Boys athlete of the week
The Post-Gazette’s top male performer from the past seven days
The past week: Blaufeld scored 21 points as Allderdice defeated Westinghouse, 66-46, to win its fifth consecutive City League championship at Petersen Events Center. Allderdice is only the second team in City League history to win five consecutive titles. Blaufeld also had 17 points in a semifinal win against Obama Feb. 14.
Check this out: Blaufeld (6 feet 3, 190 pounds) is a talented junior guard who averages 15.4 points a game and has made 64 3-pointers. He is an excellent shooter, but has expanded his game from last season. Allderdice coach Buddy Valinsky calls Blaufeld a “gym rat.” Blaufeld, who lives in Point Breeze, also was the leading scorer on the USA under-18 team that won a gold medal last summer at the Maccabiah Games in Israel. Blaufeld has better than a 4.0 grade-point average. Now that you guys have won five City titles in a row, does it mean as much? It’s always our goal. Obviously, we take pride being in the City and we want to keep it going. The last time someone won five was a long time ago. Not to look ahead, but we want to be the first to win six. And you guys went to Five Guys restaurant after? Yeah, we did [laugh]. It was just fitting. Plus, it was in Oakland. Coach [Buddy] Valinsky pick
up the tab? We took care of it ourselves. I think we’re going to go to Dave & Buster’s after the season. The coaches can help out on that one. Coach Valinsky has said you’re better this year. How so? Just my overall game. I was more just a shooter last year. This year, I do everything a little more. Are you guys the best team in
the City League or WPIAL? We can’t play everyone, but we feel we can play with anyone and I think we proved that. I think we’re one of the top teams in the area, if not the top one. Explain the Maccabiah Games to people who might not know? A good analogy is it’s the Jewish Olympics. It was amazing to have so many people there. I didn’t realize how good the competition level was going to be. A lot of kids were really good and from professional development programs in their country. You could have anyone in the world over for dinner, who
would it be? Larry Bird. Why him? He’s one of my favorite players. Just his mentality. He wasn’t the fastest or strongest guy. He just worked on his skills and had a great mind for the game. People might be surprised to know ... ? I can drive a stick shift car.