No Final Four for Pitt

Pitt’s Men’s Basketball team came as close as you can to the school’s first Final Four. Their 78-76 lost to Villanova, left them just shy and it left Pitt fans heartbroken. Pitt definitely could have won the game. The Final Four is set, with no real surprises and two Big East teams. Will the Panthers make it to a Final Four in near future? The first question for Pitt fans is does Blair return. I think he leaves and if he does, it will take them a couple years to get back to this level. With the urban campus and the Pete, they should always get top level recruits. I think everyone thought this was their year to the make the Final Four, now there is a lot of uncertainty.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds Head Coach Gene Klien to be on RSW.

I wanted to get the news out early that Pittsburgh Riverhounds’ head coach Gene Klein will be my guest Tuesday night. Anyone who plays or is involved with soccer should be interested. Besides being the coach Gene is also the General Manager and I believe a partial owner of the team. There are a lot of angles to discuss, and it will be very intriguing to everyone. So not only will we be talking about on the field stuff, we’ll look at aspects of running a team, and player acquisition.

2009 Pittsburgh Riverhounds Home Schedule.

Saturday May 2nd REAL MARYLAND 7:05pm
Saturday May 16th HARRISBURG 7:05pm
Thursday June 11th BERMUDA 7:05pm
Sunday June 14th RICHMOND 7:05pm
Friday June 26th RICHMOND 7:05pm
Friday July 24th WESTERN MASS 7:05pm
Sunday July 26th WESTERN MASS 7:05pm
Saturday August 1st WILMINGTON 7:05pm
Saturday August 8th CHARLOTTE 7:05pm
Saturday August 15th CRYSTAL PALACE 7:05pm

If you live outside of Armstrong County you watch the show live online at 7:30 at www.familylifetv.com.

WPIAL Baseball / Softball Season Begins for Local Teams

Last year Ford City was the only Armstrong County baseball team finish the season over .500. In 2009 Ford City will look to make the playoffs for their fifth straight year. Kittanning has improved each of the last two seasons, and it’s fair to call them a playoff contender this year. I’m curious if the once proud Freeport and Leechburg Baseball programs will get back to the WPIAL playoffs. In softball, Leechburg has been Armstrong County’s premier program in any sport. They lost the WPIAL “A” Championship 1-0 last year, and a return trip will be their goal. The Ford City and Kittanning girls will look to make the playoffs again this season. The softball and baseball season is officially underway and next week section play begins.

2009 Cager Classic & NCAAs

This weekend it was all about teams from the East. Starting with the Cager Classic, The East Girls including Marisa Wolfe, Lynzee Panchik and Keri Neal won the Girl’s Classic. Bill Henry’s East Boys, with the help of Ryan Young, Matt Shanty, and Ryan Risch won the Boy’s Classic. In the NCAA Tournament the possibility of an all Big East Final Four is alive and well, as Uconn, Pitt, Villanova, Syracuse and Louisville all advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Pitt will face Xavier next in what should be a good game, as Xavier always plays well in the Tournament. Pitt will play in Boston starting on Thursday night.

PIAA Basketball Champions 2009

Here are the 2008-2009 PIAA High School Basketball Champions.

Girls
A - Bishop Guilfoyle
AA - Villa Maria
AAA - Archbishop Carroll
AAAA - Mount Lebanon

Boys
A - Girard College
AA - Imhotep Charter
AAA - Archbishop Carroll
AAAA - Penn Wood


Due to dropping attendance there is talk the Championship games will be moved from Penn State back to Hershey next season.

Armstrong County Hosting a Marquee Sporting Event?

A lot has been made about sell-out crowds at PIAA and WPIAL basketball playoff games. We’ll probably see another packed house at Saturday’s Cager Classic. Armstrong County rarely hosts neutral site playoff games for two reasons; first we’re not centrally located in the WPIAL, secondly we have no large venues. Other factors such as no field turf fields and lack of hotel space hurts. There are plenty of soccer tournaments, but we any such complex capable of hosting those. While I believe there is a market for a the right sporting event, but as of now the Freeport Baseball Invitational and the occasional Little League Section Tournament and fishing contest is the best I see us hosting for a long time.

Easy Road for Pitt?

Everyone is filling out their brackets today, and there are a lot of difficult games.  Pitt of course is a one seed, and playing in Dayton Ohio.  In the top half of their bracket they have to worry about either Oklahoma St. or Tennessee in the second round. To make the sweet sixteen, they got Xavier or Florida. If they play Xavier, they might be able to give Pitt a decent game. In the lower half, the two and three seeds are Duke and Villanova.  Pitt has already beat Villanova this year, and I think they match-up well against Duke. With some key injuries at Connecticut, and North Carolina, Pitt has to be the overall favorite to win the Championship period.

Pens Stanley Cups Favorites Again?

After a seven game winning streak the Penguins are once again playing like Stanley Cup Challengers. After five road wins the Pens look to climb up the standings as a mega nine game home stand is approaching. Pittsburgh is currently in sixth position but are only four points behind fourth. Are the Pens as strong as last year’s squad? Probably not, but they still have a team capable of reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, especially with everyone healthily. It’s a safe bet to say they’re the last team anyone wants to see in the playoffs. With 14 games left it’s going to be real interesting to see how things play out. I think it’s not entirely out of the question for one of the top three seeds to throw a game to avoid meeting the Pens in the first round.

Local Youth Soccer Development

YMCA spring soccer runs from April 4th to May 30th for kids 4-12 years old. FYI - Friday is the last day to sign up. A lot of kids will sign up, but I’ll bet less than 10 ever put on a high school jersey. Soccer is the 4th biggest sport in the WPIAL, but Ford City can’t even field a squad, while Kittanning only has a boy’s team. This is a poor reflection of athletics in our area. I think there are three key reasons why. 1. Very few parents have played soccer, and they can’t teach and foster it with their children. 2. No fields, the lack of main field around a High School keeps attendances low. Plus the lack of practice fields hurts. Most people can’t even tell you where KHS plays their home games. 3. Coaching, we need a young person who has either played college or pro league soccer, that has the time to develop, and make it exciting for the kids.

Pitt looks like NCAA Favorites

Pitt defeated #1 Connecticut 70-60 on Saturday for the second time this season. This win all but guarantees the Panthers a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. If they win this week’s Big East tournament they’re for sure the overall top seed. Things are shaping up really nicely for Pitt, and another good thing is they seem to be healthy going into the tournament. If you look at this year’s contending teams, I don’t see a team Pitt shouldn’t be able to defeat. I also don’t see as many good teams from lower conferences. Pitt also has enough veterans on the team, that they shouldn’t beat themselves. It’s going to be a real interesting tournament locally as Penn State should be in, and Robert Morris is one win away from an automatic bid.

WPIAL Sports Future: Should PA to go 100 Districts

What happens if PA does go to 100 school districts? 

Since it’s a slow time for local sports I wanted to write a hypothetical look at the high school sport landscape should Ed Rendell’s plan for only 100 school districts be realized. The big question is what schools go into which district, supposedly in theory one per county and as many three for Allegheny County. This could lead to the expansion, contraction or destruction of the WPIAL. In theory a mega north Pittsburgh district wouldn’t have to play games out the district. Keeping games in district could be a cost saver. Some schools might receive increased athletic budgets while other see decreases. Riots might occur, but how could a two equal sizes schools in the same district not be given the same athletic budget? I doubt Pine-Richland and Shaler have the same athletic budgets. 

Kittanning and Ford City might be the state’s best case study. As they fall under the same school district. Ever wonder what the facilities and athletic programs would look like if each were its own district? It certainly seems a consolidation of districts would start to level the playing field in terms of facilities and money spent on training and coaching. Also another topic would be transfers, the WPIAL is very much against transfers, unless it's a coach changing schools. Its likely transfers would increase. One benefit, is it might be easier for students to participate in sports, their current school doesn’t offer. The only thing that is certain if PA goes to 100 school districts is the move would have a huge impact on high school sports, which would create ripple effects for years. 

High school sports seem to captivate people so much, its has been in the best interests of politicians to stay far away. The last thing they want is for people to pay attention to their antics in Harrisburg. However there are just too many special interests that would have a hand in reconstructing of PA school districts, therefore battle lines will be drawn, and the future of high school sports locally will be in for a big shake up.

WPIAL Basketball Champions - Girls & Boys 2009

Even though no local high schools made the finals this year, many local fans paid attention to this weekend’s WPIAL Basketball Championships. In Girls, starting with single “A” the winners were; North Catholic, Sto-Rox, New Castle, and Mt. Lebanon. I don’t recall any local team playing against these four schools this season. In Boys Basketball starting with single “A” the winners were; Sewickley Academy, North Catholic, Hampton, and Peters Township. North Catholic won the Girls in single “A” and Boys in double “AA”. Local fans were probably most interested in the Boys “AAA” match-up that had Hampton going against Highlands. Both teams play in the same “AAA” section as Kittanning, and Hampton was able to beat Highlands 84-59, which was third time this season they’ve defeated Highlands.