Coming Week Full of Baldwin-Whitehall Winter Sports Playoffs

For some people, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

While a Christmas feast is still more than 10 months away for most folks, high-school sports fans (and interscholastic sports fans in general) can feast their eyes on an array of youth sports this week, including WPIAL and state championships competition for some teams.

Baldwin's varsity girls basketball team continues its quest for a 2011 WPIAL AAAA championship by taking on Oakland Catholic High School in the second round of the WPIAL playoffs on Friday, Feb. 25, at an exact time and location to be determined. Check back with the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch for updates.

UPDATE: The Baldwin girls will play Oakland Catholic at North Allegheny High School on Friday night at 6:30 p.m.

Also on Friday, Baldwin's gymnastics squad will compete on Day One of the PA Classic championships at . The Feb. 25-26 PA Classic meet will see individual state champions crowned. (The PA Classic will crown team state champions in Chambersburg, Pa., on Saturday, March 5.)

Saturday, Feb. 26, will be a very busy day for Baldwin-Whitehall youth sports, especially right at Baldwin High where the WPIAL AAA Section 2 individual wrestling championships will take place.

This is the first time that Baldwin wrestling will host an individual section championships meet. Bouts begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, and the top five finishers in each weight class will qualify for the overall WPIAL championships, to be held from March 3-5 at .

Baldwin's boys and girls swimming & diving teams will be represented at the WPIAL AAA diving championships at on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. (boys) and 2:30 p.m. (girls).

Sophomore Adam Grosse is the lone Baldwin boy to qualify for the WPIAL diving championships, while classmate Jackie Micklege will represent the Baldwin girls.

Baldwin's bowling squads will also compete for titles week. The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League team championships will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 23 (boys), and Thursday, Feb. 24 (girls). The boys WPIBL event will take place at White Oak Bowl at 3:30 p.m., while the girls will bowl at Family Bowlaway also at 3:30 p.m.

The Western Pennsylvania boys and girls individual regional bowling championships will take place at North Versailles Bowling Center on Saturday at 9 a.m., while the team regional championships will be held there the next day, also at 9 a.m.

Baldwin will also send one boy and one girl to the the Pennsylvania Track & Field Coaches Association championships at Penn State University on Saturday, Feb. 26.

Not to be forgotten are local Diocese of Pittsburgh teams.

The 's 's varsity boys and girls basketball teams posted a combined 24-0 record in section play this season on their way to dual South 1A Section championships.

The St. Gabe's girls will open the Diocese of Pittsburgh playoffs on Wednesday, March 2, after receiving a first-round bye, and its boys will start their run for a diocese title with a first-round game on Friday, March 4.

The 's 's varsity boys team will see playoffs action this week, though. Saint E's boys finished 9-3 in South 1A to place second behind St. Gabe's.

Saint E's will open this year's playoffs with a first-round game against Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Academy, which finished fourth in the East 1A Section with a 7-7 section record, at Central Catholic High School on Saturday at 3:45 p.m.

Saint E's varsity girls squad missed the playoffs this season.