January

• Tiger LaVerde's Kirtland Tigers will play a Pennsylvania team for the first time -- but it won't be his alma mater, Oil City. The Ohio small school powerhouse will take on Central Clarion at the Wildcats' field on Aug. 22.  Kickoff is 7 p.m. Central Clarion won the District 9 2A title and was state runner-up last season --  but its all-everything QB Jase Ferguson will have graduated. All LaVerde seems to do at Kirtland is reload.

• Former Oiler Roman McFall, now a senior football/basketball star for the Canyon High School Cougars in New Braunfels, Texas, has been picked to play in an all-star hoops game March 23 in San Antonio. Here he is pictured with classmate Emma Pinto, who was picked for the girls game. Roman had 12 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and a steal in his final game on Feb. 11.

• Grove City's Nathan Greer announced he'll play college football at Slippery Rock.

• The Warren County school shake-up -- Warren and Eisenhower; no more Youngsville and Sheffield -- means Warren will move up to 5A in boys basketball, starting next school year. That furthermore means there will be a championship game between Warren and Meadville. Warren will remain in 4A for football. Sheffield students will attend Warren and Youngsville students will attend Eisenhower. Basically, Eisenhower will move up in everything.

• Rayvion Wilbon-Venable scored 56 of Kennedy Catholic's 58 points on Jan. 17.(Eagles lost to Greenville by 11.)  He buried seven 3-pointers and was 17-24 from the free throw line.

• Jason Wargo is the new offensive coordinator at Geneva College. Wargo, a Geneva grad, recently resigned as head coach at Maplewood. He was an assistant coach at Franklin for six years and the Knights' head coach in track for three seasons.

• The Warren School Board on Jan. 13 voted to close Youngsville and Sheffield high schools. That means the football co-op between Youngsville and Warren will be dissolved since Youngsville students will attend Eisenhower, starting this fall.

• This brings to mind Youngsville's and one of District 10's greatest athletes ever: Mike Shine, an Olympic silver medalist in the 1976 Games in Montreal. Shine, who was starring for Penn State in the 400 hurdles, was second to Edwin Moses, who set a world record. Youngsville had a juggernaut track team in the early 1970s featuring Shine and the Yucha brothers, Paul and Randy.

• Keystone ended Redbank Valley's 38-game KSAC winning streak in girls basketball on Jan. 9, and Slippery Rock's big man, Josh Book, scored 42, his second 40-point game of the season.

• Former Franklin assistant Jason Wargo resigned as head football coach at Maplewood on Jan. 8

• When the 5-3 Grove City girls took to their home hardwood Jan. 6 against an Oil City team that hadn't won in its last six tries, it was the Lady Eagles' first game since Dec. 19! Lady Oilers won by 20 behind Sophia Garmong's career-high 27...Speaking of dates, wonder if the Erie Times News is ever going to announce its District10 football all-stars?

• Back in the 90s, when it was starting out as a state-wide basketball power, Blackhawk was a thorn in Franklin's side. Many frustrating losses in the playoffs before the Knights eventually and finally broke through. Remember that? Well, I just noticed this, but Franklin, never known as a "wrestling school,"  holds a resounding mat victory over Blackhawk, 41-12. It came in the David Wallace Duals at Sharpsville on Dec. 21. The Knights were 2-4 that day, also measuring Mercer, but dropping bouts to Sharpsville, Beaver County Christian (by a point), Slippery Rock and Grove City. Having all those duals that day explains Franklin's 3-8 record so far when it's still early January.

• Elk County Catholic coach Aaron Straub won his 1,000th game on Jan.3. He's believed to be the second coach in Pennsylvania history to win 1,000. According to Chris Rosetti of D9andD10sports.com, Straub has been at Elk for 47 years, coaching the girls to a 27-21 record the first two. He is 973-247 in the last 45 campaigns with the boys, including a state and 26 D-9 titles. The only other coach believed to be at 1,000 is Loyalsock's Ron Insinger, who began this season with 1,136 victories, both girls and boys. Franklin, you might remember, had a chance to take on Loyalsock in last year's playoffs, depending how things broke...Also on Jan. 3, Slippery Rock's big man, Josh Book, erupted for 39 points in a win over Greenville.

• PET PEEVE -- The "old-fashioned" three-point play. Eyeball roll. Three-pointers -- shots from beyond the arc -- have been around since 1987 or 88,  and I've never heard anyone EVER refer to them as "three-point plays." They're three-pointers, treys, trifectas, whatever, but not three-point plays.  When a player makes a two-point basket,  is fouled and converts the free throw, that's a three-point play. Period. Nothing "old-fashioned" about it. And if a player is fouled while making a three-pointer and converts, then that's a four-point play. Just sayin'.