With the PIAA football championships coming up in Hershey this week, it’s time we take our final peek at the highlights of playoff games seen on RCN-TV this fall.
Congratulations to all of the teams, coaches and athletes for an entertaining season. Special honors go out to Parkland, the lone team in the RCN viewing area who will be playing in the state final this weekend (all of the state championship games can be seen on the PCN Network—RCN dial position 97). Saucon Valley had a great year and, despite their season-ending (and only) loss last weekend, the Panthers handled themselves with class. In fact, all the players I had the good fortune of seeing and being around this season deserve a tremendous amount of credit for the way they conducted themselves this fall, both on and off the field.
I’d also like to take a moment to thank all the athletic directors, head coaches and their staffs for the wealth of information and insights they provided us during this past high school football season. Their jobs are tough enough as is, but they never hesitated in helping us gather information about their teams or backed away from telling us about all of their players’ highlights and accomplishments.
You can relive all the memorable moments by watching the playoff games again through RCN’s On-Demand services. These games will be available for free to RCN subscribers through the end of the calendar year, or you can purchase a DVD of these games by calling or emailing us at the RCN TV studio.
A final reminder…
It’s almost time for our annual “end of the year” awards here at the “SportsTalk Shop” and I’d like to include your opinions once again as we start to reflect on the highlights from both this year’s football season, as well as the top moments overall in the RCN viewing area. We’re looking for your favorite athletes, teams, games, special plays and unforgettable moments that you saw in 2015. This includes all teams in the Eastern Pennsylvania and Washington, DC regions and at the scholastic, collegiate and professional levels.
There were certainly some great storylines from this past year. Just looking at recent events on the football field:
- Notre Dame going from 0-10 last year to 2A District Champs (not to mention winning its first-ever, two playoff games, setting a school record for wins in a season and its first-ever appearance in the PIAA playoffs)
- Parkland and Saucon Valley both advancing to the semifinal round of the state playoffs
- The turnaround of the Nazareth football program—reaching the district playoffs with many names returning next fall
- The end of the “Ed Christian Era” at East Stroudsburg South High School and all the District XI wins he earned during his illustrious career
- The launching of the “DC Sports Minute” on our “SportsTalk” show, featuring the high school teams in the Washington, DC and Virginia regions
- …and many more!!!
If you have a suggestion for someone or some group to get a mention, we’d love to hear from you! Send us you a favorite sports moment, a really great game or event, a standout athlete or team who really exceeded expectations, via email to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com. Be assured that we’ll factor that in when putting together our “Year in Review” selections. If you are mentioning a sport that we typically don’t cover or a sport that doesn’t usually receive a tremendous amount of publicity, feel free to pass along more information about the program, a contact person or anything that is available to you.
We’ll have our “year-in-review” entry coming up in a couple weeks. I, just like Jolly Ol’ St. Nick, have already started compiling my list, so please don’t hesitate to send your opinions to us right away!
