High school notebook: South Fayette’s Beinecke chooses Virginia Tech
One of the top local girls soccer players has made her college decision.
South Fayette junior Gabby Beinecke committed to Virginia Tech earlier this month.
Beinecke was a key member of the Lions’ state championship team last year, alongside her then freshman teammate Silvi Rossi as a forward partnership.
She joins teammate Abbey Spalla as a Division I commit.
Spalla, a senior, is headed to Penn State.
Beinecke spent the summer training with the Pittsburgh Riveters USL-W team with former South Fayette teammates Caitlyn Thompson and Mia Deramo.
She is a member of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Academy.
South Fayette has produced a handful of Division I soccer players in recent years. Three recent graduates are now playing on Division I teams.
Thompson is at Miami (Ohio) and Deramo and Quinn Miller are teammates at Youngstown State.
Beinecke joins them as college-level talent in what has been a golden age for girls sports at South Fayette.
The girls soccer team is the defending state champs and the girls basketball team has won the last two state titles.
Rosensteel watch list
The annual Rosensteel Most Outstanding Player of the Year Award watch list was released earlier this month and there’s plenty of local players on it.
Peters Township had the most players among local teams with four: seniors Marina Hajnosz and Fallan Malley and juniors Taylor McCullough and Kaylin Hoffman.
Belle Vernon and Canon-McMillan had three players each.
Senior Abby Russell, junior Saylor Lee and sophomore Ali Watson represented the Leopards.
Seniors Elena Moreschi and Rachel Tomley and junior Sarah Coffman are the three Big Macs on the list.
Bentworth and South Fayette had two players apiece.
Brielle Dillon and Megan Keturakis made it for the Bearcats. Both are seniors.
Beinecke, a junior, and senior Abbey Spalla represent the Lions.
This is the seventh year for the Rosensteel Most Outstanding Player of the Year award.
The award is named after Kaitlyn “Moe” Rosensteel, a former Ringgold soccer player who died after being struck by lightning in 2019 shortly after graduating high school.
One local player has won the award, former Peters Township goalie Molly Kubistek in 2024.
Fox Chapel’s Emily McKee won the award last season.
Rough start for South Allegheny
Wash High football’s opponent this Friday, South Allegheny, had a difficult start to its 2026 season and it had little to do with happenings on the field.
During the third quarter of the Gladiators’ Week 1 game against Elizabeth Forward, a gun shot was fired outside South Allegheny’s stadium sending players and coaches running for the locker room.
The game was called at that point. Elizabeth Forward was leading 35-20 prior to the incident.
A 17-year-old teen that is a student at Brashear High School was arrested in connection with the shooting.
This happened after the game was delayed an hour and a half from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., because of a referee shortage.
Referees that were officiating a game between Bishop Canevin and University Prep at Woodland Hills came to South Allegheny after their game finished to officiate the game between the Gladiators and Warriors.
New basketball coaches
Michael Dunn was hired as the new boys basketball coach at Charleroi. He was an assistant under his dad Joe Dunn, who stepped down after two seasons.
Michael, a Trinity grad, played collegiately at Shippensburg and Edinboro, where he graduated in 2025.
He’ll be one of the youngest head coaches, not only in basketball, but all WPIAL sports.
Gary Goga, who once led Peters Township to a WPIAL title, is the new head coach at Canon-McMillan. He was previously at Keystone Oaks.
Goga takes over for Glenn Gutierrez, who left after one season with the Big Macs.
Softball schedules
The WPIAL released the softball schedule for section games on Monday, which provides a road map for the exciting and challenging Class 2A Section 3 that’ll be upcoming in the spring.
Every team in the section: Chartiers-Houston, Carmichaels, Frazier, Bentworth, Brownsville, Jefferson-Morgan and Washington all made the playoffs last year.
Chartiers-Houston hosts Carmichaels on April 6 and travels to Bentworth April 8.
Washington hosts Carmichaels on April 12 and plays at Bentworth April 14. Jefferson-Morgan plays at Bentworth to start section play on March 31.
All of those dates are weather permitting of course.
The full grids for softball and boys tennis can be found on the WPIAL website. Other spring sports schedules will be released throughout the week.