Tag: Gateway

Scholastic Notebook – 08/31/2012

August 31, 2012

The storylines are many as the WPIAL football season kicks off tonight. But is there a storyline with more irony than the Springdale at West Shamokin game? There is the new guy taking over for one of the winningest coaches in WPIAL history, and his first game is against a team with a historical losing streak. Dave Leasure will be in his first game as Springdale’s head coach. He takes over for Chuck Wagner, who retired last season after 47 years as a high school head coach in the WPIAL (Oakmont, Riverview, Fox Chapel and Springdale high schools). Wagner retired with a record of 270-202-11, and the 270 wins are fourth on the all-time list.

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CTK 2012 – MSA Sports Preseason Top Ten: WPIAL Class AAAA

August 26, 2012

Each and every Monday during the regular season starting on Labor Day (9/3), the MSA Sports Network will rank the top ten football teams in each classification. With days to go before the 2012 WPIAL football season kicks off, we present our Preseason Top Ten teams. This article, we present the Top Ten in Class AAAA.Final 2011 record is in parenthesis.WPIAL CLASS AAAA PRESEASON WPIAL FOOTBALL TOP TEN:1.    NORTH ALLEGHENY TIGERS  (15-1)  2.    GATEWAY GATORS  (9-3)3.    UPPER ST. CLAIR PANTHERS  (11-2)4.    WOODLAND HILLS WOLVERINES  (6-4)

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CTK 2012 – MSA Sports Football Preseason Elite Eleven

August 19, 2012

Quarterbacks and receivers are big in WPIAL football this year. The MSA Sports Preseason Elite 11 includes four receivers and three quarterbacks. The team, picked by the MSA Sports Staff, is made up of the top 11 players in the WPIAL heading into the 2012 season. Western Pennsylvania isn’t known much for producing Division I college receivers, but this year’s crop of pass-catchers is very good. All four receivers on the Elite 11 have either committed to a Division I college, or have scholarship offers from Division I teams. Two of those four will also also play some at running back this season. The remaining part of the Elite 11 is made up of two offensive linemen, one tight end and one running back.

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CTK 2012 – WPIAL AAAA Foothills Conference Preview

August 15, 2012

Over the past three seasons, three different teams have won the Foothills Conference championship. Gateway won in 2009, McKeesport in 2010 and Penn-Trafford last year. It’s a pretty safe bet one of those teams will end up on top of the standings again this year – and just about everyone has Gateway as the favorite. The Foothills looks a little different this season, at least in size. The conference is bigger. Altoona and Kiski Area have moved from the Big East to the Foothills. Here is a look at the Foothills Conference: ALTOONA MOUNTAIN LIONS:

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Gateway Football Coach Terry Smith Keeps Job…For Now

July 12, 2012

Terry Smith is still the head football coach at Gateway High School, although his position as head coach and athletic director is up in the air after the 2012 season. On Wednesday night in front of a packed house at the high school auditorium, the Gateway school board voted 8-1 to prevent the athletic director of the school district to have a supplemental contract as the high school football coach. However, it would not go into effect until December 31st of this year.Last month, the school board approved a new 65 million dollar budget with plenty of cuts, including cutting the athletic directors position to part time.

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Scholastic Notebook – 06/22/2012

June 22, 2012

Joe Dunn was known as one of the good guys among WPIAL basketball coaches. But that fraternity is now minus one good guy. Dunn resigned as Trinity High School’s boys coach last week. He wouldn’t rule out returning to coaching someday, but for now, he wants to spend more time with his family. Dunn and his wife have two daughters and a son. Dunn has been coaching for 26 years and had other successful coaching stints at Mount Pleasant and Seton-LaSalle. Dunn became pretty good at taking down programs and turning them into more than respectable. He did it at Mount Pleasant and he did it at Trinity, where he was coach since 2001.

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Scholastic Notebook – 05/11/2012

May 11, 2012

The way the WPIAL baseball playoffs are set up, a team that makes it to a championship game could use its No. 1 pitcher in three of four contests. That is extremely good news for Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson pitcher Greg Schneider hasn’t just been unbeatable this season. It has been almost impossible to score on him. Schneider had one of the most dominating regular seasons of any pitcher in recent WPIAL history. Schneider, a Thomas Jefferson senior and a Pitt recruit, led Thomas Jefferson to the Class AAA Section 3 title. His statistics were remarkable.

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Scholastic Notebook – 05/04/2012

May 4, 2012

Peters Township not in the WPIAL baseball playoffs? It will seem strange, but it could happen. And if Peters Township doesn’t make the postseason, you can almost be assured it will be a close call. Peters Township, one of the WPIAL’s top baseball programs, hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2002. But the Indians are in fourth place heading into today’s game against Mt. Lebanon. Peters Township is 6-4 in section and 7-10 overall. The top three teams make the playoffs, and Bethel Park (8-2), Upper St. Clair (8-3) and Mt. Lebanon (7-3) are all ahead of Peters Township. If Peters Township loses to Mount Lebanon Friday night on MSA, Peters Township is out of the playoffs.

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WPIAL Hall of Fame Class of 2012

April 13, 2012

Neil Walker is known for his baseball talent. The current Pirates second baseman had an unforgettable baseball career at Pine-Richland High School and was a first-round draft pick. But it is what Walker also did in other sports that helped earn him a spot in the WPIAL Hall of Fame. The WPIAL Hall of Fame class for 2012 was announced Thursday at a news conference, and Walker was one of the selections. Walker was in Los Angeles with the Pirates, but his father was at the news conference at the Heinz History Center in the Strip District. Walker had a terrific baseball career at Pine-Richland, starting four seasons and batting .504 for his career. He hit .657 as a senior with 13 home runs, 42 RBIs and a 1.403 slugging percentage for a WPIAL championship team.

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Scholastic Notebook – 04/08/2012

April 8, 2012

It is most certainly one of the oddest sports combinations you will see in the WPIAL. You’ll be scratching your head trying to figure out how many times you have seen a championships golfer who also is one of the best shot putters and discus throwers in the district. As odd as it sounds, Katerina Luttner is living out the combination at Fox Chapel High School. She won the WPIAL girls golf championship in 2010 and was the runner-up in 2011. She also has been a medalist at the PIAA level and has a golf scholarship to the University of Mississippi. But in the spring, she throws the discus and shot put for Fox Chapel. This spring, Luttner is the No. 1 discus thrower in the entire WPIAL with a mark of 111 feet, 8 inches. She also has the fourth-best shot put at 34-10.

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