WPIAL Hall of Fame Class of 2016

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 | 11:52 PM

A current NBA player, a former Parade All-American girls basketball player, two dominant teams and four highly successful coaches highlight the WPIAL Hall of Fame class of 2016.

This is the 10^th class for the WPIAL Hall of Fame, and selections were announced Wednesday at a news conference at the Heinz History Center. Inductees will be honored at a banquet at the Green Tree Doubletree June 10.

A Hall of Fame committee selects inductees in five categories: athlete, coach, team, contest official and contributor. The WPIAL also inducts a Heritage Award winner and a Courage Award winner.

Here is the 2016 class:

ATHLETES

MEG BULGER, OAKLAND CATHOLIC CLASS OF 2003
During her four seasons on the Oakland Catholic High School basketball team, she won 120 games and lost only 10. The 120 wins are believed to me the most ever by a WPIAL player. She was selected to the prestigious Parade All-American team in 2003. She finished her career with 2,044 points. She played in WPIAL and PIAA championship games all four years at Oakland Catholic. The sister of former NFL quarterback Marc Bulger, Meg went on to make a name for herself at West Virginia University. Her career 3-point percentage of 43 percent is the best in West Virginia history. She scored 1,665 point and had 265 career 3-pointers.

DORIN DICKERSON, WEST ALLEGHENY CLASS OF 2006
Nicknamed Scorin’ Dorin when he played football at West Allegheny. As a senior, rushed for 1,429 yards and had 22 catches for 423 yards and led the WPIAL in touchdowns with 36. Also intercepted four passes. Was selected to the prestigious US Army All-American Bowl. Dickerson went on to play at Pitt, where as a senior was selected a first-team All-American by the Football Writers Association and CBS Sports. Dickerson went on to play in the NFL for three seasons with the Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions.

JONNA HUEMRICH BURKE, BETHEL PARK CLASS OF 1990
Huemrich is now the highly successful girls basketball coach at Bethel Park. As a player, she also did big things. A two-time Post-Gazette Fabulous 5 pick, Humerich Burke averaged more than 20 points and 10 rebounds as a junior and senior. She scored well over 1,000 points before going on to play for the University of Pittsburgh, where she was the Big East Conference Rookie of the Year in 1991. Had 1,807 points and 954 rebounds at Pitt. The Atlantic Coast Conference named Burke this year to its 12^th annual class of ACC Women’s Basketball Legends.

JERRY KOLLER, BETHEL PARK CLASS OF 1996
One of two Bethel Park grads in this year’s class. Koller was a terrific swimmer, winning 21 WPIAL and PIAA gold medals during his career for individual and relay events. He won six individual WPIAL gold medals in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events and set a WPIAL record in the 100 freestyle. He won three individual PIAA golds and set records in both the 50 and 100.

T.J. McCONNELL, CHARTIERS VALLEY CLASS OF 2010
McConnell made it all the way from Chartiers Valley to the NBA. On Wednesday night, he finished his first season with the Philadelphia 76ers. Six years ago, he finished off one of the greatest seasons in WPIAL history. McConnell scored 1,062 points as a senior, the most in a season in WPIAL history. The only other WPIAL boy to score 1,000 in a season was legendary Don Hennon in 1955. McConnell averaged 34 points a game as a senior, the second-best in the WPIAL in the past 30 years. McConnell won 101 games at Chartiers Valley and finished his career as the WPIAL’s fifth all-time leading scorer with 2,404 points and is second in career 3-pointers with 334. He played for two seasons at Duquesne University, where he was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Freshman of the Year. He played his final two college seasons at the University of Arizona and was an all-Pac 12 selection.

RICK RAZZANO, NEW CASTLE CLASS OF 1974
Razzano was the WPIAL football MVP in 1973. He played fullback and linebacker and helped New Castle win a WPIAL title. His No. 42 jersey is retired at New Castle. Razzano also competed in basketball, baseball and track and field at New Castle. After his days with the Red Hurricanes, Razzano went on to a highly successful career at Virginia Tech, where he still holds the Hokies record for career tackles with 634 and also the season record with 177. Razzano then played two seasons in the Canadian Football League before playing five seasons for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.

RACHEL ROHANNA, WAYNESBURG CLASS OF 2009
Waynesburg didn’t have a girls golf team, so Rohanna played on the boys team and was the boys’ No. 1 player. She competed against girls in individual tournaments and won two WPIAL and two PIAA championships. After high school, Rohanna went on to play at Ohio State where she was twice named an all-Big Ten Conference selection. She led the Buckeyes to two consecutive NCAA championship appearances in 2011 and 2012. She also was a two-time academic All-American. Rohanna is now in her first year on the LPGA tour.

COACHES

LEONARD “GUS” DeAUGUSTINO, WRESTLING
DeAugustino built North Allegheny into one of the top wrestling programs in the state. He was North Allegheny’s wrestling coach for 34 years before stepping away in 1990. He won seven WPIAL team championships, six state titles and had a record of 380-104-2. His 1988 team was ranked No. 1 in the country and is in the WPIAL Hall of Fame. DeAugustino coached 48 WPIAL individual champions and 21 state champs and was a three-time national coach of the year. DeAugustino himelf was a PIAA champion at Grove City High School and went on to become Lock Haven University’s first NCAA champion in 1953 and he made the U.S. Olympic team in 1952.

CHRIS MARY, WRESTLING
A championship wrestling coach at Canon-McMillan, Mary coached the Big Macs from 2000-2013. From 2010-13, he became the first coach to guide a team to four consecutive WPIAL titles. He also won two PIAA team championships at the dual meet level and three others at the individual tournament. On top of that, he won 12 section titles. Mary was selected the national coach of the year by Open Mat in 2012, and the national coach of the year by USA Wrestling magazine in 2013. Mary was a pretty good wrestler himself at Chartiers-Houston, finishing 98-6-3 with three WPIAL championships.

JOE MUCCI, FOOTBALL
In almost 30 years as a head coach at Greensburg Central Catholic and Jeannette, Mucci had a record of 183-49-4. He first coached at GCC and then moved to Jeannette. Under Mucci, Jeannette won three WPIAL championships in 1971, ’81 and ’83 and finished as runner-up two other times. The Jayhawks were undefeated three times. Mucci played at St. Vincent College and is in that school’s hall of fame.

PAT TARQUINIO, FOOTBALL
When Tarquinio stepped down as Beaver’s coach in 1999, he was the winningest coach in WPIAL history with a record of 269-143-11. Tarquinio was Ellwood City’s coach for seven years before moving onto Beaver, where he coached from 1966-99. At Beaver, he won 241 games and three WPIAL titles in 1972, ’81 and ’82. He won 12 conference titles. Tarquinio also was an excellent player at Stowe High School and then Juniata College.

TEAMS

BLACKHAWK BASKETBALL 1992
This team lost only one game and had a 32-1 record. The only loss was in the season opener to Baltimore Dunbar, the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Blackhawk won WPIAL and state and became the first team to win three consecutive WPIAL titles at the Triple-A level. The Cougars were coached by John Miller and averaged 91 points a game, one of the few in WPIAL history to average 90 for a season. Blackhawk scored 100 points in 11 games and won nine WPIAL and PIAA playoff games by an average of 21 points. The Cougars had a great shooting trio of Dante Calabria, Hal Koenemund and Andy Gray, who all had 60 3-pointers or more. Over the last two seasons, this team had a record of 60-2.

PITTSBURGH CENTRAL CATHOLIC FOOTBALL, 2004
This team dominated like few ever have at the Class AAAA level. The Vikings were coached by Art Walker and had a terrific defensive coordinator in Terry Totten. They played seven WPIAL and PIAA playoff games and outscored opponents, 237-36. Central Catholic invoked the mercy rule in all three state playoff games and won the state Quad-A championship with a 40-14 victory over Neshaminy. Neshaminy had a grand total of 1 yard offense against Central Catholic’s first-team defense.

CONTEST OFFICIAL

BILL SINNING
Bill Sinning was an active registered PIAA Official for basketball from 1972-2002 and 2004 to the present in soccer. During a span of ten years from 1988-1998, he worked 8 boys WPIAL championship games and 1 state title game. Sinning also worked 3 WPIAL girls finals and 5 City League championship games. Since 2006, he has served as the WPIAL male officials representative which includes a seat on the WPIAL Board of Directors.

COURAGE AWARD

LUKE BLANOCK, CANON-McMILLAN
The Courage Award was established in 2009 to honor former Freedom High School athlete John Challis, whose courageous battle against cancer became a national story. Luke Blanock is an athlete whose battle with a rare form of bone cancer has inspired many athletes, coaches, fans and all of Western Pennsylvania sports in general. Blanock played basketball and baseball at Canon-McMillan. Despite undergoing chemotherapy treatments, Blanock started a baseball game at pitcher last spring. In February, Blanock married his high school sweetheart.

HERITAGE AWARD

RAY FIORONI
Fioroni coached football at  Avella High School from 1952-61 and turned a losing program into one of the WPIAL’s  most formidable teams. He achieved an overall record of 69-14-4and led Avella to two WPIAL Championships in 1957 and 1961. He is a member of the Washington/Greene County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.

CONTRIBUTOR

JAMES BRUNI
Bruni served on the WPIAL board of directors for 14 years and was instrumental in starting the league’s scholar-athlete program. Since its inception in 1992, the WPIAL has awarded $566,000 in scholarship grants to deserving scholar-athletes. Upon retiring from the WPIAL Board of Directors, he remained active by serving on the scholarship committee for several years and was a PA announcer at football and basketball championships.

Tags: Avella, Beaver, Bethel Park, Blackhawk, Canon-McMillan, Chartiers Valley, Jeannette, Waynesburg Central, West Allegheny