You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Mike White's high school sports chat: 11.03.20
powered byJotCast
Andre Agassi
10:56
I was wondering what opinion you had of Mars High School and their football team?
Mike White
10:58
Hello Andre Agassi. You know you never marry a tennis player, right? Because to them love means nothing. Wooooo hoooo. I'll be here all week. .... As for Mars, a pretty darn good season again. Lose only two games to Plum and Thomas Jefferson. Teddy Ruffner leads WPIAL in rushing. Scott Heinauer gets 200th win. Mars has never won a WPIAL title but they are always better than average and win a lot. I don't know what more you could say.
Zman
10:58
What are some of your favorite WPIAL gyms to watch a BB game?
Mike White
11:00
I still love Beaver Falls' gym. Horseshoe and sort of a pit with old bleachers on cement. New Castle great place also. Lincoln Park plays in old Midland gym and you can feel the history there. And Washington is still tremendous. Old stadium type seating. Love the historical feel of the place. Lot of schools have built new gyms in past 25 years that are great. But still some old ones with plenty of history.
Zman
11:00
If still in 6A this year, think Pine would win it?
Mike White
11:02
They would definitely be the favorite - and yes I think they would have the best team. There's not a tremendous team in 6A this year. North Allegheny and Central Catholic are good, but neither is confused with the best teams at the school. I would be surprised if Pine didn't win 6A. Lots of skill, lots of good linemen, good schemes. I think they're better than anyone in 6A.
Coach Z
11:03
What are your early thoughts on preseason rankings for 6A and 5A girls basketball this year?
Mike White
11:05
Pretty easy to pick No. 1 teams. North Allegheny in 6A and Chartiers Valley in 5A. Lots of talent and players back at both. Lizzy Groetsch was Post-Gazette Player of the Year last season and returns, along with a few others. Chartiers Valley didn't lose a game past two seasons under Tim McConnell and has four starters returning. They need to develop a point guard, though, with Megan McConnell gone. She will be missed. In 6A, Upper St. Clair was so young and should be even better. There's always Bethel Park in 6A also.
JC
11:06
What’s up with Peter Township Band? This is 2020 and this is still happing.
Mike White
11:07
It's unbelievable, isn't it? You just wonder how could someone not think, "this isn't right and might be offensive?" Then again, look at ignorance of people still these days and what has been going in the world lately. Should we really be surprised?
Tw
11:08
Effect Corona will have on basketball season this year?
Mike White
11:11
Well Tw, PIAA said last week that winter sports is a go. Will start on time - and good for PIAA. A comment from PIAA director Bob Lombardi in summer still sticks with me when he was talking about fall sports. "I think the only wrong decision would be if we don't try. We owe it to all the kids to at least try." Same with basketball. With uptick in cases, there will definitely be some bumps in the road, but I don't think pushing it back does any good. I think you might see eventually see limited fans again. Maybe only parents. But it is scheduled to go on. You might see some recommendations soon from PIAA, like maybe getting rid of tipoff and holiday tournaments where multiple teams come into gyms. I do know wrestling is a concern also, especially big wrestling tournaments.
11:13
What's good about basketball, though, is even if multiple games are canceled because of COVID-19 cases, it's not like football. Heck, you can play five games in a week if needed in basketball. By starting the season on time, it gives you a little wiggle room in case maybe you shut it down for a couple weeks. But I think the only thing that will stop winter sports is a shutdown by Governor. I don't see that happening.
JM
11:14
Early thoughts on the Quip, Belle Vernon game?
Mike White
11:16
One of the best semifinal matchups. Belle Vernon obviously the best team Aliquippa will play. Definitely the most physical. I like Belle Vernon's defense and Devin Whitlock is unlike any player Aliquippa has seen. But Aliquippa defense is so big and has been good. They have to stop Whitlock big plays, just like Aliquippa has to stop Belle Vernon big plays. Besides Vernon Redd, Aliquippa doesn't have big-play guys like they usually do. I question is Belle Vernon can throw with much success if Aliquippa stops their running game and bottles up Whitlock. I think it's close game and I think I'll go ... Belle Vernon.
11:17
Just a reminder that North Allegheny-Central Catholic play in the WPIAL 6A championship Friday at North Hills' Martorelli Stadium. The other five WPIAL title games are next Friday and Saturday at North Hills and North Allegheny.
11:18
Also upcoming is Gateway's Derrick Davis is supposed to announce college choice Saturday. I still say Penn State or Ohio State.
Gateway vs. Peters Township is another one of the best semifinal matchups.
Tracy
11:21
Do you anticipate that more schools will cancel their seasons like Ellis has done
Mike White
11:22
Definitely not.
JCrew
11:22
Mike, do you anticipate the same playoff set up for basketball?  Playoff games will be hosted by higher seed and WPIAL championships at North Hills/NA?
Mike White
11:25
Hard to say because I don't know if you can predict where we'll be in mid-February. That's 3 1/2 months away. However, WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman said league will consider the idea of higher seed getting home game for playoffs in other sports. It has been talked about in previous years, without the pandemic. It makes some sense. But I would say basketball is a lot different than football. Those neutral site games in basketball can be terrific with packed houses. Not like football.
JCrew
11:26
Staying in line with the other question regarding girls basketball, who do you like for Class 1A through 4A as potential champions?
Mike White
11:30
Rochester team to beat in 1A. 2A hard to say. Laurel made it to finals last year and played lot of young players, but they moved up to 3A. Bishop Canevin won 2A, but moved to 1A. In 3A, North Catholic lost a lot but moves down from 4A. Like I said, Laurel is in 3A. In 2A, Ellis School might have been team to beat, but they're not playing. Southmoreland had great year in 4A and made it to finals. I know they have players back and should be good. Always have to look at Blackhawk and Beaver in 4A.
splash
11:30
I don't anticipate other schools cancelling their BB seasons!!! Why would they????
Mike White
11:33
Totally agree. This might seem stranger, but I could see this happening also. Most schools give students the option if they would like to do school "virtually." I've already heard possibility of, maybe, a basketball team getting together and players, among themselves, deciding that everyone on team take classes virtually for rest of season. Sort of create their own bubble. This way they're not exposed to people at school. Maybe if school shuts down because of cases of non-athletes, team doesn't have to shut down because they weren't in school.
D9 Dave
11:33
Do you know if the Philly schools that are traditional powers in the various classes, will be participating in the state playoffs?  Know they started late and not sure how many games they played. Also, has the PIAA announced a fan policy for the championships at Hershey?
Mike White
11:35
Yes, Philly Catholic League will still have teams in state playoffs. PIAA will accept them despite those teams having played only few games. I wrote earlier this week that St. Joe's Prep is already qualified for 6A playoffs despite playing only three games so far. They beat Archbishop Wood, which gave St. Joe's the 6A berth from District 12. There will be no Catholic League playoffs.
11:36
As far as PIAA championships, the PIAA will follow state gathering limits, which I believe is 20 percent of capacity? So they will take around 2,000 fans at state championships maybe. That's plenty.
Mike too
11:36
Mt Lebanon was blown out by Central Catholic after holding their own and coming back to win a few weeks ago.  Is that all about coaching - - -one side gets team pumped and makes adjustments and other side forgets to tell returners to catch the kickoff?  What happened?
Mike White
11:40
Of course, a team loses and it's all about coaching. Typical. Of course coaching matters. But Central just got on a roll and Mt. Lebanon couldn't stop the snowball. I've seen it happen. Bottom line is Central has a better team than Mt. Lebanon. More talent. Now, I'm not saying Mt. Lebanon should've lost 35-0. And Lebo didn't look good. It was baffling that they lost that bad and baffling that they had minus yards for the game. But how about Bob Palko? I Tweeted a comment from him that they have to do better as coaches. He said, "Blame me." But please don't blame that whole game on coaching.
Guest
11:41
Who do like Serra or Sto-rox ?
Mike White
11:41
Good matchup. Close game. Make me choose and I'll go with ... Serra.
Jeff
11:41
I know you’ve seen a lot of hoops over the past years. In your eyes, who is the best WPIAL player in the 21,22, and 23 class ?
Mike White
11:48
Well, the class of 2023 is easy. Laurel Highlands' Rodney Gallagher. The other classes I can't pick one player. There is no real standout. Senior class you have everyone from OLSH's Dante Spadafora (West Liberty recruit), Char Valley's Brayden Reynolds, Plum's Connor Moss, Springdale's Demitri Fritch and others. Don't know if any of those are D-1 guys, though. Junior class the same way. I'll throw a few top juniors out (and probably make someone mad I didn't mention them). But Fox Chapel's Eli Yofan, OLSH's Jake DiMichele, New Castle's Mike Wells and Quaker Valley's Adou Thiero. Those are just a few names. But not one guy in senior and junior classes you could name right now as "the best."
D9 Dave
11:52
Are tournaments going to be allowed by the WPIAL for the upcoming hoops season?
Mike White
11:52
That is questionable. We touched on this subject earlier in chat. I would say they might be in question.
11:55
PIAA director Bob Lombardi said a week ago that the PIAA board of directors is going to discuss tournaments at meeting in two weeks. And especially wrestling tournaments. There might be some recommendations coming from PIAA, based on recommendations that are made by PIAA sports medicine committee. But if I had to predict, I'd probably say PIAA might "recommend" not having tournaments, where multiple teams come to one school. Or there could be strong protocols in place to have it. Honestly, I can understand the concern about tournaments.
D9 Dave
11:56
Any word on how Ethan Morton is doing at Purdue and what is Robbie Carmody's status for the upcoming season at Notre Dame?
Mike White
11:57
Well D9 Dave, I just know that Ethan Morton is going through practices at Purdue and in some text messages he seems to really like it. As far as Carmody, he had another injury. Kneecap injury I believe in September or October. He can't get rid of the injuries. He's had shoulder first year, knee last year and then another knee this year. But Notre Dame had said they expect to have him back in December.
Load More Messages
Connecting…