Sports briefs
TWIST softball tryouts
TWIST softball 9-and-under coach-pitch tryouts will be held Saturday at the following times at TWIST Field No. 4: 6 & 7 year-olds at noon, 8 & 9 year-olds at 1 p.m. Age is as of Dec. 31, 2019. Girls can register at www.twistsoftball.com or at the tryouts. All girls who try out will be selected to teams. All games are played at Washington Park. For more information, call 724-747-0916.
Nailers hire coach
The Wheeling Nailers, the Pittsburgh penguins’ affiliate in the ECHL, announced Monday that Mark French has been named the team’s head coach and director of hockey operations.
French, 49, has been a head coach for 14 of the last 15 seasons, working in the AHL, CHL, and WHL in North America, as well as the NLA in Switzerland. French began his professional coaching career as an assistant coach in 2004-05 with the ECHL’s Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, who recorded 42 wins and 92 points. His first head coaching position was with the CHL’s Wichita Thunder. Wichita went 70-59-16 and reached the playoffs twice in three years.
In 2007, the Milton, Ontario native joined the AHL’s Hershey Bears as an assistant coach. There, he won two Calder Cups – first as an assistant coach in 2008-09, then in his first season as head coach in 2009-10, when the Bears set an AHL record for the most wins in a season, as they went 60-17-3. Hershey qualified for the playoffs in all four of French’s seasons as head coach. His .627 winning percentage ranks third in AHL history among coaches with at least 300 games. He was also the head coach twice at the AHL All-Star Classic.
“Mark has had tremendous success as a head coach throughout his career, putting winning teams on the ice and developing NHL talent,” said Nailers governor Don Rigby. “He will be instrumental in leading our team back to the playoffs, while working to get our players to the next level. We are extremely fortunate to have a coach of Mark’s caliber in our organization.”
French continued to his coaching success with Zagreb Medvescak of the KHL, where he led the team to the playoffs in their inaugural season. From there, he returned to North America with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen and guided them to three consecutive postseason appearances. Most recently, French was the head coach for HC Fribourg-Gottéron in Switzerland.
Spurs’ Aldridge out
Seven-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge will miss the remainder of San Antonio’s season while he recovers from surgery on his right shoulder, a major blow to the Spurs’ postseason chances, assuming the season continues as planned.
The Spurs announced Monday that Aldridge had the surgery April 24, stemming from an injury he suffered in a game at Utah Feb. 21.
San Antonio is one of the 22 teams will that report to the ESPN Wide Wide Of Sports complex at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida, starting next month, when the NBA plans to resume its season. The Spurs have been to the playoffs in 22 consecutive seasons, matching the longest streak in NBA history.
When play resumes, the Spurs will be among four teams – the others being Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento – that are all separated by a half-game in the race for ninth place in the Western Conference and potentially a berth in a play-in series.