Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Kristi Kaack and her Lady Marauders were all smiles as they enjoyed the final moments of their state title in Hershey.

There is no doubt that life can be extremely unpredictable and never holds any guarantees. The Penn State football program provided a glaring example of that over the last 12 months.

Penn State went from reaching the semifinal round of the College Football Playoffs at the beginning of the 2025 calendar year, to starting the 2025 season ranked second in the country and being considered a national title favorite, to dismissing its long-time head coach James Franklin in October after suffering a three-game losing streak, to promoting defensive coach and associate head coach Terry Smith to interim head coach for the rest of what would turn out to be a 7-6 season, to hiring former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell as its new head coach on December 5 after a two-month, nationwide search.

Campbell’s Penn State contract runs for eight years, through 2033, at an annual average salary of 8.8 million with incentives.

Smith – who will remain on Campbell’s new Penn State staff as associate head coach in 2026 — served as the Nittany Lions’ head coach in the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 27 at New York’s Yankee Stadium, where Penn State defeated Clemson, 22-10.

The Nittany Lions’ full-circle 2025 odyssey was far and away the Mirror’s biggest sports story of the past year.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Saint Francis' Daemar Kelly looks by Le Moyne's Robby Carmody during a game from last season.

After leading Penn State to its first-ever berth in the College Football Playoffs in the 2024 season and reaching the CFP semifinals and coming within one victory of a spot in the national championship game last January, Franklin endured a jaw-dropping reversal of fortune with a 2025 team that returned most of its key starters, including quarterback Drew Allar and running backs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton.

Things went sideways very fast for the Lions and Franklin this fall during a treacherous three-week midseason skid that prompted his dismissal on Sunday, Oct. 12 after 12 seasons as the Lions’ coach.

Following a 3-0 start against a weak non-conference schedule, Penn State dropped a nationally-televised prime-time showdown in double overtime to Oregon at Beaver Stadium in a matchup of top five teams in late September. The Nittany Lions then proceeded to lose their next two games to unranked opponents, suffering setbacks on the road to previously winless UCLA and at home to Northwestern in games in which Penn State was favored by at least 21 points.

Coupled with Franklin’s 4-21 Penn State coaching record against Top 10-ranked teams, the egregious midseason free-fall that dropped the Lions out of the NCAA’s Top 25 rankings left a large segment of the Penn State fan base enraged and clamoring for Franklin to be dismissed.

The hostility reached a crescendo after the Oct. 11 Northwestern loss, when Franklin was verbally harassed by fans as he left the field at Beaver Stadium. Former five-star recruit Allar was lost for the season with an ankle injury late in the game, leaving Penn State’s quarterback duties to be handled by redshirt freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer for the remainder of the season.

The following day, Penn State announced that Franklin – who had a 104-45 record with the Nittany Lions – was being terminated in the midst of his lucrative eight-year coaching contract in which Penn State had initially owed him 49 million dollars at the time of his dismissal.

Smith was named the team’s interim coach for the remainder of the 2025 season, and the Nittany Lions’ search for a new head coach for the 2026 season became one of the most talked-about stories on the national sports map, with the names of big-name coaches and former coaches from all over the country – in the college ranks as well as the National Football League – being bandied about as Franklin’s possible successor.

Penn State ultimately hired Campbell, who had played a large role in turning around Iowa State’s once-dormant program.

Meanwhile, Franklin was hired to become the new head football coach at Virginia Tech on November 17, taking over a program that was previously led by Brent Pry – an Altoona native and former Penn State defensive coordinator under Franklin who was dismissed as the Hokies’ head coach early in the 2025 season. Franklin again hired Pry as Virginia Tech’s defensive coordinator in December.

Franklin and Penn State negotiated his final buyout with the school to $9 million, much more manageable for the university’s budget, at a time in which a new coaching staff would need to be hired and expensive projects like the Beaver Stadium renovation were continuing.

Although the Penn State football saga was the Mirror’s biggest sports news in 2025, as usual, there were many other significant sports stories locally, regionally and nationally.

In the space of just two weeks last March, the Saint Francis University men’s basketball program — including its coaches, players, and fan base — went from experiencing the peak of exhilaration to the depths of disappointment.

The Red Flash earned just their second NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament berth in their long and tradition-rich history by capturing the championship of the NEC Tournament in stunning fashion and securing a spot in an NCAA First Four playoff game a week later against Alabama State at the University of Dayton.

The Red Flash lost a heartbreaker in that game, ending their NCAA Division I Tournament hopes for the 2024-25 season, and the following week, the Saint Francis University Board of Trustees made a bombshell announcement that the school would be transitioning from Division I status to Division III status in all sports, effective at the start of the 2026-27 academic year.

The trustees cited factors like the increasing complexity of Division I governance – with the emergence of NIL funds and the availability of the transfer portal for collegiate athletes — as major contributing factors in its decision.

Following the announcement, veteran Saint Francis men’s basketball coach Rob Krimmel submitted his resignation, and associate head coach Luke McConnell was promoted to the head coaching position.

The 2025 calendar year was another special one for Bishop Guilfoyle Academy sports programs, as the Lady Marauders girls basketball program captured another state championship, the girls soccer program made its first appearance in a state championship game, and the football program made its seventh appearance in a state championship game since 2014.

The BG girls basketball program won its second straight PIAA Class 1A state championship, while both the school’s football and girls’ soccer programs finished as state runners-up.

After much suspense and conjecture all throughout the offseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers and veteran star quarterback and future National Football League Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers announced agreement on a contract for the 2025 season.

The signing of Rodgers, a four-time NFL Most Valuable Player, gave the Steelers veteran experience and savvy at the most pivotal position on the football field after two other quarterbacks, Russell Wilson (New York Giants) and Justin Fields (New York Jets) left the Steelers to sign contracts with other teams last offseason. Rodgers – who turned 42 years of age this past December 2 — spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons in New York as a member of the Jets, throwing 28 touchdown passes in the 2024 season.

With Rodgers leading their offense, the Steelers are contending for the American Football Conference’s North Division championship this season. They will host the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon in a winner-take-all matchup between two 9-7 teams that will decide the division title and a berth in the upcoming playoffs.

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a managerial change in the 2025 season, when Derek Shelton, who was in his sixth season as the team’s manager, was fired on May 8, and replaced by bench coach Don Kelly, a Pittsburgh native.

The Pirates played better during the remainder of the season under Kelly, but still finished with a 71-91 record and in last place in the National League’s Central Division for the second straight season, while missing the postseason for the tenth consecutive year.

The Pirates announced at the end of last season that Kelly’s contract as the team’s manager was being extended, thus giving the team a sense of much-needed stability heading into the 2026 season.

Pirates’ right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes became just the third pitcher in franchise history to win the National League’s Cy Young Award in 2025, joining Doug Drabek (1990) and Vernon Law (1960). Named to the National League All-Star Team – and serving as the team’s starting pitcher — in both of his first two major league seasons with the Pirates, Skenes posted an MLB-leading 1.97 earned run average in 2025, following on the heels of his outstanding season in 2024, when he was named the NL Rookie of the Year.

The Pirates have been busy this offseason acquiring batting help to bolster what had been their very weak offense, and the Buccos’ outlook has improved for 2026.

The Pittsburgh Penguins also made a change in leadership last April, when the Pens and Mike Sullivan, who had been the team’s head coach for 10 seasons, mutually parted ways. Sullivan, who had directed the Penguins to two Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017, was named the head coach of the New York Rangers on May 2.

On June 4, the Penguins hired their new head coach in Dan Muse – who had been an assistant coach with the Rangers for the past two seasons.

The 2025 calendar year also brought much sad news with the passings of many of the area’s former athletes and coaches, including three Blair County Sports Hall of Fame inductees, Buddy Geis, Steve Taneyhill and Dick Johnston.

Ted Beam — who was invested in many sports and political ventures in the area during his long and successful career, and was the husband of 2026 Blair County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Cathy Cronin-Beam — also died during the past year, as did former long-time Penguins play-by-play announcer and National Hockey League Hall of Famer Mike Lange.

The Altoona Curve reached the Eastern League playoffs for the first time since 2018, but were eliminated in a best-of-three games first-round series by the Erie SeaWolves, losing two games to one.

The Penn State wrestling program continued its dominance under head coach Cael Sanderson, winning its 13th NCAA team title in program history, and the Penn State men’s ice hockey team reached previously uncharted waters, qualifying for the NCAA Frozen Four – hockey’s version of the NCAA Basketball Tournament’s Final Four – for the first time in program history.

A further look at the big stories:

Changing of the guard at PSU

Things came toppling down in a monumental way for the Nittany Lions and Franklin this past season, as what promised to be a memorable and potentially historic year became all that, but for all the wrong reasons.

Penn State came into this season with sky-high hopes after reaching the College Football Playoffs semifinals last Jan. 9, when the Lions lost a 27-24 heartbreaker to eventual NCAA runner-up Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Franklin’s firing opened the door for the 46-year-old Campbell, who was named the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year three times during his 10-year tenure as Iowa State’s head coach, in which he compiled a 72-55 record, including an 8-4 mark with the 2025 team, and led the Cyclones to two appearances in conference championship games.

BYU football coach Kalani Sitake reportedly had a handshake agreement with Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft to take the PSU job less than a week before Campbell’s hiring, but did an about-face and decided to stay at BYU after being offered a significant pay raise.

Louisville’s Jeff Brohm was another highly sought-after candidate by Penn State, as were Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko and Nebraska’s Matt Rhule – a Penn State alum. But all three stayed put at their respective schools after receiving significant pay hikes, as a direct result of the Penn State opening.

Changes at Saint Francis

The Saint Francis men’s basketball program has enjoyed a tradition-rich history that has featured future National Basketball Association players Kevin Porter, Mike Iuzzolino and the late Norm Van Lier, along with the legendary late great Maurice Stokes.

With Iuzzolino and Joe Anderson leading the charge, Saint Francis qualified for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 1991, losing to Arizona there in a competitive first-round game.

It took the Red Flash 34 years to make a return to March Madness, and after they finally did last March, the madness that ensued surrounding the school and its athletic programs wound up surpassing that.

Saint Francis wound up winning the NEC Tournament championship last March despite entering the tourney as the eighth seed.

The Red Flash won three games in the conference tournament, including a 46-43 upset on the road of top-seeded Connecticut State University on Tuesday, March 11 that earned Saint Francis a berth in the NCAA Tournament’s 68-team field and a First Four game against Alabama State at the University of Dayton on Tuesday, March 18.

Saint Francis lost a 70-68 heartbreaker in that nationally-televised game on truTV, as Alabama State’s Amarr Knox hit a buzzer-beating putback to decide the outcome.

But just a week after its NCAA Tournament loss, on March 25, the Saint Francis administration announced its stunning decision to drop from Division I to Division III in all sports beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.

At that time, Saint Francis will begin competing in the President’s Athletic Conference.

The announcement brought forth a whirlwind of changes for the basketball program, led by the 47-year-old Krimmel submitting his resignation as head coach on Thursday March 27, after leading the program to 171 wins in his 13 years at the helm.

The school’s decision to drop from Division I to Division III in all sports beginning in 2026 created a domino effect among its athletes, who entered the transfer portal in droves as the year went on.

Former Saint Francis women’s basketball coach Keila Whittington also resigned in March after six seasons, following a 2024-25 season in which the team earned the fourth seed and a home game in the NEC Tournament.

Whittington’s former assistant coach, Chynna Bozeman, was promoted to head women’s basketball coach at Saint Francis.

Saint Francis also announced in April that Chris Villarrial signed a contract extension to continue to serve as the university’s head football coach.

BG girls defend hoops title

Bishop Guilfoyle Academy capped off a spectacular 30-2 girls basketball season with a 53-34 win over Linvillle Hill Christian in the PIAA Class 1A girls state championship game on Friday, March 28 at the Hershey Giant Center.

Led by sophomore Anberlyn Petrecca’s game-high 14 points and seven rebounds, and sophomore Morgan Ruggery’s 13 points, Bishop Guilfoyle secured its ninth PIAA girls basketball championship overall and second straight with a strong effort in a second half that the Lady Marauders controlled, 30-18.

BG led by just seven points, 23-16, at intermission, but gained separation with an 8-2 run at the outset of the third quarter to take a 31-18 advantage and never looked back from that point forward.

BG won both Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference and District 6 Class 1A championships last season, before sweeping four state playoff games – including a 49-42 semifinal win over Bishop Carroll – to reach the PIAA championship game.

BG coach Kristi Kaack was named the Pennsylvania Sports Writers Class 1A Girls Basketball Coach of the Year for the 2024-25 season. In her seven seasons as the BG girls coach, Kaack has now coached the Lady Marauders to three PIAA Class 1A state titles and has earned four Coach of the Year distinctions – three in Class 1A and another in Class 2A.

Kaack will be inducted into the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame in 2026, due to her outstanding contributions and accomplishments as a former player with the Duquesne University women’s basketball program.

The nine BG girls state championships ties Archbishop Wood of suburban Philadelphia for the most girls high school basketball titles in the state. Archbishop Wood lost its PIAA Class 5A state championship game last March to South Fayette of the WPIAL.

BG girls make soccer history

The Lady Marauders soccer team enjoyed a benchmark 22-2 season in 2025, serving as a trailblazer for all other Blair County programs, by becoming the county’s first soccer squad — as well as the first District 6 squad — ever to qualify for a state championship game.

After capturing their third consecutive District 6 Class 1A championship, BG rode the outstanding goalkeeping of junior CeCe Rumfola to a 1-0 shutout victory on the road against District 10 champion Seneca High School in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.

BG followed that win by blanking District 5 champion McConnellsburg, 6-0 in a quarterfinal-round game at Windber, before avenging last year’s state playoff loss to Springdale of the WPIAL in the semifinals. Sophomore Meggie Ritchey came up with the winning goal in the second overtime session as BG edged Springdale, 2-1 at the Westmont Hilltop High School Field.

That win earned the Lady Marauders, coached by Joe DeLeo, a berth in the state championship game against District 1 champion Faith Christian on Saturday, Nov. 15 at Northeastern High School in Manchester.

Faith Christian – which ousted defending state champion Dock Mennonite from the state playoffs en route to reaching the title game – got two goals from Sophia Dennis and made them stand up for a 2-0 victory over Bishop Guilfoyle.

BG will graduate seniors Payton Ronan, Hailey DeGol and Delaney Lechner — who scored the winning goal in the Seneca game. But the Lady Marauders will return a talented nucleus in the 2026 season, led by their outstanding keeper Rumfola and this year’s leading scorer, Emma Marasco, as BG attempts another run at a state championship.

BG reaches football title game

The Bishop Guilfoyle football program has made its participation in the Class 1A state championship game a very regular occurrence over the past 12 seasons, and marked its seventh trip to the title game under veteran coach Justin Wheeler on Thursday, December 4.

This year’s Marauders finished a 13-3 season in which they overcame plenty of adversity to punch another ticket to the state championship game, but lost there, 35-3 to a powerful Clairton team that reeled off 15 consecutive victories after a regular season-opening loss.

After suffering the loss of star senior running back/linebacker Taurean Consiglio to a triceps injury in the second week of the season, BG, led by NCAA Division I bound and all-state senior star Jake Kissell, won its ninth District 6 championship since 2012 and defeated both Westinghouse and Belmont Charter in the state playoffs before running into a buzz saw in Clairton, which racked up 356 yards in total offense in the state championship game and held the Marauders to just 79 yards.

Senior running back/linebacker Deon Lovelace Pompey scored three touchdowns for Clairton, returning an intercepted pass 25 yards for one score and rushing 29 and seven yards for two others.

BG, which dropped to 5-2 in state title games, won state championships in 2014 through 2016 – beating Clairton twice in those three years. The Marauders also won state titles in 2021 and 2024.

The Bishop Guilfoyle boys golf team also punched its first-ever ticket into the PIAA Class 2A state tournament in October, further adding to the school’s tremendous success in athletics over the 2025 calendar year.

PSU wrestlers are champs again

Penn State extended its dynasty in NCAA wrestling, decisively winning its fourth consecutive team championship, its 12th in the last 14 contested tournaments, and its 13th in program history, at the 2025 NCAA Tournament held March 20-22 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Led by 10 All-American performances, including two championship efforts, the Nittany Lions racked up 177 team points to break the NCAA record of 172.5 points that they had put up at the 2024 tournament.

Carter Starocci (184 pounds) and Mitchell Mesenbrink (165) won individual championships for the Nittany Lions, who also got a second-place finish from Josh Barr at 197.

Starocci’s title was his unprecedented fifth NCAA championship, and earned him the 2025 tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler Award. In a battle of unbeatens, Starocci decisioned defending champion Parker Keickesen of Northern Iowa, 4-3 in the 184-pound title match, scoring a decisive takedown to take a 4-1 lead with 46 seconds left.

Mesenbrink decisioned Iowa’s Mikey Caliendo, 8-2 in the 165-pound championship match, while Barr – nursing a sore hamstring – dropped a 5-2 decision to Iowa’s Steven Buchanan in the 197-pound championship match.

Penn State reaches Frozen Four

The 2024-25 season was a landmark campaign for the Penn State University men’s ice hockey program. Under the direction of head coach Guy Gadowski, the Nittany Lions received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and advanced all the way to the Frozen Four finals at the St. Louis Enterprise Center, where they were one victory away from a berth in the championship game before dropping a 3-1 decision to Boston University.

Penn State finished its historic season with a 22-14-4 record, and, after losing to Ohio State in the Big Ten Conference championship game, the Nittany Lions earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament, defeating both the University of Maine and the University of Connecticut in games played at the Allentown PLL Center, to qualify for the Frozen Four along with eventual NCAA champion Western Michigan, Cornell, and Boston University.

Area mourns deaths

Taneyhill, one of the finest athletes in Altoona Area High School’s long sports history, succumbed to cancer on Sunday, Dec. 14 at his South Carolina home. He was 52.

After earning all-state recognition in both football and basketball at Altoona before graduating in 1992, Taneyhill – who is still the Mountain Lions’ all-time leading boys basketball scorer with 1,624 points – went on to college football stardom at quarterback at South Carolina, where he became a four-year starter and set school records for career passing touchdowns (62) and completions (753), and is second in career passing yards (8,782) in school history.

He made 40 career starts at South Carolina, before signing a free-agent contract with the National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Taneyhill did not play a regular-season game in the NFL, but returned to South Carolina and became an accomplished high school football coach, directing two programs to a combined total of five state titles.

Inducted into the South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame in 2010, Taneyhill finished his college career as one of the prestigious Southeastern Conference’s all-time passing leaders.

Geis, a former Altoona High School football and baseball standout and 2010 Blair County Sports Hall of Fame inductee, died at the age of 79 on Wednesday, July 2 at his home in Florida after battling leukemia. Geis enjoyed a long and decorated coaching career in both major college football and the National Football League, serving NFL tenures as an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and Indianapolis Colts, and college coaching tenures at Georgia Tech – where he was an associate head coach – Tulane, Kansas and Memphis State. He worked with several future NFL Hall of Fame quarterbacks and receivers, including Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Sterling Sharpe, who was the presenter for Geis at the 2010 Blair Sports Hall of Fame ceremony.

Beam died at the age of 73 on Thursday, Sept. 25 at the Cleveland Clinic after battling heart disease. He was one of the local community’s most involved and visible citizens, serving as a Blair County Commissioner and Altoona City Councilman, and as a teacher in the Altoona Area School District. He was also a long-time press box employee for both the Altoona Curve and Penn State Nittany Lions’ football team, and was a long-time PIAA sports official and evaluator.

Beam’s widow, Cathy Cronin-Beam, will be inducted into the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame this April after an outstanding career as a PIAA and NCAA women’s basketball official, who later became an evaluator of officials.

Johnston, a 2002 Blair County Sports Hall of Fame inductee who starred in basketball for Altoona Area High School before playing collegiately at the University of Tennessee, passed away last year in Fort Wayne, Ind. on Thursday, Jan. 23 at the age of 76.

Lange, who spent 46 years behind the microphone calling Pittsburgh Penguins games, died in February in Pittsburgh at the age of 76 after a long illness.

Lange started his remarkable career with the Penguins back in 1974, and, after a year away from calling their games, returned to their announcing booth in 1976 and remained with the team until his retirement in 2021, calling the five Penguins’ Stanley Cup winning seasons in 1991, 1992, 2009, 2016 and 2017.

Lange, a California native, joined the late Bob Prince, Myron Cope and Stan Savran in becoming a Pittsburgh sports media icon during his time with the Penguins, providing superior play-by-play coverage of the team on both television and radio, while injecting his unique mixture of humor, levity and professionalism into his broadcasts.

In 2001, Lange received the prestigious Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for his excellence as a National Hockey League broadcaster. The recipients of the award are inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Lange was also briefly employed as a play-by-play baseball announcer with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the late 1980s, and made a guest appearance at an Altoona Curve game many years ago.

Altoona’s Sipes places second

The Altoona Area High School wrestling program hasn’t crowned a PIAA state champion since 1974, but the Mountain Lions have boasted seven Class 3A state-runners-up since 1977.

Luke Sipes became the most recent of those last March, when he finished second at 160 pounds in the 2025 Class 3A state tournament at Hershey’s Giant Center.

Sipes, who became the all-time leading winner in Altoona program history with 155 wins as a senior last winter, coped with a bad bout with the flu and a leg injury to reach the state finals on Saturday, March 8, but dropped an 11-3 major decision to unbeaten Quakertown senior standout Collin Gaj, who became a two-time state champion.

Gaj, who was seeded first in the 160-pound weight class by PA Power Wrestling, is now wrestling collegiately at Virginia Tech, while Sipes – a four-time state medalist and four-time regional and District 6 champion — is competing at the University of North Carolina.

West Suburban wins LL title

The Johnstown-based West Suburban Little League girls softball team, comprised of players from the Cambria Heights, Central Cambria and Bishop Carroll school districts, won the championship in the 2025 Little League World Series last August in Greenville, N.C.

Reagan Bills of the Cambria Heights School District starred for West Suburban in the World Series, picking up four pitching victories, including a 1-0 shutout of Indiana’s Floyds Knobs Community Club in the championship game, in which Bills also drove in the only run of the game with a fourth-inning RBI single.

The World Series was televised nationally on ESPN.

Trifecta for Altoona team

For the third straight summer, an Altoona team advanced to the Babe Ruth ages 18U World Series last August.

Managed by Brian Bell, the Altoona squad – which was made up of a large contingent of Hollidaysburg High School players — won the Mid-Atlantic Regional championship for the third straight year and punched its ticket to the World Series in Ocala, Fla.

Altoona defeated Asia Pacific, 13-3 in the opening round of the national tournament to reach the quarterfinals, where the Altoona team was eliminated with an 8-1 loss to Mid-County, Tex.

In Memoriam

Sam Miller, 95, who served the Altoona Area High School football program for four decades as its equipment manager; Former long-time Centre Daily Times sports writer Doug McDonald, 91; Former long-time Altoona Mirror outdoor sports writer Shirley Grenoble, 90; Esther Poorman, 89, an inductee into the Altoona District’s USBC bowling Hall-of-Fame … Tyrone community business leader Harry Sickler, Jr., 89, who championed the support of scholastic sports in the school district and made several lasting contributions; Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bob Veale, 89; Portage native Mike Bryja, 89, a former long-time baseball coach and athletic director at Forest Hills High School and veteran PIAA official for various sports … Former Bishop Guilfoyle Academy (Altoona Catholic High School) football player Joe DeLeo, 88; Penn State University sports historian and author Lou Prato, 87; Former Penn State and National Football League lineman Stu Barber, 86, who was a two-way tackle during his college football days with the Nittany Lions … Former Pittsburgh Pirates player Tommy Helms, 84, who played most of his Major League Baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds and also served a tenure as that team’s manager … Former long-time Bellwood-Antis High School wrestling coach Darrell Claar, 83; Former Mount Aloysius College men’s basketball coach and long-time high school boys basketball assistant coach Tony Labriola, 81, who was the driving force behind the Mansion Park/Lakemont Park Men’s Summer Basketball League; Former long-time Centre Daily Times sports editor and columnist Ron Bracken, 81; Former long-time Mount Union High School baseball coach Nick Imperioli, 81; Former long-time Mirror news and sports photographer Paul Singer, 80; Former Bedford Gazette sports editor and sports writer Al Drenning, 80; Buddy Geis, 79; Long-time Major League Baseball pitcher and pitching coach Joe Coleman, 77, who spent part of his playing career with the Pirates … Former Central High School softball coach Denny Ayers, 77; Former Altoona High School and semi-pro league Central Pennsylvania Bucks football player John Rutter, 76; Gary DiDomenico, 76, who was a PIAA state wrestling champion for Tyrone High School in 1966; Dick Johnston, 76; Mike Lange, 76; Former long-time Penn State-Altoona women’s volleyball coach Olana “Tick” Hedrick-Sheaffer, 75; Former Altoona High School football standout Steve “Beef” Thompson, 75, who went on to become an All-American at Duke University; Former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Dave Parker, 74, who was inducted posthumously into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame last July; Former Hollidaysburg High School tennis coach Milt Miller, 74; Ted Beam, 73; … Former Pittsburgh Steelers running backs Tommy Reamon, Sr., 73, and Jim Collier, 71; Former Penn State and National Football League offensive lineman Tom Rafferty, 70; Former Altoona High School baseball and basketball standout Dean Esper, 69; Former Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Greg Millen, 67; Former Hollidaysburg High School football standout Greg Heim, 67; Former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Craig Wolfley, 66, who also served as the team’s long-time radio field analyst for games following his retirement as a player; Long-time avid Bishop Guilfoyle Academy and Altoona Curve sports fan Daniel Greiner, 65, who was also a long-time employee of the Mirror. Former Hollidaysburg High School athlete J.J. Johnston died recently at 65. … Former Northern Bedford High School boys basketball coach Barry Crawford, 63; Former Greater City Baseball League and Central High School three-sport standout Monte Smith, 62; Former Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero, 62; Bob Williams, 61, who was a tight end on Penn State’s 1982 national championship football team and went on to play in the National Football League …. Former Altoona High School basketball player Craig Hatfield, 59; Former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Ray Seals, 59; Former Hollidaysburg High School athlete Mitch Culp, 59; Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Scott Sauerbeck, 53; Steve Taneyhill, 52; Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Octavio Dotel, 52; Former Saint Francis University men’s basketball player Jason Roberts, 52; Former Tyrone High School girls basketball standout Gendie Haverstein, 49; Former Tyrone High School and Mount Aloysius College tennis player Ryan Bressler, 33; Former Altoona High School football and wrestling-football-track standout Mante Barnes, 30; Northern Bedford football player Quinton Morrow, 15.