Jeannette High grad helped school win WPIAL, PIAA titles in multiple sports
There have been a lot of great athletes to come through Jeannette High School during the past few decades, but few, if any, compare to Tre Cunningham.
“I’ll say this,” longtime football coach Roy Hall said, “we had Terrelle Pryor and we had Dante Wiley [both Parade All-American quarterbacks and two-sport standouts at Jeannette], but in my 35 years, he was probably the best three-sport athlete that we’ve had.”
Cunningham, 20, died Sunday night in a motorcycle accident along Route 130 at Long Drive in Penn Township, Westmoreland County, around 9 p.m. The county coroner’s office said Cunningham crossed the double yellow line as he tried to pass another vehicle. When that vehicle made a left turn, Cunningham collided with it and was thrown from his bike. Cunningham, who was wearing a helmet, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 2018 Jeannette graduate, Cunningham was a student at La Roche University and a pitcher on the baseball team. He made one appearance his sophomore year before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the season to be canceled.
At Jeannette, the 6-foot-3 Cunningham was an honor roll student who excelled in football, basketball and baseball. Cunningham and versatility were synonymous. He was a starting wide receiver, linebacker, kicker and punter his senior season while helping the Jayhawks win WPIAL and PIAA Class 1A football titles. He was an all-section guard/forward in basketball and an all-section pitcher in baseball. As a junior, he helped the Jayhawks win their first WPIAL Class 1A baseball championship.
“To have a guy like him with his frame who excels in football and basketball and baseball, I’d say he’s one of the best all-around players I’ve had as far as athletic ability,” Jeannette baseball coach Marcus Clarkson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2018.
That athletic ability was on display when Jeannette beat Homer-Center, 42-12, to claim the 2017 PIAA football title and put the finishing touches on a 15-1 season. Cunningham had a touchdown catch, hauled in a twopoint conversion, and made a field goal and an extra point. He finished his senior season with 30 catches for 466 yards and seven touchdowns. He also made seven field goals and converted 55 extra points. He was a captain and three-year starter. Hall said Cunningham could have been a Division I punter.
“He won some of our games,” Hall recalled. “He was our kicker, punter, starting wide receiver and also a linebacker. There’s no question in my mind he could have played any of those sports in college.”
In basketball, Cunningham averaged 17.9 points per game his senior season when he helped Jeannette win a section title and reach the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals and PIAA quarterfinals. He was named third-team all-state.
But Cunningham’s best sport might have been baseball. As a senior, he was 4-1 with a 1.91 ERA on the mound and batted .600. Jeannette lost in the WPIAL semifinals that season after capturing the title a year earlier. Cunningham was the winning pitcher and scored a run in Jeannette’s 7-3 championship win against Greensburg Central Catholic. Cunningham said he began playing the sport when he was 8 years old.
“I grew up watching [Andrew] McCutchen play. He’s my favorite player,” Cunningham told the Post-Gazette his senior season. “I played when I was younger, and it grew on me. A lot of my friends played when I was younger, but they moved away from the sport.”
Hall got the news of Cunningham’s passing not long after he woke up Monday morning. He said he turns his cellphone off at night, but when he turned it back on, it “was going crazy” with texts and calls. He said that Cunningham being on a motorcycle was no surprise, as he called him “an experienced bike rider.”
Outstanding athletic ability runs in Cunningham’s family. His father, Steve Cunningham, played football for Hall at Jeannette. His mother, Tracy (Bone) Cunningham, was a track and field star at Jeannette who won a WPIAL long jump title in 1991.
Hall said he has been flooded with calls and texts from current and former players and coaches expressing their sympathies. He said a lot of other high school football coaches reached out to him.
“I just feel so bad for his mom and his dad and his family,” Hall said.“Sometimes it seems like the good ones are taken too early.”