HS Football Polls ‘23 – Week 5
For the first time in a few weeks, our live Friday night match-up will NOT be feature a pair of two undefeated teams.
Instead, this Friday on the Astound TV Network we will have two teams with one loss each face each other (both lost to undefeated Parkland)–Nazareth vs. Central (teams number 2 and 3 in our poll–see more below). Our #4 team, Bethlehem Catholic, will also be featured against Emmaus this weekend. The 5-0 Hawks, predicted to be last in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference by one local newspaper, looked impressive when we saw them three weeks ago against Whitehall, who also comes into this weekend with a 5-1 record.
We will also have several interesting editions of “SportsTalk” coming up on the next few Thursdays, live at 7pm on ATVN.
This week, our new high school football blogger Mel Thomas will be in-studio to talk about this new experience and get his thoughts on the local high school football season to date.
Next week, ATVN’s John Leone will be in-studio to talk about both Lafayette College and local high school football.
Then, on October 12th, we’ll have our first ever fall sports “all-features” edition of our show, featuring multiple non-football sports interviews from a variety of schools from within the ATVN viewing area.
If you have a question or comment about local sports issues, please email us at chris.michael@astound.com and we might read and respond to your email live on the show!
Now here’s a look at our polls along with our criteria that we use.
I’m proud to say (and no, I don’t vote myself) our football polls have proven to be among the most accurate, year after year, among all media organizations that attempt to rank teams in our coverage area each fall. (Check out our archived polls from previous years if you’d like proof).
This year, we are once again going to break down the two polls into EPC and Colonial League schools, within the Astound TV broadcast area. With the Colonial teams cross-scheduling and playing teams from the Schuylkill League and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playing different “cross-over” teams, our poll will be an interesting barometer for teams in the Lehigh Valley since many local teams will not have the same opponents throughout their schedules.
EPC TOP 5
- Parkland
- Nazareth
- Central Catholic
- Bethlehem Catholic
- Whitehall
Eligible Teams (in no particular order):
Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Allentown Central Catholic, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, and Nazareth.
COLONIAL TOP 4
- Northwestern
- Southern Lehigh
- Bangor
- Notre Dame
Other schools receiving votes: Pen Argyl
Eligible Teams (in no particular order):
Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh.
Be sure to check back to the “upcoming events” section here on our website and check it frequently for any changes and for our ongoing broadcast schedule information throughout the postseason.
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.
