It was another fun (and extremely hectic) District XI playoff season for us at RCN-TV. A huge “THANK YOU” to all the representatives of the district, the athletic directors, coaches, statisticians (especially Bob & Pat Whirl!) and everyone involved in the tournament. The playoffs were not without their share of exciting moments, a few upsets and some great storylines involving the communities within RCN’s Lehigh Valley coverage area.
Here are a few thoughts and observations regarding this year’s tournament.
1) Parkland and Becahi Delivered
Coming into this season—heck, even over a year ago—the Parkland boys and Bethlehem Catholic girls basketball teams were the definitive teams-to-beat in the 2015 District XI tourney. On paper, they clearly had the best teams, but that doesn’t always translate to winning a championship. No matter how dominating their regular season, one bad night could shatter all of their expectations—especially with an early loss in the playoffs. However, these teams came out and played their best. What was more impressive was, if one player was having a rare off-night, others stepped up and delivered. The result? Neither of these teams needed a late-game, “sweat-it-out” basket to win its game, and entered the state playoffs as #1 seeds. It’s one thing to appear to be the best team, but there’s something to be said for going out and executing each and every night. Through many months of hard work and dedication, they made their success “look” easy, and winning every single game against every area opponent is a tremendous accomplishment for both of these schools.
2) The Nazareth Community
One example of the truly special communities within the RCN area is Nazareth. From its #1 fan (Andy Weaver) to its classy and professional head coaches (Joe Arndt, Rich Bickert), to its passionate fan base, it’s always fun to broadcast a Blue Eagle game. Both teams took different routes to advance to the final day of the district playoffs. The Nazareth girls team has several seniors armed with experience earned during the Blue Eagles’ 2013 championship season, mixed with some of the most talented sophomores in the area. Many girls basketball experts thought Nazareth’s experience would give them the advantage over the upstart Red Rovers, a team I don’t think got as much attention as they deserved. Easton has a host of athletic underclassmen and no doubt will be competing for league and district titles for many years to come. But 2015 belong to the Eagles and I’m looking forward to seeing them in action this Friday in their opening round state game against Mount St. Joseph’s. Especially with the game conveniently located, I’m expecting the people of Nazareth to take the short trip down Route 191 and continue to support their team as they embark on their playoff run. (Programming note: Coach Bickert and members of his District Championship team will be guests on the March 19th edition of “RCN SportsTalk” at 6pm).
Speaking of the Eagles’ fan base, the people of Nazareth weren’t the only area basketball fans who were rooting for the Eagles boys team, a unit that embodied the spirit of the ‘Comeback Kids’ over the last few weeks. Nazareth had to defeat Northampton (who was fighting for its league playoff life) just to qualify for the playoffs, then came back to beat Liberty (a team many pegged to play Parkland in the Championship) in the first round. Then, they overcame a 12-point fourth quarter deficit to beat a Stroudsburg squad that had come the closest local team to beat the Trojans. Finally, Nazareth bounced back from a 15-point third quarter deficit to force overtime against Whitehall in the semifinal, making for the most thrilling fourth quarter of the tournament. Although Nazareth would go on to lose to Allen on the playoff’s final day, the Blue Eagles made for some lasting memories for many local basketball fans. The fact that the boys athletes showed up at the girls’ games and vice versa was tremendous to see, and the entire town should be proud of its winter sports athletes.
3) The “Ultimate” Underdogs
I don’t know if there’s a more underrated boys basketball head coach in the area than Salisbury’s Jason Weaver. Ever since he took over the Falcons basketball program seven year ago, all they’ve done is win games. Every couple years he’ll lose the entire starting lineup to graduation, and yet, by game one of the following season, the Falcons are right there, playing as well as anyone in the Colonial League…and each February they’re beating teams in the post season. When Salisbury lost its top scorer Dasheen Reid before districts started, they came back and posted one of the most impressive start-to-finish games I saw all year in their win over Wilson. They continued on and lost tough ball games to Central Catholic and Tamaqua to finish out their season, but, like Nazareth, I don’t know how many local basketball fans thought they would preserve through some adversity as well as they did, and should be commended for their effort.
And speaking of Salisbury, how about a shout-out to two of the top girls basketball performers in our area—the Falcons’ Meagan Eripret and also Palmerton’s Jade Farquhar. Although we didn’t broadcast any of their games, I had a chance to watch both of these standout stars in action. We interviewed Eripret for “SportsTalk” last year when her head coach Joe Mladosich won his 200th game and she was very well-spoken and unselfish when discussing her skills and abilities in relationship to the team’s success during her career at Salisbury. She became the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,787 points and has made her Falcons a perennial post-season contender over the last few seasons.
Farquhar was the Colonial League’s MVP and she scored her 1,000th point in a game against Pleasant Valley earlier this season. I was also told that she contributes countless hours volunteering at local organizations and youth activities. I heard extremely wonderful things about both of these young ladies, both in terms of the performances on and off the court from people who follow girls basketball on a regular basis.
Another such individual I have had the good fortune of seeing often was Wilson’s Phil Pierfy, who’s tremendous scholastic basketball career came to an end in this year’s district playoffs. He’s a two-sport standout star in basketball and baseball, and I know a number of college coaches in both sports that would love to add him to their teams. Warrior’s Head Coach Bob Frankenfield would commonly refer to Phil as a great “STUDENT-athlete,” putting the emphasis on the first part of this term. The high standard players like Eripret, Farquhar and Pierfy live up to are what true champions are made of, and should be celebrated just as much, and in many cases more, than the trophy that’s raised at the end of the district tournament.
What other players should be recognized for great work this past winter sports season, and which individuals deserve “Shout-outs” for their efforts? Send us an email with your thoughts and opinions to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and we’ll read some of your comments on our next show, March 12th from 6-7pm. On this show, we are happy to be joined by District XI Football Chair Jason Zimmerman and PIAA President Dr. Robert Lombardi, to discuss the new “six football classifications” proposal, which could gather momentum later this month and potentially could change the landscape for the sport in both the Lehigh Valley and in Pennsylvania.
