If you are a sports fan, you probably have heard the name Mimi Griffin before.

If you haven’t, here are just some of her accomplishments as listed on the “bio page” of inductees on the National Collegiate Athletic Associations’ Hall of Fame website:

• Griffin is considered to be the first broadcast expert for women’s basketball
• She served as the “face” for women’s basketball in its early television exposure and laid the foundation and groundwork for women’s basketball on television
• She was the National Director of Promotion for Women’s Athletics for Converse from 1983-85
• Griffin was the ESPN primary women’s basketball analyst from 1983-1999 and was the color analyst for the NCAA Women’s Final Four from 1985-1991
• In 1990, she was the first woman color analyst for a NCAA men’s tournament game on ESPN.
• In 1991, she became the first woman to broadcast the first two rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on CBS Sports
• Griffin was the Championship Director of the US Senior Open in 1992, 2000, and 2022 and was the Championship Director of the US Women’s Open in 1995 and 2009
• She was the Director of Marketing and Championship Administration for the US Open in 1995 and 1998
• She was the 1994 WBCA Mel Greenberg Media Award winner
• In 2009, Griffin was named one of the “Best 50 Women in Business” by Pennsylvania Governor and the Department of Community and Economic Development

And now, she is joining ATVN!

Enshrined in the NCAA’s Hall of Fame in 2014, Mimi is joining our sports family as an announcer and will be giving her valuable expertise and vast basketball insights on our winter sports broadcasts.

I have had the pleasure of working with Mimi for a number of years–first back in 2009 when she was the Championship Director for the US Women’s Open held at Saucon Valley Country Club.

Our paths crossed again this summer when her organization successfully presented this year’s US Senior Open held at the same location.

Mimi has always been one of the most professional and successful people that I have had the pleasure of meeting, working with and interviewing on several occasions.  She also has a passion for basketball and for promoting student-athletes successes – a trait that many of our current ATVN announcers also possess and look to do each time they put on the microphones.  

While Mimi is still the CEO of her own business, MSG Productions, whose responsibilities include producing and overseeing major golf championships across the country, she is excited about the opportunity to get back into the broadcasting industry.

We are very lucky to have her join our staff…and our viewers will be fortunate to have one of the world’s greatest basketball minds giving analysis on our broadcasts this winter.

Keep checking back to “The SportsTalk Shop” as we unveil more news about our sports coverage and additions to our ATVN Sports family in the coming weeks!

*****

Below we have our weekly high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.

EPC TOP 5

1. Emmaus
2. Freedom
3. Nazareth
4. Central Catholic
5. Northampton

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

1. Notre Dame-GP
2. Northwestern
3. Northern Lehigh
4. Southern Lehigh

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh.

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.

We lead off this week’s blog with a quick programming note!

District XI Football Chair Jason Zimmerman will make his annual appearance on this Thursday’s ATVN SportsTalk.  There are a number of changes this year to the high school football playoff layout (especially for the 6A “largest schools” classification), as well as the site of the state championships and a number of other big issues that Jason will be speaking about.

You can email me, with your question or comment about local football and we may read it on this Thursday’s program.  I can tell you that Jason and our local athletic directors are very busy with a number of challenging issues that they are dealing with at the local scholastic levels and we deeply appreciate Zimmerman giving us his time to appear on our show again this fall to address issues that affect us all.

*******

We have had a number of great sports broadcasts over the last month, including last week’s high school football game (a 5-point game in the “Christmas City Rivalry”) that was broadcast across the state on the PCN Network.

Here are highlights of some of our recent broadcasts on the Astound TV Network

1. Astound Sports: Easton vs. Parkland (8/22)
   
2. Astound Sports: Emmaus vs. Freedom (8/22)
   
3. Astound Sports:  Northern Yankees vs. Easton Falcons (7/22)
   
4. Astound Sports: Iron Valley Orioles vs Martin’s Creek Creekers (7/22)
   
5. Astound Sports: Iron Valley Orioles vs. Northern Yankees (7/22)
   

It’s a busy weekend for us coming up as we will broadcast the 2022 National Highland Games athletic championships as a part of ATVN’s coverage of this year’s Celtic Classic.

We will also be bringing you a big high school football game featuring undefeated (and the top team in our poll, see below) Emmaus taking on Bethlehem Catholic, who sports a 3-1 record coming into the contest and is also a top-ranked team in our EPC poll.  The game will be live Friday night at 7pm on ATVN.

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Below we have high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.

EPC TOP 5

1. Emmaus
2. Nazareth
3. Central Catholic
4. Bethlehem Catholic
5. (tie)  Freedom / Parkland 

Eligible Teams from our viewing area (in no particular order):

Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Allentown Central Catholic, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, and Nazareth.

COLONIAL TOP 4

1. Northern Lehigh
2. Northwestern 
3. Southern Lehigh
4. Notre Dame-GP

Eligible Teams from our viewing area (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 our website for next week’s poll results and come back frequently for any changes to our ongoing broadcast schedule information throughout the 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.

Unlike the first two weeks when we had several surprises, things settled down as we stayed the course this past weekend…which was NOT a good thing for some of our local teams.

On the positive side, the top teams in both the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and the Colonial League kept on winning, with Parkland handing Freedom its second loss of the season on the Friday night “ATVN” high school football broadcast.

Elsewhere, Emmaus, Northampton and Central Catholic stuck to their winning ways and all the top teams in the Colonial League posted wins.  Liberty got a much needed win against Stroudsburg after the Hurricanes had lost 10 games in a row dating back to last season.

On the negative side, teams like Whitehall, Allen, Dieruff, Freedom, Catasauqua, Pen Argyl and Wilson were among the teams that lost again last week, which already makes their playoff run chances that much harder.  Teams that have two or more losses before we get to September 15th rarely make the postseason.  In some classifications, the road to the playoffs will be even more difficult this year based on some changes to the District XI’s seating process (something we’ll be talking about in more detail on an upcoming edition of ATVN SportsTalk).

We have an interesting match-up coming up on Astound TV Network this Friday as “Christmas City rivals” Bethlehem Catholic and Liberty square off.  Both teams are making their first appearance on our network this fall.  A win by the Hawks over the Hurricanes (a bigger “sized” school) will give them more “power points” and greatly enhance their playoff chances.  Liberty also needs a “W” to avoid picking up a third loss early in the season.

The game will be simulcast statewide on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.

********

Before we unveil this week’s polls, a few details on how our listings are different from all other local media members.

We never announce nor release the names of our non-media voters to get their honest opinions on the local football landscape while avoiding any thoughts of retribution or potential “bulletin board” material.  Our “media voters” usually reveal themselves when we have the pleasure of having them on our weekly SportsTalk program, seen on Thursday nights on the Astound TV Network and available to watch at any time for free through ATVN on Demand.

This year, we are going to break the two polls down into EPC and Colonial League schools, within the Astound broadcast area.  With the Colonial teams cross-scheduling and playing teams from the Schuylkill League and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playing different “crossover” teams, our poll will be an interesting barometer for teams in the Lehigh Valley since many local teams will not have the same opponents on their schedule.

Below we have high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.

EPC TOP 5

1. Nazareth
2. Emmaus
3. Parkland
4. Central Catholic
5. Freedom

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Allentown Central Catholic, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, and Nazareth.

Parkland, Nazareth and Emmaus all scored wins again this week and remain as the top three teams in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.  Things got interesting after that as Central Catholic moved up a spot following their win over Easton, while Freedom dropped a spot due to their loss to Parkland.  

Also, Northampton is starting to get some consideration by our pollsters.  However, the fact that they elected to stay in the “North” division, thereby playing teams that are not nearly as strong as the teams in the “South” division, continues to work against them when voters factor in the team’s strength of schedules.

COLONIAL TOP 4

1. Northern Lehigh
2. Northwestern
3. Southern Lehigh
4. Notre Dame-GP

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh.

No changes in the Colonial League poll as Northwestern, Notre Dame-Green Pond, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh all looked good in victories last weekend.  Saucon Valley is making things interesting with a mercy rule win over Wilson but remains just outside the “top 4.”

Be sure to check back to our website for next week’s poll results and come back frequently for any changes to our ongoing broadcast schedule information throughout the 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.

For most of the last dozen or so summers, I run into Nazareth Football Head Coach Tom Falzone and ask him how good his team is going to be the following autumn. Every other summer he downplays his team’s expectations and says his team isn’t going to be that good this season…and most of the time, his team exceeds expectations and finishes near the top of the pack.

This spring he admitted to me, “We’re going to be very good.”

And two weeks into the season, his Blue Eagles have taken over the top spot in our Eastern Pennsylvania Conference poll standings.

As you saw on ATVN last weekend, we had two outstanding high school games, all involving the top teams in our EPC Poll. Nazareth posted a strong win over Parkland and Emmaus scored a five-point victory over Central Catholic.

Nazareth still has a number of tough games coming up, but they cleared their first big hurdle of the season.

Emmaus, meanwhile, has five more very winnable games coming up and should be in good shape for quite a while.

Not to be outdone in the Colonial League, there was a great Thursday night football contest in which Northern Lehigh upset Northwestern. On Friday, Southern Lehigh edged Notre Dame-Green Pond in a one-point win. The close victories will force a complete “flip” of our Colonial poll–below–involving the same four teams but in different positions.

But first, here are the details on our weekly polls.

We never announce nor release the names of our non-media voters to get their honest opinions on the local football landscape while avoiding any thoughts of retribution or potential “bulletin board” material. Our “media voters” usually reveal themselves when we have the pleasure of having them on our weekly SportsTalk program, seen on Thursday nights on the Astound TV Network and available to watch at any time for free through ATVN on Demand.

This year, we are breaking the two polls down into EPC and Colonial League schools, within the Astound broadcast area. With the Colonial teams cross-scheduling and playing teams from the Schuylkill League and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playing different “crossover” teams, our poll will be an interesting barometer for teams in the Lehigh Valley since many local teams will not have the same opponents on their schedule.

Below we have high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.

EPC TOP 5

1. Nazareth
2. Emmaus
3. Parkland
4. Freedom
5. Bethlehem Catholic

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

1. Northern Lehigh
2. Southern Lehigh
3. Northwestern
4. Notre Dame-GP

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 our website for our weekly polls and check our upcoming broadcast information frequently for any changes for our ongoing sports schedule throughout the fall 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.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or
position of Astound or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Those of us in the media often say that we are not surprised when a certain team beats another team.

But, quite frequently, we can be surprised by the WAY one team defeats another team.

That was the case with many of our week-one contests.

Previously second-ranked Parkland, a team that normally dominates teams with their rushing attack, took to the air to deliver some long (and amazingly athletic) catches, to defeat Easton–last week’s number-five team.

And other teams like Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern and Northern Lehigh, to name a few, not only won their games, but won by surprisingly huge margins.

Last but not least (as you saw on ATVN last Friday), the rematch of last year’s district championship game lived up to the hype.  But it was Emmaus–the team that lost in last fall’s title contest–that surprised Freedom, a squad that most people thought would be the best team in the area.

What does it all mean?  

It should be a very interesting fall.

And now, for this week’s polls…

We never announce nor release the names of our non-media voters to get their honest opinions on the local football landscape while avoiding any thoughts of retribution or potential “bulletin board” material.  Our “media voters” usually reveal themselves when we have the pleasure of having them on our weekly SportsTalk program, seen on Thursday nights on the Astound TV Network and available to watch at any time for free through ATVN on Demand.

This year, we are going to break the two polls down into EPC and Colonial League schools, within the Astound broadcast area.  With the Colonial teams cross-scheduling and playing teams from the Schuylkill League and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playing different “crossover” teams, our poll will be an interesting barometer for teams in the Lehigh Valley since many local teams will not have the same opponents on their schedule.

Below we have high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.

EPC TOP 5

1. Parkland
2. Nazareth
3. Emmaus
4. Freedom
5. Central Catholic

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Allentown Central Catholic, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, and Nazareth.

Parkland, Nazareth and Emmaus all scored wins and moved up in the poll, while Freedom’s loss to Emmaus brought them down from number-one to number-four.  Central Catholic, who was tied for the fifth spot with Easton in our pre-season poll, takes over that spot by itself with its exciting come-from-behind win over Liberty on Saturday night.

COLONIAL TOP 4

1. Northwestern
2. Notre Dame-GP
3. Northern Lehigh
4. Southern Lehigh

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh.

No changes in the Colonial League poll as Northwestern, Notre Dame-Green Pond and Northern Lehigh all posted solid wins, while Southern Lehigh lost a close out-of-the-league contest last Friday, but holds on to its “fourth” spot in the rankings.

Be sure to check back to our website and check it frequently for any changes for our ongoing broadcast schedule information throughout the 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.

The kickoff of the high school football season is here!

This Friday, the season begins with a pair of great matchups that we will be featuring on the Astound TV Network, featuring four teams that qualified for the district tournament a year ago.  The EPC South Champion Parkland will take on Easton, while the two teams that played for last year’s district title–Emmaus and Freedom–will rematch against each other this Friday.

Not surprisingly, all four of these teams will begin the season ranked high in the ATVN pre-season polls.

Several of the other teams ranked in both our polls will be seen on ATVN later in the season (we’ll have Nazareth and Allentown Central Catholic on our channel next week).

Not familiar with our annual scholastic football polling?

I’m glad you asked.

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).

We never announce nor release the names of our non-media voters to get their honest opinions on the local football landscape while avoiding any thoughts of retribution or potential “bulletin board” material.  Our “media voters” usually reveal themselves when we have the pleasure of having them on our weekly SportsTalk program, seen on Thursday nights on the Astound TV Network and available to watch at any time for free through ATVN on Demand.

This year, we are going to break the two polls down into EPC and Colonial League schools, within the Astound broadcast area.  With the Colonial teams will be 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 on their schedule.

Below we have high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.

EPC TOP 5

1. Freedom
2. Parkland
3. Nazareth
4. Emmaus
5. (tie)  Easton/Central Catholic

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

1. Northwestern 
2. Notre Dame-GP
3. Northern Lehigh
4. Southern Lehigh

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 playoff 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.

We are closing in on the start of another school year and a busy 10-month stretch of high school sports productions coming up on the Astound TV Network.

We are also wrapping up a successful summer broadcast campaign.

First up…a look ahead.

Our first high school broadcast of the new season will be on Friday, August 26, with a doubleheader featuring four teams that competed in last year’s District XI playoffs–Freedom, Emmaus, Easton and Parkland.

We also will post our scholastic football schedule here on our website very soon.  I firmly believe ATVN customers will be pleasantly satisfied with a number of key elements for our slate this fall.

Some of our highlights include:

• A significant increase in the number of Colonial League games
• More Northampton regular season football games this regular season
• A bigger variety of teams on our schedule than any other year
• While the pre-season “teams to beat” appears to be Emmaus, Parkland, Nazareth and Freedom (our full “polls” will be released next week here on this blog and on our Thursday “SportsTalk” show), we still have 11 other teams in our coverage area on our schedule at least twice
• All of the “large school” EPC-South teams are scheduled to be on at least three times (most will be on at least four times)
• More live games than any other season in our network’s history

As always, there are still a variety of factors that may affect our schedule.  A good number of those reasons could be completely out of our control, which is why it will be important to bookmark our programming schedule pages and keep checking back to our website throughout the season to stay up-to-date with our sports programming on the Astound TV Network.

We’ll have more on the upcoming high school football season, along with continuing our month-long interviews with local non-football sports as teams prepare for the upcoming fall season, this Thursday at 7pm on ATVN.

******

As we turn the page to the fall, we take our final look back at a very fun and busy summer season on our network.

Here are our final highlight melts from our sports productions over the last several weeks:

1. Astound Sports: Liberty vs. Emmaus (5/22)

2. Astound Sports: Blue Mountain vs. Saucon Valley (5/22)

3. Astound Sports: Northampton Giants vs. Easton Falcons (6/22)

4. Astound Sports: Avengers vs Hellertown Royals (6/22)

5. Astound Sports: Northern Yankees vs. Hellertown Royals (6/22)

6. Astound Sports: 2022 McDonald’s All-Star Football Classic (6/22)

All of these productions are still currently available to watch for free and “on-demand” at any time for ATVN customers.

You can also purchase DVDs and Blu-Rays of these and all Astound TV Network productions by calling (610) 443-2909.

Next week, we unveil our pre-season high school football polls along with more insights, predictions and details on the new season, as we approach the kickoff of our 2022 sports coverage in our Lehigh Valley area!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ATVN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Listen, I know sports fans love to complain. 

It’s what we do. 

It’s part of the passion that drives a fan base. Sometimes the griping is warranted. Other times it’s not.

Without taking a scientific poll, it seems like there has been quite a bit more complaining about pro sports of late. When special athletes are paid millions of dollars and don’t quite live up to the expectations, it is natural for people to call them out from time to time.

But I would like to take a moment to single out something that is getting a little ridiculous.

For over a century of sports action, it is not unusual for an athlete to temporarily take a tiny bit of time off to reflect, recover or just to refocus themselves during a tough stretch.

Baseball catchers usually get the afternoon day game off following a preceding night game. Centers might sit out the second game of a back-to-back NBA contest when the team had a long travel flight earlier that day. Hockey goalies might take the third game off if all three contests are played within six days.

But more and more, athletes are getting rather large stretches of time off for rather minor and, in some cases, inane, reasons.

There was a time when athletes would play through minor pain issues and felt an obligation to their fan base to give a quality effort each and every night. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gave several interviews after his career was over of what he would go through to participate in a big ball game during a tough stretch in his schedule, (which was much, much more gruesome than today’s NBA athletes have). Pete Rose would take offense if he didn’t play in at least 96% of his 162 games scheduled each year.  And I won’t even bring up the ironman accomplishments of Cal Ripken, Jr. and Lou Gehrig.

Over the last few months alone I’ve heard the following…

One of the Philadelphia Flyers’ top players requested six games (or two weeks) off because he needed time to “sort out his life.”  The Sixers’ Joel Embiid, who has never come close to playing a full regular season schedule, said he needed to take three or four WEEKS off just because of the “grind” of what was a normal basketball schedule this year.

Not to pick on Embiid, who throughout his entire career has never played more than 77% of his games, but when he returned, he did not play well. He blamed it on “having a hard time getting going,” according to 76ers’ beat writer Tom Moore.

Speaking of Philadelphia’s pro basketball team, they played one game in the middle of their season without four of their starters.  No significant injuries to any of them — they just needed a little break. It wasn’t even during a tough stretch of games nor was the team so far ahead in the standings that they could just miss four of their top five players and afford to pick up a loss while still battling for playoff positioning.

Sixers Head Coach Doc Rivers said his players needed a little time off just to “sort some things out.”

But consider…

Imagine a family who works hard, saving enough money to take their family to see their favorite team, only to find out that practically 80% of the squad didn’t feel like showing up for work that day.

To look at this from an NBA perspective, Michael Jordan in his final year, at 39 years of age, played in all 82 games and averaged over 37 minutes played per night.

I could go on, but if you follow any of the major pro sports other than football, you probably have heard more than your fair share of similar excuses lately.

All the while, athletes garnish more and more money while playing less and less. And it’s hard to blame them!

If their bosses are going to let them be less productive and get far less out of their abilities, who am I to cheat them out of getting what amounts to a free ride?

It is the coaches, general managers and owners who are at fault for letting athletes’ minimum requirements per season spiral out of control to increasingly lower levels of efficiency. All the while they milk fans for their hard-earned dollars one way or another. Whether it’s charging insane amounts for tickets, let alone the absorbent prices for seating fees (for football and basketball), food, parking and even the smallest souvenir for a young fan.

If you can no longer afford to attend a sporting event in person, they’re making sports fans pay through the nose with excessive sports broadcast fees that have multiplied at ridiculous rates the last few years — all to help defray the cost of the record high amounts of money they are paying athletes…to play LESS than ever before!

There’s no easy solution to resolve this and lots of luck convincing the players’ unions in any professional sport nowadays of getting athletes to take a pay cut.

So I have an alternate plan.

If athletes truly need to take more than one game off due to the “mental fatigue” of playing a game or claim they need to take over 20% of their work schedule off in order to play their best, how about those players make a donation to a local charity equal to the corresponding amount of that portion of their salary?

To make it fair, each sport establishes a consistent level of expectations for all teams but each organization can set up how these donations can be distributed.

Negotiations can also take place to which charities receive this gift. 

A majority of athletes do donate either their time or money anyway but this rule would make it mandatory for all athletes to give something back to their communities if they have to miss significant time for anything less than a reasonably excusable absence.

And who knows…it might just make an athlete think twice if they really need that 17th consecutive day off just because of all the hard work that goes into playing a game that thousands of others would love to participate in?

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.

We are wrapping up our listings of the top student athletes in our Astound TV Network’s coverage area for the 2021-22 school year, while also making the transition to the upcoming scholastic seasons (more on that later in this blog entry).

This week we take a look at the top boys lacrosse players from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

ATTACK:
1st Team – CCHS, Ben Scandone, Senior
1st Team – Freedom, Connor Bevan, Senior
1st Team – Easton, Trent Griffin, Senior
2nd Team – Emmaus, Connor Flok, Senior
2nd Team – Parkland, Jake Hurd, Senior
2nd Team – CCHS, Augustine Barr, Senior

MIDFIELDER:
1st Team – Freedom, Alex Hume, Junior
1st Team – CCHS, Michael Driscoll, Senior
1st Team – Easton, Bryce Billings, Senior
2nd Team – Parkland, Jake Parker, Sophomore
2nd Team – Nazareth, Broc Bender, Senior
2nd Team – CCHS, Nick Pomajevich, Junior
2nd Team – Liberty, Carson Vella, Senior
2nd Team – Parkland, Chase Kusko, Junior

DEFENSE:
1st Team – Easton, Nino Rizzolino, Senior
1st Team – CCHS, Chuck Kuczynski, Senior
1st Team – Emmaus, Ben Thomas, Senior
2nd Team – Liberty, Brennan Mckeown, Senior

LONG STICK MIDFIELDER:
1st Team – Easton, Ryan Mayer, Senior
2nd Team – CCHS, Jack Keenan, Senior
2nd Team – Parkland, Jack Wieder, Senior

SHORT STICK MIDFIELDER:
1st Team – Easton, Tyler Stem, Senior
1st Team – CCHS, Cade Shaffer, Junior
2nd Team – Parkland, Will Kerrick, Senior

FACEOFF:
1st Team – Parkland, Marr Barraco, Senior
2nd Team – Freedom, Jared Karabinus, Sophomore

GOALIE:
1st Team – Easton, Nathaniel Hudgins, Senior
2nd Team – Parkland, Zayd Afif, Senior

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: CCHS, Chuck Kuczynski, Senior

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Also, we have a compilation of the Colonial League boys All-Stars featuring the teams in the ATVN viewing area (we did not receive the official list from the boys basketball coordinator but thank those in the individual school districts’ representatives who did respond to our requests for information):

First team: Brendan Boyle (Notre Dame)–League MVP Award; Na’Shawn Jones (Wilson); Sean Howlett (Notre Dame); Josh Giaquinto (Bangor); Max Pristas (Southern Lehigh)

Second team & Honorable Mentions: Kyle Aris (Salisbury); Shamel Gibson (Wilson); Matt Tankred (Southern Lehigh); Noah Denton (Southern Lehigh); Dominik LIsicky (Southern Lehigh); Abhi Patel (Moravian Academy); Chris Ray (Moravian Academy); Zach Rodgers (Notre Dame); Anthony Shaw (Wilson); Brayden Strohe (Bangor); Damian Tyminski (Pen Argyl).

******

We now look ahead to the fall sports season in which the autumn’s first “official” practice date is coming up this Monday.

This Thursday, we’ll begin to look the new season with the first of four “preview” shows on our “SportsTalk” show, with interviews from different teams and sports over the next month.  Make sure you tune in or set your DVRs to get all the insightful information from many different viewpoints as we prepare for the fall!

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.

We’re continuing to recap the top teams, players and games from the past scholastic sports season.

This week we will put the spotlight on the top girls lacrosse players of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference from our viewing area (we’ll feature the boys next week)…

LOW ATTACK:

1st Team: Easton, Ava Milia, Senior

1st Team: PV, Brielle McInaw, Senior

1st Team: Emmaus, Julia Cote, Senior

2nd Team: CCHS, Lauren Nelson, Junior

2nd Team: Emmaus, Emily Hollinger, Junior

LOW DEFENSE:

1st Team: Emmaus, Marybeth Smith, Senior

1st Team: Easton, Eran Gleason, Senior,

1st Team: Freedom, Paige Jenkins, Junior

2nd Team: Easton, Kierra Smith, Senior

2nd Team: Parkland, Morgan Napolitano, Senior

2nd Team: Parkland, Mariana Aubele-Gonzalez, Senior

2nd Team: PV, Candyce Fougere, Senior

MIDFIELDER:

1st Team: Freedom, Paige Telatovich, Junior

1st Team: Pleasant Valley, Alexandra Bush, Senior

1st Team : Nazareth, Sarah Osmun, Senior

1st Team: Emmaus, Mikayla Viola, Senior

1st Team: Parkland, Gigi Leonzi, Sophomore

2nd Team: Emmaus, Jordyn Poll,Sophomore

2nd Team: Easton, Lea Krieger, Senior

2nd Team: Easton, Reese Krieger, Junior

2nd Team: Parkland, Nikki Boyer, Senior

2nd Team: Freedom, Kailey Turpening, Senior

GOALIE:

1st Team: Easton, Kylee Hager, Senior

2nd Team: CCHS, Riley Horoshko, Senior

UTILITY:

1st Team: Emmaus, Kameron Watkins, Senior

1st Team: Easton, Meghan Vizian, Senior

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER MVP:  Emmaus, Julia Cote, Senior

******

Also, we want to get you caught up on some of our ATVN production highlight videos, featuring our local sports coverage.

1. Astound Sports: Boys 5A Semifinal Southern Lehigh vs. East Stroudsburg South (3/22)
   
2. Astound Sports:  Northwestern Lehigh vs. Southern Lehigh (2/22)
   
3. Astound Sports: Dist. XI 6A Girls Consolation Round. Easton vs. Nazareth (3/22)
   
4. Astound Sports: Dist. XI Girls 5A Bethlehem Catholic vs. Blue Mountain (3/22)
   
   
5. Astound Sports: Northampton vs. Plymouth-Whitemarsh (3/22)
   
   

Last but not least, if you missed last week’s “SportsTalk” show, our special guest was Mike Kopp–the all-time winningest coach in ANY sport in Pennsylvania.

Well, we surprised him–on-air–with several special people in Mike’s life; from his first assistant coach from nearly 50 years ago to the star on this (his last) year’s Allentown Central Catholic girls basketball team.

If you missed the surprise and all the great stories about his career–both on and off the court–along with highlights of our recent sports productions, Astound video customers can watch all our locally produced programs for free at any time for up to two months, through our On-Demand services!

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.