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Wednesday, 08 February 2012 21:45

Written by Mike White

Not much news on the Mt. Lebanon High School football coaching front. A coach won't be named until later this month or in March. But I will say this: Stop with the rumors that Jay Paterno is a candidate. HE IS NOT.

There have been a few comments on this blog about Jay Paterno being interested, and other people have mentioned that Jay Paterno might be a candidate for the Mt. Lebanon job. The reasoning is because his wife, the former Kelly Kolankiewicz, is from Mt. Lebanon.

I don't like to address rumors, but this one seems to get getting more legs, so I thought I'd address it. Mt. Lebanon administrators can't say who has applied or who has not. But a source at Mt. Lebanon and a few close to Paterno say Paterno has definitely not applied and definitely is not interested.

So, stop the Paterno and Mt. Lebanon rumors.

But I can imagine how things like this get started. A group of guys are around the water cooler talking and one says, "Wonder if Jay Paterno would be interested in the Mt. Lebanon job? Hey, why not? His wife is from Mt. Lebanon and maybe she'd like to move back here."

Then a few of those guys happen to mention it a day later to a few guys, but it has escalated into, "I hear Jay Paterno might be interested in the Mt. Lebanon job." And the thing takes on a life of its own from there.

I have a memorable story about a basketball star that illustrates how rumors get started and how they can change drastically from one person to another. It was the 1989 state basketball championships and Wilkes-Barre GAR had a terrific junior guard named Bob Sura. Hersheypark Arena has a room for the media, and in the room before the game, a reporter from Eastern Pennsylvania told me that Syracuse was starting to show interest in Sura.

At halftime, another reporter told me that he heard Syracuse had already offered Sura a scholarship. OK, so in the matter of about an hour, the story changed from Syracuse being interested to Syracuse offering.

Then after the game, a reporter from the Pittsburgh area said in the room, "That Sura is really good. I hear he already committed to Syracuse."

So in the matter of two hours, the rumors and the story changed from Syracuse showing interest, to Syracuse offering, to Sura committing.

For the record, Sura signed with Florida State.

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Tuesday, 07 February 2012 22:22

Written by Mike White

It was a memorable night for Micah Mason. On senior night at Highlands High School, Mason helped the Rams earn a WPIAL playoff berth - and he set a WPIAL record.

Mason, a senior guard at Highlands, scored 28 points and broke the WPIAL record for career 3-pointers in a72-60 victory against Deer Lakes.

Mason (pictured) had five 3-pointers to give him 335 for his career, breaking the record set by Chartiers Valley's T.J. McConnell, who had 334 from 2006-10. Chartiers Valley's Mike Colbert is third.

"This was defiinitely a big deal," Mason said tonight. "I worked so hard and shot so many shots in my life. It's like it all paid off.

"T.J. was a great shooter and player, and I'm happy to beat him. It was hard, though. I feel like the pressure is off now."

Mason deserves a ton of credit for breaking this record - and for scoring more than 2,000 career points, because you should see how most teams defend him. Many play a box-and-one on him. When he starts to dribble, they will put another defender on him. Sometimes teams will send a third player after him.

For Mason to still average close to 30 points this year is on the remarkable side. Now here is something unbelievable I heard tonight from Mike Choma, who does Highlands games on the radio and also keeps statistics for the Rams. Choma told me he was talking to Mason's father, John, and Dad mentioned that in the summer between Micah's eighth- and ninth-grade years, he shot more than 40,000 shots. That's right, 40,000. They charted the shots that summer.

Micah Mason didn't get to this point without a lot of hard work.

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Tuesday, 07 February 2012 09:01

Written by Mike White

Some items that fell off my laptop.

*** It might be a little early to start thinking about this, but the WPIAL playoffs do start in a little more than a week. So, it's not too early to think about who should be on the Fabulous 5?

The Post-Gazette picks a Fabulous 5 after the state playoffs. It is the top five players in the WPIAL-City League (regardless of class. The player could be anywhere from a freshman to a senior). This season, I think there are a few definites, but the last one or two spots could be hard to pick. What do you think? Who should be on the Fabulous 5?

Here are some candidates (in no particular order): Lincoln Davis, Central Catholic; Nate Snodgrass, Butler; Justin Dobbs, Allderdice; J.C. Howard, North Allegheny; Sheldon Jeter, Beaver Falls; Micah Mason, Highlands; Devontae Watson, Lincoln Park; Geno Thorpe, Shaler; Wayne Capers, Chartiers Valley; Nolan Cressler, Plum; Tyler Scott, Gateway; Barnett Harris, Gateway; Andy Andrle, Pine-Richland; Shakim Alonzo, Woodland Hills; Devin Wilson, Montour; Kamic Anyang, Mt. Lebanon; Corey Eggleston, New Castle; Shawn Anderson, New Castle; Luke Hagy, Mt. Lebanon; P.J. McLaughlin, Greensburg Central Catholic.

Am I missing anyone?

Mason and the playoffs

It looks like Highlands and star senior guard Micah Mason have a decent chance to make the WPIAL playoffs after all. The Rams are tied with Kittanning for fourth place in WPIAL Class AAA with a 5-7 record. Both teams have two games remaining. Highlands plays Deer Lakes and Hampton while Kittanning plays Deer Lakes and Mars. There is a good chance both Highlands and Kittanning will end up tied for the final playoff spot, and because they split two meetings, both teams would qualify.

Mason should win the WPIAL scoring title for the second year in a row. If Highlands failed to make the playoffs, Mason would have been the first WPIAL scoring leader to miss the playoffs since Mohawk's Shawn Carr in the 2003-04 season.

For the SEALs

*** Interesting story from Gary Lambrecht of the Annapolis Capital about former North Allegheny basketball player Ted Connolly, who moved into the starting lineup at Navy in January. But that's not the interesting part. Connolly (pictured) is one of the select few Naval Academy seniors who has been selected to train to be a Navy SEAL.

Connolly, by the way, also played football at North Allegheny.

Elsewhere in basketball

*** Here are the state rankings, regardless of classification, by Jerry Shenk and the Middle Atlantic Sports News and llhoops.com. The top 10 includes two WPIAL teams - Shaler and Beaver Falls.

*** Serra girls basketball coach Bill Cleary needs two wins to reach 500 for his career. I don't know too many girls coaches around the WPIAL who won 500 games.

Big 33 and Super Bowl

Eight former Big 33 players were on the teams in this Sunday's Super Bowl. The Big 33 is a summer all-star football game that pits Pennsylvania against Ohio. The former Big 33 players on the Giants were Chris Snee, Chase Blackburn, Mario Manningham, Da'Rel Scott and Henry Hynoski.

The Big 33 players on the Patriots were Lousaka Polite, Brian Hoyer and Zoltan Mesko. Also for the Patriots, Dan Koppen (another former Big 33 player) was on injured reserve.

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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 13:07

Written by Mike White

It had been pretty much quiet on the Wayne Capers recruiting front over the past couple months. Then this today:

Capers signed with Arizona.

Capers, a senior quarterback at Chartiers Valley, signed with the Wildcats and is one of two Arizona recruits from the WPIAL. The other is Upper St. Clair linebacker Dakota Conwell.

Some Division I colleges were recruiting Capers at one time, but interest seemed to drop off on him. Capers could play a number of positions, including receiver.

Capers was a member of the Post-Gazette Fabulous 22.