West Allegheny is working on a culture change

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Brian Boehm had a successful run at Serra Catholic before he took over as the head coach at West Virginia.

Now back in the PIHL, he’s working to build a successful program at West Allegheny.

“We’re trying to instill a culture change. Working with their athletic director [ Dave McBain] who’s worked closely with a guy like Bob Palko who built the football program into a powerhouse, that’s the kind of culture we have to instill,” Boehm said. “They had some success, but they were tired of the up-and-down with maybe one year of success when all their top players decide to play.”

West Allegheny won the PIHL Class 2A Penguins Cup and state championships in 2012, then failed to make the playoffs until the team finished with the best record in Class 1A last season and was upset in the semifinals by South Fayette. This season, after the team graduated 17 seniors and moved up to Class 2A, the Indians are just 2-13-0 and in last place in the West Division.

Though qualifying for the playoffs would have been nice, the idea was to show improvement and build the program from the ground up.

It’s an arduous task to build a team from the ground up, but the Indians needed a foundation like this before they can get to the point where they are in the same league as Quaker Valley, Mt. Lebanon and Moon — the teams they are chasing in their division — year after year.

“We wanted to make sure that this was sustained for a long time and that every player in our program is going to show development. Let’s find out how to make hockey players here,” Boehm said. “We’re at the beginnings of that and I’m not sure a lot of people knew what to expect.”

Though West Allegheny, like every hockey team, has to worry about its top players opting for junior and travel team commitments instead of the high school experience, at least there is a bigger group with less fluctuation than his previous post at Serra Catholic.

“The big difference from Serra is that our numbers were so desperately low … but I would get kids, if you could find what motivated them, they were going to work for you,” Boehm said. “West Allegheny is drastically different because there are kids here who desperately want to win and we’re getting there.”

Class 3A

Central Catholic has already clinched a spot in the PIHL Class 3A Penguins Cup playoffs, but the team is also inching closer to locking up the regular-season title and the top seed in the tournament.

On Monday, Jake Tepe scored two goals, including the eventual game-winner at 2:36 of the third period, to lead the Vikings to a 4-3 victory against Seneca Valley. With the win, its sixth in a row, Central Catholic (12-3-0) opened up a threepoint lead over secondplace North Allegheny (104-1) with five games remaining.

While Central Catholic is beginning to take control at the top, Pine-Richland is attempting to lock up a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2014.

It was the Rams (6-8-1) who sent North Allegheny to its fourth loss of the season Monday and kept pace with Butler (6-8-1) for a seventhplace tie.

Class 1A

Bishop McCort is beginning to make a move in the Class 1A East Division.

In their first two games of the new year, the Crimson Crushers (8-5-0) knocked off Kiski Area and Indiana to close within four points of the Cavaliers and Little Indians for second place behind undefeated Franklin Regional.

Their success will be tested next week, however, as they will travel to Center Ice in Delmont for a game Thursday against Franklin Regional (14-0-0), which has shut out its past four opponents and already has a 7-0 win against them Nov. 8.