As we near the “awards season” for high school football, I would like to discuss one a bit early – Coach of the Year for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. I bring it up sooner than normal only because my two nominees coach against one another this Friday night in the Sub-regional District #2-#11 semifinal. The nominees are – Steve Shiffert of Easton and Jason Roeder of Freedom. The choices were easy; picking the winner, not so much.
Steve Shiffert is obvious. This is his twenty-second year at the helm. His team is undefeated (11-0). They are the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division champions. They score over 40 points a game and they win by an average margin of 26 points. The closest game they played was a 63-49 win over Whitehall. Mercy rule games (winning by 35 points) were the norm. Easton plays fundamental football about as well as you can imagine. They simply block, tackle, run, and defend the way coaching manuals demonstrate. There really isn’t anything that one could say detrimental about this team or the coach. The program possesses the second most wins in Pennsylvania history, more AAAA District championships than any other team, and Coach Shiffert has more wins (199) than any other Easton coach. In other words, this program just continues to roll along. This seems like an easy vote to cast for Coach of the Year, right?
Well, before you fill out your ballot, consider the other nominee – Jason Roeder. The Freedom Patriots were 2-8 last year, 4-5 in ’12, 3-6 in ’10. Winning seasons have been hard to come by and championships have been non-existent. As they prepare to play in the semifinals of the Districts, they are 9-2 this season. They were 7-0 when their quarterback, Joe Young, tore his hip socket and was done for the season. They lost the next two games against the very best of the Conference, Easton and Parkland. In the past two weeks, Freedom shut out their arch-rival, Liberty 29-0 and beat a very good Whitehall team by a 17-14 score. When you watch this team play, you have to be impressed with the heart, drive, and cohesiveness they demonstrate. There is no doubt that they play for one another, their school, and their coach. Jason Roeder has done a marvelous job putting his team in a position to win their very first District championship.
So, do you pick the coach who, year in and year out, has the acumen and the players to pretty much guarantee a successful season or do you pick a coach who has turned around a dismal year and created a highly successful one?
You should know that Easton beat Freedom 47-27 just three weeks ago and will be favored to beat them again. It would be shocking if the Patriots knocked off the undefeated Red Rovers. Should we wait to see who wins the game before making our selection? Or, better yet, do we recognize the outstanding achievements of both men and their teams and make them Co-Coaches of the Year? Now, that’s something I CAN vote for.
P.S. You can watch the game LIVE on Friday night at 7:00 followed by the Parkland – Delaware Valley game at 10:30 PM.
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
- There was some good sportsmanship on Sunday night when Mike McCarthy, the head coach of the Packers, pulled Aaron Rodgers after he threw six touchdown passes in the first half alone. Even though Rodgers was close to the NFL record of eight TD passes in a game, McCarthy mercifully sat his quarterback down and did not embarrass Chicago any further.
- Arizona Cardinal quarterback, Carson Palmer, has never won a playoff game in his career. His team is off to an 8-1 start, he signed a $50 million contract extension this week with a guarantee of $20.5 million. He suffered a season-ending knee injury on Sunday. So much for a great week.
- Michael Vick believes the Jets would have won more games if he had been their starting quarterback. That’s easy to say since they only won one without him. It is somewhat bewildering that the Jets waited this long to give Vick an opportunity. In upsetting Pittsburgh this past Sunday, Vick became the first NFL quarterback to rush for 6,000 career yards.
- No surprise that the state of Alabama has the highest concentration of college football fans. Facebook did a survey of the highest proportion of the population who root for any college football team. What with the University of Alabama and Auburn enjoying great success, 34% of the population were college football fans. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa fill out the Top Five. The five lowest states showing interest in college football were all from New England. Pennsylvania was 31st.
- The AAA District XI championship will be decided LIVE on Saturday night on RCN-TV at 7:00. The Matchup is somewhat intriguing – Colonial League co-champion Saucon Valley vs Eastern Pennsylvania Conference member and defending champion Bethlehem Catholic.
(Last Week – 8-4; Seasonal Record – 92-53-1: 63%)
MIAMI
CLEVELAND
CHICAGO
GREEN BAY
SEATTLE
ATLANTA
NEW ORLEANS
WASHINGTON
DENVER
SAN FRANCISCO
SAN DIEGO
ARIZONA
NEW ENGLAND
PITTSBURGH
