the almanac M A R C H 29, 2026
SOUTH HILLS COMMUNITY NEWS
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CHARTIERS VALLEY UNIFIED BOCCE WINS STATE TITLE
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PHOTOS BY ELEANOR BAILEY
For the second year in a row, South Fayette captured a state championship in girls basketball. The Lady Lions defeated Archbishop Wood, 45-35, in the PIAA Class 5A final played on March 21 at the GIANT Center in Hershey. In 2025, South Fayette also beat the Vikings for the first state banner in the program’s history. Seniors Haylie Lamonde and Ryan Oldaker (1) proudly hoist the spoils of victory including the trophy and poster as well as the net used during the championship game. The team also received a five-pound Hershey’s chocolate bar. Immediately after the final buzzer sounded, members of the South Fayette girls basketball team celebrated in a victory circle at center court (2). In photo 3, Ryan Oldaker (24) gets a step on Colleen Besachio (35) from Archbishop Wood and drives to the hoop for a basket. Oldaker led the Lady Lions in scoring with 15 points. She converted 5 of 8 of her field goal attempts. In photo 4, Juliette Leroux (14) pivots around a defender and puts up a successful shot. Leroux controlled both ends of the court, tallying 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds. In photo 5, Ella Vierra takes aim at the hoop and converts a basket. Vierra dominated all aspects of the game, scoring eight points, collecting five boards, blocking two shots and dishing up two assists. For more photos and a game story, turn to the sports section.
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Members of the Chartiers Valley Unified Bocce team hoist the championship trophy after defeating Haverford, 9-1, in the finals of the state tournament held at the GIANT Center in Hershey.
By Eleanor Bailey ebailey@thealmanac.net
Coming into the Special Olympics Pennsylvania’s Interscholastic Unified Bocce Ball State Championships, Chartiers Valley had nothing to lose. The Colts had entered the postseason seeded eighth after eking out a wild card berth in the first round of the playoffs. They upended the 2024 state champions during the regional round of competition to earn a berth in the state finals held March 18-19 at the GIANT Center in Hershey. There they unseated the 2025 state winner before beating Haverford, 9-1, in the championship match. “We were definitely the underdogs,” said Vickie Cushey, who shared coaching duties with Mary Ellen Peduzzi. “We had to go through the last two state champions en route to our title.” The Colts beat Peters Township, which won the 2024 title, in the regionals. They eked out a win against Blackhawk, the 2025 winner, in the state tournament. “We are so very proud of the team,” Cushey said. “They worked so very hard to make this happen. It is most definitely an honor and so unexpected. “Playing and then winning against the top teams in the state made the victory even sweeter. Just
PHOTOS BY ELEANOR BAILEY
getting to states is special in and of itself, but then bringing home the state title just makes the whole experience even more memorable.” Some 492 teams started the unified bocce season with Chartiers Valley being one of the final eight to reach the state tournament. The Colts started practicing in early winter and showed marked improvement as the regular season progressed. The Chartiers Valley bocce team consists of two smaller units – CV 1 and CV 2. Both squads experienced success. CV 1 posted a 7-3 record and earned the No. 3 seed heading into the playoffs. CV 2 finished 6-4 overall and just missed out of a playoff berth because of tiebreaker rules. “We stayed consistently around third and fourth place within our division and improved with each game we played as we started playing really well down the stretch and went on a roll once playoffs started,” Cushey noted. During the regular season, Chartiers Valley competed against high school teams from Bethel Park, Upper St. Clair, Peters Township, Carlnton, South Fayette and Montour. During the regional tournament at RIZE Sports in Leetsdale, the Colts competed in the afternoon session with Somerset Area, SEE BOCCE PAGE B1
Women’s History Month marked with careers event at South Fayette High By Brad Hundt
bhundt@observer-reporter.com
Right now, to borrow from the title of a James Brown song, the technology industry is a man’s world. Even as women make up 58% of undergraduates enrolled in colleges and universities and make up almost half of the United States’ labor force, just 27% of those employed by tech companies are female. And just 3% are Black women. “This is still a very male-dominated industry,” according to Cheroc
Slater, a senior customer success account manager with Microsoft. “I didn’t let that deter me.” Slater was one of five women panelists who discussed their work in the tech industry at South Fayette High School March 18. The y talk ed about the twists and turns they’ve experienced in their careers and what might be on the horizon in the tech field, particularly as artificial intelligence gains more of a foothold. The panel was put together to mark Women’s History Month by the South Fayette High School organization
LOCATION Upper St. Clair students display Olympic spirit PAGE A6 What’s happening, B3
SHOUT (Social Handprints Overcoming Unjust Treatment). Along with Slater, other participants were Lynette Lortz, a cybersecurity and computer science teacher at South Fayette High School; Kolica Davis, an identity and access management project manager with PNC Bank; Taryn Malavite Bagg, manager of IT business applications for Eos Energy; and Christine Htoon, senior engineering program manager with Google. All five participants agreed on the importance of developing people skills, having mentors
BRAD HUNDT
From left, Lynette Lortz, Kolicia Davis and Christine Htoon talk to students about careers in the technology industry at South Fayette High School March 18.
and being flexible. Lortz noted, in fact, that she concentrated in history, art history and library sciences when she was an undergraduate and found herself in the tech world
SPORTS Lady Lions win second straight PIAA title PAGE B1 Classifieds, B5
because “I needed a job. I never would have expected it.” And while being able to carry out tasks like coding is important, Htoon said people skills and “trying
to get other people to align with you and their vision” is also critical. She added that being able to do everyday things like SEE CAREERS PAGE A2
SIGHTS & SOUNDS ‘Water for Elephants’comes to Benedum PAGE B3 Real estate transactions, A6