Benched Steel Valley coach can only watch
Steel Valley boys basketball coach Dale Chapman might have sore fingers and palms after his team’s playoff games.
“I have to sit on my hands,” Chapman said.
Chapman has been suspended by the Steel Valley School District for the remainder of this season because of a concussion issue with his star player from a game a few weeks ago. Steel Valley played its first WPIAL Class 3A playoff game Monday night and defeated McGuffey, 67-44.
Chapman is not permitted to attend practices, but he can be at games and sit in the stands. He just can’t coach his team from the stands or offer instructions. He watched the win against McGuffey from the bleachers as former assistant Lauren Varacalli has taken over the team in Chapman’s absence.
“It was hard,” Chapman said. “But I had a lot of support around me. A lot of my lifelong friends came to the game, former players and parents of former players. The support was nice.”
Chapman said he will also be at Steel Valley’s quarterfinal game Thursday against Seton LaSalle at Mt. Lebanon.
On Feb. 9, Steel Valley administrators suspended Chapman for the rest of the season for inserting star senior guard Makhai Valentine back into the Feb. 3 game at Sto-Rox after he fell and hit his head in the third quarter. According to Chapman, the superintendent of Sto-Rox School District (Megan Marie Van Fossan) was at the game and came onto the court with Sto-Rox’s trainer to check on Valentine after he fell. Chapman said concussion protocols were followed and Valentine
walked to the bench. Chapman said he was told by Van Fossan, “I suggest he doesn’t play the rest of the game.”
But Chapman contends Van Fossan is not a certified athletic trainer and should not have been the one to determine whether Valentine should return to the game. Chapman said the Sto-Rox trainer never did a follow-up with Valentine on the bench and never said Valentine couldn’t return.
Van Fossan wrote a letter to Steel Valley administrators about the incident. Chapman said game officials were never told Valentine couldn’t return to the game, which is proper protocol under PIAA rules. After Van Fossan’s letter, Steel Valley suspended Chapman, saying he violated the Safety in Youth Sports Act, enacted by the Legislature in 2011. Ed Wehrer, superintendent of the Steel Valley Scott District, said in a statement that the penalty for a coach putting a concussed athlete back into the game is suspension for the rest of the season.
But Chapman said Valentine was never diagnosed with a concussion by the trainer. Basically, Chapman feels the Steel Valley district believed a superintendent from another school and not its own coach.
“Video shows that at no time did this trainer talk to me,” Chapman said. “I can look myself in the mirror and know I did the right thing, regardless of what anybody says. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it all over again. But I don’t foresee anything changing with my status.”
Steel Valley is the No. 1 seed for the Class 3A playoffs.
Top girls players injured
The Blackhawk girls are the defending WPIAL Class 4A champ and No. 1 seed for this year’s playoffs, but they will be without one of their best players for the rest of the season. Quinn Boroni suffered a torn Achilles tendon in a scrimmage last week against Oakland Catholic. Boroni was averaging 11 points and eight rebounds a game. She is a Mercyhurst recruit.
“She was standing by herself, took one stop and fell to the floor. Ruptured Achilles,” Blackhawk coach Steve Lodovico said.
Meanwhile, Freedom, the WPIAL Class 3A runner-up last year and No. 2 seed this year, has lost Shaye Bailey indefinitely with a collarbone injury suffered in the final regular-season game Feb. 13. Bailey finished the regular season tied for fifth in the WPIAL in scoring at 21.7 points a game.
It’s been a while
The Deer Lakes and Mohawk boys will play in a Class 3A quarterfinal Thursday at Moon. That means one of them will be in the semifinals for the first time in a long time.
The only other time Mohawk was in the semifinals was 1970, when the Warriors won a championship. Meanwhile, Deer Lakes hasn’t made it to the semifinals since 1985.
Check this out
• The WPIAL Class 5A boys quarterfinal between North Hills and Fox Chapel is a rematch of last year’s Class 6A championship game. Both teams moved down to 5A this season. But only one player (North Hills’ Royce Parham) was a starter in that title game a year ago.
• Three of the four Class 6A girls quarterfinals involve teams that played in the same section. The only one that doesn’t is Norwin vs. Baldwin.
• The Yough boys’ firstround victory against Burrell on Monday night was the Cougars’ first playoff win since 2005. That year, big Ben McCauley, who went on to play at North Carolina State, led the Cougars to the WPIAL title game. That year and 1996 were the only other years Yough won a playoff game.
Tickets and doubleheaders
It seems there is some confusion among fans about playoff tickets online and if gyms will be cleared after the first game of playoff doubleheaders. The answer is: It depends.
The WPIAL now sells tickets online. Fans are encouraged to buy tickets there, but some schools will still sell tickets at the gate the night of the game.
“If some venues sell out the allotment of online tickets due to capacity, then the game is sold out and no tickets will be available at the door,” said Vince Sortino, chief operating officer of the WPIAL who also runs the league’s tournaments. “To guarantee a ticket, one should buy it online.”
Some schools have ticket information on their websites. To buy tickets online for all WPIAL playoff games, go to wpial.org and then click on the “Tournament
Central” link on the front page and then go to “Tickets.” Cost is $7 for adults and $5 for students, but student tickets will not be sold at the door.
When asked whether a gym would be cleared of fans after the first game of a doubleheader, Sortino said, “When a ticket is purchased online, it is technically only for one game, not a doubleheader. So, if the school chooses to empty the gymnasium, they are able to do so.”
The best bet might be to check with the host site or participating schools.