School size often matters in high school sports.Classifications prove valuable in creating conferences and deciding champions. When selecting the top athletes in Northwestern Pennsylvania, however, school size is of minimal concern.Karis McElheney recently graduated from Jamestown High School in a class of 22 students. Kamden Kramer, meanwhile, was one of more than 500 spring graduates from McDowell High School.One attended the smallest high school in D-10. The other attended its second largest.Both garnered a premier award at Monday’s Northwestern Pennsylvania High School Sports Awards.Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

McElheney won D-10 Girls Athlete of the Year and Kramer received D-10 Boys Athlete of the Year. The pair of track standouts headlined a show which recognized the area’s top athletes at Warner Theatre.

McElheney, Kramer named top athletes

McElheney traded Jamestown purple for the blue of Greenville during each school year. The switch was made out of necessity — Jamestown runs co-operative programs with Greenville in both cross country and track and field.

When McEleheny won a PIAA track championship in the 800 meters, her blue-and-gold uniform read Greenville. Jamestown, though, got its moment Monday.

“(Greenville) has always made me feel like I was part of the family,” McElheney said. “(The co-op) allowed me to make more friends, more teammates and more opportunities. I just really appreciate that.”

McElheney graduates with four PIAA medals in cross country and nine in track and field. She’ll run collegiately at Youngstown State University.

Kramer, meanwhile, will run collegiately at the University of Dayton. The D-10 Player of the Year in boys’ basketball, he logged D-10 titles in cross country and track to bookend a sparkling senior year.

“I wish I could play every sport in high school but, obviously, you need to pick and choose,” Kramer said. “It’s a pretty special feeling to know that people recognize what I did.”

Seneca’s Kuhl wins top rookie

Brenna Kuhl turned heads by scoring 39 goals for the Seneca girls’ soccer team as a freshman. After spring track season, however, all in D-10 knew Kuhl’s name.

Kuhl received District 10 Rookie of the Year after a freshman campaign which saw her win four D-10 track and field medals, including a 400-meter championship which set a new Class 2A meet record. This after her 39 goals and 12 assists helped power Seneca to a 19-1 soccer campaign and D-10 team title.

“I worked all year for it,” Kuhl said. “I wanted to start the year off with a bang. That first goal on the soccer field and first win in track, it felt great.”

Courage, Lifetime award winners

Titusville’s Abbie Colie won the James Conner Courage Award.

Diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma during her senior basketball season, Colie became a source of inspiration for teammates and opponents alike. She also played volleyball and softball for the Rockets.

“A lot of people think it’s all sad all the time, but you don’t have to let it be,” Colie said. “When I was losing my hair, we shaved it into a mohawk. We took control where we could and made it fun.”

Longtime girls’ basketball coach Nick DeSantis won the Lifetime Achievement Award after more than three decades in local hoops.

A career which started in 1990 at Collegiate Academy took DeSantis to Central, McDowell and Iroquois. He won 286 games in 25 seasons at Central, where he was the only girls’ head basketball coach in school history.Varsity Cup winners, top teams and moreFairview captured the Small-School Varsity Cup after a scholastic school year which saw the Tigers win a total of six region titles, three D-10 crowns and one PIAA championship. McDowell, with its 10 region and 16 D-10 titles, won the Large-School Varsity Cup.Fairview girls’ golf won Girls’ Team of the Year and Grove City cross country won Boys’ Team of the Year. Both were PIAA champions.Therese Brown of Cathedral Prep cross country/track won Girls Coach of the Year and Ben English of Grove City cross country was Boys Coach of the Year.Jason Kipnis, a two-time Major League Baseball All-Star who played nine seasons for the Cleveland Indians, was Monday’s celebrity guest.

Contact Jeff Uveino at juveino@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @realjuveino.

MODIFIED:

1st Place #69 Overkill

Driver: Dennis Hughes, Spokane, WA, Navigator: Samantha Hughes, Spokane,WA

2nd Place #611 Slippery Pickle

Driver: Jesse Denton, Wilder, ID, Navigator: Jason Christ, Burley, ID

3rd Place #145 Pour Decisions

Driver: Jason Perkins, Cheney, WA, Navigator: Kyle Belles, Spangle, WA

4th Place #208 Jolly Rogers

Driver: TJ Burrows, Spirit Lake, ID, Navigator: Keith Brownsberger, Spirit Lake, ID

400 CLASS:

1st Place #180 Jolly Rogers

Driver: Eric Wener, Arlington, WA, Navigator: Jennifer Farmer, Arlington, WA

2nd Place #156 Bad Influence

Driver: Steven Church, Cheshire, OR, Navigator: Randi Church, Cheshire, OR

3rd Place #21 Guano Loco

Driver: Larry Steele, Post Falls, ID, Navigator: Sammy McKinney, Coeur D’Alene, ID

4th Place #85 Nuckin Futz

Driver: Brad Cassell, Spokane Valley, WA, Navigator, Dakota Hembach, Spokane, WA

UNLIMITED:

1st Place #285M Pure Insanity

Driver: River Rogers, Lewiston, ID, Navigator: Cole Keatts, Lewiston, ID

2nd Place #27M Preventing Insanity

Driver: Leighton Lillie, Lewiston, ID, Navigator: Cody Holzer, Lewiston, ID

3rd Place #33M Bootleggers

Driver: Ron Gallagher, Olympia, WA, Navigator: Travis Callahan, Deary, ID

4th Place #111M Poison Ivy

Driver: Rob Coley, Wanganui, New Zealand, Navigator: Tanar Ward, Lewiston, ID

Three years ago, UW-River Falls football coach Matt Walker and the Falcon football program hosted their first UWRF Minnesconsin Mega Camp for high school players in the Upper Midwest hoping to catch the eye of college coaches. After this year’s event, they may have to change the name.

Last Thursday’s Minnesconsin Mega Camp attracted over 1,000 players, not only from Minnesota and Wisconsin, but from 27 different states and eight different countries. On hand to scout the campers were coaches and staff from 63 different college programs representing every level from the Power 4 Division 1 to FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA schools.

“It’s a cool, catchy name and we’ll keep it,” Walker said about the Minnesconsin name, “But when you start getting kids globally and recruits from Arizona and places like that flying in, that’s awesome.”

The first camp in 2023 resulted in over 800 offers from college programs to campers, including over 100 from Division I programs and over 250 from Division II. Walker said it’s too soon to tell how many offers will come out of this year’s camp, but noted there was plenty of talent to choose from.

“This was by far the most talent we’ve had at the camp,” he said. “It was incredible, and I know kids are gonna walk out of there with Power 4 offers.

Walker said the camp is also a prime opportunity to show off the UWRF program and facilities to hopeful recruits.

“We don’t lie about it,” he said. “Part of it for us is a recruiting process. We’re the host, so let’s showcase our piece a little bit.”

Walker and his staff use the check-in process as a tour of the Falcon Center facilities. After registering inside Page Arena, the campers’ go to the Knowles Center to get measured for height. They work their way to Hunt Arena to receive their numbered T-shirts, then down the hall to the UWRF locker room to be weighed, before exiting through the expansive Falcon Center weight room out and onto the David Smith Stadium turf.

“By the time they come out of there they’ve seen our entire building,” Walker noted.

Once campers get out on the field they are put through standard combine testing, which includes collecting verified numbers in the vertical jump, broad jump, 40 yard dash, and pro agility run.

“We’re actually live updating the college staff so they have a QR code that takes them to a file where they’re getting live results as kids are finishing their testing,” Walker explained.

After combine testing inside David Smith Stadium, campers head over to the UWRF intramural fields for more traditional football work, including agility and one-on-one drills.

“For safety’s sake, we’re not doing anything beyond a one-on-one,” Walker said. “The last thing we want to do is get kids hurt.”

This year’s camp was broken down into three waves for the first time, with Big Guys (offensive and defensive lineman), starting at 11:30 a.m., Specialists (kickers, punters, long snappers) at 1 p.m., and Skill (quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, running back, linebacker, defensive back) beginning check-in at 2:45 p.m.

“So by the time the skill kids are done with their combine and ready to head out to the field, the big guys have finished their camp completely,” Walker said. “It probably couldn’t have gone smoother.”

All of that work requires a mountain of volunteers, and Walker said he has no problem getting people to help out.

“My kid and his friends are running combine cards to plug in the data,” he noted. “My daughter’s friends are handing out T-shirts. You’ve got current players helping, and I brought our committed players in to let them be around each other and get to know each other and they volunteered to come in and work some of the check in. You got your current staff and high school coaches that’ll help you out. Then the visiting college staff will do some of the timing because it takes so many stop watches.”

While football is the main focus of the camp, Walker said there are also spillover benefits for both the university and community.

“It’s the single biggest visit day of not just the summer, but of the year,” he pointed out. “You’re bringing in 1,000 families and they’ve got four hours to kill. They’re not always sitting there watching. They’re walking around campus. They’re walking downtown. Some of them are staying overnight. So there’s got to be benefits to the community and the campus.”

UWRF’s Minnesconsin Mega Camp has grown into one of the largest in the country, and according to Walker, “the one” in the Upper Midwest. But as successful as this year’s camp was, Walker said he’s already thinking about how he can make things even better for next year.

“I can’t imagine it being better than what we did. It was awesome,” he said. “But less than 24 hours from the camp being over I already made notes for next year, how we can make some tweaks and make this thing even better. It’s a really cool thing.”

The 25. And number 3 Alright Oh. I was Hey Yeah And Yeah the

Advertisement

Looking back at Cooper Flagg’s Maine high school highlights ahead of NBA draft

Updated: 4:58 PM EDT Jun 23, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

Less than three and a half years ago, Cooper Flagg led Nokomis Regional High School to its first state basketball championship as a freshman and was named Maine’s Gatorade Player of the Year.On Wednesday, the 18-year-old from Newport is expected to be chosen with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft after leading Duke to the Final Four and winning most major national player of the year awards.Maine’s Total Coverage has picked out a number of the top plays from Flagg’s freshman season, in which he averaged 20.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 3.7 steals and 3.7 blocks per game for a Nokomis team that finished 21-1.Flagg finished with a game-high 22 points and 16 rebounds in the Class A championship game against Falmouth High School. He won the state title alongside his twin brother, Ace, and their older brother, Hunter.Watch Cooper’s Maine high school highlights in the video player above.Less than a month after winning the state championship, Cooper and Ace announced that they were transferring to Montverde Academy, a national powerhouse in the Greater Orlando area.The Flagg twins played with the Maine United AAU team after their first season with Montverde. Before their second season, Cooper announced he was reclassifying from the class of 2025 to the class of 2024 — making him eligible for this year’s NBA draft. Ace decided to remain in the class of 2025, and he is set to begin his freshman year at the University of Maine this fall.Cooper and Ace did, however, return to their home state in January 2024 as part of a two-game showcase called “The Maine Event,” which is also one of Cooper’s nicknames.Maine’s Total Coverage also featured highlights of Cooper Flagg from The Maine Event in the video player at the top of this article.Cooper Flagg led Duke with averages of 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals per game in his lone season with the Blue Devils.Duke listed Flagg at 6-foot-9 and 205 pounds but at last month’s NBA draft combine, he was measured at 6 feet, 7.75 inches tall without shoes and weighed in at 221 pounds.The NBA draft begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday, and the Dallas Mavericks hold the top pick.

PORTLAND, Maine —

Less than three and a half years ago, Cooper Flagg led Nokomis Regional High School to its first state basketball championship as a freshman and was named Maine’s Gatorade Player of the Year.

On Wednesday, the 18-year-old from Newport is expected to be chosen with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft after leading Duke to the Final Four and winning most major national player of the year awards.

Advertisement

Maine’s Total Coverage has picked out a number of the top plays from Flagg’s freshman season, in which he averaged 20.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 3.7 steals and 3.7 blocks per game for a Nokomis team that finished 21-1.

Flagg finished with a game-high 22 points and 16 rebounds in the Class A championship game against Falmouth High School. He won the state title alongside his twin brother, Ace, and their older brother, Hunter.

Watch Cooper’s Maine high school highlights in the video player above.

Less than a month after winning the state championship, Cooper and Ace announced that they were transferring to Montverde Academy, a national powerhouse in the Greater Orlando area.

The Flagg twins played with the Maine United AAU team after their first season with Montverde. Before their second season, Cooper announced he was reclassifying from the class of 2025 to the class of 2024 — making him eligible for this year’s NBA draft. Ace decided to remain in the class of 2025, and he is set to begin his freshman year at the University of Maine this fall.

Cooper and Ace did, however, return to their home state in January 2024 as part of a two-game showcase called “The Maine Event,” which is also one of Cooper’s nicknames.

Maine’s Total Coverage also featured highlights of Cooper Flagg from The Maine Event in the video player at the top of this article.

Cooper Flagg led Duke with averages of 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals per game in his lone season with the Blue Devils.

Duke listed Flagg at 6-foot-9 and 205 pounds but at last month’s NBA draft combine, he was measured at 6 feet, 7.75 inches tall without shoes and weighed in at 221 pounds.

The NBA draft begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday, and the Dallas Mavericks hold the top pick.