High school notebook: Elphinstone hired as Peters Twp. AD
Peters Township has hired Mark Elphinstone as its new athletic director.
The hiring was made official on Monday at the district’s school board meeting.
Elphinstone takes over for Brian Geyer, who has accepted a role with the WPIAL as the assistant executive director.
Elphinstone spent 23 years as Keystone Oaks’ athletic director and is a member of the WPIAL Board of Directors.
McGuffey recently hired a new athletic director as well in Chad McGowan.
Urmann resigns
One of Elphinstone’s first tasks as athletic director is to hire a boys basketball coach.
Joe Urmann resigned at the end of the season ending a six-season run as the Indians’ coach.
The Indians were upset by Hampton in the first round of the playoffs.
Peters Township made it to the WPIAL Class 5A championship twice in Urmann’s tenure. He had a 90-51 record in his six years and achieved a winning record each of the last four seasons.
In 2025 they made a run to the finals as a six seed, but were defeated by Chartiers Valley. Penn Hills beat them in 2023.
The Indians made the state quarterfinals in 2023.
Donovan to RMU
Dylan Donovan, Peters Township’s all-time leading scorer in boys basketball, is headed to Robert Morris.
Donovan announced via social media on Thursday that he accepted a preferred walk-on offer from coach Andy Toole and the Colonials.
Ringgold wins D2 hockey
Anthony Bonari scored an unassisted goal 14:07 into the first overtime period to propel the Ringgold hockey team to a 3-2 win over Burrell in the PIHL Division 2 championship Monday night.
It was the Rams’ third Division 2 title and first since 2019. PIHL’s Division II is a co-op division where players from several schools can be represented under one team.
Carl Singer and Bruce Satina also scored a goal for the Rams. Bonari and Vaughn Shannon had an assist apiece and goalie Mason Ribnicky made 24 saves.
Spring sports underway
It may not seem like it, because of a blanket of snow covering the area earlier this week, but spring sports did indeed start last Friday.
Three local teams made WPIAL finals last season, Carmichaels baseball, Carmichaels softball and Chartiers-Houston softball, but all of them lost.
Chartiers-Houston made a run to the state semifinals where it lost to Neshannock, the same team that beat the Bucs in the WPIAL championship.
The Bucs will have to replace their battery. Ella Richey, the state’s all-time home run leader, is now at King University in Tennessee and standout pitcher Meadow Ferri is at Kent State.
Carmichaels softball returns most of its team, including standout pitcher Bailey Barnyak. The Mikes will try to win their first WPIAL title since 1998 when Barnyak’s mom, Nikki Gasti, was the team’s pitcher.
Keep an eye on Bentworth softball as well. LSU commit Sydney Gonglik is healthy and back in the circle after being unable to pitch because of a shoulder injury for most of last season.
Even with her limited to only hitting for the majority of last year, the Bearcats still made the state playoffs.
In boys lacrosse, South Fayette made the WPIAL Class 2A championship game for a second year in a row, but again fell to Mars, 16-5.
The Lions will once again try to knock off Mars, which has won nine titles in a row. Drew Welhorsky, a Robert Morris recruit, leads the Lions.
Girls flag football begins
With flag football coming to the Summer Olympics in 2028, the sport has seen a rapid growth and that includes the WPIAL.
This spring the WPIAL is sponsoring girls flag football for the first time. Six local schools are sponsoring teams: California, Belle Vernon, Monessen, Peters Township, Ringgold and South Fayette.
Games were scheduled to get underway this week, but the inclement weather forced postponements on Monday and Tuesday.
All six local teams are in the same section. The WPIAL decided to group teams geographically for the inaugural season.