Oct 16, 2013 4 min read

If nothing else, Drew Schifino has enough basketball experience to not only coach but to speak a few words in German, Portugese, Polish and Dutch.

Schifino spent six years making the rounds on the European basketball circuit, playing in those countries, as well as Holland, Austria and the Czech Republic.

His next stop in his career will be Waynesburg High School, where the Penn Hills graduate and former California University and West Virginia player is the new head varsity coach of the Raiders.

Schifino was hired at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Central Greene School Board. Schifino replaces Dave Sarra, who was hired as assistant coach. Eric Moye was named volunteer assistant coach.

“I wanted to coach after my pro career,” said Schifino. “I saw the opening in the paper and their athletic director (Russ Moore) was familiar with me. With my experience, I felt good about getting that job.”

Schifino briefly attended Middle Tennessee State before enrolling at California. He played in 11 games for the Vulcans in 2004-05 before being declared ineligible by the NCAA because he had attended a team workout at Middle Tennessee.

He also played for the Pittsburgh Xplosion of the CBA.

“He’s a great basketball player,” Moore said. “He played college ball at WVU, and played overseas. Any time you can get someone like him, that’s a good thing. He has a lot of basketball knowledge, and you can see the fire in his eyes.”

The 32-year-old Schifino believes his experience in Europe was most beneficial because of the brand of basketball played there.

“It’s a different style of basketball, one that depends more on fundamentals,” he said. “I saw a whole lot of basketball over there.”

Schifino describes himself as a “basketball junkie” and believes that will help him at Waynesburg.

“My vision for the program is to build it into a winner,” he said. “I want them to be competitive and win a WPIAL title.”

Last season, Waynesburg had a 5-17 record, including 0-12 in Section 5-AAA.

Canon-McMillan wrestler Dalton Macri knew he would find the right college when a certain feeling came over him while on campus.

When he finally felt it, Macri was on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

“I like the family atmosphere,” he said, “and the academics are great.”

Macris is ranked 88th in the country by Intermat and is the third local wrestler to commit before the season begins in December. Macri’s teammate Brendan Price and Charleroi’s Nick Gavazzi each decided on Pitt. Price and Gavazzi will join former C-M state champion Cody Wiercioch on the Panthers’ team.

Macri, a senior who is projected as a 125-pounder in college, also considered Pitt, Penn State and Iowa before settling on Cornell. He will attend Ithaca Community College the first year – the school’s version of a redshirt – and join Cornell in his second year.

“I got a letter from them in my junior year with a questionnaire,” he said. “I filled it out and didn’t hear much until their coach called. It’s a big thing to get this decision off my back. I don’t have to worry about it when I go into the season.”

Macri was a state runner-up at 120 pounds on last season’s Big Macs team that won both state team titles. Macri also played a major role in the three other state team titles for C-M.

Macri, who was fourth in the state at 113 as a sophomore, and has a two-year record of 86-12.

Pairings for the WPIAL boys and girls soccer playoffs that begin Saturday were released Wednesday.

The Peters Township girls (13-4-1), the defending state champion, is the highest-seeded local team, getting the No. 2 seed in Class AAA. The Indians host Latrobe (11-6-1) in a first-round game Saturday at 4 p.m.

Complete playoff pairings can be found on Page C2.

Defending champion Peters Township was knocked out of the WPIAL Class AAA girls tennis tournament in the semifinals Wednesday. The Indians lost 3-2 to Shady Side Academy at the Monroeville Racquet Club. The Indians finished the season with a 19-2 record.