Reigning Westmoreland County basketball champs ponder perils of going for 2

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, November 23, 2025 | 9:15 AM

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When you’re the defending champion, everyone stands up when you walk into the room.

A measure of respect is earned, and flowers are delivered for the happy trophy holders.

But the parades end and the noise dies down. Soon, it is next year — when it’s time to do it all again.

Three Westmoreland County basketball teams will begin the season as returning WPIAL champs: the Jeannette boys (2A), Belle Vernon boys (4A) and Greensburg Central Catholic girls (3A).

GCC is going for a three-peat after winning a Class 2A title in 2023-24.

The county has never had three returning WPIAL champions in basketball, and last year marked the first time two local boys teams won district titles in the same season.

“One of the first things I will ask our guys is, are you full or are you still hungry?” Jeannette coach Adrian Batts said. “If they’re full, then we’re only going to look great on paper. What we accomplished in 2025 will only be a memory. It’s about these guys creating their own legacy.”

Jeannette returns all five starters from a 25-3 team that captured the program’s first WPIAL title since 2008 when Terrelle Pryor was dunking on people.

The athletic quintet of Kymon’e Brown, Markus McGowan, Jayce Powell, Xavier Odorisio-Farrow and Noah Sunder are expected to again push for a February title run.

GCC also is packed with talent as all-everything guard Erica Gribble, a Richmond commit, returns to lead a sound backcourt. Jayla Peterson, a Wheeling recruit, also rejoins a team that lost only one senior.

“You can’t win until you check all the boxes,” GCC coach Chris Skatell said. “You can’t win a state title unless you get there. You have to let things play out and not get ahead of yourself.”

Belle Vernon, conversely, has an uphill climb to a repeat. A new coach has taken over — former assistant Ricky Tyburski replaces legendary leader Joe Salvino — and the Leopards lost an abundance of talent to graduation, including Zion Moore, the county’s player of the year.

The Leopards celebrated their first title since 1978.

“Championship expectations are not unfair for this year’s team,” Tyburski said. “When you win one, people naturally expect more, and that’s OK. Everyone is proud of what last year’s championship team did, and that’s a good thing, but we can’t get caught up in last year’s banner season. This is a new group with our own identity, our own goals and our own challenges.

“We’re striving to write our own story.”

Doubling up

Jeannette and Belle Vernon could join elite company in the county if they can win another title.

Only Irwin (1947-48, 1953-54) and Monessen (2001-02) have won repeat titles.

Just two county teams, GCC (2024-25) and Norwin (2015-16), have gone back-to-back on the girls side.

While 13 girls teams and only four boys teams have won three straight titles in WPIAL history, no team from Westmoreland County has accomplished that feat.

Sure, GCC has won back-to-back championships twice, the other time in 2006-07, but three in a row is a new concept.

“It’s not something I’m thinking about,” Skatell said, putting a three-peat in context during the first week of practice. “You can only worry about the next game.”

What does it take?

There is no secret sauce here, no magic, when it comes to defending a championship.

When top talent returns, title-winning coaches will tell you it comes down to the players’ want-to and experience.

Norwin’s girls won back-to-back Class 4A titles in 2015-16.

“You have to make sure the team understands that the past season doesn’t entitle you to anything in the current season,” said Norwin coach Brian Brozeski, whose team was the WPIAL runner-up last year after winning the Class 6A championship in 2024. “You have to stay hungry.”

Wanting more can end up producing less. Daily actions add up.

Batts said practices can be just as important as games on the championship path.

He was an assistant in 2008 when the Jayhawks won their first WPIAL title.

Good-on-good matchups played an important role.

“I remember how Terrelle (Pryor) would go against some of the better guys like Jerry Harris,” Batts said. “They would go at it.

“This year, we’ll have Kymon’e and Jayce battle it out, and Sunder and (Odorisio-Farrow).”

Skatell said the idea is to hit the reset button and slow the process to a crawl, even when two blockbuster section matchups await against Shady Side Academy, the team GCC beat in last year’s WPIAL final. Shady Side won both section games last year.

“I watch a lot of film when I get time in school,” Gribble said. “I like to see what we can get better at. I watch some of the Shady Side film. We’re going into (the season) confidently.”

GCC has to walk a line between preparing to face Shady Side and tolerating less challenging matchups along the way.

“We can do it, but it’s going to take a lot of work,” Gribble said. “We still have Shady Side. We know they are going to be a challenge again. We have confidence in ourselves.”

Pete and repeat

Getting to play at Petersen Events Center for the WPIAL championship is a pipe dream for most WPIAL teams, but GCC has done it in back-to-back years and has a good shot to make it three in a row.

“It means a lot to the girls to get there,” Skatell said. “But you can’t put too much focus on it now.”

Belle Vernon’s story was unique because the Leopards got to send Salvino out a winner. He spent more than three decades coaching Monessen before joining Belle Vernon for seven.

There is a sense the final chapter ended and the book closed, but Tyburski wants to keep the pages turning.

“Moments like that don’t come around every day,” Tyburski said of last year’s title. “You don’t always get to write the ending the way you want in this game, season or career. Coach Salvino put so much into this program, and it was really special to see the team give him that one last championship season. We obviously had that goal since Day 1, and you could see the pride in the locker room and on the court as the players rallied for him. It’s something that everyone who was involved will always remember how special it truly was.”

Tyburski said togetherness and effort are what powered Belle Vernon to the long-awaited title.

Seeking counsel

Chasing advice from other coaches who have won back-to-back championships can help the preparation for teams that are primed for another run.

Batts said he looked up some ideas to keep his team’s brains from curdling, referencing something former Florida coach Billy Donovan did. Donovan guided the Gators to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2006-07.

“Billy Donovan talks about treating every practice and game like it’s the national championship,” Batts said. “That goes for the coaches and their preparation, and how the players get ready to compete.”

Batts also said he might seek advice from 10-time WPIAL football championship winning coach Bill Cherpak, his former high school classmate, and Tim McConnell, who won nine WPIAL basketball titles with the boys and girls at Chartiers Valley.

“They have been there,” Batts said. “They know.”

Salvino retired with 743 wins, second-most in WPIAL boys basketball history.

Tyburski and Salvino won three WPIAL titles together at Monessen. The men who won back-to-back titles together with the Greyhounds when Tyburski was a player still talk hoops.

“He wants to check in, and he’s been great about sharing his insights,” Tyburski said. “He gives the reminder about keeping the kids focused, staying grounded and remembering that every team has to earn it on its own.”

Skatell has talked with former North Allegheny coach Spencer Stefko, who went to the WPIAL finals eight times in nine years and won five titles with the Tigers.

“I talk with other coaches about in-game things, like a ball-screen trap or something,” Skatell said. “But Spencer talked about keeping them engaged and hungry. I do things at practice to try to keep things fresh.”

Hitting a triple

Here is a list of three-peat champions in WPIAL basketball history:

Boys

Midland — 1973-77

New Castle — 2017-19; 2012-14; 1997-99

OLSH 2019-22

Sto-Rox — 1991-93

Girls

Aliquippa — 1987-90

Avonworth — 1992-94

Baldwin — 1981-83

Bishop Canevin — 2016-18

Geibel — 1993-96

Mt. Alvernia — 1983-85

North Catholic — 2022-24; 2017-20; 1993-95; 1980-82

Oakland Catholic — 1999-02

Penn Hills — 1986-92

St. Francis Academy — 1989-91

South Fayette — 2022-24

Union — 2023-25

Vincentian — 2012-16; 2000-02

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Greensburg C.C., Jeannette