Scholastic Notebook – 01/27/2012

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, January 27, 2012 | 2:03 PM

Mike Decker is a computer education teacher at Woodland Hills High School. As basketball coach, he is part sociology teacher also.
Decker is in his second season as Woodland Hills’ coach and has orchestrated one of the more impressive turnarounds in WPIAL basketball. If you listen to Decker, one of the biggest reasons for the Wolverines’ success is a change in culture.

Not the culture of life in Woodland Hills. The culture of the basketball program.

“The whole culture was a lot different before,” Decker said. “It wasn’t a winning culture. The kids were kind of surprised when we would have Saturday practices during the season. We had to start slowly, but now we have Saturday practices, we have open gyms in the offseason and we play in spring and summer leagues.

“All of that stuff is habit now. It takes some time to get that culture to switch over.”
Woodland Hills is 13-3 overall and 7-1 in WPIAL Class AAAA Section 2. The Wolverines are one game ahead of Gateway in the race for the section title.

The 13 wins is the most since the Wolverines went 13-11 in the 2002-03 season. This is a program that won five games or fewer five times in the past eight seasons.

Woodland Hills has four section titles in its history (1992, ’95, ’99 and 2000). The last outright section title (without tying) came in 1999.
Decker, a former player at Pine-Richland, is in his third season with the program. He was an assistant under Dave Krakoff in 2009-10.
“When I was an assistant, we thought we had potential down the road,” Decker said. “It hasn’t been like one game or one thing happened and we said, ‘Now, we’re good.’ It kind of just happened and I think the confidence has been growing.”

Only One

The only undefeated team left in WPIAL boys basketball is New Castle (16-0).

On the girls side, four teams are still undefeated. They are Oakland Catholic (17-0), Seton-LaSalle (15-0), Vincentian Academy (16-0) and Fort Cherry (17-0). Looking down the road, a game to watch will be Feb. 11 when Oakland Catholic plays Seton-LaSalle.

Top Player Injured

Kaylynn Waters is one of the WPIAL’s top girls basketball players and the third-leading scorer in the WPIAL with a 25.4 average. But Waters’ status the rest of the season is up in the air after she sustained a knee injury in a game Tuesday against Vincentian.

Waters had an MRI on the knee and is supposed to know the results today. She has had knee injuries a few other times in her career.
Battle of No. 1s

Battle of #1's

The Pittsburgh Basketball Club Legends Classic is a four-game event Sunday at Ambridge High School. While a heralded Pitt recruit is one of the event’s headliners, a showdown of No. 1-ranked teams also highlights the day.

Shaler is the No. 1-ranked WPIAL Class AAAA team in the MSA Sports rankings. Lincoln Park is No. 1 in Class A. They meet at 12:30 p.m. There will be two Division I college recruits in the game. Lincoln Park senior Devontae Watson has signed with Temple. Shaler junior Geno Thorpe has made a verbal commitment to Penn State.

The 2 p.m. is drawing attention, even though no WPIAL teams are involved. The contest is Notre Dame Prep of Massachusetts against Massanutten Academy of Virginia. Notre Dame Prep features 7-footer Steven Adams, who has signed with Pitt. Some scouting services rank Adams among the top 10 players in the country.

In An Empty Gym

Friday’s Beaver Falls and New Brighton boys game and Monday’s Beaver Falls at New Brighton girls game will both be played at 4 p.m. and fans are not allowed to attend.

The schools decided to move the games to the afternoon and to bar fans because of a fight late Sunday night/early Monday morning in Beaver Falls between some students from both schools. One teenage was stabbed in the fight by Corey Jefferson, a reserve player on Beaver Falls’ team. Jefferson has been charged with aggravated assault and has been kicked off the team.

Some players from both Beaver Falls and New Brighton were involved in the fight and have been suspended from the team for an indefinite period of time. Beaver Falls was missing six players in Wednesday night’s game against Northgate and it certainly played a role in Beaver Falls being upset by Northgate.

Holtz to Pitt

New Pitt coach Paul Chryst got his second recruit from the WPIAL earlier this week when Shaler tight end-linebacker J.P. Holtz announced on KDKA television that he would attend Pitt.

Holtz made a verbal commitment to Penn State last summer but changed his mind after the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case cast a shadow over the program. After telling Penn State he was no longer committed, Holtz visited Pitt, Purdue and Michigan State. Pitt and Michigan State were his final choices.

“After I visited Michigan State, I knew Pitt was the right place,” Holtz said. “I always liked Purdue, but after I visited there, it’s just too far.”
Now that the football recruiting is over, Holtz said, “I’m just going to try and focus on us trying to win a [basketball] championship.”

About Piccinini’s Problems at Peters

Peters Township football coach Rich Piccinini is in the middle of a dilemma about concussions and injuries with players on his team.
A few parents’ claimed recently that Piccinini played some players who had concussion-like symptoms or other injuries. The school did its own investigation and Piccinini was re-hired by the school board.

But now Peters police are now investigating the situation after Washington County Children and Youth Services sent a complain to the police about Piccinini allowing to players to play despite concussions or concussion-like symptoms.

Stay tuned what happens in this one.

Where Are They Now?

The West Liberty basketball team is ranked No. 2 in the country in NCAA Division II and leads the country in scoring at an incredible 102.4 points a game. A freshman from West Mifflin has started 15 of West Liberty’s 19 games. C.J. Hester is averaging 12.9 points and 7.4 rebounds for West Liberty (18-1).

Tags: Fort Cherry, Lincoln Park, Vincentian Academy, West Mifflin, Woodland Hills