It has been an exciting senior season for Abington Heights guard Andrew Kettel.

As the Comets were streaking toward a Lackawanna League Division I championship, Kettel announced on his Instagram social media account that he is continuing his academic and athletic careers at Hartwick College.

Abington Heights posted wins over Valley View and West Scranton this week to finish the league season undefeated. Kettel has been one of the catalysts. A two-year starter, he is averaging 14.8 points per game.

Abington Heights is the No. 1 seed for the District 2 Class 5A playoffs. The Comets received a bye into the semifinals.

Last season, Kettel helped lead the Comets to the District 2 championship.

Hartwick College is an NCAA Division III program. The Hawks are 8-14 this season and 2-11 in the Empire 8 conference.

Former Abington Heights teammate Robby Lucas is a freshman at Hartwick and leads the team in scoring at 14.0 points per game.

College commits

Several players from the Lackawanna Football Conference made their college decisions official.

Western Wayne lineman and long snapper Vinny Baldini committed to Lackawanna College. A multi-year starter for the Wildcats, he helped lead the Wildcats to a share of the LFC Division II championship with Mid Valley as a junior.

Baldini joins Lakeland quarterback David Naniewicz as a commit to the Falcons, who are transitioning to an NCAA Division II program in the PSAC.

Scranton offensive lineman Carter Tomczyk, a three-year starter, announced on social media that he is committed to continuing his academic and athletic careers at Wilkes University. The 6-1, 268-pound senior helped the Knights reach the District 2 Class 6A playoff this season.

Mid Valley quarterback Brett Yanoski committed to King’s College on his Instagram account.

Wilkes University finished 7-4 overall last season.

A four-year varsity player, Yanoski completed 131 of 237 passes for 1,542 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior and led the Spartans to a win in an Eastern Conference Class 3A game. He was also the starting quarterback as a junior when Mid Valley shared the LFC Division II championship with Western Wayne.

Yanoski finished his career with 3,452 yards passing and 32 touchdowns.

King’s finished 5-5 overall last season as a member of the NCAA Division III and the Middle Atlantic Conference.

Scranton heavyweight wrestler Austin Gottstein announced that he committed to Keystone College to continue his academic and athletic careers.

Morano named tennis coach

Emily Morano, a multi-sport standout at Mid Valley, is returning to her alma mater as the boys’ varsity tennis coach.

During her high school career, Morano was a first-team all-star in soccer, basketball, and softball. She went on to compete in basketball and started playing tennis at King’s College, and continued her athletic career in both sports at SUNY-Cortland as a graduate student.

Mid Valley finished 5-6 in the Lackawanna League last season under the guidance of Emily Messett, who resigned after this past girls’ tennis season.

Morano is also the junior high girls’ basketball coach at Mid Valley.

Feb. 13—One of the coolest things about "Trainer Games" for Dan Holguin, the Kalispell resident who competed in the reality show competition, was what he was able to do after it wrapped last May. "A couple months later, I ran the Crazy Mountain 100," Holguin said this week. "A race I'd been attempting for the previous two years. Last year, I actually got it done. It was a good year, athletically." We won't be a spoiler for the show, which aired its sixth and final episode last week and can be watched on both Amazon Prime and YouTube; suffice it to say Holguin didn't get the $250,000 IFit contract that went to the winner. "The silver lining is that although I didn't finish first, I still was offered a substantial contract to be an IFit trainer as well," he said. "Which was unexpected and nice." Holguin is a 2004 Flathead High graduate who wrestled and played football for the Braves and also competed in high school rodeo: He competed in the sport at Lamar Community College in Colorado. "After that I finally put on some size on and in 2008, I played football for Cerritos College in the Los Angeles area," he said. Holguin weighs 200 pounds these days, down from a high (or low) point where he had a lot of extra weight, post-college. The extra pounds went away as he got into training, much of it outdoors: endurance running, swimming, climbing. Now a 39-year-old trainer in Kalispell, he competed in American Ninja Warrior for about five years. "So yeah, I've had to stay in shape," he said. Fast forward to last spring, and Holguin hopped a plan to Seattle, then Dubai, then the island nation of Mauritius, located to the east of Madagascar. He and nine other men and women competed; they were eliminated, one and two at a time, after races that involved paddle boards, ziplines and more. And Holguin did good. "As you get older you tend to question if your best days as an athlete are behind you," he said. "I think that kind of creeped into my head a little bit. It was great going out there and competing, and competing against young kids there, competing at a thigh level, and staying within my integrity. If you watch the show you'll see what I mean." There was a team aspect to the "Trainer Games," and aside from each contestant being about 80 times tougher than me, I won't spoil any more. The married father of one (Gabriela is a senior at Glacier) was happy how it turned out how he finished against "a bunch of kids," even if he didn't eliminate them all. "I'm nearly 40 but I still have a lot to give and that was a nice reminder that I continue to compete at a high level," he said. "Those things do actually come to you, if you keep swinging the axe, I guess." Reach Fritz at 406-758-4463 or at [email protected].

Feb. 13—One of the coolest things about "Trainer Games" for Dan Holguin, the Kalispell resident who competed in the reality show competition, was what he was able to do after it wrapped last May. "A couple months later, I ran the Crazy Mountain 100," Holguin said this week. "A race I'd been attempting for the previous two years. Last year, I actually got it done. It was a good year, athletically." We won't be a spoiler for the show, which aired its sixth and final episode last week and can be watched on both Amazon Prime and YouTube; suffice it to say Holguin didn't get the $250,000 IFit contract that went to the winner. "The silver lining is that although I didn't finish first, I still was offered a substantial contract to be an IFit trainer as well," he said. "Which was unexpected and nice." Holguin is a 2004 Flathead High graduate who wrestled and played football for the Braves and also competed in high school rodeo: He competed in the sport at Lamar Community College in Colorado. "After that I finally put on some size on and in 2008, I played football for Cerritos College in the Los Angeles area," he said. Holguin weighs 200 pounds these days, down from a high (or low) point where he had a lot of extra weight, post-college. The extra pounds went away as he got into training, much of it outdoors: endurance running, swimming, climbing. Now a 39-year-old trainer in Kalispell, he competed in American Ninja Warrior for about five years. "So yeah, I've had to stay in shape," he said. Fast forward to last spring, and Holguin hopped a plan to Seattle, then Dubai, then the island nation of Mauritius, located to the east of Madagascar. He and nine other men and women competed; they were eliminated, one and two at a time, after races that involved paddle boards, ziplines and more. And Holguin did good. "As you get older you tend to question if your best days as an athlete are behind you," he said. "I think that kind of creeped into my head a little bit. It was great going out there and competing, and competing against young kids there, competing at a thigh level, and staying within my integrity. If you watch the show you'll see what I mean." There was a team aspect to the "Trainer Games," and aside from each contestant being about 80 times tougher than me, I won't spoil any more. The married father of one (Gabriela is a senior at Glacier) was happy how it turned out how he finished against "a bunch of kids," even if he didn't eliminate them all. "I'm nearly 40 but I still have a lot to give and that was a nice reminder that I continue to compete at a high level," he said. "Those things do actually come to you, if you keep swinging the axe, I guess." Reach Fritz at 406-758-4463 or at [email protected].