Tag: Gateway

Chicks Picks – Week 3

September 17, 2015

Welcome to Week 3 of the high school football season. After a long night at MSA Sports World Headquarters last Friday, Chick’s Picks arrived home to find a neighborhood gathering outside her house.  Questioning the purpose of this late-night assembly, Chick’s Picks quickly realized that the man of the house, Mr. Picks, was behind it. “Chick’s Picks – I was introducing myself to some of our new neighbors, and in conversation, I made sure to ask them if they had heard of THE Chick’s Picks.  When they said yes, I proceeded to tell them that you lived here.  So, they wanted to see you for themselves,” Mr. Picks said.

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CTK 2015 – Class AAA Greater Allegheny Conference Preview

August 21, 2015

While West Allegheny and Central Valley have battled back and forth atop the Parkway Conference and Thomas Jefferson has reigned supreme in the former Big Nine Conference, the Greater Allegheny Conference has had a number of intriguing teams that have enjoyed success recently. Last year, Hampton captured the top spot, while perennial powerhouse Franklin Regional finished in second. Mars, a team which has been near the top of the standings in recent years, overcame key injuries to still contend and make a playoff run. Conference newcomer Gateway, which was a powerhouse for more than a decade in Quad-A, proved disappointing for most of its debut season.

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2015 Positive Athlete Awards

May 19, 2015

2015 Positive Athlete Awards On Wednesday, May 13th,  27 Western PA High School students were recognized at the John Heinz History Center by Hines Ward as “Positive Athletes” .  These athletes were nominated by coaches, teachers, administrators, parents, and friends for their ability to meet the following criteria in their day-to day lives as athletes, students and members of their communities.

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Scholastic Notebook – 01/09/2015

January 9, 2015

New Castle High School’s Malik Hooker apparently isn’t the only one who wears the athletic “genes” in the family. Hooker was one of the best two-sport athletes in the state the past two years, standing out in football and basketball. He now is a freshman football player at Ohio State, but is being redshirted this year. Two of Hooker’s younger brothers are now playing on the New Castle basketball. One of them is the team’s leading scorer in his first year as a starter. Marquel Hooker, a 5-foot-10 junior, is averaging 16.4 points a game. He never saw regular varsity time before this season.

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PIHL Notebook – 2014-2015 Class A Preview

October 20, 2014

Welcome to another edition of “PIHL Notebook” as we continue our comprehensive preview of the 2014-15 high school hockey season. Today we take a look at the teams vying for the Class A championship. Class A has the most complex breakdown of the new alignment, split into two tiers with two conferences in each. Tier 1 is, fittingly, the more stacked of the two. Three of last year’s final four will compete in the Western Conference, including defending champion Quaker Valley, while McDowell and Montour join from the Open Division and Class AA respectively. The Eastern Conference includes Chiefs Cup finalist Hempfield, the “other” member of last year’s Class A final four in Freeport, and another Open transplant in Gateway.

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Scholastic Notebook – 09/19/2014

September 19, 2014

At the rate he is passing, Pine-Richland quarterback Ben DiNucci has a good chance to become the 17th player in WPIAL history to throw for 5,000 career yards. While that is an impressive feat, Pine-Richland does thro the ball often. So DiNucci will naturally pile up yardage. What might be more impressive about DiNucci is his accuracy. DiNucci is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior who you probably wouldn’t want to play in darts. Sure, in Pine-Richland’s spread offense, DiNucci throws a number of short passes. But he still throws downfield and his accuracy is uncanny.

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CTK ’14: WPIAL AAA Greater Allegheny Conference Preview

August 15, 2014

The teams in the Greater Allegheny Conference will have something new to worry about this season. They hope to avoid the bite of the Gators. One of the major changes in the WPIAL football landscape this year is Gateway dropping down to Class AAA. Since Gateway opened in the mid 1950s, the Gators had always played in the largest classification. But the school’s enrollment allowed the team to drop from Class AAAA to AAA this season.

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Scholastic Notebook – 05/02/2014

May 2, 2014

There are multi-sport athletes in the WPIAL who compete in more highly-visible sports than North Hills’ Noah Bostick. But as far as the number of sports and excelling in them, Bostick has few peers. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say Bostick is most one of the best all-around athletes in the WPIAL. He is a young man for all seasons – and then some. You don’t see many three-sport athletes these days at large schools. But Bostick is more than a three-sport athlete. He actually competes in four sports, and does well in all of them.

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Scholastic Notebook – 02/21/2014

February 21, 2014

If the WPIAL basketball quarterfinals are a party for eight, Class AAAA Section 1 has done and unusual thing and made reservations for two. It’s like Section 1 has finally stood up and said “what about us?” Hempfield and Kiski Area are Section 1 teams that have made it to the quarterfinals. It might not seem like much, but seeing two from Section 1 eating at the quarterfinal table doesn’t happen often. Since 2000, this is only the fourth time that two teams from Section 1 have made the quarterfinals and the first time since 2010. In 2007, Albert Gallatin and Norwin made the quarterfinals. Norwin and Franklin Regional made it in 2008. Kiski Area and Latrobe made it in 2010.

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Scholastic Notebook – 01/24/2014

January 24, 2014

All of a sudden, the menu of top boys basketball teams in WPIAL Class AAAA Section 4 has Big Macs on it. The Canon-McMillan Big Macs have pushed their way into a tie for the Section 4 lead with Upper St. Clair. The two teams meet tonight in a big game. Although Section 4 isn’t strong this year, nothing should take away from the Big Macs’ surge. They were 3-4 at one point this season and have since won seven of eight. Of the last five wins, Canon-McMillan has give up 46 points or less in four of those games. Canon-McMillan has a legitimate shot at a section title. Section title and Canon-McMillan usually aren’t mentioned in the same sentence.

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