with the sports year that North Allegheny enjoyed? In the fall, they captured WPIAL gold in boys cross country and district and state gold in football. Then in the winter season, more gold came in both WPIAL boys and girls swimming along with a PIHL and Pa Cup state championship in ice hockey. The golden season for the Tigers concluded in the spring with a WPIAL and PIAA state crown in boys volleyball, District 7 championships in baseball and boys track & field and district runner-up silver in softball and boys tennis.

In all, the Year of the Tigers delivered eight district championships and three state crowns to North Allegheny High School and helped them cruise to a tenth MSA Sports Cup in ten years, thus concluding a decade of excellence at NAHS.

Already in the 2013-2014 chase for the cup, North Allegheny has an 80 point lead in Class AAAA thanks to WPIAL championships this fall from the girls tennis (state crown as well), girls volleyball and boys cross-country teams.

#6 – Wild, Wild Washington

After losing to Aliquippa in the 2012 WPIAL Class AA football championship game and with many key players returning, including one of the top running backs in the state, there were high expectations in the fall of 2013 for the Washington High School football team.

What happened instead was one of the craziest up and down seasons a team has ever gone through.

It all started in Week 3 when Division I running back Shai McKenzie tore his ACL in a victory over Charleroi, an injury that would cost him the rest of his senior season. It was a huge loss for the Little Prexies. McKenzie finished his career with 4,856 yards on 493 carries and 77 touchdowns. The yardage is the 15th best in WPIAL history. Had he stayed healthy, there is a good chance McKenzie would have become only the fifth running back in WPIAL history to reach 6,000 career yards. McKenzie averaged 9.8 yards for his career. Of the top 15 rushers in WPIAL history, McKenzie’s 9.8 average is the best (discounting Clairton’s Tyler Boyd, whose career carries were not available). The top two leading rushers in WPIAL history – Rushel Shell of Hopewell and Mike Vernillo of Fort Cherry – averaged 8.2 yards.

Despite his loss, Wash High kept on winning and was 5-0 at the midway point of the regular season. Then the name Zach Blystone surfaced.

Blystone is a talented 6-foot-3 junior lineman who transferred from Charleroi to Washington before the school year. He played for the first time in Week 6 against Brownsville. Charleroi contested Blystone’s transfer, saying it was for athletic intent. After a hearing, the WPIAL ruled Blystone ineligible, saying he transferred for athletic intent, which is against PIAA and WPIAL rules. The PIAA upheld the WPIAL after an appeals hearing. The Blystones got a new lawyer who claimed there was new evidence in the case. The WPIAL again ruled Blystone ineligible, but the Blystones again appealed to the PIAA. After another hearing two weeks ago, the PIAA unanimously ruled Blystone ineligible. The PIAA’s decisions are significant because the PIAA has overturned the WPIAL in many eligibility hearings over the past few years. Twice, the PIAA ruled Blystone ineligible. The Blystone’s took their case to court where it was later dropped and the Little Prexies were forced to forfeit their victory over Brownsville in Blystone’s only game played.

But despite going 7-2 overall and finishing second in the Class AA Interstate Conference, there was a chance Washington would not be eligible for the playoffs because of another eligibility issue.

The day before the final game of the regular season in October, the PIAA overturned a previous WPIAL ruling that ordered Washington to forfeit five wins for using a player who is in his fifth year of high school. Under PIAA and WPIAL rules, a student only gets four consecutive years to play sports when the student starts ninth grade. Regardless of whether the student doesn’t play sports for a year, he/she gets only four continuous years. The ruling meant Washington would not have to forfeit six wins and would be in the Class AA playoffs. The PIAA listened to the case of Quorteze Levy, a senior receiver-defensive back who is in his fifth year of high school. He spent his freshman year at a school in Michigan and did not participate in sports. He then transferred to Washington, repeated ninth grade and then stayed at the school for four years. Washington turned itself in to the WPIAL a week earlier after a guidance counselor discovered Levy was in his fifth year of high school. The WPIAL had a hearing the following Monday with Levy and Washington school officials. Washington asked the WPIAL for a hardship waiver that would grant Levy a fifth year of eligibility. The WPIAL granted Levy a waiver. But the league said the waiver started only Monday. The league did not make the waiver retroactive to the start of the fall semester. The WPIAL said when Levy played this season before Monday, he was ineligible. Under PIAA and WPIAL rules, a team must forfeit any games where an ineligible player is used. Washington didn’t stop at the WPIAL level, though. The school appealed the case to the PIAA and the PIAA voted to make the hardship waiver retroactive to the beginning of this semester. So, Washington did not have to forfeit games.

The Little Prexies lost to Seton-LaSalle 35-27 in the First Round of the Class AA playoffs ending a roller coaster season for Washington.

Tags: Burrell, Canon-McMillan, Hopewell, Washington