Derry had to scramble to find a girls basketball coach after the sudden resignation in September by Nathan Keller.
Keller coached the Trojans for one season and went 4-17.
The district hired Ron Moore to take over the program. Moore was an assistant at Washington from 2018-22. The Waynesburg alum also coached at Trinity. He has been a coach for more than 25 years.
He is in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame (Washington-Greene County Chapter) as part of the 1987-88 Waynesburg men’s basketball team.
Sacriponte makes team
There is a new junior golf development program in Pennsylvania, and one of the area’s top rising players will be a part of it.
Twelve boys and 12 girls were selected to the inaugural Team Pennsylvania, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association announced.
Among the players selected are Latrobe’s Jack Sacriponte, two-time PIAA champions Carson Kittsley of Fox Chapel and Mya Morgan of Elizabeth Forward, Michael Quallich of Baldwin, two-time WPIAL champion Alyssa Zhang of Shady Side Academy and others.
Scott Nye, who is Merion Golf Club’s Director of Championships, is the captain of Team Pennsylvania.
Sacriponte finished second in the WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A championship to Kittsley.
The program (ages 13-18) is geared toward opening doors for aspiring pro and college talent. Most of the players were chosen through a point-based system, while eight others were picked by a committee.
What are the benefits of making the team?
The U.S. National Development Program, which identifies the players, vows to “identify, train, develop, fund and support the nation’s most talented junior players.”
One of the reasons the USGA formed the developmental program was because golf was the only major U.S. sport in the Olympics that did not have a national player development program and “a clear pathway to elite competition.”
The top two boys in the points standings will earn an exemption into the 2026 Sunnehanna Amateur at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown.
Player benefits may also include promotion on the USNDP website and social media, exemptions into AJGA tournaments, coaching and other resources.
Signing day
Signing day came and went for sports other than football last week and there weren’t many programs that can say they had six players sign on the same day.
Hempfield softball, known for producing next-level talent, had a half-dozen girls sign at the Division I, II and III levels.
All seniors, they are: Ella Berkebile (Bucknell), Lauren Howard (Virginia), Julia Varhola (James Madison), Claire Mitchell (Marist), Emily Bozek (IUP) and Hailey Uhrinek (Saint Vincent).
The Hempfield baseball team had five signees: Ian Kovalcik (Mercyhurst), Chase Sikorski (Mercyhurst), Owen Shuglie (Cal, Pa.), Anthony More (State College of Florida) and Luke Murray (Westmoreland County Community College).
Recruiting
• Hempfield senior soccer player Jiana Patterson signed to play at Penn State Harrisburg, a Division III program that plays in the United East Conference.
• Southmoreland senior Allison Stinnett will continue her swimming career at Bowling Green.
• Isabella Grabiak of Southmoreland committed to play softball at IUP.
• Senior Gabe Kubasky, the football player who transferred from Southmoreland to Fairmont Senior (W. Va.), received a Division II offer from Gannon.
• Belle Vernon senior athletes Jack Edwards (golf) and Max Henson (tennis) signed to play at the college level. Edwards is headed to Fairmont State, Henson to Cleveland State, a Division I program.
• Franklin Regional senior Maria Piraino will continue her volleyball career at Saint Vincent, while Panthers’ football player Troy Slezak also will join SVC.
• Mt. Pleasant baseball players Jordan Grieff and Dane Firmstone signed with Pitt-Greensburg and Mt. Aloysius, respectively.