Numbers are down for football
had six WPIAL teams against teams from outside the WPIAL and also out-ofstate. That’s not bad for an opening weekend and considering some of the teams had to travel a good distance.
Woodland Hills athletic director Ron Coursey said he was “satisfied,” but not happy with attendance. He plans on staging the event again next year, hoping to double attendance. Not having a few tomato cans as WPIAL opponents might help the crowds. A few of the teams were totally overmatched.
• I love how, in the past decade or so, student sections have become much more vibrant, larger and more popular in WPIAL football and basketball. They add to the atmosphere and you never know what craziness you might see from a student section these days, or how students might dress. Take last Friday at Pine-Richland. Dan Petcash, one of the WPIAL’s top basketball senior guards, had his face painted and was wearing a cheerleader top in the middle of the Rams’ student section. Beautiful. • A little birdie on my porch roof told me the idea of televising the WPIAL football championships isn’t dead after all. Shortly after a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story appeared last week about AT&T SportsNet deciding not to renew its contract to televise the title games, some wheels turned and phone calls were made. Stay tuned on this one.
• Aliquippa quarterback Eli Kosanovich threw for a career-high 226 yards in the Quips’ first game under new coach Mike Warfield. Nice effort by Kosanovich. But Warfield will most likely use two quarterbacks this season in Kosanovich and senior Will Gipson.
• One of Warfield’s new volunteer coaches is former Rochester star Derek Moye, who played receiver at Penn State and then with the Steelers. Over the past 10-15 years, Moye has to be one of the WPIAL’s best all-around athletes. He played football and basketball at Rochester and was a standout one spring in baseball and also running track.
• A few basketball tidbits. Kennedy Catholic senior Oscar Tshiebwe, ranked among the top 25 seniors in the country, has narrowed his list of colleges to four — West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois and Baylor. West Virginia has been the leader for a long time, but Kentucky and coach John Calipari have made a late push.
Fox Chapel won’t have its leading returning scorer. Ben Kelly, a senior who averaged 17 points a game last season, has decided to play for ISA Basketball, a new high school and post-graduate program whose players attend Andrews Osborne Academy near Cleveland.