Scholastic Notebook – 01/08/2016

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, January 8, 2016 | 2:22 PM

It’s been a while since there has been this much of a roar coming from Cougar Mountain at this time of the year.

The Yough Cougars basketball team is making a lot of noise this year. Yough is 9-3 overall and in first place in WPIAL Class AAA Section 3 with 4-0 record. Yough took over sole possession of first place with a 77-69 overtime victory against Indiana Tuesday. Indiana is the defending WPIAL champion.

Yough is one of the biggest turnaround stories in the WPIAL, under second-year coach Casey Copeman. Yough was 6-16 last year and won only 49 games in the previous eight seasons. The last time they finished above .500 was 2006-07 when the Cougars were 15-9.

But really, Yough hasn’t enjoyed this much success since Big Ben McCauley was playing and helped Yough to a 20-9 record in 2004-05. The Cougars made it to the WPIAL title game that season and McCauley went on to a successful career at North Carolina State and then played professionally overseas.

Yough has a good chance to win a section title, something that has happened only twice before (2005 and 1996).

The heart of this team has been a potent one-two punch in senior Blake Kosor and senior Nick Beers. They are one of the best scoring duos in the WPIAL. In the most recent statistics, Kosor is second in the WPIAL in scoring at 26.4 points. Beers is averaging 17 and had a career-high 45 against Indiana.

Not many people are looking at Yough as one of the top three or four teams in WPIAL Class AAA. But up on Cougar Mountain, this team is held in high regard.

Panther Uprising

While on the subjects of cats making noise in WPIAL basketball, one must also look at the Franklin Regional Panthers.

Franklin Regional won only seven games last year and missed the WPIAL playoffs. But coach Brad Midgley has the Panthers at 9-2 overall and 5-0 in Class AAAA Section 2 heading into Friday night’s game against Woodland Hills. Franklin Regional is sitting pretty with a two-game lead in the section. The Panthers have a big one Tuesday against Plum.

Smith Retires; Woods Resigns

There were two rather significant coaching moves in WPIAL football this week. First, George Smith retired as McKeesport’s coach. Secondly, Ed Woods resigned as Beth-Center’s coach.

Smith became a veritable legend at McKeesport, running the triple-option flexbone offense and winning two WPIAL and two PIAA championships. Smith, 66, had two stints as McKeesport’s coach and coached 31 seasons overall. His record was 226-112-5.

Smith resigned after the 2009 season, unhappy with some things in the program. He came back in 2013 and went 29-5 in three seasons.

“I thought the program was really on a downslide when I came back,” said Smith. “Various people in the community contacted me then to come back. I didn’t want to, but they were very persistent. So I came back. The program was down. They were down to 30-some kids on the team. I think we built it back up.”

Woods never won any WPIAL or PIAA titles at Beth-Center but he enjoyed plenty of success at Beth-Center. He was the Bulldogs coach for 17 years and his record was 113-55.

WPIAL All-Americans

MaxPreps.com released its All-American teams this week, and a few WPIAL players were on it.

MaxPreps picked a first- and second-team for All-American. Pine-Richland quarterback Phil Jurkovec was a second-team selection to the sophomore All-American team.  

Clairton defensive back Lamont Wade and Pittsburgh Central Catholic linebacker David Adams were first-team picks on the junior All-American team.

Damar Hamlin of Central Catholic was a first-team pick on the All-American team.

Fabulous Freshman

The leading scorer in WPIAL girls basketball is a freshman who averages – get this – 44.9 points a game.

Cali Konek plays for Imani Christian Academy, a tiny school in East Hills. Her scoring so far has been hard to believe. She has scored more than 50 points five times.

Konek is a 5-foot-5 guard who was offered a scholarship by Duquesne University last weekend.

Double Forfeit for Cornell and Rochester

The Cornell and Rochester boys basketball game Dec. 18 was stopped in the third quarter because of a benches-clearing brawl. It turned out to be a losing situation for both teams.

The WPIAL had a hearing earlier this week with both schools and decided there will be a double forfeit for the games. Both teams will get a loss. Cornell was leading by one point when the game was stopped.

The WPIAL said the game couldn’t be started at the point of interruption because all players from both teams were thrown out for either fighting, or coming off the bench during the fight.

In another WPIAL matter, the league ruled Haley Zoglmann ineligible to play basketball at Oakland Catholic until Dec. 1 of next year. She transferred from Thomas Jefferson to Oakland Catholic and the league ruled she transferred, at least partly, because of athletic intent.

Zoglmann’s mother was one of the most outspoken critics of Thomas Jefferson coach Phil Shar. There was a movement by some parents to get Shar fired. But Thomas Jefferson rehired Shar. Zoglmann transferred to Oakland Catholic.

Tags: Beth-Center, Clairton, Cornell, Franklin Regional, Imani Christian, McKeesport, Yough