Westmoreland high school notebook: WCCA 7-on-7 moving to Hempfield for 2025

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, July 12, 2025 | 3:53 PM

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The Westmoreland County Coaches Association Larry Sellitto Memorial 7-on-7 football passing tournament returns this week but at a new venue.

Hempfield will host the 14th installment of the event, set for 9 a.m. Thursday. Latrobe is the traditional host, but Rossi and Graham-Sobota fields are getting re-turfed this summer.

Hempfield’s Spartan Stadium will be the main field for the county tournament, but games also will be played on a campus baseball field.

Players will wear helmets and shorts. Teams will play 25-minute games on 40-yard fields.

Penn-Trafford is the defending champion — words that have been written before — having defeated Latrobe, 24-7, in last year’s championship.

Latrobe has won two of the last three championships.

The Warriors have six titles and have reached the WCCA final 10 times in 13 years.

There will be 16 teams competing, with Hempfield and Latrobe entering two teams each.

Belle Vernon will be a first-time participant.

Pool A has Hempfield (A), Penn- Trafford, Belle Vernon, Yough, Mt. Pleasant, Valley, Latrobe (B) and Kiski Area.

Pool B has Latrobe (A), Jeannette, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield (B), Norwin, Southmoreland, Greensburg Central Catholic and Franklin Regional.

The winners of each pool will meet for the championship at 2 p.m.

Latrobe hosted the tournament from 2017-24, minus the 2020 cancellation because of covid-19.

Other previous sites were Yough (2011, ’12), Franklin Regional (2013, ’14) and Mt. Pleasant (2015, ’16).

Penn-Trafford might play three quarterbacks this week as it begins to identify a starter. The candidates are Nate Desmond, Cody Yacamelli and Ben Grabowski.

Top returning quarterbacks to watch include Tristyn Tavares of Norwin, Samir Crosby of Greensburg Central Catholic, Kymon’e Brown of Jeannette and Dom Detruf of Hempfield.

McMullen commits

Recent Greensburg Central Catholic senior Jackson McMullen announced he will continue his baseball career at Point Park.

McMullen, also a football standout, was an outfielder and pitcher for the Centurions.

This past season, he batted .418/.568/.720 with four doubles, three home runs, 27 RBIs and 17 runs.

He led GCC in RBIs from the No. 7 spot in the order. He can throw 90 mph as a pitcher.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound McMullen is the son of Kirk McMullen, a former Pitt and undrafted NFL tight end with the Cincinnati Bengals.

He played high school football at West Allegheny.

Point Park recently joined NCAA Division II and will play in the Mountain East Conference.

Reitz at Central

Former Jeannette and Latrobe head football coach Ray Reitz will be an assistant this season at Central Catholic.

His son, Ryan, is the Vikings’ offensive coordinator.

Coaches hired

Ligonier Valley added two new coaches for the fall season.

Ben Raymond was named boys and girls cross country coach, and Lindsey Neiderhiser was tabbed girls volleyball coach.

Team PA second

Team Pennsylvania Madison, a travel softball team led by Hempfield coach Tina Madison, finished second at the prestigious Fire in the Sky tournament earlier this month in Orville, Ohio.

The 14U team went 8-1 and reached the championship game in an event that featured 116 teams.

Pitcher Jayelyn Luft, Madison’s daughter who is a rising freshman, struck out 11 in 14²⁄₃ innings and posted a 1.40 ERA while reaching 100 K’s in her time with Team PA.

Recruiting

Quarterback Anthony Smith, a rising sophomore who transferred from Southmoreland to Seton LaSalle, picked up another Division I scholarship offer. Towson reached out to Smith, who already had offers from Syracuse and Sacramento State.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Hempfield, Jeannette, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford