Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review
Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review
Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review
Gateway head coach Don Holl during workouts Tuesday, July 21, 2020, at Gateway High School.
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For the first time in the nearly two decades of the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association’s East-West Classic, there will be two games celebrating many of the state’s top players.
One game will involve the smaller schools Classes A-3A with the other featuring talent from Classes 4A-6A.
Gateway coach Don Holl will front the coaching staff for the West squad in the big-school game, marking the third time in his high school coaching career he’s walked the sideline for an all-star contest.
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Finally, the day of promise arrived for Anthony Giansante.
Signing Day allowed Giansante, the burly senior lineman from Norwin, to finally make his dream of playing Division I football a reality. After his first run through the recruiting process fell through for reasons out of his control, the second was a take.
The 6-foot-4, 300-pound offensive lineman signed Feb. 3 to play at Western Carolina, a Division I FCS program from the Southern Conference.
“I’m just feeling grateful,” Giansante said. “Grateful to have the opportunity to play football where I am wanted, where I can learn a lot and where I feel like I will fit in.”
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Anthony Giansante could have tapped out.
When Western Kentucky pulled his football scholarship offer several months back, and a few other offers went by the wayside, the senior from Norwin had to regroup and essentially start over.
He continued to cast lines to college coaches, posting videos of his workouts, from weightlifting to footwork drills.
He got a few nibbles but only one school was able to reel in the brawny lineman.
Giansante announced verbal commitment No. 2 earlier this month, to Western Carolina of the Division I FCS Southern Conference.
This one, he hopes, will stick.
The 6-foot-4, 300-pound offensive guard and defensive tackle could not visit the Western Carolina campus, but went through a virtual tour.
Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review
Norwin’s John Altieri beats Latrobe’s Jack Pletcher, 8-1, in the 152-pound weight class Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021 at Norwin High School.
John Altieri is headed for a college wrestling career at Clarion. But the Norwin senior has some unfinished business in his final prep season.
Milestones often are part of the build-up to WPIAL and PIAA success. Altieri reached one earlier this season when he captured his 100th career victory.
The milestone win came at the Mid-Winter Mayhem event when he defeated Thomas Jefferson’s Kale Buckiso, 9-1, to win the 145-pound weight class.
He also pinned Jack Moyer of Chestnut Ridge in the semifinals of his pool bracket and defeated Dustin Flinn of Forest Hills, 15-5, the bracket final.