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Westmoreland high school notebook: PIAA championships have Pittsburgh history | Trib HSSN

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Westmoreland high school notebook: PIAA championships have Pittsburgh history | Trib HSSN


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Saturday, January 17, 2026 | 5:37 PM


The PIAA boys and girls soccer championships are coming to Highmark Stadium for the next four years.

It has been a while since the PIAA brought its trophies west.

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Next year’s finals will mark the first time a state championship has been played in WPIAL territory since the 1992 PIAA girls volleyball finals were contested at Robert Morris.

There have been many state tournaments played on this side of the commonwealth.

The 1991 PIAA Class 2A football championship was played at South Stadium (now Cupples Stadium), and numerous PIAA basketball finals were played in Pittsburgh — proper and surrounding areas — before Penn State and Hershey became longtime sites.

The old Civic Arena hosted boys state finals in 1966, ’71 and ’79. Pitt’s Fitzgerald Field House hosted the boys Class 2A final in 1963 and ’65, and the 1962 Class A final was played at New Castle High School.

The Pavilion at Pitt Stadium hosted the 2A title game in 1947, ’51, ’53, ’55, ’61 and the 1929, ’31 and ’34 3A championships.

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Irwin won its first two titles at the Pavilion in ’47 and ’53.

Valley won the 1979 title at Civic Arena. Franklin Regional’s girls took their ’79 title there, as well.

Washington High School hosted the 1950 PIAA wrestling championships.

Many don’t realize the PIAA was founded in Pittsburgh in 1913.

The WPIAL is looking forward to seeing the state’s premier games come to the city.

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“We are extremely happy for our players, coaches and fans to have an opportunity to play for a PIAA soccer championship right in our own backyard,” WPIAL executive director Vince Sortino said. “Highmark has a great facility for such an event, and it also gives schools from across the PIAA the opportunity to see our beautiful city.”

Second offer for Brown

Jeannette standout quarterback/defensive back Kymon’e Brown wants to play Division I football, and he has more than one option.

A second program offered him a scholarship last week, with Albany reaching out.

His other offer is from the Naval Academy.

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Brown has won back-to-back TribLive Westmoreland player of the year awards.

This season, he threw for 1,822 yards and 19 touchdowns and rushed for 1,119 yards and 17 TDs. He added 50 tackles and two interceptions.

The great indoors

The Hempfield distance medley relay is off to a fast start to the indoor track and field season.

The foursome of Ryan Ewing, Kieran Allison, Isaiah Bittner and Jonathan Stetchock broke the school record last weekend with a time of 10 minutes, 40.44 seconds.

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The time ranks first in the state and is No. 5 nationally.

Recruiting

• IUP offered Norwin senior linebacker, tight end and long-snapper Josh Lenart. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Lenart, a first-team all-conference pick on defense, had 28 tackles, six for loss, two sacks and an interception this season for the Knights.

Lenart has five Division II offers from PSAC schools. The others are from Edinboro, Seton Hill, Gannon and Clarion.

• Jeannette running back and linebacker Nick Mendoza grabbed his first NCAA Division II offer, from West Liberty of the Mountain East Conference.

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This season, Mendoza (5-11, 180) ran for 460 yards and eight touchdowns, and had 65 tackles and six sacks for the Jayhawks.

• West Liberty also offered Franklin Regional senior tight end and linebacker Lochlan Bresnahan. Bresnahan (6-2, 210) had four catches for 42 yards this season and made 34 tackles, eight for loss, with four sacks.

• Brayden Gerst, a senior all-conference linebacker at Hempfield, will play at Grove City. Gerst (5-10, 200) had 70 tackles, nine for loss, this season for the Spartans.

• Greensburg Central Catholic senior lineman Matt Mazowiecki (5-10, 225) and senior wide receiver and defensive back Jackson Lowden (5-11, 160) will continue their playing careers at Washington & Jefferson.

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• Hempfield senior Isabella Billeck will play lacrosse at Mount Aloysius.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.





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Judge calls Pittsburgh crash death ‘textbook example’ of why DUI is illegal

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Judge calls Pittsburgh crash death ‘textbook example’ of why DUI is illegal


No one showed up in court for either side.

Not for the victim, a 33-year-old immigrant killed in Pittsburgh last year by a drunken driver.

And not for the defendant, a 22-year-old woman who created a good life for herself and her twin sons despite a string of difficult life circumstances, including an incarcerated father and a mother with mental illness.

Maria Davis, of Uniontown, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault and driving under the influence after police say she crossed the center line on Beechwood Boulevard last year, crashing head-on into Abdulaziz Sharibbaev and killing him.

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Sharibbaev lived in Pittsburgh’s Westwood section at the time of his death. Law enforcement could not confirm where he emigrated from and were unable to reach any relatives for the court proceedings.

As part of a plea agreement, Davis will serve 16 to 32 months in custody to be followed by two years probation. Her attorney asked the court to allow his client to enter an alternative housing program, which the judge said she will consider after Davis has served at least 12 months.

She must also pay $3,500 in mandatory fines.

Davis was driving a black Hyundai sedan north on Beechwood Boulevard toward Squirrel Hill around 12:30 a.m. on March 11 when she crossed the center line and struck a silver Toyota Prius head-on, according to a criminal complaint.

Sharibbaev, who was driving the Prius, had to be extricated by medics.

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He died from his injuries five days later.

Both Davis and a passenger in her car were taken to local hospitals. The passenger sustained facial injuries and fractures from being thrown into the windshield.

A blood test showed Davis had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.163% — more than twice the legal limit for driving of 0.08%.

She also had marijuana in her blood, police said.

Birthday celebration

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Defense attorney Adam Bishop told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Simquita R. Bridges that his client had been raised primarily by her great-grandmother after her father was incarcerated and her mother could not care for her.

After her great-grandmother became ill, Davis had to return to live with her mother at age 14, Bishop continued. Three years later, she moved out.

Davis had no prior criminal history and worked as a certified nursing assistant at a facility in Uniontown, Bishop said.

The night of the crash, she and friends were going out to celebrate her birthday.

Davis had gotten a babysitter, drove to Pittsburgh and attended a baby shower that day before checking in to a hotel room.

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At the shower, Davis had a shot of tequila and shared a glass of wine, Bishop said. Then, when Davis returned to the hotel to get ready for her night out, she had a couple more shots.

Davis and her friend arrived at a bar called Eon in Homestead and were waiting outside in line for more than 90 minutes when a fight broke out, Bishop said.

One of the men involved made threats, Bishop told the judge, and fearing he would return with a gun, Davis and her friends left.

Although she had not planned to drive any more that night, Davis got in her car to follow another friend to a bar in Greenfield, the attorney said.

The two vehicles got separated in traffic, Bishop said, and the friend texted Davis the address for the bar.

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She was trying to type the address into the GPS on her phone when she crossed the center line and crashed, according to Bishop.

“It was that act of distracted driving, in conjunction with her intoxication,” Bishop said, that caused the crash.

Bishop described Davis as extremely remorseful and said she accepts full responsibility for her actions.

“She got dealt some bad cards in life,” Bishop said, but still managed to make a good life for her sons, who will turn 2 next month.

“One night can change everything,” he said.

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A ‘poor decision’

No one was in court to describe the impact of Sharibbaev’s death.

Davis told the judge she is sincerely sorry.

“I would never purposely hurt somebody,” she said. “I ask that his family accept my apology. For as long as I live, I hope they can forgive me at some point.”

Davis told the court she is trying to learn from what happened.

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“I tried all my life to be a good person and stay on the right path,” she said. “This night, I just made a poor decision.”

But Assistant District Attorney Jameson Rohrer said it wasn’t just one bad choice.

“This was a series of decisions that (ended) a man’s life and permanently changed the lives of the defendant and her children,” he said.

Bridges agreed.

“You are a textbook example of why drinking and driving is illegal,” the judge said. “Good people sometimes make bad choices. That doesn’t make you a bad person.

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“Your life isn’t over because of this. You can pick yourself up and move on.”



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Man’s body found underneath trailer behind former Shop ‘n Save in Carrick

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Man’s body found underneath trailer behind former Shop ‘n Save in Carrick



Pittsburgh Police detectives are investigating after a man’s body was found underneath a trailer behind the former Shop ‘n Save store in the city’s Carrick neighborhood.

Pittsburgh Public Safety said late Monday night that detectives from the Violent Crime division responded to the area of Amanda Street and Wynoka Street in Carrick after a man’s body was found around 8:30 p.m.

Public Safety said the man’s body was found underneath a trailer and that he was pronounced dead by medics at the scene.

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Pittsburgh Police detectives are investigating after a man’s body was found underneath a trailer in the city’s Carrick neighborhood on Monday night.

Pittsburgh Public Safety


A photo provided by Pittsburgh Public Safety shows officers surrounding a taped off area and what appears to be a refrigerated trailer parked at the loading dock along Amanda Street behind the former Brownsville Shop n’ Save, which closed its doors last month

No details surrounding the circumstances of the man’s death were provided by Public Safety, who said that the cause and the manner of the man’s death will be determined by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

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The man’s identity has not been released.

Public Safety said the investigation into the man’s death is “ongoing.”



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Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County

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Record number of peregrine falcons counted in Allegheny County



In the early 1960s, the peregrine falcon population declined so sharply that the raptors weren’t even nesting in Pennsylvania. But now, the National Aviary says a record number have been counted in Allegheny County.

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The National Aviary says six peregrine falcons were recorded in the county during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The nation’s longest-running citizen science project collects data on bird populations for ornithologists, the aviary says. It also plays a role in guiding conservation action, like what was needed to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction. 

Because of the use of DDT, peregrine falcons were no longer nesting in the state of Pennsylvania by the early 1960s, the aviary said. But after the harmful pesticide, which negatively affects reproduction rates in birds, was banned in 1972, conservation efforts have helped the peregrine falcon rebound. It was removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999 and Pennsylvania’s list in 2021. 

The record number of peregrine falcons in Allegheny County is thanks in part to the nest on top of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. For the past two years, biologists with the Pennsylvania Game Commission have banded chicks born in the nest. Three were banded last year, and two the year before that. 

People can watch Carla and Ecco raise their family in the nest on a livestream camera run by the National Aviary. Carla laid her first egg of the breeding season on March 16 last year, so the aviary says the start of another season isn’t too far away. 

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