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Notebook: Walker makes national cut
John Grupp can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7930 / Grupp's blog
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound switch-hitting catcher hit .438 with six RBI in four games for the first-place Pony All-Stars. The Pony All-Stars defeated AABC, 4-2, in the championship game on Saturday. The eight-team tournament featured the top 17-18 year-old players in the nation.
Walker, who will be a senior at Pine-Richland in the fall, survived the first roster trimdown from 144 players to 26 players. The field will be reduced this week to the top 20 players, who will comprise the U.S. Junior National team and represent the United States at the 2003 Pan Am Games next month in Curacao, Antilles.
Peters Township outfielder Jim Gallagher, who hit .250 in four games, failed to make the cut.
BAIR SIGNS
Sam Bair will have a familiar name to shoot for in college.
The record-breaking middle-distance runner from Shaler Area High School has committed to attend Kent State University, where his father, Sam Bair Jr., still dominates the record books.
Bair, who will receive a full scholarship, turned down offers to Arkansas and Pitt.
Bair Jr. ran at Kent State in the mid-1960s and still holds the school records in the 1,500, 1-mile and 2-mile, but his son made up his own mind when it came to picking a school.
"I didn't let my dad have anything to do with the decision and he didn't put any pressure on me to go anywhere," Bair said. "He liked (my decision) because it's closer to home and can watch me run."
The 2003 Shaler graduate is impressed with Kent coach Wendel McRaven, a renowned middle-distance coach.
"It seemed like a good situation," Bair said. "They have a real good coach. There are some good runners to train with. It's not too far from home, and they have nice facilities."
Bair is a three-time WPIAL champion and the fastest 1,600-meter runner in PIAA history. He was considered among the top 10 high school milers in the nation before suffering a broken navicular bone in his right foot in early April.
Bair, who will run the 800 and the 1,500, is rehabilitating the injury and expects to start running at full strength in 6-8 weeks. He will redshirt for his freshman cross country season and hopes to return in time for the winter indoor season, when Kent holds the Sam Bair Open, named for his father.
WRESTLERS PIN DOWN HONORS
North Allegheny's Jake Herbert, the 2003 Trib Wrestler of the Year, and Mark McKnight of Chartiers Valley were named to the 18th annual ASICS All-American Wrestling Team.
McKnight, a Buffalo recruit who attended South Fayette, and Herbert, a Northwestern recruit and the 171-pound PIAA champion, were the only Pennsylvania wrestlers on the 14-man first-team.
Waynesburg junior Coleman Scott, the 112-pound state champion, was named a third-team All-American. Connellsville's Jarrod King and Freedom's Kurt Brenner earned honorable mention honors.
The All-America team is selected by a nationwide panel of wrestling experts. The first-teamers will be honored prior to the finals of the ASICS/Vaughan Junior National Freestyle Championships on July 26 in Fargo, N.D.
BELLE VERNON HIRES DUDZINSKI
John Dudzinski has been named the new boys basketball coach at Belle Vernon.
Dudzinski, who has no varsity head coaching experience, was Belle Vernon's freshman boys basketball coach the past two seasons.
More High School headlines
- Greensburg YMCA track team defies the odds
- Springdale star vows to overcome VCD
- Kittanning's Clardy takes ninth at PIAAs
- Peabody's Carr wins pair of golds at PIAA track meet
- Kovach, Bower capture distance titles
- PIAA Track & Field results
- Nine state champs represent district
- WPIAL throwers enjoy big day in Shippensburg
