Friday, August 26, at 7:00pm, the high school football season begins!  I know it seems early.  That’s because it is.  To accommodate the addition of two more classifications (AAAAAA and AAAAA), and the PIAA state championship finals, the season begins a week earlier than in the past.  Remember when no games were played until after Labor Day – this year, two will be played BEFORE Labor Day!  That’s the earliest start ever for Pennsylvania.  And the earliest finish to the regular season if your team does not have a Thanksgiving Day game – October 28-29.  Good or bad, that’s the way it is.

If you want to look ahead already to Districts, here are the Lehigh Valley teams and their classes:

AAAAAA – Allen, Dieruff, Easton, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth, Northampton, and Parkland.
AAAAA – Southern Lehigh, Whitehall (both are guaranteed a spot in Districts with only four teams)
AAAA – Central Catholic, Bangor, Bethlehem Catholic, Northern Lehigh, Saucon Valley
AAA – Northern Lehigh, Notre Dame, Palisades, Pen Argyl, Salisbury, Wilson
AA – Catasauqua
A – No Lehigh Valley schools

Five new coaches will lead their schools in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and the Colonial League.

In the EPC, Harold Fairclough replaces Randy Cuthbert at Emmaus.  Harold coached six years at Central and took the team to a state title in 2010.  Tim Moncman takes over the Parkland program replacing Jim Morgans, who won over 250 games with the Trojans.  Moncman coached 10 years at Liberty and took them to a state title in 2008.

Chris Labatch will start his first head coaching job at Wilson, replacing Matt Senneca.  He recently was the defensive coordinator for Saucon Valley, which is coming off a record-setting year.  Wilson was 1-9 last year.  Phil Sams is the new Saucon Valley coach.  He has the toughest act to follow as the Panthers went 14-1 last year under Matt Evancho.  Like Labatch, Sams was an assistant last year at Saucon.  Finally Phil Stambaugh will be the new head coach at Notre Dame – Green Pond.  Former head coach Chuck Muller has moved to Saucon as a defensive coordinator.  Stambaugh led Pius X to a 43-19 record before the school closed.

It appears that the EPC will be extremely competitive with Parkland coming back slightly to the pack.  I still think the Trojans will win the South, but Freedom, Easton, and Whitehall all could sneak in; Central will win the North. Saucon Valley will repeat as the champion of the Colonial League, but Notre Dame could surprise everyone.

I will be at Frank Banko Field on Friday night for the Central Catholic – Freedom game.  If you see me, say hello.  I will be wearing an RCN shirt and have a big smile on my face because FOOTBALL IS HERE!

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

I need to preface my musings this week because they are about the Olympics and I watched the competitions on a big screen at poolside aboard the Anthem of the Seas while on a cruise.  I was amongst people from all over the world which made for an interesting perspective.  I recommend this viewing spot to anyone.

1. Did you know there were lifeguards on duty at the swimming venue? The world’s greatest swimmers need a lifeguard?
2. Fiji won their first gold medal ever when they beat Great Britain 43-7 in rugby.
3. Simone Biles is “unworldly”. Four golds and a bronze and the best smile at the Games.
4. Did you notice the difference in women’s beach volleyball uniforms when Egypt participated – skimpy bikinis covering little, on one side, and a hijab, covering everything but face, hands, and feet on the other.
5. Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky performed as expected and that is not always easy to do.
6. Ryan Lochte embarrassed himself, his fellow team members, and the US with his college drunken weekend escapade. There were few black marks at this Olympics, but this was one of them.

With an earlier than normal start to the scholastic football season, the time to unveil the first “RCN SportsTalk” High School Football Poll for the Lehigh Valley is almost upon us!

I’ve remarked in previous years how comprehensive and diverse our poll is compared to other publications and media outlets, and we are using the same formula for the fall 2016 season.

Our voting panel consists of local media members from different outlets, along with local coaches and athletic directors from across the entire district.  The voters are not identified so they can give their honest impressions without any worry of outside pressures or “bulletin board” material, and we rotate different pollsters from different schools each year, including guests from our biggest to our smallest schools.

As in previous years, we take the 400-male enrollment number as the cutoff for schools within the District XI/RCN footprint.  All schools above that number qualify as “big schools” in our poll. These schools consist of Parkland, Liberty, Allen, Easton, Emmaus, Liberty, Dieruff, Freedom, Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Northampton, Nazareth, E. Stroudsburg-South, Whitehall, Southern Lehigh and Bangor.

“Small schools” (below 400-male enrollment) consist of Saucon Valley, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Nolehi and Catasauqua.  Each pollster will identify their top five teams in each group—the top school gets five points, the second team gets four points and so on, with an average score determining the order of teams in the poll.

Before we get to unveiling our 2016 Lehigh Valley football poll (we’re going to announce it on this Thursday’s “RCN SportsTalk” show—also available here on the website via podcast on Friday), let’s take a quick look back at last year’s poll and evaluate how we did:

2015 BIG SCHOOL FB Preseason Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Parkland – 50 total votes ( 10 -1^st place votes)
2—tied) Easton — 28
2—tied) Freedom — 28
4)  Liberty — 16
5)  Whitehall – 11
Other schools receiving more than one vote:  Emmaus, Stroudsburg

ANALYSIS:
                Our panelists pretty much nailed the 2015 season before the first game was played, despite us getting some early season grief about having Freedom and Easton tied for the second spot—and not just from Red Rovers fans).

               Parkland was clearly the best team in the area, and came within a few minutes of winning a PIAA state title.  Freedom and Easton split a pair of games against each other last year and Liberty was the fourth team that advanced to a district semifinal matchup.  Whitehall—with nearly everyone returning this year—was one of several teams that finished a step below the first four, along with Emmaus and a faster-than-expected rebuilding effort from the Nazareth Blue Eagles.

 2015 SMALL SCHOOLS FB Preseason Poll (9 pollsters)
1) Bethlehem Catholic – 43 total votes (8  -1^st place votes)
2) Saucon Valley – 36 (1 – 1^st place vote)
3) Northern Lehigh — 20
4) Central Catholic — 11
5) Northwestern – 10
Other schools receiving more than one vote: Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Salisbury
ANALYSIS:
                This wasn’t our best year as far as pre-season predictions for the smaller schools, as Saucon topped Becahi in the 3A District XI title game.  Both Northern Lehigh and Central Catholic struggled, while Notre Dame had arguably its greatest season ever, and Salisbury showed strong signs of improving that will probably continue into 2016.  However, let the record show that, by the time we did our first “in-season” small school poll, the teams shook out this way (which nearly mirrors the final standings):

 2015 SMALL SCHOOLS FB Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Saucon Valley (5  -1^st place votes)
2) Bethlehem Catholic (4 – 1^st place votes)
3) Notre Dame (1 – 1^st place vote)
4) Northwestern
5) Central Catholic/Salisbury (Tied)

How will our 2016 preseason poll look?  Find out over the next week as we will bring you an unprecedented THREE BIG HOURS of high school football previews, predictions, insights and interviews with head coaches and players themselves.  On both the “RCN SportsTalk” program and on our podcasts (rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk), we will present three, one hour-long shows featuring the Lehigh Valley media’s top football insiders breaking down the different leagues, top match-ups and players to watch.  Our first show will be broadcast live on RCN-TV this Thursday at 7pm, followed by two additional live program broadcasts from the Allentown Fair’s RCN Farmerama Stage area next Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-7 pm.

Then on Thursday at the Fair (7:30 – 8:30 pm), we’ll feature the 50^th anniversary/reunion show featuring the first undefeated football team in Parkland High School history, with players from that historic team, great stories from the golden years of high school football, and those players’ thoughts on current football issues and how today’s athletes compare.

We hope you’ll join us in person for these special shows from the Fair!

Last but not least, make sure you tune in for the season premiere of high school football this Friday, featuring Central Catholic versus Freedom, live at 7 pm on RCN-TV.  Plus, check out the RCN broadcast schedule here on the website for upcoming games.

The Olympics in Rio are up and running.  Despite all of the warnings about crime and the Zika virus, there has been very little bad news to come out of the Games.  As I write this, the United States is doing very well (men’s gymnastics aside) and, as is often the case, television viewership ratings rise as the Games proceed.  NBC and their family of cable channels do a marvelous job of covering what must be a monumental challenge.  Being a very small part of the business of television, I find it mind-boggling to think of what goes into producing and televising the Olympics.  Between the set-up for all the venues and the personnel necessary to man the events, the organization and the price tag must seem like running a small country.

According to Forbes, the cost just to acquire the rights to televise from the IOC is just over $1 billion.  NBC recently just extended their contract for 6 Olympics through 2032 at a cost of $7.75 billion.  This does not include the cost of ACTUALLY producing the event.  That price tag is estimated at a little over $1 million per year.  So can it possibly be worth it?

The audience size (21 million plus per night) approaches NBC’s Sunday Night Football, the network’s most watched program.  More women watch the Olympics than men and the audience is made up of viewers with higher than average incomes. This is an advertiser’s dream.  Couple that with the fact that the other networks tend not to challenge the Olympic broadcasts.  Reruns are the norm, with even LIVE shows taking a couple of weeks off.

NBC has announced that they broke revenue records this year with over $1 billion of advertising sales.  The audience profile and the ability to televise most events LIVE because of the one-hour time zone difference made this year a very attractive product.  And it never hurts that advertising during the Olympics looks like a very patriotic thing to do.

Ironically, the largest advertiser is NBC itself. The Olympics is the perfect way to promote their programming and their other cable channels.  In addition, the Olympics draw a huge audience on digital devices, which is the future of broadcasting.  Getting more and more eyes on mobile devices, social sites, and online cannot be a bad thing.

So, with an expense budget of a small country, does NBC make or lose money on the Olympics?  It appears they come very close to breaking even financially, but they certainly are winners when you account for all of the positive intangibles they acquire.

Everyone from upper management, to the talent, to the various crews that man the events, can take pride in knowing that “going for the gold” has pretty much been accomplished.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS) 

1. For some reason, I did not think I would get into the Olympics like years past. I was wrong.  As soon as I am going around the dial, I find I stop on them and get caught up in all the interesting stories and the events themselves.
2. Rio should be very upset with the media for keeping people away with all of their foreboding of crime and Zika. Now reporters are saying the Olympic area is like any other big city – know where and where not to go and you will be fine andit seems, so far, mosquitoes took the two weeks off.
3. Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees will play his final game on Friday, August 12. He will not play next year and still make $28 million. He signed for 10 years in 2007 for $275 million. If you are looking to retire, try to get his “exit plan”.
4. If you are a “Seinfeld” fan and you are looking for a good summer read, check out Seinfeldia: how a show about nothing changed everything by Jennifer Armstrong. It is an interesting read about all the inner workings of the show and the characters.
5. High school football begins the RCN season on Friday, August 26, with Central Catholic at Freedom. LIVE at 7:00.

We’ve brought you quite a bit of information on top-level, up-and-coming minor league prospects in both the Phillies and Nationals organizations this summer.  Here at “the Shop” and on RCN-TV, we’ve given you interviews with the players themselves along with their coaches and have provided insights, statistics and progress reports throughout the Minor League season.  With the Minor League season winding down, we thought we’d take one more look at the Phillies players just below the Major League level who might be getting a September call-up in the near future.

JP Crawford
The Phillies number-one ranked prospect in their entire organization has cooled off a bit in August, after a sizzling six-to-seven week span that saw his overall batting average rise to .290 (he’s currently hitting .258).  People around the Triple-A team suggest he isn’t ready for a call-up and could use a few more weeks at Triple-A (he’s missed the last several games because of what is being described as an injury to his side) so it not certain if he’ll get a cup of coffee this September with the parent club.

Despite Phillies fans anxious to see him sooner rather than later, it would probably be best if they did NOT call him up this year—keeping him in the minors would keep him off the 40-man roster and allow the team an additional roster to protect a player from this winter’s Rule 5 draft.  Also, the Phillies Triple-A team is likely to make the playoffs, so he could get additional “ABs” and playoff-like experience for several weeks in September.

That being said, I still think there’s a better than average chance he’s the Phillies Opening Day ‘17 shortstop—or at least be called up by Memorial Day 2017 if he struggles in spring training.

Nick Williams
His bat has also cooled off of late.  But after some controversial headlines and several showings of a definite lack of hustle, Williams has been doing and saying all the right things lately.  He’s been batting in the .270 – .280 range and is currently leading the team among active players in RBI and is second in home runs.  While he’s played all three outfield positions with regularity, Williams will probably fight for playing time in one of the crowded corner outfield spots this September, unless—like Crawford—the Phillies prefer to play their best prospects in a Minor League playoff series.  Also, the Phillies might want to see more of Cody Asche and some of the other veterans for evaluation purposes, which could be another reason to keep Williams in Triple-A.

Andrew Knapp
The Phillies “catcher of the future #1” has had a decent year offensively and has improved overall defensively this summer.  However, he has shown some inconsistency behind the dish—which has been more worrisome as it has occurred occasionally over the last few weeks.  With Cameron Rupp being one of the few sources of power at the major league level and Jorge Alfaro playing well in Reading, Knapp will have to start impressing the Phillies front office in a big way to remain part of the team’s main core of players for future seasons, or run the risk of falling back on the organization’s depth chart.

Cam Perkins
Two seasons ago, he had a strong Double-A season, following by a quality start in Triple-A and was thought by then General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. to be a candidate for a big league outfield spot.  Perkins struggled mightily in 2015 and was almost an afterthought at the beginning of this year.  Perkins has been largely consistent playing all three outfield positions and hitting just under .300 for much of the year.  Still, with all the outfield prospects already in the Majors, along with Williams and guys like Roman Quinn and Dylan Cozens playing well in Reading, Perkins will really have to do something special to be part of the organization’s 2017 plans.

Darin Ruf
After failing in his attempt to earn an everyday—or even a steady platoon—role with the Phillies this spring, Ruf has returned to his power hitting ways at the Triple-A level, hitting just under .300, leading the team in home runs and second in RBIs.  Still, with Tommy Joseph moving ahead of him on the depth chart and fiery hot prospects moving up behind him, this will probably be Ruf’s final year with the Phillies—and is not a shoe-in to even be a September call-up.

Ben Lively
Acquired in the Marlon Byrd trade, Lively’s spot on the organization’s pitching depth chart plummeted after the trades of Cole Hamels and Ken Giles netted a bevy of prime hurling talent.  Lively, who started the year in Double-A, might just have earned himself a look yet this year with an improving approach and more effective use of his pitches.  He’s been going longer into games and recently tied all minor league pitchers with 13 wins on the season.  Heading into his most recent start (8/12/16), he hasn’t lost a game in August and his ERA this month is under 2.  While he doesn’t have the stuff of an Aaron Nola, Vincent Velasquez, Jared Eickhoff or Jake Thompson, he still could prove to be a steady back-end of the rotation pitcher.

Joely Rodriquez
Another forgotten man after struggling mightily in Double-A ball (and spent time in High-A Clearwater), Rodriquez was converted into a reliever and has done a decent job in recent months, holding Triple-A left-handed hitters to a .194 batting average (.229 w/RISP). Acquired for another hard-to-figure-out southpaw Antonio Bastard, Rodriquez might still have a remote shot as a lefty specialist with a Major League team, especially since left-handed throwers have suddenly become a scarce commodity in the upper levels of the Phillies system.

If there’s a young player who you don’t see listed on today’s blog, please check back with some of our recent blog entries to find more on your favorite player(s).

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Also, if you want to hear more baseball talk and rub elbows with some real “boys” of summer, we invite you to come out to Buffalo Wild Wings on Grape Street in Whitehall (PA) for this Thursday’s “RCN Sports Talk Gets Wild” show starting at 7pm.  Our guests will be past, present and future members of the Coplay baseball sports community,  Select show topics include a discussion of the late, great Sam Balliet, the memories of the stadium named in his honor and a look at the current players who play there, along with future baseball stars.

Go to the “Gets Wild” page here on the RCN-TV website, click on the appropriate link for that evening’s show/charity and 10-percent of your total bill will be donated to the Dream Come True organization.

We’d love to see you there!

One of the many “guarantees” in my life is that my co-hosting partner of the “RCN SportsTalk” show, Joseph Lynnwood Craig, is constantly harassing me about things he wants…more airtime, bigger coffee mugs, softer cushions for his chair, etc.  One of his regular complaints each summer is that he doesn’t get many opportunities to write an entry on the “SportsTalk Shop” blog, especially, when I go on vacation.

Each year, I give him an opportunity to do this, with the following specifications:

• Please type it
• Please keep it to 8-12 paragraphs
• Please have it ready to go a few days before I leave for my vacation

Each year, he fails to follow all three requests.

Instead, he recently handed me a rolled-up stack of penmanship paper, with his long, hand-written and ink-stained rants about a broad and an incredibly vague topic.  His commentary, he insists, will flood my mailbox with positive support for his point of view.  Then, he promises, the public will demand he scribes even more entries during the year.

Well, now’s your chance to prove him right!

This week, we bring you a taste of Joe’s sports psyche and his thoughts on the recent transactions of his beloved Philadelphia Eagles.  We hope you enjoy the opportunity to hear Mr. Craig’s observations and opinions.  And now, from the “Scrolls of Craig” (and I do literally mean scrolls), here are Joe’s thoughts (with a literary assist from former sports writer Jack Logic) on the recent actions, missteps and future predictions of the Philadelphia Eagles (abridged version).
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The four major professional sports teams in Philadelphia have each taken many different routes in different season.  While the Eagles have had some success in recent years, there have been more disappointments than happy moments surrounding this team over the last few seasons.

After sticking with Head Coach Andy Reid from 1999-2012, (some would argue that was too long a tenure), Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie went in a completely different direction.  Reid was a life-long NFL-er, while studying under the coaching tenure and “Old School” mentality of Mike Holmgren.  Reid was very conservative in many ways and would try not to rock the boat very often.  He was like his successor, Chip Kelly, in that he was quite stubborn, but he would rarely try to make a giant splash.

Instead, usually made “safer” player personnel changes to his lineup.  Terrell Owens was, of course, a major exception to this theory, and his time in Philly was cut short.

With Kelly, Lurie went in completely opposite direction.  Kelly had no experience in the NFL as a coach or a player.  He had a radically different approach to many things and was a very polarizing person in the city of Philadelphia.  We would find out later that he seemed to relish developing an “us-versus-them” community and, as time when on, more people found themselves as an outsider in the “Kelly World.”

The Eagles thought they were on the right track when Kelly was hired in 2013.  His Eagles had a 10-6 record and went to the playoffs in Kelly’s first year.  Not many coaches in NFL history had the kind of success Chip had in his first experience as an NFL head coach.

In his second season, Kelly’s team repeated that level of success by once again winning ten games but failed to make the playoffs in an all-out power struggle in the NFC East.

That offseason was a time for change.

Between Kelly, team General Manager Howie Roseman and Owner Jeffrey Lurie, there was a front office shake-up.  Lurie handed the keys to his organization over to Kelly and put long-time front office man Roseman was put on the back burner.

As the Eagles new “GM,” Kelly made a number of controversial moves.  His first and only year as the man in charge of player personnel for the Eagles ended up being one of the worst front office men in Philadelphia pro sports history.  Kelly traded popular and proven players—and some that he clearly did not see eye-to-eye with along with the controversial decision to unload this year’s second round draft pick and, in return, received injured players or players who were not successful for a long period of time.

The two moves that angered Eagles fans (and probably the owner) the most, was the trading of Shady McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for Kiko Alonzo.  They also let the popular wide receiver Jeremy Maclin leave to go join former Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid and received nothing in return for him.

These off-season moves prompted Lurie to fire Chip Kelly before the 2015 season had ended.  Kelly was let go after a 6-9 record and had his office cleared out before the Birds played their final game of that year.

Going forward, the Eagles brought back the former GM Roseman to retake the position he previously had, in charge of the player personnel decisions.  Roseman, by all accounts, has had a good offseason, in my opinion.  Through free agency, trades and the draft, Roseman has plugged many of the holes that Kelly had left behind.

In 2016, the Eagles should challenge for the NFC East division title.  With a veteran cast and the hiring of new Head Coach Doug Peterson (who was mentored by Reid), the team will return to the playoffs.  They also have two new coordinators.  Jim Schwartz will head-up the defense and Frank Reich will oversee the offense.

As for 2017, the Eagles will have started the Carson Wentz Era as he was selected with the second overall pick in this past summer’s draft.  The team will once again return to glory.
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Don’t forget, Joe would love to get some responses for this week’s blog entry, so please send us your thoughts via email (RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com) and let us know if you’d like Mr. Craig’s to participate more often on our weekly blogs.  Also, be sure to hear Joe’s opinions each week on the live edition of “SportsTalk” every Thursday at 7 pm and on our podcasts.

Each December both here at the “SportsTalk Shop” and on our TV show, “SportsTalk”, panelists and I make some sports-based predictions for the new year.  I don’t get caught up in the prediction business ordinarily, but it’s become a bit of a tradition around the holidays to make a couple bold statements to go along with resolutions (of which I don’t do nearly as well).

While some sports prognosticators love to boast about how accurate they are with their futuristic insights, I make it a habit of going back and making public my predictions, and owning up to any that don’t come true.  (I’d also like to take a miniscule amount of credit for the ones that work out—I’m owed at least as much, right?)

Since we’re over the halfway point through the calendar year, and before we start ramping up our fall football coverage (which will be bigger and better than ever before!), I think I should take a peek at how some of my predictions are holding up and make myself accountable for any gaffes on my part.

Philly pro sports teams will win LESS games in 2016
The 2015-16 76ers certainly lived up to their end of my prediction.  Aside from forcing out the team’s General Manager, Sam Hinkie, they were near perfect in their quest for futility, reaching new levels of bad play, even with pressure from Jerry Colangelo (and the league office?) to try to improve.

My prediction will take a hit with the idea that the Sixers will try to go after some more recognizable free agency in all probability this offseason.  They might also win a few more games than expected if they select Brandon Ingram with the first pick in this month’s NBA Draft.  Selecting Ingram would make the team better—short-term—than if they select Ben Simmons or even draft down a few spots, but I don’t see that much improvement in November and December and still believe they’ll ring up more losses in the 2016 calendar year than they lost in 2015 (but the future is very bright for 2017).

I knew the Flyers were going to be improved, but had no idea that they would be as exciting to watch this past season as they were, to say nothing about making the playoffs and having a few good moments against the Capitals before losing to Washington in the first round of the NHL playoffs.  This team ramped up the speed of its rebuild and, with a few tweaks, will be a middle-of-the-pack playoff team, in not better, for next season.

The Phillies also have surprised me with better than average starting pitching, and the bullpen overcame a woeful start to the season and has pitched better, helping the team to a slightly better record than I had anticipated.  This, despite a woeful offense that had seven position players on the roster hitting below .200 after the first month of the season.

However, the Phillies fell (like a plummeting cannon ball) back to Earth hard and fast during the month of May and show very little signs of making a push to get back above, or probably even near, .500 this summer.

With less than half of the Major League baseball season remaining—which will still probably have more losses than wins, and an Eagles team in, at the very least, a retooling stage following the car wreck of the Chip Kelly Era, I’d say I still have a good chance at nailing this prediction.

The Wizards, Nationals AND Redskins – will have even greater success in 2016
With over half of the MLB season and the entire NFL season yet to come (and I’m looking pretty good for both of these teams), we only have the Wizards to look at.  And on the prediction that they would have a better 2016…I admit I put up a major “airball.”

Off a second-round playoff appearance and loss to a high-quality team, I thought the Wizards could improve and—with the right match-up–the Wiz could actually advance a round further.  However, not only did they take took a major step back in win total, they also didn’t qualify for the post-season, ushering in a quick replacement at the helm by bringing in Scott Brooks (formerly of Oklahoma City) as a new head coach.

Rumors of discontent and players “trading barbs” (according to the Washington CBS sports radio station) spread wildly as they limped home to close out the regular season out of the playoffs.  There are different reports as far as remaining free agent possibilities and other speculation about what direction the team could go in.  Also, players are a little less secure than this time a year ago and the forecast is more ambiguous as far as how good this team will be for the upcoming season, even with one of the most exciting, yet underrated players, in John Wall back on board.  I’ll stick to my guns and say they make a jump for the 2016-17 campaign.

Notice, I did NOT include the Capitals in this mix.  Their back-to-back premature failings in the playoffs have me worried about their future, and I’ll also continue to say (as I did following their playoff exit) that they might actually take a step back in the upcoming year.

2016 will be a successful District XI Wrestling season
I have never claimed to be a wrestling expert, but the fact that we had so many talented underclassmen returning for the 2015-16 wrestling season made it easy for me to say that the Lehigh Valley would have tremendous success at the state tournament in Hershey.

Not only did Bethlehem Catholic come away with convincing (mostly dominating) performances in the team PIAA competitions, but they accomplished this goal against the best the state of Pennsylvania had to offer, by competing in the 3A classifications (as critics had ask for, for a number of seasons).

Individually, District XI featured eight gold medalists and 20 overall medal winners.  Special props go out to Palisades’ Tyler Marsh, the lone wrestler in the RCN viewing area to receive the top scholar athlete award.

For an area that has had a long tradition of great wrestling success, it was a tremendous season all the way around for many different schools and I can unequivocally chalk this one up as one I got correct.

Stay tuned for more sports conversations coming up and don’t forget to check back later in the year as I take a look at the rest of my predictions to see how I fared.

Philadelphia was certainly in the limelight this past week with the Democratic National Convention taking center stage.  All of the media had a presence there.  However, there was no national sports media.

I bring this up because Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza were inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 24.

I watched the great Griffey, Jr. play with the Mariners and the Reds.  His numbers were awesome – 630 home runs, 13 All-Star appearances, 10 Gold Glove Awards, and the statistical list goes on and on.  He received 99.32% of the votes, the highest ever in Hall of Fame history.

Mike Piazza’s story was even more amazing.  As a favor to Dodgers manager, Tommy LaSorda, he was drafted in the 62nd round.  He went on to hit the most home runs by a catcher, bat .308 lifetime, and spent 16 years in the majors.  He was an All-Star 10 consecutive seasons.  He certainly repaid the favor – but mostly as a New York Met.

So what does this have to do with Philadelphia?  The ceremony in Cooperstown made me wonder who the last Philadelphia Phillie was to be inducted into the Hall.  I discovered it has been a while – 21 years to be exact.  On July 30, 1995, Mike Schmidt and Richie Ashburn entered that day.  And Philadelphia celebrated with an estimated 25,000+ fans showing up for the induction ceremony.

Twenty-one years is a long time.  And it will only get longer, it appears.  As you look at the list of “potential” Phillies to get a consideration, you come up empty.  Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Bobby Abreu will all probably come up short.  Jim Thome, Scott Rolen, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Curt Schilling could possibly get in.  Just not as Phillies.

And it’s not just the Phillies casting a pall over the Philadelphia sports scene.  The Eagles’ last Hall-of-Famer was Reggie White – 24 years ago.  The 76ers’ last was Charles Barkley in 2006.  And neither of these teams appears to be going to get someone in their respective Halls very soon.  Flyers’ fans certainly remember their Hall of Famers Bill Barber (1990), Bobby Clarke (1987), and Bernie Parent (1984), but their inductions were a long time ago.  Mark Howe was the last Philadelphia professional inducted in 2011 in The National Hockey League Hall of Fame.

So as much as we admire the Piazzas and the Griffey, Jr.s of the sporting world, Philadelphia fans would much prefer seeing one of their professional athletes in the limelight.  National politicians?  Not so much.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS) 

1. The Phillies are batting .218 in their home games this year and are scoring 2.92 runs per game at Citizens Bank Park. That’s the lowest run production in any home park in the major leagues.  Buy your ticket and see no offense at all.
2. Because July 31 was a Sunday, the Major League Baseball trade deadline was extended to 4:00pm on Monday, August 1. As I write this, phone lines around the MLB offices must be buzzing with activity.  Someone might want to trade for the LA Dodgers’ ball girl.  On Sunday, she caught a foul ball traveling at 108.7 miles per hour.
3. If you need a Lehigh Valley reason to watch the Olympics, then let Joe Kovacs be that reason. Joe, a Bethlehem Catholic graduate, is a medal favorite in the shotput in Rio.  He won the world championships last year.  The final for shot put is August 18 @ 8:00pm.
4. Sunday produced another great “Major” finish in golf. The PGA Championship came down to the final putt of the final match.  Jimmy Walker (no, not of “Dyn-o-mite” fame) won his first major.  Every major golf tournament this year was won by a first-timer.
5. The Patriot League Football Media Day was this week, so the pads will be thumping between now and opening day or night. RCNTV has Central Catholic at Freedom on opening night, August 26.

When I first saw the Easton girls team play in an early summer league game, I was this close (imagine my fingers about an inch apart) to saying that they were unequivocally the “team to beat” for the upcoming scholastic season–only to see them lose to Nazareth the next day.

Since then I’ve seen the Blue Eagles play a few times, including capturing their second “Allentown Throwdown” Championship in the last three years.  This is a very special team.  This year’s Nazareth squad seems even deeper than some of the previously successful Blue Eagles teams that brought home various titles. They run their offense through multiple people, and have several different options and players who can score at different spots on the floor.  They have people who demand the basketball at appropriate times and the team plays as aggressive a defense (usually a 2-3 zone) as I’ve seen any summer basketball team play.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, they have the area’s best basketball player in Tessa Brugler, who recently committed to Division-I Bucknell?

This is going to be a fun girls basketball winter season, if the summertime play is any indication. Forget Batman V. Superman, Black Widow against Scarlet Witch, or any other “metahuman” analogy you can tie in with this summer’s box office options.  Nazareth versus Easton is going to be a war.  But as I overhead one Nazareth player astutely mention as she walked off the court after being named champions:  “Now there’s REALLY a big target on our backs!”

This is very much true, given that Easton will not be the Eagles’ only formidable foe with their own Division I caliber athletes and an outstanding supporting cast.

Among the challengers include Parkland, Northampton, Liberty, Bethlehem Catholic, Whitehall and others.

Among the key performances this summer was a strong showing by the Freedom girls basketball team.  The Lady Pats made their debut in the Holy Family Tournament—which also featured annual powerhouse Central Catholic.   The Patriots won six of its 10 tourney games, beating several teams that have had state playoff successes.  The Patriots were the last Lehigh Valley team standing in this year’s competition, not to mention holding its own in other tournament action this summer against strong programs.

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As far as Colonial League girls teams I’ve seen this summer, the one that impressed me the most was Northwestern, followed closely by Notre Dame.

I didn’t get a chance to see the league’s and defending District XI 3A Champion Southern Lehigh, but judging by some of the scores I’ve seen, they must be without some of their key players as they sometimes sustained more losses in one day than they did all of last year–and they’re returning nearly everyone!  If any team does have a chance during the winter to upset the Spartans, I’d look for the Tigers and Crusaders to be among the best bets.

One other note: The Catasauqua girls basketball team had an interesting summer schedule. Despite still being one of the smallest schools in the PIAA’s new classifications (2A), the up and coming Rough Riders were frequently matched against teams from the 4A, 5A and even 6 A (the largest) classifications.

Still, Catty fared well and showed that they continue to make improvements and could challenge for a playoff spot this winter.

We’ll have more summertime basketball action coming your way on RCN-TV next week, as we broadcast the annual Catasauqua “Tournament of Champions.”  Check back to the RCN-TV website for our broadcast schedule.

Last week, I discussed the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) by Russian athletes during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.  An investigation showed excessive manipulation by Russia’s sports ministry in the drug testing back to the 2011 and 2015 Olympic Games as well as the 2014 games in Sochi.  Twenty-eight sports were implicated in the Russian investigation.

A ruling came down on Sunday of this week from the International Olympic Committee that will allow the individual sports federations to decide which Russian athletes would compete in Rio.  The ruling also said that Russian athletes who have previously served bans due to doping will not be allowed to take part in the Games.

Obviously, there was a great outcry from anti-doping organizations that the IOC simply “passed the buck” and did not have the guts to sanction all Russian athletes from the games in Rio.  The IOC defended their position by saying that an athlete who was not implicated in the drug scandal should be free to compete and need not be punished for the actions of others.

One decision had already been made.  The Russian track and field athletes would not be able to compete.  One female Russian, long jumper Darya Klishina, would be an exception because she was tested outside of Russia.  Others say the federations may not have the knowledge or the time to adequately determine who should or should not compete.

I will let you decide if the IOC was only being fair to the Russian athletes who may be clean or very unfair to the world athletes who are definitely clean.

To me, the most interesting decision was the one to ban former Russian runner Yulia Stepanova from the Rio games.  Yulia had been suspended for two years after being found guilty of doping back in 2013.  During her suspension, she and her husband, Vitaliy, broke the story of how the Russian sports system used large-scale doping with their athletes.

So the very person who brought the scandal out into the open would not be allowed to compete even though her two-year punishment had been served.  She wanted to compete as an individual athlete, not for any country.  She and her husband are currently living in the United States.

So what is the lesson learned?  Will others come forward to expose illegal tactics if they, too, will be punished more severely than the athletes who remained silent?  The Olympic Games will go on starting August 5 and will include Russian athletes.  It does appear that there will be a cloud of distrust that winners won medals without the help of artificial assistance.  I can only hope that great performances will be proven to be just that – great performances!  I have my doubts.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. The Russians can’t seem to stay out of the news. They are suspected of having released the Democratic e-mails to Wikileaks that showed the DNC treated the Sanders campaign unfairly to help get the Hillary Clinton nomination.  Trump vs. Clinton may be the best/worst competition of the year.
2. NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon did not stay retired very long. He filled in for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at the Brickyard 400.  Earnhardt, Jr. has been experiencing concussion symptoms.  Gordon finished thirteenth.
3. I am not a NASCAR fan, but it appears many more aren’t either. At Indianapolis on Sunday only 50,000 fans filled the 250,000 seats, continuing the steady decline of NASCAR attendance.
4. As NFL football camps open this week, Ray Rice does not have a contract. In case you forgot, Rice was suspended by the Ravens in 2014 for domestic violence.  He has been out of football ever since.  He wants to play again and says he would donate his entire salary to combat domestic violence.  The minimum he would be paid would be $885,000.  Would you sign him?
5. The Blue Mountain League regular season ends this week and congratulations to the defending league champions, Limeport Bulls. They won the regular season and, along with the Yankees, will get a bye to the semifinals.  The playoffs should be as competitive as the regular season.  Get out and watch a game.

Last week here at “The Shop,” we examined the biggest summer hoops teams and tournaments in the Washington, DC and Eastern Pennsylvania regions.  This week, we focus on more of the underrated storylines to our local scholastic basketball action this summer.

Northampton &  Pocono Mountain West
Perhaps no single game I’ve seen this summer was more physical than when these two EPC teams squared off against each other.  I counted at least four times when players went down hard on the concrete in order to secure a loose ball in a contest eventually won by PMW.

Northampton got a lift this summer when Aiden Ellwood announced he was going to be returning to the Konkrete Kids after leaving Central Catholic, but he was not available for the local summer tournaments.  Nevertheless, Northampton has played well this year and should benefit from having some nice size upfront and, as they’ve shown both this summer and over the last year, a lot of gritty players.

Pocono Mountain West sometimes gets overshadowed by Lehigh Valley teams, but they are definitely on a short list of the top teams in the district.  They play with a brand of quickness and athleticism that not many other teams in the area can showcase.  They had some personnel issues at the end of last season, but if they can keep everyone focused, there’s no reason they can’t translate their summertime success (they’ve already one won summer tournament) into winter championship titles

Bangor & Freedom
These two teams played each other last Saturday evening in an entertaining matchup and both schools have had some very impressive summers thus far.

The Slaters’ overall sports programs’ successes in 2016 might just be THE Lehigh Valley’s sport story of the year—and a lion’s share of their accomplishments belong to the boys basketball team.

Bangor is proving that life without Michael Martino (the Slaters top scoring point guard in the school’s history) won’t be as tough a transition as some might have suspected.  Bron Holland’s teams have posted a number of impressive performances this summer, including over EPC foes, and players like Reece Jones (who had some stellar games last winter) are determined to carry on the Slaters’ new tradition of excellence.

As far as the Patriots, this summer’s team might have been the most underrated group of kids I’ve seen.  They have not gotten deep into much “final day” of summer tournament action (so far) and they will most definitely be picked behind at least Liberty in their EPC division come late fall.  However, the Freedom players really impressed me with their pose over the last few weekends and look like a scrappy bunch that can’t be overlooked by anyone in their conference.

I think if they can avoid some of the personnel issues that plagued them during key stretches of the 2015-16 scholastic season, they can make a run and qualify for at least a district playoff berth this winter.

Allentown Central Catholic
Rumors of the Vikings going through a rebuilding year have been greatly overblown after Central Catholic lost Zay Jenning to graduation and a few more players due to transfers.

Central Catholic not only had perhaps the biggest team I’ve seen this number (in terms of number of players–18 to be exact) but have a very nice blend of size, speed, ball handlers and outside shooters.  Plus, they have several returning players that have experience in big game situations and they’ve look to continue their ability to play lock-down defense–something that was very apparent in most of their second half games last winter.

NOTRE DAME
If Freedom is a dark horse in the EPC, then a team you should not underestimate is Notre Dame-Green Pond.  They battled a few tough opponents over the last few weekends including Central Catholic.

From what I’ve seen—and I’m speaking strictly on intensity—they were second only to Bangor among the Colonial League teams I had the chance to watch this month.  They’re always on the pre-season list as a probable playoff team, despite not getting to the title game a year ago, but I wouldn’t forget about them when looking to make prognostications for the 2017 campaign.

Salisbury
I think if there’s an award for coaches who yelled “defense” this summer—it would have to go to Salisbury Head Coach Jason Weaver.  As usual, he had his team operating at a breakneck pace—usually matched up against schools that have a much higher enrollment number—and has kept the intensity on all month.

It seems like they did have difficulty in the transition game against a few teams (including a surprisingly strong Souderton team), but if history is any indication (along with the talent they have returning this winter), the Falcons will once again get off to a great start in December and will be one of a handful of teams competing for a Colonial League championship.

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Fans of girls hoops…don’t despair.  We’ll have news and insights on some of the top ladies’ teams’ performances in the next installment of the “SportsTalk Shop.”

You can also hear more insights on summer league hoops and other sports issues by checking out last week’s “SportsTalk” podcast.

Last but not least, be sure to come out to a special “SportsTalk Gets Wild” this Thursday at Whitehall’s Buffalo Wild Wings (on Grape Street in front of the Whitehall Mall)—an event to raise money for the Miller Keystone Blood Center.   The show will feature the State Champion Parkland Girls Volleyball team, along with a special guest to talk about an event Parkland football fans will want to know more about coming up this fall.  You can learn more about this event, as well as going to http://rcn.com/atvn/bww-sportstalk-2016, click on the “Miller Keystone Blood Center” link for the July 21^st event.  Then print the “dine-and-donate” flyer and bring it with you to the program to help raise money for our local charity.