Before we unveil this week’s high school football poll, a quick word about yet ANOTHER way that Astound TV is bringing you more local sports than ever before.

This week, ATVN will broadcast a NETWORK-RECORD FIVE HS football games!

That’s right…not just one or two or even, three, but FIVE!  (We actually were going to equal this new record NEXT WEEK as well, but we’re now hearing that the Salisbury/Catasauqua game we were scheduled to do on September 12th is now being moved to a different date).

Astound TV is the place to be to watch your favorite teams and we look forward to having you watching our coverage of both the Colonial League and the EPC–with teams from all three divisions, on our station this weekend!

Now for the latest “Astounding 10’’ high school football weekly poll for this fall season.

Our pollsters give their selections for who they believe are the top 10 performing football teams that you’ll see on the Astound TV Network this fall.

Each voter will select the top 10 teams – with the top team getting 10 points, 9 for the second best team, 8 for third and so forth.

One caveat – in order to balance the bigger and smaller schools in the region, each pollster MUST include at least three teams that are NOT a 6A-sized school.

It’s a brand new way to gauge the top teams in Eastern Pennsylvania this fall, and we invite you to check back each week throughout this football season to see which teams make our poll…and who’s listed where, as decided by our diverse group of voters.

One other unique aspect to our poll…the coaches and athletic directors’ names are never revealed so they can vote with their minds…and also avoid any potential “bulletin board” material, so each one can make selections without repercussions.

Throughout the years that we have done our poll, the coaches and athletic directors have always maintained very objective opinions.  If you look back through our archives, you’ll notice that our pollsters have been amazingly accurate and unbiased in their selections, and our polls’ top teams very often finish similarly in the same order as the “power points” system that District XI uses when compiling its standings and playoff positionings.

As far as which media members have a say?  They will identify themselves on our Thursday “SportsTalk” show, which, this fall, will be streamed live on YouTube every Thursday at 7pm, in addition to being broadcast on ATVN.

So without any further delay, here’s this week’s edition of the “Astounding 10” … (the number in parenthesis is the average points received for each team, with ‘10’ being the maximum.)

1. Freedom (9.6)
2. Nazareth (9.4)
3. Parkland (7.2)
4. Emmaus (6.8)
5. Northwestern (6.4)
6. Northampton (4.4)
7. Notre Dame-GP (2.6)
8. Liberty (2.4)
9. Easton (1.8)
10. Bethlehem Catholic (.04)

Other team(s) receiving more than one mention: Stroudsburg 

Bookmark and return to our page each week and check back after this weekend’s game to see if your favorite teams moved up or down in the minds and opinions of our pollsters!

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.

Last week, we unveiled the all new “Astounding 10’ high school football weekly poll for this fall season.

Our pollsters give their selections for who they believe are the top 10 performing football teams that you’ll see on the Astound TV Network this fall.

Each voter will select the top 10 teams – with the top team getting 10 points, 9 for the second best team, 8 for third and so forth.

One caveat – in order to balance the bigger and smaller schools in the region, each pollster MUST include at least three teams that are NOT a 6A-sized school.

It’s a brand new way to gauge the top teams in Eastern Pennsylvania this fall, and we invite you to check back each week throughout this football season to see which teams make our poll…and who’s listed where, as decided by our diverse group of voters.

One other unique aspect to our poll…the coaches and athletic directors’ names are never revealed so they can vote with their minds…and also avoid any potential “bulletin board” material, so each one can make selections without repercussions.

Throughout the years that we have done our poll, the coaches and athletic directors have always maintained very objective opinions.  If you look back through our archives, you’ll notice that our pollsters have been amazingly accurate and unbiased in their selections, and our polls’ top teams very often finish similarly in the same order as the “power points” system that District XI uses when compiling its standings and playoff positionings.

As far as which media members have a say?  They will identify themselves on our Thursday “SportsTalk” show, which, this fall, will be streamed live on YouTube every Thursday at 7pm, in addition to being broadcast on ATVN.

For week one (or “week zero” as some across the state refer to it) in which nearly every Lehigh Valley team plays someone from outside the area (and Freedom played a team from California), most teams had decided victories to kick off their seasons.

Two exceptions were Emmaus and Whitehall – both teams slipped up in their season opener and fell in our poll.  Both the Hornets and the Zephyrs have important “week two” matchups – both teams’ games will be featured on our Astound TV Network this Friday night.

So without any further delay, here’s week two of the “Astounding 10” … (the number in parenthesis is the average points received for each team, with ‘10’ being the maximum.)

1. Parkland (9.6)
2. Nazareth (7.6)
3. Freedom (7.2)
4. Emmaus (6.2)
5. Northampton (5.4)
6. Northwestern (4.8)
7. Becahi (3.2)
8. Notre Dame-Green Pond (2.8)
9. Central Catholic (1.4)
10. Whitehall (.06)

Other teams receiving more than one mention: So. Lehigh, Liberty

Bookmark and return to our page each week and check back after this weekend’s game to see if your favorite teams moved up or down in the minds of our pollsters!

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 several years now, I thought that we at Astound TV Sports had generated the most comprehensive high school football poll in our District XI/ATVN coverage area.

Each season, we are blessed to have a rotating panel of very knowledgeable Lehigh Valley football coaches, athletic directors and media members to give their opinion and vote for the top teams in the area.

But this year, we’re upping our game a bit!

For this fall, we unveil the “Astounding 10’ high school football weekly poll!

Our pollsters this fall will be giving their selections for who are the top 10 performing football teams that you’ll see on the Astound TV Network this fall.

Each voter will select the top 10 teams – with each team getting 10 points for the top team, 9 for the second best team, 8 for third and so forth.

One caveat – in order to balance the bigger and smaller schools in the region, each pollster MUST include at least three teams that are NOT a 6A-sized school.

It’s a brand new way to gauge the top teams in Eastern Pennsylvania this fall, and we invite you to check back each week throughout this football season to see which teams make our poll…and who’s listed where, as decided by our diverse group of voters.

One other unique aspect to our poll…the coaches and athletic directors’ names are never revealed so they can vote with their minds…and also avoid any potential “bulletin board” material, so each one can make selections without repercussions.

Throughout the years that we have done our poll, the coaches and athletic directors have always maintained very objective opinions.  If you look back through our archives, you’ll notice that our pollsters have been amazingly accurate and unbiased in their selections, and our polls’ top teams very often finish similarly in the same order as the “power points” system that District XI uses when compiling its standings and playoff positionings.

 As far as which media members have a say?  They will identify themselves on our Thursday “SportsTalk” show, which, this fall, will be streamed live on YouTube every Thursday at 7pm, in addition to being broadcast each week on ATVN.

 So without any further delay, here’s the grand unveiling of the new “Astound 10” for our preseason poll….(the number in parenthesis is the average points received for each team, with ‘10’ being the maximum.)

1. Parkland (9.6)
2. Nazareth (7.8)
3. Emmaus (6.8)
4. Freedom (6.6)
5. Northampton (5.4)
6. Northwestern (4.8)
7. Becahi (3.2)
8. Whitehall (2.8)
9. Central Catholic (1.6)
10. Notre Dame-Green Pond (.8)

Other teams receiving more than one mention: Easton, So. Lehigh

Our preseason polls show that while Parkland received a heavy majority of first place votes, there’s a tight race among many of the teams behind Trojans and should make for some interesting races for this year’s District XI playoffs.

Bookmark and return to our page each week and check back after this weekend’s game to see if your favorite teams moved up or down in the minds of our pollsters!

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.

I know I keep mentioning that we are breaking new ground in expanding our coverage and increasing the way we serve our customers and viewers but…well, we did it again this summer!

Astound TV broadcast more Blue Mountain League baseball games than in any other year in our network’s history.

And…

ATVN broadcast the final two games of the Blue Mountain League Championship this summer for the first time.

And…

For the first time ever, a BML baseball game was live video streamed on the Astound YouTube channel, allowing friends and family members of many of the participants who live outside the state (some as far away as Seattle, Washington) to watch their favorite baseball players play in the deciding game in this year’s championship, won by the Limeport Bulls.

 A lot went in to all of these new accomplishments and we thank all of the members of the league for working with us in enhancing our coverage this year!

Here are video highlights from most of our BML broadcasts this summer (others game recaps were posted earlier here at “The SportsTalk Shop” … which you’ve already seen if you follow us regularly).

Astound Sports: Blue Mountain League; Egypt Orioles vs. Limeport Bulls (8/24)

Astound Sports: Blue Mountain League; Martin’s Creek Creekers vs. Northern Yankees (7/24)

Astound Sports: Blue Mountain League; Martin’s Creek Creekers vs. Limeport Bulls (7/24)

Astound Sports: Blue Mountain League; Easton Falcons vs. Martin’s Creek Creekers (7/24)

 It was a great season, with many great team and individual accomplishments.  Here are this year’s BML’s “All-League” honors for 2024…

Manager of the Year: A.J. Brosious – Jordan Creek Orioles

Most Valuable Player: Tyler LePage – Avengers

Rookie of the Year: Zach Smith – Limeport Bulls

Iron Man of the League: Brian Robison – Limeport Dodgers

Pitcher: Adam Maini – Limeport Bulls

Catcher: Derek Holmes – Northern Yankees

1st Base: Logan Castellano – Easton Falcons

2nd Base: Trey Hinkle – Jordan Creek Orioles

3rd Base: Dan Orrego – Easton Falcons 

Shortstop: Matt Rosace – Martins Creek Creekers

Outfield ( 3 ) :

                    Dominick Bayo  – Jordan Creek Orioles

                     Ian Csencsits – Jordan Creek Orioles

                     Jon Fleck – Martins Creek Creekers 

Utility Position: Luke Meehan – Avengers

Designated Hitter: Sean Superka – Avengers

Umpire of the Year: Mark Brown 

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.

One way or another, it’s going to be a unique fall football season in the Lehigh Valley this year…and Astound TV is proud to broadcast more high school football games than ever before!

A couple years ago, the Colonial League agreed to merge its high school football season, which radically changed the schedule for local teams.  In an effort to make games more competitive, the “co-op” matched up schools/teams of similar sizes, which meant a number of teams in our coverage area would play several teams outside the region – which made it harder to feature our local schools on television broadcasts.

Now, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference has made a major change – adding three ‘non-conference’ games to every team’s schedule, which also forces our local teams to seek opponents outside the area.

The result is that many teams will face (and travel to) schools far beyond the Lehigh Valley’s borders (a few teams are playing teams from different states!)

Complicating things…there continues to be issues with the number of officials and transportation, which means games have continued to be moved to different days of the week as schools try to deal with these shortages while still maintaining a full sports schedule for as many of its fall sports teams as possible.

Despite all these changes the last two years, the Astound TV Network has brought you more games and more schools than ever before in our station’s history – a trend that will continue this fall – while still bringing you the most anticipated matchup of the season.

And even with even more radical adjustments for this year’s season, the Astound TV sports department is committed to continuing this goal of expanding our high school sports coverage once again this fall.

As we get ready to bring you more games than ever before this fall, there are several days in which there are multiple matchups that will be of interest to our viewers.  Like the last two seasons, we will be waiting until we get closer to those dates to determine which teams/games we will be broadcasting.

With that in mind, we already have posted games that we are “locked into” for broadcasting here on our website (see those games on our HS Football page).

ADDITIONALLY, there are many more games listed below that we are considering broadcasting for the fall – most, if not all of these dates will feature doubleheader football games featuring some combinations of the games listed below, on the Astound TV Network (a final determination will be made as we get closer to these games/dates)…

8/23 (Fri.) – Geo. Washington at Parkland & Saucon Valley at Bangor

8/29 (Thurs) – Northwestern at Northern Lehigh

8/30 (Fri ) – Parkland at Freedom; Becahi at Emmaus; Nazareth at Whitehall

9/6 (Fri) – Central at Freedom; Parkland at Northampton; Northwestern at Bangor

9/7 (Sat) No. Lehigh at Pen Argyl and Stroudsburg at Liberty

9/12 (Thur) – Salisbury at Catty

9/13 (Fri) – Freedom at Nazareth; Northampton at Liberty; Becahi at Easton; Saucon Valley at Notre Dame; Salisbury at Catty

9/20 (Fri) – Easton at Emmaus; Northampton at Whitehall; Nazareth at Parkland; Liberty at Dieruff; Notre Dame at Catty

9/27 (Fri) – Catty at Saucon Valley; Pleasant Valley at Nazareth; Dieruff at WHS; Nolehi at Notre Dame

10/4 (Fri) – Whitehall at Emmaus; Nazareth at Liberty;Northampton at Easton

10/11 (Fri) – Easton at Liberty; Freedom at Northampton; Solehi at Bangor; Nolehi at Catty

10/12 (Sat) – Saucon Valley at Pen Argyl or Parkland at Central or Nazareth at Bethlehem Catholic 

10/18 (Fri) – Parkland at Whitehall; Easton at Freedom; Solehi at Saucon Valley; Northampton at Nazareth

10/25 (Fri) – Parkland at Emmaus; Central at Whitehall; Nazareth at Easton; Beca at Northampton; Northwestern at Solehi; Saucon Valley at Nolehi

Again, the above list is IN ADDITION to our combination of games already posted on our broadcast page here on our website – be sure to bookmark and keep checking back to our “HS Football Schedule” page on our website.  That list, AND a combination of the games listed above, will comprise our broadcast schedule this season.

Additionally, we hope to ADD high school soccer to our broadcasting plans for this fall as well!

As always, I would love to hear your feedback and encourage our viewers to share this list with their friends and family members.  I have tried to be very open since I’ve had the opportunity to select games on our network the last two years, and I welcome your thoughts and suggestions to bring the best quality games and high school football broadcast schedule to our viewers.

Feel free to contact me at chris.michael@astound.com

…and bring on the new 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.

With the fall sports season rapidly approaching, we wanted to let you know that the Astound Sports family and our coverage of local sports has expanded … again!

Among our plans for this fall include adding to our broadcast lineup the District XI boys AND girls soccer playoffs coverage.  Furthermore, we will be enhancing our coverage of girls field hockey with regular blog entries and updates on our “ATVN SportsTalk” program!

To help us with our additional and EXPANDED coverage for the fall sports season, we would like to welcome in several new announcers to our team (with more new faces also coming to your ATVN video screens later this fall) and also announce that several broadcasters who joined us later last year will be expanding their roles with us this autumn.

Greg Moore

Originally from New York, Greg became one of the most respected assistant coaches in Eastern Pennsylvania. In addition to his high school program successes, Moore’s two sons have become outstanding Division-I lineman at Virginia Tech University. When not coaching or attending his sons’ games, Greg will share his experiences and football insights on ATVN’s telecasts.

Katelyn Arnold

A recent graduate of Lafayette College, Katelyn will be broadcasting games and also begin a column focusing on girls field hockey for the Astound website starting with the 2024-25 school year.  As a player, she received numerous local and national honors, was named “Player of the Year,” multiple times in both high school and college and continues to be ranked as one of the most efficient goalkeepers of all time in both the  scholastic and collegiate levels.

Ramie Moussa

Ramie is a former student of mine. In spite of that tough start (ahem!), Moussa excelled as a football coach winning a District XI football title in 2021 as head coach of Palisades High School before becoming an assistant coach on the Emmaus High School football staff.  Prior to joining ATVN, he brings football experience working both in the booth and sideline reporting.

Paul Carrerras

Paul just graduated from East Stroudsburg University where he was a big part of their football program and was an outstanding two-way player for Bethlehem Catholic High School.  He will be working the sidelines for several of ATVN’s high school football broadcasts.

Gabrielle DiPaula

Gabrielle made her Astound TV debut with us during our baseball playoffs coverage this summer.  She has a history for announcing various sports at the high school and college levels.

Again, we’ll have more exciting news and additions concerning our local sports coverage coming up over the next few days and weeks, so keep checking back to “The SportsTalk Shop” for more information!

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.

Today here at “The Shop”, we post our final all-star listings and special accomplishments for student-athletes in the Astound TV viewing area for the 2023-24 school year.

First, here are the girls field hockey “All-Eastern Pennsylvania Conference” players….

First Team:

Lexi Causa – Midfield, Easton

Elaina Fragassi – Midfield, Parkland

Aurora Gery – Midfield, Parkland

Morgan Herceg – Forward / Midfield, Nazareth

Raegan Iasiello – Midfield / Defense, Northampton

Eleanor Kirkwood – Midfield, East Stroudsburg South

Alyssa Laubach – Midfield, Freedom

Mackenzie Mann – Goalie, Nazareth

Ruby Miller – Midfield, Liberty

Jocelyn Morgan – Forward, Easton

Riley Tepper – Midfield, Stroudsburg

Melea Weber – Forward / Midfield, Emmaus

2nd Team:

Cameron Alvino – Midfield, Nazareth

Raegan Day – Defense, Easton

Kendall Iasiello – Forward, Northampton

Mena Kazista – Defense, Nazareth

Autum Kernechel – Midfield, Emmaus

Mackenzie Lopez – Defense, Pocono Mountain East

Sydney Moritz – Defense, Stroudsburg

Ava O’Connor – Forward, Stroudsburg

Morgann Orobono – Defense, Emmaus

Molly Sobers – Forward, Pleasant Valley

Ella Steirer – Midfield, Northampton

Dakota Stiff – Midfield / Defense, Pocono Mountain East

Lily Trocki – Goalie, Whitehall

Tiana Weeks – Forward, East Stroudsburg South

Abby Wortmann – Midfield, Nazareth

3rd Team:

Lilla Berces- Goalie, Bethlehem Catholic

Jordan Brunnabend – Defense, Parkland

Jodi Bowen – Midfield, Pocono Mountain West

Emma Cari – Goalie, Emmaus

Ashlee Gensits – Defense, Nazareth

Ava George – Defense, Liberty

Emmy Horner – Forward, Emmaus

Lydia Keppel – Midfield, Whitehall

Aubre Krazer – Midfield, Easton

Haley Kvacky – Forward, Midfield, Emmaus

Aubrey Steiner – Midfield, Whitehall

Julianna Zumas – Forward, Liberty

Next, the following students from Bonner-Prendergast made the first team PCL All-Catholic squad…

Mylachi Willaims – Defensive Line

Kenny Asong – Linebacker

Isaiah Sessions – Defensive Back

Williams was also named PCL defensive player of the year.

We also want to salute Camryn Huff and Zachary Miller – both of Nazareth High School – for being named the EPC girls and boys golf MVPs, respectively.

Next, here are the All-Stars from the Colonial League teams that we received that participated in the merger with the Schuylkill League this past school year…

First Team:

TE — Sr. Bailey Smith, Northern Lehigh

WR — Sr. Ian Juica, Catasauqua; Jr. Jack Robertson, Saucon Valley

QB — Sr. Danny Darno, Notre Dame

RB — Sr. Noah Hillis, Bangor; So. Grady Newhard, Northern Lehigh

FB/Slot/HB — Sr. Jack Tosh, Northern Lehigh

Athlete — Sr. Josh Ludlow, Notre Dame

K — Jr. Seth Kern, Northwestern

2nd Team:

DT — Jr. Gijs Fooij, Southern Lehigh; Sr. Zack Anthony, Palmerton

NG — Sr. Mitchell Andrejko, Southern Lehigh

DE — Sr. Ryan King, Southern Lehigh; Sr. Alex Konze, Palmerton

ILB — Sr. Dainn Vassallo, Notre Dame; Sr. Blaine Snyder, Northwestern

OLB — Sr. Devon Hildebrand, Northwestern; Sr. Ty Sander, Palmerton

DB — Jr. Andrew Olesh, Southern Lehigh; Sr. Jack Inglis, Southern Lehigh; Fr. Chris Frame, Northern Lehigh; Jr. Jack Robertson, Saucon Valley; Sr. Constantine Donahue, Saucon Valley; Sr. AJ Lozano, Notre Dame; Sr. MJ Siu, Bangor

P — Sr. Cade Sawyer, Southern Lehigh

3rd Team: 

C — Sr. Clayton Christman, Palmerton

G — Sr. Brody Dye, Northern Lehigh; Sr. Danny Haubert, Palisades

T — Sr. Chad Beller Jr., Catasauqua; Sr. Parker Sandt, Bangor

TE — Jr. Bryan Tobin, Southern Lehigh

WR — Sr. Jack Inglis, Southern Lehigh; Sr. MJ Siu, Bangor

QB — Jr. Christopher Fritts, Southern Lehigh

RB — Sr. Hunter Reitz, Catasauqua; Sr. Constantine Donahue, Saucon Valley

FB/Slot/HB — Sr. Emilio Gonzalez, Palmerton

Last – and least – I’ll be taking a vacation for a few weeks and a hiatus from blogging to recharge my batteries and get ready for the new school year, which is rapidly approaching.  I’ll be back in time for the Blue Mountain League baseball championship series in August, in which we’re hoping to bring you the deciding game(s) of this year’s finals on Astound TV.

Keep checking back to the ATVN website for information on our BML coverage and the start of the fall sports seasons.

I’ll see you in a few weeks for more local sports coverage, insights and news!  Enjoy the (hopefully) great weather in the meantime!

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 continue our focus on different local sports teams getting recognized with league and district “All-Star” honors.  Today here at “The Shop,” we spotlight track and field and football, and also finish our honors for local tennis teams in the Astound TV coverage area

First, we’ll start with the final rankings of both the EPC and Colonial League track results… View Results

Next, we’ll take a look at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference football all-stars…

Bo Wheeler, Tight End – Northampton

Tristen Pinnock, Wide Receiver – Northampton

Brady Behr, Wide Receiver – Pocono Mountain West

Kamari Coleman, Wide Receiver – Stroudsburg

Jacob Ladd, Tackle – Northampton

Brandon Stiehler, Tackle – Pocono Mountain West

Colby Reph, Guard – Northampton

Aiden Quintero, Guard – Stroudsburg

Braydon Gable, Center – Northampton

Ryder Bray, Quarterback – Pocono Mountain West

Nathan Gray, Running Back – East Stroudsburg South

Caden Henritzy, Running Back – Northampton

Val Byers-Robinson, Offensive Athlete – Pleasant Valley

Brandon Stiehler, Defensive End, Pocono Mountain West

Mehki Kirkland, Defensive End – Stroudsburg

Colby Rehp, Defensive Lineman – Northampton

Stoney Fuller-Bey, Defensive Lineman – Stroudsburg

Brett Rickert, Inside Linebacker – Northampton

Karter Nuss, Inside Linebacker – Pocono Mountain West

Charles Capers, Outside Linebacker – East Stroudsburg South

AJ Slivka, Outside Linebacker – Northampton

Nekhi Spencer, Cornerback – East Stroudsburg South

Tristen Pinnock, Cornerback – Northampton

Nathan Gray, Safety – East Stroudsburg South

Mike Coleman, Safety – Northampton

Alex Ecker, Defensive Athlete, Pleasant Valley

Luis Martinez, Placekicker – Dieruff

Aaron Gutowski, Punter – Northampton

Juan Mazano, Special Team Player – Dieruff

Caden Henritzy, Offensive MVP – Northampton

Brandon Stiehler, Defensive MVP – Pocono Mountain West

Last but not least, here is the rundown of the boys District XI tennis champions from this past season…

2A Finals- #1 Deven Pandey (Saucon Valley) defeated #2 Ford Koch (Moravian Academy) 6-4, 6-2

3A Finals- #5 Chris Stone (Emmaus) defeated #2 Gideon Knowles (Nazareth) 6-3, 6-3  

We’ll have a few more sports to spotlight here at “The Shop,” plus news on summer basketball leagues and Blue Mountain League baseball highlights – check back to our website for more soon!

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.

Summer hoops in Eastern Pennsylvania has lost some popularity / interest in recent years, but it is still a good barometer to check out early insights for the upcoming winner scholastic season. 

Here’s a few of the biggest stories concerning local hoops that have developed over the last several weeks on the summer league circuits.

BLAKE ON THE MOVE?

For the second straight summer, there are rumors that Liberty might lose its best player – and not because of graduation.

The word is that Blake Hargrove has decided to transfer to an academy that specializes in basketball.  If this turns out to happen, the Hurricanes would have lost their best returning player – again.  If both he and Dwyane Chess (last year’s transfer) would be with the team, Liberty would clearly be “the team to beat” for the 2024-25 season.

CAN THE ROVERS GET OVER THE HUMP?

The Easton girls team will be strong again during the regular season…however, they have had difficulty in the playoffs which has been frustrating for many Rover fans that they only have one league or district title over the last three years, despite having the best record during that span.

You can’t deny what they’ve done during the regular season and once again look like one of the top two or three girls programs in the area again this summer.  But it will be interesting to see if they get over the hump this winter during the playoffs and become that “last team standing,” to which that honor went to Parkland last year.

TOP BOYS TEAM?

Speaking of Parkland, the fact that their boys team graduated 10 players from last season’s squad – including the area’s “player of the year” and a 1st-team all state caliber player that made it to the state championship game – isn’t slowing them down.

They clearly have been the best of the “large schools” teams of the summer and one of the best overall in the area.  They also won the “Bash at the Beach” event a few weeks ago and look to be the team to beat heading into the winter campaign.

Who else is playing well on the boys side?

Despite the fact that Hargrove has not been on the team, Liberty is making a strong case as the second best team in the area (they lost to the Trojans in last year’s league and district championships).

Whitehall and Nazareth are two other teams that have been playing well despite losing some big names to graduation.  Both have had younger players stepping up nicely and should be among the top teams in the bigger schools categories.

As far as smaller schools, both Executive Education Charter Academy and Lehighton have the best summer league records among the “non 6A schools” to date. 

The Indians will join the Colonial League this winter.  While talking with local coaches about the impact of scheduling, division alignments and the playoffs structure, there still seems to be some doubt about how everything will change with the additional teams (Jim Thorpe will also join the conference).

But it seems likely that there could be three divisions and the playoffs will be expanded.  An official word should come on the new aspects of the league over the next several weeks.

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.

It’s been a busy first half of the summer for the Astound TV Network staff members!

Following the conclusion of the high school sports schedule, ATVN has been bringing you Grandview Speedway Racing events and Blue Mountain League baseball every Tuesday and Friday nights.

We also broadcast this year’s McDonald’s All-Star football classic featuring the top senior players on the gridiron from this past year.

And last week, our network made history again by broadcasting the annual City of Allentown Fireworks Spectacular and Celebration of Independence live on ATVN, AND streamed the fireworks for free on our YouTube channel.

Hats off the Astound crew members for braving the drenching downpour to bring you this year’s fireworks display.

There’s a lot more coming up over the next few weeks on Astound TV, starting with this Tuesday’s BML contest between Martin’s Creek and Easton.

We’ll also have some very interesting guests on ATVN SportsTalk and all of our studio shows over the next several weeks.

Keep checking back to the Astound TV website for details and more programming information!

Now, here’s highlights of some of our recent broadcasts on ATVN…

Astound Sports: BML – Avengers vs. Northern Yankees (6/24)

Astound Sports: Blue Mtn. League; Easton Falcons vs. Berlinsville Braves (6/24)

Astound Sports: McDonald’s All-Star Football Classic 2024

Links to the complete video broadcasts of these games are available to purchase.  We also will have DVD copies available  – you can call the ATVN Studio at 610-443-2765 for more details.

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.