The Leechburg, Fox Chapel and Burrell boys' basketball teams advanced into the second round of WPIAL playoffs, as did the Fox Chapel and Apollo-Ridge girls teams. Several programs made sharp turnarounds from last year, including both Fox Chapel teams that went two or three rounds deep into post-season play.

For other basketball teams like the Springdale Lady Dynamos, they were just happy to make it to the playoffs. Under first-year coach Dan Ross, the girls improved their record from 7-17 last year to 9-15 this year. First glance at the record doesn't reveal much of an improvement, but their 5-7 section play became significant when they won the key games to get them into the first round of playoffs.

"One of things that helped us," said Ross, "was when we beat Northgate [January 30th] at home. The kids played a real nice game. It was one of those games where they were able to put together a really good four-quarter game." The score was close all through the game.

"We finally jumped ahead by a couple of points in the fourth quarter. [Senior] Amanda King made some really nice free throws that helped seal our victory," Ross said. "The girls in the latter part of season really started to play a lot better as a team." The improvement was visible and crowd-pleasing, according to Ross, a 33-year veteran coach of several programs.

"After one game a fan even told me how really excited they were about how the girls were playing. They had not felt that way for a long time, and saw a lot of determination and fire on the team."

The squad graduates three seniors: Ashley Baranowski, King, and Kacey Watterson. Returning are five juniors (Jess Molnar, Christen Morelli, Gina Palermo, Nancy Stiger, and Courtney Yaksich), three sophomores (Kim Knapek, Chris Rak, and Melissa Zalepa) who all make up the Varsity squad. Five freshmen will return to play as well.

"The seniors really did a nice job. These kids really had to accelerate their learning curve--they are one of the reasons we were able to get as far along as we did this year. I like the effect of older kids mentoring the younger kids--they've been great about that. I'm going to get together with the juniors [this spring] to get them to accept the reins [of leadership] for next year, to take the program to the next level," Ross noted.

"All the kids really tried to work hard to improve. The attitude overall was just great. Because of that, we have a renewed interest in basketball at Springdale and can build for years to come."