News

by: Don Rebel

North Allegheny (6A) has won 21 straight Sports Cups while Neshannock in 2A has a run of three Trib Cups in a row.

Hampton (4A), Quaker Valley (3A) and Greensburg Central Catholic (A) all won cups this year after a one-year hiatus.

However, the long wait for Cup No. 2 is over for Peters Township, as the school captured its second Cup and first title in 20 years by claiming the honor in Class 5A.

“This is an incredible honor for our athletic department, school district, and community,” Peters Township athletic director Brian Geyer said. “This award is a testament to the hard work that our coaches and student-athletes collectively put into their athletic pursuits during the past school year.”

The Trib Cup is a yearlong competition in 25 team sports to determine the top WPIAL sports program in each classification. It awards points for section or conference championships, district and state playoff berths and district and state championships and runners-up.

Schools earn points for playoff berths, section championships, PIAA playoff berths and for winning WPIAL or PIAA championships or for a district or state runner-up.

Peters Township captured the first ever Sports Cup in Class 3A after the 2003-04 school year. It had come close several times since then, but kept coming up short.

The Indians raced out to a big lead thanks to a huge fall sports season that included a sweep of district and state gold by the boys and girls golf teams, as well as the Indians’ first WPIAL football championship.

“We had a very good fall season with both of the golf teams starting off our success,” Geyer said. “We were fortunate to have both a great WPIAL and PIAA team tournaments. It was great to see both of our golf teams get their first state championships.

“Moving on a few weeks later, we witnessed another first at PT, as our football team captured their first WPIAL championship and finished runner-up in the PIAA tournament. The WPIAL football championship game was an incredible show of community support, as our coaches and players worked incredibly hard to capture their first championship.”

Besides the success of those three teams, Peters Township scored points in 13 other sports to finish with 555 points, the second most overall behind 6A winner North Allegheny, and 115 points better than 5A runner-up Fox Chapel.

“We set high expectations for our athletic teams, and it is always positive to see the success that they can accomplish,” Geyer said. “I believe that our successful athletic programs push our other programs to be better. When one team sees the success of another team at the school, it pushes all of our teams to perform at a top level, and this ultimately provides friendly competition within our school community.”

For the second straight year, Pine-Richland finished in third place, while Moon and last year’s 5A winner, South Fayette, finished tied for fourth place.

Class 5A is the only classification in which five different schools have captured the Trib Cup this decade.

Thomas Jefferson won in 2020, Mars in 2021, Hampton in 2022 and South Fayette a year ago.