Signal Item notebook: Chartiers Valley football to open season Aug. 23

By: Triblive
Sunday, July 21, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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Chartiers Valley’s varsity football team will open its season with a nonconference Week Zero matchup at neighborhood rival South Fayette on Aug. 23.

Nonconference games at West Allegheny and Indiana will follow in Weeks 1 and 2 before the home opener against Baldwin on Sept. 13. Hampton will visit for a nonconference game Sept. 20.

The Colts have heat acclimatization workouts starting Aug. 5, and the first official practices are Aug. 12. They will scrimmage Aug. 17.

Chartiers Valley finished 3-8 overall and 3-4 in the Class 4A Parkway Conference last season. The Colts lost to Mars, 44-19, in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.

The Colts will compete this season in the Class 4A Big 6 Conference with two-time defending WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A champion Belle Vernon, Laurel Highlands, Ringgold, Thomas Jefferson and Trinity.

Chartiers Valley opens conference play Sept. 27 at home against Laurel Highlands.

Fall sports dates

The first day of golf practice and football heat acclimatization is Aug. 5.

Aug. 12 will signal the start for cross country, boys and girls soccer, girls tennis and girls volleyball.

All-state honors

Three members of Chartiers Valley’s softball team were named to the Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association all-state team earlier this month.

Sophomore Lily Duffill was named a first-team catcher, junior Delaney O’Connor was picked a first-team outfielder and senior Marta Gulazzi was a second-team pick at third base.

All three were joined on the all-section team by junior pitcher Taylor Walsh. They helped the Colts finish 18-5 and reach the WPIAL semifinals and PIAA playoffs.

More postseason honors

A trio of Chartiers Valley girls lacrosse players earned All-WPIAL recognition — Juliana Betts, Natalia Palumbo and Kaitlyn Kuczinski. Mallorie LaGamba joined those three on the all-section team for Section 2-2A.

The group helped the Colts finish as the WPIAL runner-up this spring.

Alumni game scheduled

The Chartiers Valley boys soccer team will host an alumni game at 6 p.m. on Aug. 11, at Chartiers Valley High School Stadium. Tickets will be sold at the game for $5 per person.

Basketball alignment changes

The big-school classification in WPIAL boys basketball is getting a little bigger this winter, but not big enough for more than two sections.

The addition of Fox Chapel, North Hills, Connellsville, Woodland Hills and Imani Christian gave the WPIAL 16 boys teams in Class 6A, which the basketball committee chose to divide into two eight-team sections. Winter sports teams got their first look at their new sections for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons when the WPIAL board approved updated alignments June 18.

In basketball, the WPIAL preferred to make larger sections than smaller ones.

“There was discussion of going to three sections rather than two (in 6A boys),” WPIAL administrator Vince Sortino said. “The reason that we stayed with two was to make the section games more meaningful. If you go to three, you’re talking five or six teams per section. There’s not enough emphasis put on the actual section games (in a 22-game schedule).”

In all, there are a dozen eight-team sections this winter. Last season, there were none.

Section realignment is a process the WPIAL undertakes every two years. Winter sports include basketball, swimming, wrestling, rifle and gymnastics. Fall alignments were released in February. Spring sports are expected in August.

Sortino said the WPIAL put the basketball sections together with competitive balance in mind, as was done previously with fall sports, but that idea ultimately didn’t affect much here. Grouping teams geographically worked overall.

“There wasn’t a lot of talk (of moving teams) because, in each section, there are two or even three strong teams that could win that section,” Sortino said. “Each section is pretty competitive.”

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