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At the grave of Baby Agnes Doe The youth participants recite the Pro-Life petitions at the grave of Baby Agnes Doe. Some of the older participants are the age of Baby Agnes who was born in early 1987. (Courtesy photo)

Marching in Washington today Elizabeth Kreckel and Sheila Maclean from the Catholic Students Association (CSA) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania attended the annual Respect Life March in Tyrone on Sunday. They will join 10 others from the CSA for the March on Washington today which commemorates the 35th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade which legalized abortion in the United States. (Courtesy photo)

Single digit temperatures did not diminish the number of participants at the 21st annual Respect Life March.
Nearly 150 persons attended this annual march from St. Matthew Catholic Church to the grave of Baby Agnes Doe in Oak Grove Cemetery.
Father Joseph Orr, who focused on the Pro-Life message in his homilies the past two weeks, was extremely pleased with the turnout, noting that “even the coldest day of the year thus far, did not deter these faithful marchers from turning out in record numbers.”
Father Orr began the service with meditations from Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who was without a doubt one of the most vocal critics of abortion in our lifetime. Her most famous quote, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you live as you wish,” is frequently seen on the bumpers of the supporters of the Pro Life movement.
Lead by Father Orr, the marchers chanted “No more women cry; No more children die” at every intersection.
Upon reaching Oak Grove Cemetery at the Respect Life meditation area, constructed by Eagle Scout Jonathan Hampton, the youth participants lined up and read their Pro-Life petitions.
The Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree lead the march, while the Tyrone Borough Police and Tyrone Fire Police provided security.
After a final blessing, the crowd headed back to Harkins Hall for a hot luncheon.
State Senator John Eichelberger, described as “the best friend an unborn child has in Harrisburg,” joined the marchers along with participants from Harrisburg, Indiana, and all of Blair and Centre counties.

A phoned-in bomb threat occurred at the Tyrone Sheetz yesterday afternoon. The store was searched by Tyrone police and state police. The Tyrone police department said the incident is under investigation. (The Daily Herald/Christina Pryor)

Nicole and Emily Detwiler	Joe, Joseph, Ann and Miranda Beachem
Deborah and Sarah Zakrzwski

In honor of Catholic Schools Week, which is scheduled for January 27 through February 1, parents at St. Matthew School discussed why they feel the school is such an asset to their children’s education.
Furthermore, Father Joseph Orr pointed out that students at St. Matthew’s come from a variety of backgrounds, including many non-Catholic students.
The St. Matthew mission statement says it is “A Catholic elementary school offering pre-kindergarten through grade six to the children of Tyrone and the surrounding areas. Children of all faiths are welcome into our small, family-centered school environment.
“We believe that the family is the heart of our school community where we help each student grow to his or her full potential academically, spiritually and emotionally as they become a vital member of the family of God in our community.”
Joe and Ann Beachem of Tyrone are parents of first grader, Miranda, and fifth grader, Joseph.
“We’ve been here at the school since our son has been in Kindergarten,” said Ann. “We just love it. It’s like a big family.”
“I like the attention each student gets, and the parents and teachers both know where the kids are at in their progress,” added Joe.
Nicole Detwiler, parent of Kindergarten student Emily, added, “It’s also a big plus as parents to know that Christian, morale values will be taught in the schools.”
The parents added that other benefits at St. Matthew School include smaller class sizes, lots of one-on-one time for teachers and students, the hot lunch program, a strong curriculum, and many school activities such as the annual talent show, Christmas program and participation in both the Halloween and Christmas parades.
Ann also pointed out, “The teachers are good at communicating with the parents, and the communication line is always open.”
“There’s lots of options for parents to come into school and help out,” Nicole continued.
They all agreed that parental involvement is a big part of the family-centered school environment.
Deborah Zakrzwski is a parent to St. Matthew student, Sarah. Deborah also substitute teaches at St. Matthew’s.
She said there are so many things she likes about St. Matthew School.
“The education the students get here is a foundation not just for now, but for the rest of their lives,” said Deborah. “In today’s world, you have to give children a good foundation.”
She added that most all the kids from preschool through sixth grade know each other, and they all look out for each other, adding, “These kids are one big family.”
Deborah also wanted to stress that, “Father Orr will not deny any child from coming to St. Matthew’s, tuition-wise or otherwise.”
In honor of Catholic Schools week, St. Matthew School in Tyrone has a week filled with various activities planned.
Things will kick off on Sunday, January 27 with mass at 10:30 a.m., followed by an open house and registration for the 2008-09 school year.
Registration will be held in the Gathering Space until 1 p.m.
Students will dress up for the event, wearing their school uniforms to Mass. Following, teachers will be available in their rooms for the open house until 1 p.m.
This event is a great opportunity for new parents and students to meet the staff and see the school.
The public is also invited to attend. Take a walk through the new building and see what this Catholic school is all about.

Here’s the good and bad of playing from beyond the arc: when you’re hitting shots, you can take a big lead quickly, but if you’re a little bit off, it’s pretty easy to shoot yourself out of a game in a hurry.
Luckily for the Tyrone girls basketball team, the shots were falling last night in Alexandria, allowing the Lady Eagles to distance themselves from Juniata Valley early. Tyrone drained nine three-point baskets, including four by senior Kayla Corle, in a 55-30 non-conference victory.
“We work a lot on shooting,” said Tyrone coach Luke Rhoades. “The only problem with outside shooting is sometimes you’re hot and sometimes you’re cold. Tonight, we were hot.”
The Lady Eagles were especially hot in the first half, when they made six three-pointers in building a 35-16 lead. It wasn’t easy, considering Valley was set up in a 3-2 zone designed to take away clean looks from Tyrone’s outside shooters. But the Lady Eagles rotated the ball well most of the game, locating open shooters on ball reversal for uncontested jump shots.
“We shot well, but the reason we had so many good looks was that we made the extra pass to open girls,” Rhoades said. “I thought our girls saw the floor very well.”
But while the Lady Eagles shot as well as they had in weeks, their victory had as much to do with defense as it did with their ability to knock down an open shot.
Tyrone forced 21 turnovers, controlled the defensive boards and limited the Lady Hornets to 19.6 percent shooting (11-for-56).
And they did it without the full services of two starters. Sophomores Rachel Emigh and Marah Hawes both came off the bench after battling illnesses.
“Our defense played pretty well tonight,” said Rhoades. “We still have to move our feet better and stay in our defensive stances, but we were solid.”
Corle ignited the Lady Eagles early, hitting three treys in the first quarter as Tyrone built a 16-7 lead.
Corle, Brooke Garbinsky and Kassie Faretta each made threes in the second, and Hawes scored twice on put-backs to increase the lead to 19 by halftime.
In the third, Tyrone held the Lady Hornets to just one field goal at the 4:22 mark. Corle’s three-pointer with 4:09 left in the quarter made it 41-19, starting a 12-0 run to end the period that culminated in a Faretta trey with three seconds left. By then, the Lady Eagles led 50-19.
“Our goal was to come out hard early and then get our girls some rest,” said Rhoades, whose team improved to 6-11. “Some of the normal point totals weren’t there for a lot of the girls, but we were trying to get kids some rest.”
Tyrone will now travel to Martinsburg Wednesday for a game against Central that Rhoades said was important in h is teams aspirations of making the post-season.
Junior Varsity
Tyrone lost the junior varsity game 39-21, despite seven points from Hawes.
Tyrone 55 Juniata Valley30
Tyrone – Corle 4 1-2 13; Christine 1 1-2 3; Faretta 4 0-0 11; Garbinsky 1 0-0 3; Emigh 4 1-4 9; Hawes 4 0-2 8; Harden 1 1-1 3; Ray 1 0-0 3; Romano 1 0-0 2; Zimmerman 0 0-0 0; Ford 0 0-0 0; Harpster 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21 4-11 55.
Juniata Valley – McAllister 3 2-6 8; Morgan 1 2-2 4; Brennamen 2 0-2 4; Boyd 3 0-1 6; Taylor 2 1-4 5; Briggs 0 1-2 1; Serger 0 2-4 2. TOTALS: 11 8-21 30.
Score by Quarters
Tyrone 16 19 15 5 – 55
Juniata Valley 7 9 3 11 – 30
Three-point goals: Tyrone 9 (Corle 4, Faretta 3, Garbinsky, Ray)

The Tyrone wrestling team participated in the Juniata Duals at Mifflin, on Saturday, winning two of five duals on a busy day.
The Golden Eagles defeated Newport 43-23, and West Perry 38-32. Losses were to Penn Trafford 48-14, DeLone Catholic 36-26 and to host Juniata 38-29.
Tyrone opened with the match against Penn Trafford. Both teams were among the 36 teams who wrestled in the King of the Mountain Tournament at Central Mountain High School in Dec., but there were no matches between grapplers from the two schools in the tournament. The only wins for the Eagles were a technical fall by Shayne Tate at 171, and regukar decisiones by Ronnie Garbinsky (103), Anthony Romano (130) and Jermey Barlett (145). Returning PIAA runner-up A. J. Schopp was defeated by Young 3-0, at 112.
Garbinsky, Schopp, Cody Weaver (135), and Jimmy Weston (140) all pinned their foes in the second match against Newport. Tate won by tech fall, Chase Weaver (119) and Romano won by major decision and Robbie Sellers won by regular decision.
In the loss to DeLone Catholic, Weston recorded his second fall, moving up to 145 for the Eagles lone pin of the dual meet. Schopp and Tate each won by major decision. Garbinsky, Romano and Barlett won by regular decision.
Everybody who won earned bonus points in Tyrone’s triumph over West Perry. The two teams split the 14 weight classes right down the middle, seven-seven, but the Golden Eagles earned six more bonus points. The Eagles got pins from Garbinsky, Schopp, Sellers, Romano and Tate, and major decisions by Cody Weaver and 285-pounder Dalaun Carroll to pull out the win.
In the finale for the day, Tyrone got Tate’s third tech fall of the day, along with pins from Garbinsky, Schopp and Cody Weaver, and regular decisions by Romano and Barlett.
Ronnie Garbinsky (20-1), Anthony Romano (19-5), and Shayne Tate (17-4) all went 5-0 for the day. Tate had three tech falls, a pin and a major decision. Garbinsky recorded three pins and Romano added one pin and one major. Jeremy Barlett (13-6) spent a lot of time on the mat, winning all four matches by regular decision in going 4-0.
A.J. Schopp (21-2) had three pins and a major decision to got 4-1 at the Duals.
Cody Weaver (13-7) had two pins and a major decision to finish the day 3-2. Jimmy Weston (6-13) had two pins, Robbie Sellers (8-11) had one pin and Dalaun Carroll (3-9) a major decision, with all three wrestlers ending the tournament 2-3.
Chase Weaver (7-10) won by major decision for his only win of the day.
Matt Moore (130), Cody Smith (160), Dustin Weaver (189), and Corey Barnhart (215) also wrestled at Juniata for the Eagles.
Tyrone returns to action tonight at home against a tough Huntingdon squad, then welcomes fellow Blair County foe Hollidaysburg on Thursday. Junior high wrestling will begin at 5:30 on both nights, with the varsity following at 7:30.
Three well-known Tyrone wrestling figures, Troy Walk (wrestler), Gordon Norris (District 6 Tournament Director, PIAA Official) and Len Slother (Sports Editor) will be inducted into the Tyrone Wrestling Hall of Fame prior to the start of the varsity match between Tyrone and Hollidaysburg at approximately 7 p.m. on Thursday.