Winter Scheduling Highlights ‘22
The high school winter sports season is just under way!
We already did two games (both games featured two of the hottest teams through the first nine days of the season) and have seven games/matches coming up over the next ten days (one wrestling match was canceled by the hosting school).
As you check out the new schedule here on our website, I want to point out a few of the highlights for this winter and the next few months…
MORE WRESTLING MATCHES
The Lehigh Valley has been known for years as the best area for wrestling in Pennsylvania (and on a short-list of the top wrestling regions in the nation) with many recent and not-so-recent graduates from local high schools capturing success at Division-I colleges throughout the USA.
Between COVID and other scheduling issues in recent years, it was a priority for us this season to get back to scheduling a wrestling match every Wednesday during the regular season. PLUS…with some creative techniques…we have added a couple more nights during the winter that will focus on this sport. We are also going to feature more wrestling schools than any other year in our network’s history, including all four schools that participated in last year’s PIAA championships.
MORE BOYS BASKETBALL TEAMS
As long as Mother Nature doesn’t cancel a ton of games this winter, we are going to be featuring more schools than ever before!
Our schedule will include every Eastern Pennsylvania Conference team from the Lehigh Valley at least once. Our early season schedule will feature Parkland, Bethlehem Catholic and Northampton–the three boys teams that “lasted the longest” in last year’s state playoffs. We also will feature some of the up-and-coming teams, including Central Catholic and Liberty–teams that have had really good fall seasons and are predicted to do well this winter.
Additionally we have scheduled games with nearly every team from the Colonial League from our viewing area, including a few schools we have not had on our network in decades. As always, the weather could ruin our plans and changes beyond our control may occur, but we did work very hard to try to be as fair to as many teams as we could, while putting together a comprehensive schedule at the same time.
GIRLS BASKETBALL GAMES
I know we have had viewers asking about the lack of girls basketball games in the past and we have heard your opinions!
Our winter 2022-23 schedule will feature some of the top girls basketball teams from our area, including Easton, Parkland, Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Nazareth and others…plus we will make sure to allow for a number of girls playoff games in February and March. We believe the girls games we have picked will not only feature some of the top athletes from our area, but will be just as competitive (or maybe more so?) than many of the other boys games that will be played on those nights.
Please note: All of the above upgrades to our schedule should not take away from featuring all the top games as we get closer to playoff times. We look to accomplish all of the above before we get to the final three weeks of the regular season, when many of our viewers are looking forward to seeing the most competitive games as squads jockey for playoff positioning.
It was a busy fall preparing for all these new editions to our broadcast schedule for the upcoming months. We hope we will be able to bring you a very balanced and entertaining selection of games to tune in for all winter long. As always, your feedback and suggestions will continue to be welcomed for the new year and I look forward to hearing your opinions throughout the seasons by emailing me.
Check back next week for more exciting local sports news and more on our winter coverage this season!
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
