Scholastic Notebook – 02/27/2015

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, February 27, 2015 | 12:26 PM

The WPIAL basketball championships Friday and Saturday are most definitely a story of new and old faces.

All eight title games will be played at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center. All through the boys and girls title games are familiar faces and some you have never seen in the title games for a number of years, and a few never before.

On the boys side, the new are North Allegheny and Indiana. North Allegheny has won numerous WPIAL titles in just about every sport, but the Tigers have never won a WPIAL basketball championship. They have been to the title game only two other times – under coach Mark Jula. The Tigers lost to McKeesport in 1995 and to a great New Castle team in 1999.

Then, you have Indiana. The Little Indians have never been to a WPIAL title game since they joined the WPIAL in the 1980s. Heck, until this year they had never been past the quarterfinals. They were 1-9 in first-round games and lost in the 1998 quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Jeannette is trying for only its second WPIAL title.

Now for the old faces. Chartiers Valley is making its 12^th championship appearance under coach Tim McConnell. That’s incredible when you consider McConnell has been coach for only 22 years.

Beaver Falls has won three WPIAL titles under coach Doug Biega and the Tigers are seeking their 10^th title overall. The nine championships tie them for fifth-most.

Monessen coach Joe Salvino is trying to win his fifth WPIAL title.

Aliquippa coach Nick Lackovich is trying to win a WPIAL in only his second year as coach, but the Quips have 10 championships overall, which ties for third all time.

Seton-LaSalle is the defending WPIAL champion.

On the girls side, Norwin and South Fayette are making their first championship appearances in school history. Also, Penn Hills hasn’t been in the title game since 1994.

The other girls teams are no strangers to this WPIAL championship stuff. Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic and Vincentian meet for the Class A title and they have 24 championships between them – 16 by North Catholic and eight by Vincentian.

In Class AA, Seton-LaSalle is in the championship for the seventh consecutive season and this is the third time in five years the Rebels will play Bishop Canevin.

Blackhawk is trying to win its second consecutive WPIAL title and seventh overall.

Now, some more championship factoids:

BOYS

*Trivia question: Coach Dave DeGregorio is in the title game for the first time with North Allegheny. But he coached in a title game one other time. Do you know the team?

*Chartiers Valley coach Tim McConnell could become only the fifth coach in WPIAL history to win five titles. The leader is Farrell’s Ed McCluskey with 11.

*By the end of this weekend, there could be three 2,000-point scorers who played in the title games. Blackawk’s Chassidy Omogrosso and Vincentian’s Brenna Wise already have 2,000 points. Chartiers Valley’s Matty McConnell needs 30 to reach 2,000.

*Trivia answer: Before coming to North Allegheny, DeGregorio also coached Pine-Richland and South Allegheny. In 2000, DeGregorio’s Pine-Richland team lost to Blackhawk, 73-50, in the AAA title game.

*Chartiers Valley has five players with at least 29 3-pointers – Jake Ritson, Ross Wilkerson, Matty McConnell, Ed Flohr and Coleman Vaughn. Both Ritson and Wilkerson are shooting better than 50 percent from 3-point range.

*Beaver Falls, a Class AAA finalist, starts two sophomores and a freshman.

*Tim McConnell’s nephew, Chris, is one of the top players off the bench for Indiana. Chris’ father and Tim’s brother, Tom, is the women’s coach at Indiana University of Pa.

*Indiana’s Riley Stapleton led WPIAL football in receptions this past season.

*Indiana coach Greg Lezanic was a long-time girls coach before taking over the boys team.

*Jeannette’s Julian Batts is the second-leading scorer in Jeannette history, with 1,734 points, trailing only Terrelle Pryor.

*Batts is one of two father-son teams in the title games. Batts’ father, Adrian, is Jeannette’s coach. The other is the McConnells.

*Aliquippa coach Nick Lackovich was an assistant coach at both Aliquippa under Marvin Emerson and Beaver Falls under Doug Biega.

GIRLS

*Penn Hills coach John Tate played at the University of Massachusetts under now Kentucky coach John Calipari. Tate was on a WPIAL championship team at Penn Hills in 1987.

*Blackhawk coach Steve Lodovico played under legendary Blackhawk boys coach John Miller. One of Lodovico’s assistants this year is  Bob Amalia, the highly successful baseball coach at the school. Amalia’s daughter, Madison, is a sophomore guard for Blackhawk.

*Seton-LaSalle has two Division I college players at guard. Cassidy Walsh is a Pitt recruit while Nicolette Newman is headed to Cleveland State.

*Vincentian’s Lexi Griggs was Hampton’s leading scorer last year.

*South Fayette is in the final for a first time, but could it be a sign of things to come. The Lions don’t have a senior in the starting lineup.