WCCA/Tri-County all-star football game planned for June 13

By: Paul Schofield
Tuesday, March 17, 2020 | 5:03 PM

Even before the coronavirus became a part of our lives, the Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association and Tri-County Football Coaches’ Association made plans to play a football all-star game.

It will be called the BeeGraphix Great 38 game.

The game is scheduled for June 13 at Trinity High School if the restrictions from the coronavirus are lifted. It will pit players from Westmoreland County against a team of players from schools in Fayette, Greene, Washington and Allegheny counties.

“We can’t control what’s going on, but we have to continue the plans for the game,” McGuffey football coach and athletic director Ed Dalton said. “We’re moving in the right direction. Looking at the nominees, there are going to be some good players left off our roster.”

Larry Sellitto, president of the Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association, said the 38 players have been selected and that coach Bo Ruffner is waiting to see what players will accept the invitation to play.

Sellitto said he and Dalton tried to put together a game in 2019 after the Foothills Classic couldn’t be held for various reasons. While the 2019 game couldn’t be played, the group worked to make it happen this year.

“We couldn’t find a site for our game because numerous schools were having their stadiums redone,” Sellitto said. “Another problem was we couldn’t play was because we needed 72 players to commit to playing the county game and we only had 58 because many players had vacations set.”

Sellitto said all but Monessen and Yough are represented on the Westmoreland County team this season. The two Yough candidates had prior commitments, and Monessen didn’t submit names.

The Westmoreland County teams involved are Belle Vernon, Burrell, Derry, Franklin Regional, Greensburg Central Catholic, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Jeannette, Kiski Area, Kiski School, Latrobe, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Southmoreland and Valley.

Burgettstown’s Mark Druga will coach the Tri-County Football Coaches’ Association team.

Dalton said 26 teams will have at least one player on the all-star roster. Fort Cherry and Peters Township are not part of the game. South Allegheny, Monessen and Belle Vernon are part of the TCADA group.

The other schools involved are from Fayette County (Albert Gallatin, Brownsville, Connellsville, Frazier, Laurel Highlands and Uniontown), Greene County (Beth-Center, Carmichaels, Jefferson-Morgan, Mapletown, Waynesburg and West Greene) and Washington County (Avella, Bentworth, Burgettstown, California, Canon-McMillan, Charleroi, Chartiers-Houston, McGuffey, Ringgold, Trinity and Washington).

Sellitto said he and Dalton started organizing the game at the end of the high school season. It originally was to be played June 12 at Norwin, but a scheduling conflict forced the move.

“We’re excited,” Sellitto said. “We’re hoping things work out.”

Dalton said BeeGraphix has come up with some exciting looks for uniforms.

Both teams have sponsors, and Sellitto said the game will follow PIAA and National High School Federation guidelines.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.