Apr 23, 2019 7 min read

C-M Academic Team competing in Harrisburg

The Canon-McMillan High School Academic team has been enjoying another very successful year. The team competes in the Southwestern Academic League along with 11 other local schools; this year, Canon-Mac won first place in the division and was invited to the Intermediate Unit 1 Academic Competition.

The 25th Annual IU#1 Competition was held at Waynesburg University on April 1. The contest is a double elimination tournament, challenging the top teams from four academic leagues in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties with questions in the areas of American and world history, literature, science and current events. This year, Canon-McMillan faced teams from Bentworth, Connellsville and Uniontown. The matches were highly competitive throughout the day; but in the end, Canon-Mac came home with the trophy.

As the winner, the Canon-McMillan team earns the opportunity to represent IU#1 in the Pennsylvania State Academic Competition. This event, hosted by State Representative John Lawrence and sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, will be take place on April 26 in the chambers of the state House of Representatives in Harrisburg.

This year’s IU team consisted of seniors Hannah Bockius, Brant Purcell, Samuel Teyssier and Grant Zeszutek; and juniors Atharv Bhave and Himanshu Biradar. The regular season team also included seniors Nick Blanock, Hannah Chop, Rachel Kohler, Priya Ray and Max Szalla.

Nijenhuis wins PIAA Championship

Gerrit Nijenhuis won the 170-pound PIAA championship in mid-March and for his outstanding efforts and performance in the state tournament was named the Outstanding Wrestler.

The Canon-McMillan junior, also a WPIAL champion, won the PIAA crown with a commanding, 8-3, decision over two-time defending state champion Edmond Ruth of Susquehanna Township in the finals.

Nijenhuis, who committed to wrestling at Purdue University after graduating high school, was greeted with a hero’s welcome upon his return to Canon-McMillan High School as he was given a police escort and was welcomed by a crowd of supporters and Big Macs’ wrestling enthusiast.

Senior Kenny Hayman placed fourth at 126 pounds in the PIAA Championships while junior Tanner Rohaley, 145 pounds, and 113-pound sophomore Costa Moore also were PIAA qualifiers.

Rubican recognized by state as Counselor of the Year

Karen Rubican was recognized as the Secondary School Counselor of the Year by the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association at its annual conference in November in Hershey.

Rubican is a counselor at Canon-McMillan High School. In addition to working with a student caseload of more than 430 students, she currently serves as the college and career counselor and coordinates SSD accommodations, fee waivers for SAT/ACT, and scholarships for the high school. Previously, she served as AP Coordinator when the high school was recognized as being on the AP District Honor Roll.

She was the recipient of the multi-level College and Career Counseling program award, also from the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association, prior to her employment at Canon-McMillan.

In 2018, she was a finalist for the National Superintendent’s Association Women in School Leaders Award.

In addition to her work at Canon-McMillan High School, Rubican is a past president of the Washington Fayette Greene County Counselors Association, served as a Unit Rep for IU 1 for PSCA, and holds memberships in the American School Counselor Association, the Pennsylvania Association of College Admissions Counselors and the National Association of College Admissions Counselors. She gave presentations at PSCA and at PACAC in 2018.

Rubican was also recently awarded an Imagine Grant, which provides financial support to attend the NCAC conference in fall 2019.

Rubican has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California University of PA, a master of science in education in community counseling services, as well as a second master of science in education in K-12 educational administration, both from Duquesne University.

She is a National Board Certified Counselor, and holds professional certification from the Pennsylvania Department of Education in Counseling and Educational Administration, as well as a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies from Duquesne University.

C-M boys’ basketball team reaches WPIAL Class semifinals for first time

Canon-McMillan High School has enjoyed more victories in a season, celebrated a section championship (1973) and had other success in boys basketball through the years.

But no Big Macs’ team ever did what the 2018-2019 did.

Canon-McMillan reached the WPIAL Class semifinals for the first time in program history this season.

The Big Macs did so with a convincing victory over highly-seeded Latrobe, 83-62, in the WPIAL Class 6-A quarterfinals. Canon-McMillan was denied its chance of playing for a WPIAL championship, losing to eventual WPIAL champion Mt. Lebanon in the semifinals. It was a smashing win and helped crystallized a turnaround in Canon-McMillan boys basketball fortunes in the time Coach Rick Bell has been at the school.

“It’s a place that doesn’t have a lot of basketball tradition or history,” Bell said. “I remember when I was hired, one of the board members said to me (that) I was taking over one of the worst programs in the state. I don’t know how you measure that. I’m not saying we were the worst, but it was in pretty bad shape.”

Not anymore.

In 2017-18, the Big Macs went 20-3 before losing in the WPIAL quarterfinals. They also lost in the 2016-17 quarterfinals.

A pattern of success is being established and this season, a big step was taken. “Taking that next step is a big deal,” Bell said. “We’re proud of it. The kids persevered and never quit. It’s a great group of kids and was an awesome experience. We didn’t want the journey to end.”

Unfortunately, the season came to an end for Canon-McMillan in the opening round of the PIAA tournament, a heart-breaking 61-58 overtime loss to City League champion Allderdice.

Key members of the team were seniors Drew Engel, Ethan Beachy, Elliot Waller, Luke Palma and Tyler Crawford, and junior Tommy Samosky.

Bell, who has been head coach at Canon-McMillan for 18 years, after 13 seasons at Peters Township, stressed how special his group this season is to him and to the program in general.

“They are unselfish young men, who give back to the community and to the school,” said Bell, who recently announced his retirement. “We have had success on the basketball court but these guys are also successes in other ways. Drew received an (Extra Effort Award from KDKA-TV) and the rest of the guys were as happy as they would have been to win it themselves. It says a lot about them and I think their parents deserve credit for raising them to be like that. It was an incredible group to coach. We had fun and they worked hard to be as good as the could be. Their personalities allowed me to really coach them. It was fun, a special season.”

C-M Wrestling accolades

The Canon-McMillan High School wrestling team captured its 18th consecutive section championship and the program’s 41st overall. The Big Macs placed third in the WPIAL Team Tournament and finished in the top six of the PIAA Team Championships.