Starting 5s: Previewing high school girls basketball season in the A-K Valley

By: Michael Love
Thursday, November 28, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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Starting 5s

A preview of the high school girls basketball season in the A-K Valley:

5 storylines to follow

• Dana Petruska (Deer Lakes), Jason Kerr (Freeport), Dan LaGamba (Highlands), Chuck Langston (Leechburg) and Tonya Norman (Valley) are new faces at the top ready to lead their teams into the 2024-25 season.

Petruska, who has amassed more than 500 wins in her high school coaching career, returns to her alma mater where she also served as head coach from 2006-15. She most recently concluded a successful coaching stint at Mars.

Kerr served as an assistant with the Yellowjackets last year and has been a head coach at both Highlands and Valley.

LaGamba takes over a Golden Rams team that lost four starters. Highlands won 18 games a year ago and qualified for the PIAA playoffs.

Langston, a Pitt-Johnstown grad and former coach at Moon and Cornell, hopes to lead the Blue Devils to another playoff berth and an improvement on last year’s 8-11 record.

Tonya Norman was a standout forward at Valley in the late 1980s before playing collegiately at Duquesne.

• Will Riverview and Knoch be able to extend the longest WPIAL playoff-qualifying streaks in the A-K Valley?

The Raiders, who bumped up to Class 2A after finishing runner-up to St. Joseph in Section 3-A last year, return four starters who hope to lead the team to its seventh straight postseason berth.

Knoch, which made the WPIAL quarterfinals and qualified for the PIAA tournament in Class 4A, also seek a seventh-consecutive playoff trip. The Knights feature three returning starters, including Marshall commit Karlee Buterbaugh.

St. Joseph, a WPIAL Class A finalist last year after making the semifinals the previous two seasons, hopes to make it six straight this year. The Spartans will have to do it with just one returning starter.

Highlands also has to replace four starters as it goes after its fifth straight WPIAL appearance in Class 4A.

Apollo-Ridge, the fourth-place team in Section 3-3A last year, moves down to Class 2A as it also shoots for its fifth trip to the postseason in as many seasons.

All current streaks include the open playoffs in the 2020-21 season.

• Four area teams — Burrell, Apollo-Ridge, Riverview, and Springdale — were on the move in the offseason as a result of the latest WPIAL realignment.

Burrell, which features several top returnees from last year’s Class 3A playoff qualifier, bumped up to Class 4A and will have home-and-home matchups against local rivals Freeport, Highlands and Valley, as well as Knoch, Derry, North Catholic and Oakland Catholic.

Apollo-Ridge moves down, while Riverview moves up, and the two teams, both playoff qualifiers a year ago, meet in Section 4-2A and will face Ellis School, Frazier Jeannette, and Winchester Thurston.

Springdale, whose seven wins last year were the most in 11 years, drops down to Class A which features just two sections over the next two-year cycle as opposed to the three from recent alignments. The Dynamos will share a spot in Section 1 with fellow A-K Valley teams St. Joseph and Leechburg as well as Aquinas Academy, Eden Christian, Sewickley Academy, Union and Western Beaver.

• St. Joseph and Highlands enjoyed a great amount of success over the past several seasons. Last year, the Spartans and Golden Rams qualified for the state playoffs.

But both teams endured heavy graduation losses of four impactful starters, including a pair of 1,000-point scorers in Kate Myers (Highlands) and Valley News Dispatch Player of the Year Julie Spinelli (St. Joseph). With the new season set to begin, how will the Spartans and Golden Rams fare as the redesigned lineups get into game action?

St. Joseph’s return to the postseason will largely depend on the leadership of the lone returning starer in senior guard Gia Richter who was a featured scorer, distributor and defender in the Spartans’ run to the WPIAL Class A title game at the Petersen Events Center and a 22-5 overall record.

Junior forward Kasey Cienik and sophomore Jocelyn Spinelli also will be among those featured.

Highlands, in a new system under first-year head coach Dan LaGamba, will look to its lone returning starter, senior Tyarah Woody, for leadership. Bella Bonnett, a 5-9 forward who was a top contributor off the bench last year, also will be counted on to lead a youthful team.

Seven of the 13 players on the Golden Rams roster are freshmen.

• St. Joseph and Highlands weren’t the only teams in the A-K Valley who had to replace big-time scorers.

That offseason task also fell to the coaches at both Kiski Area and Plum.

Megan Marston, who averaged 18.8 points and four assists last year as the Mustangs reached the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs, scored her 1,000th point in a Jan. 2 section game at Woodland Hills.

She now is a freshman guard on the women’s team at Case Western Reserve.

Abbie Johns, who often delivered big plays during her four years as a varsity performer at Kiski Area, averaged 18.5 points over 22 games last year on the way to earning several local and district-wide all-star honors.

The Shippensburg freshman reached 1,000 points on a 3-point shot during a home section game against Gateway on Jan. 26.

Plum, 13-10 last year and 9-3 in section play, will count on the play of returning starters in senior guard/forward Serena Carnahan, junior guard Riley Stephans and sophomore guard Tamia West.

Kiski Area, 6-16 last year and 2-10 in section games, hopes to get back to the playoffs with the help of a trio of returning starters: junior forward Gianna DeVito, senior guard Rikaya Garcia-Broaden and junior forward Ali Pencak.

5 teams to watch

• Knoch enters this season hoping to continue a recent string of success which included a WPIAL Class 4A championship-game appearance in 2022 and three straight trips to the PIAA playoffs. A mix of three returning starters — senior guard Karlee Buterbaugh, junior guard Neah Ewing and sophomore forward Aubrey Spencer — along with several talented newcomers has many, including coach Shane McGraw, pointing to the potential for another strong postseason run. Buterbaugh recently signed to play at Division 1 Marshall.

• Freeport first-year coach Jason Kerr likes what he sees with a core of returning players and a freshman group ready to contribute. Freeport hopes to turn around its fortunes and get back to the WPIAL playoffs. The team fell short last year with an 8-13 overall record and a 4-8 mark in Section 1-4A. Point guard Nia DiSanti, forward Tessa Keller and guard Jaisa Gaillot all saw varsity minutes last year. Sophomore guards Lilly Holloway and Macy Stivenson are expected to see their roles increase.

• Only one player on last year’s Burrell roster — Cassidy Ley — was lost to graduation, and she didn’t see any varsity time because of an injury. A combination of youth and experience will lead the charge for a Burrell team that went 16-5 overall last year and 8-2 in Section 3-3A. Top returnees in senior forwards Julianna Fisher and Bella Stewart, junior guard Mikayla Coury, junior guard/forward Casey Brancato and sophomore guard McKenna Miller are expected to form the core in the Bucs’ move from Class 3A to 4A.

• Fox Chapel hopes to stay healthy this season after a rash of injuries derailed its hopes of making the WPIAL playoffs the past two seasons. The Foxes missed the postseason by two games last year. Fox Chapel has four players back with starting experience: junior guard Lyla Jablon, senior guard Bella Urso, senior forward Natalia Schaffer and sophomore guard/forward Taylor Stocker.

• Plum senior guard/forward Serena Carnahan has seen numerous talented players move on because of graduation from recent Mustangs teams. While she was sad to see those players go, she also is motivated by who is back this season. Carnahan, sophomore guard Tamia West and junior guard Riley Stephans return as starters from a team hoping to take that next step from last year’s 13-10 overall record and 9-3 mark in Section 1-5A. Plum fell to North Hills in the WPIAL first round. The new season brings a revamped section. The Mustangs will be in Section 1-5A with Armstrong, Fox Chapel, Franklin Regional, Gateway, Penn Hills, and Shaler.

5 players to watch

• Kat Tsambis, Sr., G, Riverview: The Riverview senior guard hopes for big things in her final varsity season. An all-section performer who also picked up Valley News Dispatch second team honors a year ago, Tsambis is a proven scorer, distributor of the basketball and defender for a Raiders team hoping to maintain their hold on a spot in the WPIAL playoffs. She and fellow senior Lily Bauer will help lead Riverview in its move up to Class 2A in the offseason WPIAL realignment.

• Tyarah Woody, Sr., G/F, Highlands: The Golden Rams joined St. Joseph in the somewhat of a rebuilding process after they also lost four starters to graduation. Three of them — Kate Myers (Pitt Johnstown), Kalleigh Nerone (Bloomsburg) and Jocelyn Bielek (Pitt-Greensburg) — now are playing in college. Woody, who isn’t afraid to mix it up in the paint under the basket, is back as a starter ready to lead the charge under new coach Dan LaGamba. The 5-8 guard’s leadership will be counted on for a team in which seven of the 13 on the roster are freshmen.

• Gia Richter, Sr., G, St. Joseph: Second-year coach Geoff Dutelle said Richter’s leadership will be just as important to this year’s youthful and inexperienced team as what she is able to do in terms of shooting, rebounding, passing and defending the basketball. The speedy Richter, the only underclassmen starter for the WPIAL Class A finalist Spartans, averaged 11.1 points and 4.3 rebounds while leading the team in assists (2.9) and steals (3.5).

• Gianna DeVito, Jr., F, Kiski Area: The youngest player, as a sophomore, on the VND first, second or third teams last year, DeVito, who was named to the third team, is one to watch as she takes that next step in her team leadership. The 5-11 DeVito said she is ready to take a lot more on her shoulders after averaging 8.4 points a game to go along with 6.5 rebounds a contest. The Section 1-5A coaches honored her efforts in the 2023-24 season by selecting her a second-team all-star.

• Riley Stephans, Jr., G, Plum:The Mustangs’ junior made her mark in her very first varsity game two years ago as she banked home a last-second shot to defeat host Freeport at the Freeport Tip-Off Tournament. Now a seasoned varsity veteran, Stephans hopes to take that next step in her development with Plum. Joining Carnahan and West as returning starters, Stephans said team speed in making up for a smaller lineup this season will be key if the Mustangs are to keep their WPIAL-playoff streak intact.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Burrell, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport, Highlands, Kiski Area, Knoch, Leechburg, Plum, Riverview, Springdale, St. Joseph, Valley