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Altoona boys basketball search: Up, up and away

By Neil Rudel nrudel@altoonamirror.com There have been special occasions over the years that have merited use of the Mirror helicopter to help me get a better view of the area sports landscape. Sometimes the trips have been to observe high-level coaching searches, mainly involving Altoona Area High School but Penn State, too, but it’s also fun just to take a spin on a nice day. With the price of gas these days, excursions are limited, but they’re still necessary since: 1) They keep the propellers from getting rusty; 2) Altoona is searching for a new boys basketball coach. ...

Chastain calms down, on surge

TALLADEGA, Ala. — He stood atop the winning Chevrolet at Talladega Superspeedway ready to celebrate in his own signature way. But when Ross Chastain smashed a month-old watermelon onto the track, the crowd roared as if it was an Earnhardt who had just snatched a thrilling, last-lap victory. It was “unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” said the eighth-generation watermelon farmer from Florida. “I want it to smash; I don’t want it to just bust open,” Chastain said. “I heard (the cheers) and I felt them. The car was shaking. Then my legs started shaking. My arms ...

Pinegar aims to finish career ‘right way’

UNIVERSITY PARK — In an age where too many college athletes respond to adversity by racing to the transfer portal, may I present Jake Pinegar. Penn State’s placekicker for the better part of three years (2018-20), Pinegar was beaten out by Jordan Stout in 2021 and forced to watch virtually the entire season from the sidelines. Now Stout, whose big leg was also a punting and kickoff weapon, is gone, awaiting this week’s NFL Draft as “probably the highest-drafted specialist,” James Franklin said. Pinegar, who led the Big Ten in scoring as a freshman with 101 points, ...

Bristol dirt strange entertainment

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Credit must be given to NASCAR for at long last shaking up the status quo and trying new things, no matter how outlandish the idea. Progressive thinking is how the Cup Series wound up back at dirt-covered Bristol Motor Speedway for a second consecutive year, this time racing late into the night on Easter Sunday — a previously taboo date for a sport deeply entrenched in the Bible Belt. The first edition of Bristol dirt last year had its challenges. The 2,300 truckloads of red Tennessee clay at first turned to mud and blacked out the driver windshields. When the ...

Remembering Robinson in town where it started

Far off the beaten path, way down in southwest Georgia near the Florida state line, a remarkable life began in the most humble of circumstances. Jackie Robinson was born just outside the small town of Cairo (pronounced “KAY-ro”), the child of sharecroppers struggling to make ends meet in the grinding poverty of the Jim Crow South. As Major League Baseball honors the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s historic breaking of the color barrier, let’s not forget where he came from. Robinson spent the first year of his life near Cairo. For decades, there was nothing to mark that he ...

Be aware of who’s awaken in the woods

Ah April! We all feel better when April arrives. So do wildlife, flowers and trees, and sports all seem to start in April. Especially, so do winter-stressed black bears. Small birds and animals that did not survive the winter are choice snacks to a bear. Garbage cans, dog food dishes sitting on the back porch, bird feeders are all desirable to bears, awakening from a long winter’s sleep and perhaps finding themselves with two to four cubs to now care for. When the bears emerge from the winter den they are hungry and begin at once to sniff out anything they can find to eat. As ...