Sports Highlights and Updates
On January 24, our girls basketball team kicked off their season against Elizabeth Forward. To check out some pictures from the game, see the gallery below.
For the Lady Dukes' schedule, click here.
The Duquesne City School District 8th grade boys basketball team took on South Park on December 4. For some scenes from the game, check out the gallery below.
If you ask players or coaches around the Duquesne City Middle School football team about the program, two words often come up: excitement and pride.
Since the district returned school-based athletics three years ago, the Dukes football team has amassed an impressive 17-2-2 record. And from the first season back, there’s been not just a palpable excitement amongst the players to show what they can do, but a pridefulness about them to represent their community and school that has produced so many talented athletes and successful teams before them.
“It’s really been surreal. Being how tight-knit our community is, even though it’s not high school football, just having that pride of school-based football again feels good,” said DiAngelo Mitchell, the district’s athletic director and also an assistant coach on the team.
“It’s just a great feeling, just seeing the kids and watching them grow up to become great athletes. It’s a great thing to see.”
Mitchell said it’s no surprise that the football team has had so much success right away. The Duquesne community is steeped in football tradition and a host of feeder programs that set athletes up for success with a solid set of skills before playing middle school football.
“The great coaches there help mold these young men and show them what the standard is,” said Mitchell. “We can go into a game with just 12, 13 kids and believe we’re going to win. Just having that mentality that we can win no matter what, I give big props to the feeder programs.”
The Dukes’ head coach, John ‘KB’ Mahone, is quite familiar with those feeder programs, having coached in them himself for years. Given that, when the district returned athletics, Mitchell said Mahone was an obvious choice.
“KB is a pioneer of the community. He’s someone that’s well-known and well-respected in the community,” said Mitchell. “He’s a guy that’s been around the community for a long time, and I knew the kids would buy in, because a lot of the parents know him and the type of guidance and coaching he offers. A lot of the kids are honored to play for him, knowing that they played for him in the past.”
Since Mahone took over, he’s instilled in his players the value of hard work, fundamentals, and high effort on the football field. The pride that the players play with, though, isn’t something that Mahone has to stress. That just comes naturally in Duquesne.
“I feel like that chip on the shoulder is there. We come from a small community and we’re going to these big schools and a lot of these kids grew up playing together as babies until now, so the chemistry is going to always be there, no matter what age group or grade level,” said Mitchell.
“Just having Duquesne across the chest, a lot of the kids take pride in that. I feel like even the younger kids coming up are talking about it — about how excited they are to play middle school football and represent Duquesne.”
The Duquesne City Dukes football team finished off their season with a 34-14 win over West Mifflin on October 16. For some scenes from the game, check out the photo gallery below.
Duquesne City football coach John Mahone gathered his team together after a 30-0 victory on September 4 over South Park, and gleaned with optimism.
“You can’t make me any prouder,” Mahone said. “That’s how you play Duquesne football.”
It was a picture perfect debut to the 2024 season for the Dukes, who stymied South Park with stout, physical defense and a diverse, efficient offense.
“We made a big improvement from last week’s scrimmage. We made some adjustments and they worked out for us,” said Mahone. “We played well on both sides of the ball, but we still have some work to do.”
Ra’zohn Pitts proved to be a mismatch at wide receiver, catching three touchdowns on the day. The Dukes took a 12-0 lead into halftime and only widened that lead in the 2nd half, executing well on both sides of the ball.
“Our passing game is looking really good. It looked prolific,” said Mahone. “If we can get the run game down, we’re going to be a problem.”
South Park never seriously threatened Duquesne’s lead in the game, in large part due to a Dukes defense that repeatedly found its way into the Eagles’ backfield, making it tough for South Park to gain any sort of offensive rhythm.
“We came to play today. The defense stepped up big time,” said Mahone. “We called some blitzes and got in the backfield and broke some stuff up.”
The Dukes will take on Trinity next week. The goal this year — as it has been the past two seasons — is to go undefeated. Wednesday’s effort represented an excellent start to reaching that goal.
“That’s our goal,” said Mahone. “We lost some key guys, but we also have some key guys back and some younger guys stepping up. They’re playing well.”