Sports

Hot hitting dominates in cool spring for softball

Early-season softball scores are usually a bit high this time of the year. Pitchers are usually much more successful during warm weather, and so far, Mother Nature hasn’t provided much of that. The following summary of what has occurred is, thus, dominated by hitting. In a week or so, guaranteed, that will change. {{more}} * […]

Standout baseball play marks early, soggy season

John KnebelsSports Columnist The sounds you have heard coming from the local parks are batted balls replacing dribbling basketballs. Which could only mean one thing … spring has finally arrived. While rainouts have already wreaked some havoc with the early schedule, a host of games involving Catholic high school teams – albeit mostly against non-league […]

Wood ends season as best in state, again

Girls basketball John KnebelsSports Columnist Indescribable. That was the word that Stephanie Keyes used to illustrate Archbishop Wood’s 2010-11 basketball season. “After we won the Catholic League championship, we put up another number on a banner that had been hanging there since 1982,” Keyes said. “When we put up the banner for winning states last […]

Neumann-Goretti’s hoops dynasty continues

South Philly’s Saints defeat Montour in AAA state championship By John KnebelsSports Columnist The next time SS. John Neumann and Maria Goretti High School won’t be favored to win the boys Catholic League basketball championship might not be for quite a while. Considering their annual competition, that’s quite a compliment. But what else could one […]

Sacred Heart’s Hannah Rush scores 1,000

By John KnebelsSports Columnist Given her preference, Hannah Rush would rather pass the ball than shoot it. So after the senior from the Country Day School of the Sacred Heart on March 12 became the second player in the history of the school to amass 1,000 career points, it probably caught many people by surprise. […]

Villa Maria wins state swimming title

By John KnebelsSports Columnist It’s well known that swimming is a year-round sport. So it shouldn’t be surprising that, while spring sports have been practicing (and in a few cases, already competing) for about a month already, there are many swimmers who have remained focused on adding yet another trinket to their burgeoning trophy case. […]

La Salle stuns Malvern in OT, wins Flyers Cup

By John KnebelsSports Columnist There was no better way to win, so it stands to reason that there was no worse way to lose. Years from now, the enormous disparity of positive-versus-negative recall will probably still remain the way La Salle and Malvern Prep’s ice hockey teams felt after the Flyers’ Cup concluded March 7 […]

PIAA basketball: Nine from Archdiocese get through first round

John KnebelsSports Columnist When local basketball teams play schools with names you never heard of and travel to places miles away from their comfort zone, it can only mean one thing. The PIAAs have arrived. Like the NCAA’s March Madness, the PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) schedules both boys and girls from classifications ranging from […]

St. Bernadette, St. Andrew tops in CYO play

John KnebelsSports Columnist Upon first inspection, some might have thought they had mistakenly entered a Bon Jovi concert. The music was loud, the people were yelling. Many of the ones seated had to stand because those who had nowhere to sit were straining to find a good place to see the floor. But alas, it […]

CYO coach retires after 40 faithful years

John KnebelsSports Columnist In Frank Capra’s holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” heroic character George Bailey is given a remarkable gift – the chance to see what the world would have been like had he never been born. Like actor Jimmy Stewart’s famous alter ego, if Tom Flaherty had never been born, innumerable people would […]