Football carousel

Heading into February, two of Washington County's more tradition-rich athletic programs are searching for football coaches, while a third has yet to full its position.

With Jeff Petrucci's retirement after two years as head football coach at Ringgold, the Rams are searching for another coach. Over the past 11 years, Ringgold has been coached by Chuck Colborn, Scott Venick, Jeff Matty, Russ Moore, Steve Campos and Petrucci. One challenge for Ringgold athletic director Lloyd Price will be finding a coach who not only is looking to stay but one who can work at the school.

Washington High School is searching for Bill Britton's replacement and either it's a very secret search or there has not been much movement. I've asked several people and none claim to have an idea of who may become the Prexies' next football coach.

While Ringgold and Washington are two traditional programs, California High School is a regular in the WPIAL Class A playoffs. Joe Kuhns, who never missed the postseason as the Trojans' coach, filled the opening at Waynesburg Central, where he faces the task of rebuilding the Raiders back to what they were during the days of Moore and Dave Serra. Word is Colborn - an assistant coach at Beth-Center the past two years - is a possible hire but nothing has been made official.

Local basketball rankings

The Varsity Letters offers a shoutout to Coach Gary Goga for the plug in today's P-G.

Boys
1. Peters Township (AAAA) 16-1
2. Washington (AA) 17-2
3. South Fayette (AA) 16-3
4. Burgettstown (AA) 11-7
5. Monessen (AA) 8-8

Girls
1. Peters Township (AAAA) 10-8
2. South Fayette (AA) 14-4
3. Washington (AA) 15-4
4. Fort Cherry (A) 15-3
5. Monessen (A) 15-5

Separated at birth

Observer-Reporter sports editor Chris Dugan relayed some information to me when I got into the office this afternoon that came courtesy of Valley Independent sports editor Brian Herman.

Dugan and Herman covered Wednesday night's IUP-Cal U men's/women's doubleheader. According to Herman, I look a little like Joe Berenato, one of Cal U's men's players. Hey, as I motor past 34, I'll take a comparison to a college sophomore anyday.

I know, I know. My photo is way on the dorky side but it's the only one I could find. Not into posting my pics on the Internet.

Local scoring leaders

With a little more than a week remaining in the regular season, the boys and girls scoring leaders are taking shape. The following are from teams within the Observer-Reporter coverage area.

Boys
Through Jan. 25
Player, Team Games Points Ave.
Zach Bellhy, Fort Cherry 16 384 24.0
Nick Wilcox, Peters Twp. 16 345 21.6
Cole Heckman, Avella 16 336 21.0
Nick Bryant, Washington 16 268 16.8
Eli Obade, Charleroi 15 252 16.8
Derek McIlvaine, Char-Houston 18 289 16.1
Kevin Bielecki, Burgettstown 18 282 15.7
Cody Turner, Fort Cherry 16 240 15.0
Craig Wolcott, Peters Twp. 16 240 15.0
Dave Bassi, Ringgold 17 253 14.9
Levi Whited, Beth-Center 15 222 14.8
Josh Valentic, Trinity 16 228 14.3
Josh Green, Carmichaels 14 197 14.1
Ian McCombs, Carmichaels 14 194 13.9
Mike Lamberti, S. Fayette 18 247 13.7
Troy Wilson, Washington 16 218 13.6
Kiante Davis, Canon-Mac 17 228 13.4
Jarrett Porterfield, Mapletown 13 171 13.2
Josh Carlisle, Avella 16 207 12.9
Nate Bellhy, Fort Cherry 16 206 12.9
Chad Hagan, Canon-Mac 17 213 12.5
Terrance Stepoli, Monessen 13 163 12.5
Pat Zedreck, S. Fayette 18 215 11.9
Mike Burroughs, S. Fayette 18 208 11.6
Kurt Bonnet, Canon-Mac 17 198 11.6
Andrew Hoye, Bentworth 13 148 11.4
Robert Anderson, Washington 16 180 11.3
Mark Jones, Char-Houston 18 202 11.2
Jason Jansante, Bentworth 14 154 11.0

Girls
Through Jan. 25
Player, Team Games Points Ave.
Jocelyn Floyd, Washington 17 350 20.6
Emily Correal, Peters Twp. 16 329 20.6
Samone Stepoli, Monessen 18 307 17.1
Jordan Duke, Carmichaels 16 271 16.9
Emily Schartner, Ringgold 16 267 16.7
Marissa Miles, Fort Cherry 16 263 16.4
Megan Sowers, Beth-Center 13 205 15.8
Kaitlyn Novak, Mapletown 14 200 14.3
Jessica Diggs, Monessen 15 212 14.1
Aly Lee, Charleroi 16 224 14.0
Marissa Pattison, McGuffey 16 214 13.4
Morgan Iacovino, Charleroi 16 203 12.7
Samantha Ritzer, Bentworth 16 203 12.7
Kristina Wagner, California 11 130 11.8
Anastasia Barr, Avella 16 186 11.6
Katie Rosemeier, C-H 17 195 11.5
Elisa Schober, McGuffey 16 183 11.4
Geena Shrader, Monessen 15 170 11.3
Amanda Kennedy, Bentworth 15 169 11.3
Tessa Bonacci, Burg. 17 188 11.1

Barna hired, then fired

Covered the Trinity at Thomas Jefferson boys basketball game last Tuesday along with colleague Josh Yohe of the McKeesport Daily News. During the game, Yohe relayed an interesting story involving Ken Barna, often a popular topic of conversation on this site and the third-base coach of Canon-McMillan's 2008 PIAA Class AAAA championship team.

Yohe was kind enough to share recent stories he wrote for the Daily News. The following are excerpts from the story of Barna being hired as head baseball coach at Thomas Jefferson High School:

By JOSH YOHE


Daily News Staff Writer


jyohe@dailynewsemail.com


Ken Barna is Daily News League royalty, the godfather of modern era
managers.

He has been a successful Class A minor league manager, became an
immediate hit while guiding a team in the Federation League, enjoyed
terrific stints as manager at numerous colleges and recently served as
manager Steve Bucci's right hand man during Canon-McMillan's run to the
2008 PIAA championship.

Now Barna, 55, has come upon his next baseball challenge.

Barna, who has known nothing but success during a lifetime of baseball,
is the new head coach at Thomas Jefferson.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I've wanted to be a head coach
for a while and I've reached the time in my life where my schedule
allows me to do it. It's a great situation for me."

Time to fast-forward a few paragraphs.

Barna hasn't lost his sense of humor over the years. He once was
involved in a public feud with former DNL manager Phil Martell.

According to Barna, Martell recently suggested some assistant coaches
for the TJ staff.

"But I don't think these guys Phil recommended would pass the criminal
background check," Barna said. "I think I'll pick the guys on my own."

Barna is excited about his opportunity to lead the Jaguars. He has been
involved with Bucci for many years, first at South Park and then at
Canon-McMillan.

Although the coaches remain close, Barna has been looking for a chance
to be the man in charge. He isn't appreciative of certain schools who
he believes have scorned him.

"(South Park athletic director) Bill Dabaldo is an (expletive)," Barna
said. "There are plenty of other athletic directors who I don't think
much of. I've dealt with a lot of schools over the years, places like
Elizabeth Forward, Yough, South Park. I don't want anything to do with
those people. Having a chance to work with (Thomas Jefferson AD) Bill
Cherpak will be great. He's a great football coach and a great athletic
director. I look forward to working with him."

Not surprisingly, Barna's stint as TJ baseball coach was short-lived.

By JOSH YOHE
Daily News Staff Writer
jyohe@dailynewsemail.com
Ken Barna had big plans for the Thomas Jefferson baseball team.
Only three weeks after being named TJ’s new coach, however, Barna’s 
stint has come to an abrupt end.
Barna’s comments in the Dec. 18 edition of The Daily News were not well 
received by numerous members of the Thomas Jefferson administration - 
to say nothing of Phil Martell and members of the Elizabeth Forward, 
Yough and South Park school districts - and he has been dismissed from 
the position.
“He’s gone,” Thomas Jefferson athletic director Bill Cherpak said.
TJ has once again opened its baseball coaching job and is currently 
conducting a search through next Wednesday.
Cherpak said the school would like to act quickly in naming a coach 
because the season starts in less than three months.
“It’s not fair to the kids to not have a coach right now so we’re going 
to try and get it done pretty fast,” he said.
Multiple sources close to the situation believe comments Barna made 
about Martell, his longtime nemesis, are most responsible for TJ’s 
decision to look for a new coach.
Barna said last month that Martell had made some recommendations for 
his new coaching staff at TJ.
“But I don’t think these guys Phil recommended would pass the criminal 
backround check,” Barna said at the time. “I think I’ll pick guys on my 
own.”
Barna made the comment in a light-hearted fashion and presumably was 
looking for a laugh. Martell, though, was not amused and rumors have 
been circulating for weeks that he is considering taking legal action 
because of the remark.
The history between Barna and Martell is not pretty.
In 2004, Barna told The Daily News that, while he was still coaching in 
the Daily News League, he once left Martell, a pitcher having a 
horrible day, in a game for an excessive amount of time.
“I left him in the game until he cried,” Barna said in 2004.
Barna also made comments about Elizabeth Forward and Yough’s athletic 
departments and used a derogatory word to describle South Park AD Bill 
Dabaldo.
Although it isn’t believed Cherpak was directly responisble for Barna’s 
firing, he enjoys a friendly relationship with EF AD Kerry Hetrick.
It remains unknown who TJ will peg as Barna’s successor.
Jeff Rubinsak, a DNL legend who has dabbled in coaching recently, has 
already found a new job. He will assist Steve Bucci on the defending 
PIAA champion Canon-McMillan baseball team.
Rubinsak had been in line to be Barna’s top assistant at TJ.
Barna was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Postponements

Forecast of inclement weather has caused the postponement of several WPIAL basketball games and also the WPIAL wrestling team tournament. Included in the basketball games is tonight's showdown between Class AAAA No. 1 Peters Township and No. 2 Latrobe in McMurray. No makeup date has been announced.

Also postponing games, as of 3:45 p.m., are California (at Brownsville), Washington (at Frazier), Chartiers-Houston at Monessen, Avella at Mapletown and Bentworth at West Greene in boys play. In girls, Chartiers-Houston at Clairton and Bentworth at Yough were postponed.

In the wrestling team tournament, the Class AAA first-round and quarterfinal matches at Canon-McMillan were moved to Thursday (6 and 7:30 p.m.). In Class AA, quarterfinal and semifinal matches were moved to Thursday at 6 and 7:30 p.m. For more information on the wrestling, go to www.wpial.org

O-R girls basketball rankings

WPIAL
Class AAAA
1. Mt. Lebanon 17-0
2. Bethel Park 16-1
3. Butler 15-1
4. Fox Chapel 11-3
5. Norwin 13-4

Class AAA
1. Indiana 16-1
2. New Castle 14-2
3. Hampton 13-3
4. Hopewell 13-3
5. Mars 13-3

Class AA
1. Sto-Rox 17-1
2. Beaver 16-1
3. Seton-La Salle 12-4
4. Shady Side Academy 14-2
4. OLSH 12-4

Class A
1. North Catholic 11-5
2. Vincentian Academy 12-5
3. Serra Catholic 13-3
4. Quigley Catholic 13-2
5. Fort Cherry 13-3

O-R boys basketball rankings

If the rankings hold, Tuesday's Latrobe at Peters Township game could ultimately prove to be for the No. 1 seed in the WPIAL Class AAAA playoff pairings.


Class AAAA
1. Peters Township 16-1
2. Latrobe 16-2
3. North Allegheny 12-4
4. Mt. Lebanon 13-4
5. McKeesport 12-5

Class AAA
1. Chartiers Valley 17-0
2. Hampton 15-3
3. Blackhawk 11-5
4. Greensburg-Salem 14-3
5. Highlands 13-5

Class AA
1. Beaver Falls 13-3
2. Quaker Valley 12-3
3. North Catholic 14-1
4. South Fayette 15-3
5. Washington 16-2

Class A
1. Sewickley Academy 11-4
2. Clairton 8-4
3. OLSH 13-4
4. Serra Catholic 14-2
5. Lincoln Park 11-5

High school football charged

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Football players know them as “gassers” — sprints up and down the field to build stamina.
Sophomore Max Gilpin and his Pleasure Ridge Park teammates spent the tail end of a three-hour practice on a sweltering August day in Louisville running the drill that is a coaching staple across the country, hoping to impress enough to earn varsity playing time that fall.
They sprinted 12 times in 94-degree heat, sometimes with helmets and pads, as the coaches pushed them to go harder and harder. It was a drill like those on many football fields across the country, right up until Gilpin, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound offensive lineman collapsed on the turf just 15 minutes after a teammate went down.
Three days later, the 15-year-old Gilpin was dead from heat stroke, with authorities saying his body temperature was 107 degrees when he reached the hospital. Five months later, his first-year head coach David Jason Stinson is facing a reckless homicide charge, with a prosecutor saying the coach should have realized a player could collapse from heat stroke in the broiling weather.
Harold Jarrard, whose grandson played on the offensive line, was there Aug. 20 and said coaches were shouting at the players, encouraging them to pick it up as practice wound down.
“It was just a normal day of practice,” he said. “They always run gassers at the end. It’s a daily activity. Nothing was different that day. I never heard anything out of the ordinary.
“You hear them being threatened every day, stuff like ’If you don’t straighten up, you’re out of here.’ It was just regular,” he said.
Interviews with witnesses and a review of filings in a civil lawsuit brought by Gilpin’s parents against the coaching staff, including depositions, Stinson’s handwritten notes and weather logs filed with the school, shed some light on what happened that day.
For Brian Bale, who was watching his daughter play soccer on an adjacent field during most of football practice, the way coaches were yelling at players was “appalling,” he said in an e-mail to the school district two days later. Bale declined an interview request from The Associated Press on Friday.
But he wrote in the e-mail: “Those coaches thought that they were training young teenagers for the Navy SEALS team instead of a football team. I never once in the time I was there saw anyone offered a water break. I did, however, hear the coach say numerous times that all he needed was one person to say that they quit the team and all of the suffering and running and heat would be over.”
That’s exactly what Kim Englert’s son, David, did — quit that day.
David Englert said “Coach Stinson made the team run sprints until someone quit,” Gilpin’s mother, Michele Crockett said in court filings.
Heat exposure deaths happen occasionally in football from the sandlot to the pros, the most famous example being Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer in 2001. Lawsuits have been filed in many of those cases, but it doesn’t appear that a coach has ever been criminally charged.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Stengel declined to say why he chose this case for a grand jury. Stinson, a technical teacher at the school who has been reassigned pending the outcome of the case, is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.
His attorney, Alex Dathorne, did not return calls from The Associated Press on Friday.