The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
Here’s three local sports observations as we head into District 11 championship week…
1) While the coaches are not saying anything, parents, students and Red Rover sports fans had plenty to say about the alleged protocols that forbade its basketball teams from participating in the district tournament.
Over 2,000 signatures were signed to a petition demanding the team be allowed to participate but Easton school administrators held fast and claimed the current rules state that the team cannot participate in the playoffs.
Both the boys and the girls teams were certainly among the top two or three teams in the district’s 6A classification. The Easton girls defeated the reigning state champions from Bethlehem Catholic — twice — to open the season…only to have their year and prematurely less than two months later.
2) Of the teams that are still left, there’s still plenty of great boys and girls basketball games to be played this week. The fact that this year’s district tournament is an open tournament and “a win or go home” format has only intensified the interest in each single game, with only the district winners advancing into state competition. This is personally something I would like to see for the playoffs going forward and would provide many benefits. However, this obviously would decrease the number of playoff games and therefore the amount of revenue so I doubt it will be something we will see again once everything returns to “normal.”
Make sure you bookmark and keep coming back to the RCN TV website for the teams and times of the games we are broadcasting this week and for the state playoffs which begins next Tuesday.
3) With constant uncertainty throughout the winter months, our pollsters still did a credible job of picking our teams each week. With the exception of the Easton situation listed above, they have been about as consistent as humanly possible.
For this winter, we are breaking the two polls down into the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (Lehigh Valley teams only) and Colonial League schools, within the RCN broadcast area. With the reduced schedules and many of our teams staying mostly “in country” with their opponents this year due to the COVID-19 restrictions, this plan for our polls will keep things interesting since many of the top teams within the local conferences will not have the opportunity to actually face each other this fall.
Like the fall, our pollsters will consist of local media members and coaches/administrators from our local teams, who will remain anonymous so they can vote honestly without retribution and to avoid any “bulletin board” material. Our media members will reveal themselves when they appear on our show (and if they don’t and have “bad picks,” I’ll be sure to point that out to our audience!:)
So below we have high school polls for both leagues, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.
Feel free to email me at Chris.Michael@rcn.net for your thoughts on this week’s poll and we might read and respond to your emails on this week’s SportsTalk show.
EPC-LV TOP 5
1) Allen
3) Easton*
4) Parkland
5) Northampton
*Season concluded due to school district protocols
Eligible Teams (in no particular order):
Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, Nazareth, and Northampton
COLONIAL TOP 5
1) Notre Dame
2) Bangor
3) Northwestern
4) Palmerton
Eligible Teams (in no particular order):
Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh, Southern Lehigh and Palisades
Be sure to bookmark our high school winter sports broadcast schedule here on the website and check it frequently. With several games already postponed or canceled so far this season, there could be changes from day to day!
