RAY SWANSON | Keystoner Sharpsville girls hire Jeff Hanley as basketball coach

It hasn't been too many years ago since the Sharpsville Blue Darlings were one of the most talented teams to be found in Pennsylvania.
That was during the Glenna Harris era when the late Blue Darling coach had her team piling up victories like corn shocks.
In recent years, however, the Blue Darlings basketball program has fallen on hard times and triumphs have been scarce.
For the second straight year, the Blue Darlings will have a new head coach. School directors, by a 7-1 vote, hired Jeff Hanley, Sharon, is an effort to put the "W" back in Blue Darling basketball.
Hanley succeeds Heather Wiederstein who took over the reins as head coach last year but was able to come up with only four victories during the course of the season. Prior, Gary "Gus" Grandy was the Darlings' coach.
Hanley will receive $3,395 a year in his new position.
Short retirements: I, for one, am a firm believer in that old adage: Once a professional athlete retires, he should stay retired.
What is it with these guys? The two names that jump into my head immediately are the Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux and the Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan.
As of this writing, Jordan had not returned to the NBA, however, his name was being thrown around that he was returning to play for an East Coast franchise.
Mario has been playing his usual spectacular games once again with the Penguins.
Granted, Lemieux and Jordan are two of the best ever to play their respective games and fans worship the ground these guys walk on, and they pack in the fans. But once that decision to hang 'em up has been made, that's the way it should remain.
Next thing you know, Joe Montana will be quarterbacking the 49ers again.
Pops will be missed: Willie Stargell, one of the most feared power hitters in baseball, is one of the reasons the Pittsburgh Pirates used to pack 'em in at recently demolished Three Rivers Stadium. He was loved by so many.
"Pops", as he was known by his teammates and the baseball world, passed away last month at the age of 61 following a long battle with kidney disease.
Stargell was a gentlemen who loved life and baseball and he will be remembered not only as a trickster and comedian, but as a man who hit 500-foot homers.
He had a ritual at the plate. He would step in, and crank the bat completely around. In fact, he looked like a windmill in the batter's box, but when he made contact, one knew that ball was going somewhere and with authority. He was poetry in motion, one of the greatest Pirate players of all time.
He belted what was believed to be the first ball hit out of Dodger Stadium, and stroked a 535-foot homer at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. He hit 475 home runs for the Bucs from 1962-1982. Included in that number were four-upper deck "shots" at Three River Stadium.
One gentleman we know, and he's up on Pirate trivia, said that Stargell would crank his bat completely around seven times before he was ready to make contact.
Willie loved Pittsburgh and its fans. He is a legend in Bucs baseball. He will be missed, not only as a baseball great, but as a tame gentleman.
Trojans on a tear: Just in case you missed it, the Greenville High School track team finally was defeated. The Trojans had won 78 straight in dual meets, a mark that spans over seven seasons, before losing to Mercer recently.
The 78 wins is a county record for any team, male or female, in any sport.