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

In the pre-coronavirus era, the hottest sports debate over the last couple years in the Lehigh Valley swirled around the new school, Executive Education Academy Charter School.

The Raptors were accused of allegedly taking top-tier players from other Lehigh Valley school districts…a charge that resulted in a public hearing.

While EEACS was not found guilty nor made any formal retributions, the local governing sports body (District XI) did recommend that some changes needed to be made by the academy to their “recruiting” practices, with a warning that penalties might be issued if they chose not to follow the suggestions.

This did not sit well with many surrounding school districts, who felt there was clearly enough evidence to warrant formal sanctions.

The result?

Not one Lehigh Valley basketball team had ever scheduled the school for any regular-season game the last few school years (prior to this current COVID-filled school year).

In fact, in its first year, the Raptors won the District XI 2A title without playing a single team from the Valley until the championship game.  Ironically, Executive Education Academy’s championship victory came over another “non-boundary” school, Moravian Academy.

While a few schools did play Executive this past basketball season, the common reason was, because of all the limitations placed on a number of school districts due to COVID, opponents were sometimes few and far between.  Most administrators and coaches have remained mum about the possibility of adding or resuming games with EEACS in the future.

In a completely separate news story, Allen High School anointed Randy Atiyeh as the school’s new athletic director a few months back.  A long-time assistant basketball coach and a tireless worker in the community, Randy was an obvious choice to take over the position and, so far this year, has done a tremendous job in that role.

But this hiring set up an intriguing decision for local sports fans now to ponder.

One of Atiyeh’s closest friends is former Parkland High School basketball standout player, Toomey Anderson, who is officially the assistant athletic director and a key figure at Executive Education Academy’s basketball program.  Both Atiyeh and Anderson have been co-directors of one of the annual summer basketball tournaments at Cedar Beach in Allentown–the same event that has seen most local schools drop out of competition because of Anderson’s involvement with the Raptors.

Furthermore, Allen’s new boys’ basketball Head Coach is Darnell Braswell, who is good friends with another former Canary great, Ray Barbosa – the boys’ basketball Head Coach at, you guessed it … Executive Education Academy.

The immediate question surrounding the Allen High School sports program now becomes, will Atiyeh break the unanimous, yet unofficial union of the local schools by putting the Raptors on the Canaries’ schedule in future seasons?

We asked Randy and Darnell that very question on a recent edition of “SportsTalk.”

Here is a portion of Atiyeh’s answer.

RCN customers can get more of Randy’s response, plus Darnell’s reaction and more of their opinions by watching the entire interview though RCN’s Video-on-Demand.  And keep checking back to our “SportsTalk” show for news and analysis as this story continues to evolve for future seasons.

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

I love high school baseball.

It’s a great sport with so many inside nuances if you are really into it…cat-and-mouse games between pitchers and hitters…or pitchers and baserunners…where to position your outfielders.  If you understand the game (and little patience is needed at times) and you have teams that play the game the right way, it’s really a lot of fun.

Fortunately in our viewing area, we have an abundance of teams that play fundamentally-smart baseball programs that makes for some very enjoyable viewing.  With the district playoffs upon us, it’s time to delve headlong into our discussion of teams and games in our viewing area.  In addition to recapping the regular season and the EPC championship game (which is now available on RCN On-Demand), we’ll be looking at the district baseball playoffs.

The brackets are out and we’re looking forward to all the matchups over the next 9 days, culminating with the District XI 6A title contest, which you will be able to watch live on RCN-TV (bookmark our broadcast schedule and keep checking back to our website for specific game information and “first pitch” time.

Meanwhile on this week’s “RCN SportsTalk,” RCN Sports Director Gary Laubach will join us to break down all the elements and preview the next week-and-a-half worth of games with Co-Host Keith Groller and myself.

We have some great storylines already in place:

Liberty’s dominating run through the regular season, only to be tripped up in the semifinal by Pocono Mountain East. Can the Hurricanes bounce back?

Emmaus won the EPC championship but it has been decades since the same team has won both the big schools’ league and district titles in the same season.  Can the Hornets break the curse?

Perennial power Parkland was also upset in the league playoffs and a few other schools who traditionally do well have been struggling of late.  Will one of those teams get hot in time to contend for a championship?

Plus, on the girls side, there’s some very intriguing matchups coming up after a very entertaining league playoffs in both the EPC and Colonial League.  We’ll talk about those storylines as well.

But baseball is not the only thing we are working on for our upcoming “SportsTalk” programs.  Here’s just a sample of the guests we are lining up over the next several weeks:

• PIAA Assistant Executive Director Melissa Mertz talks Pennsylvania state sports issues including the spring state playoff format, current rule and procedure adjustments in the works and possible changes for the fall and winter sports seasons

• Maret HS (DC) Head Football Coach Mike Engelberg talks about his undefeated spring sports season in the DMV after missing out on the entire fall campaign after his team won the DC state title in 2019.

• Allentown Central Catholic’s tennis team did something no other team in our viewing area did this spring and also accomplished another feat that no one in school history had ever done.  First year Head Coach Jared Smith will explain.

• Multi-sport Wilson HS standout Jeff Breidinger will return to his alma mater as the school’s athletic director after some successful stops as a coach at other schools and has some major changes in store for his new programs.

• The Morning Call’s Tom Housenick and Dante Terenzio will recap this spring’s track-and-field, tennis and volleyball seasons and also get us up to date on local golf, wrestling and other sports news and issues.

• First-time new HS football head coaches are taking over at Allen and Liberty high schools. We’ll introduce you to them and their captains — one already is making a guarantee about this fall’s season.
• Spring sports district champions and state playoff participants

• … and more!

Make sure you tune in, set your DVR or check out these guests and more over the next several weeks on RCN-TV and RCN On-Demand!

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

No, I did not make a typo and add a question mark by mistake when putting this week’s “SportsTalk Shop” blog title together.

This is normally the time of year when I check in with local spring and summer basketball coordinators to receive their schedules, talk with them about their plans for the next several months and perhaps get some insights (and usually a few juicy rumors) on some local storylines to keep an eye out for.

In doing that this week, there’s been a similar theme to what I heard last year:

Cautious optimism.

Regardless of these leagues and tournaments’ organizers’ background, everyone I’ve talked to is hopeful to get some semblance of summer action in. 

That being said, many were equally optimistic about last Summer, thirteen months ago.

This year some organizers are saying they are hearing positive, aka declining, numbers in terms of COVID cases and feel very strongly that the games can be played just as in previous years.  But the fact that the mask mandate will be lifted in a few weeks hasn’t kept some from getting overly hopeful things will go off as planned.

The “spring games” have already been postponed and, quite likely, games will not go regularly like they would in a “normal” year.  However, as of this moment, there is a schedule for local summer league games and tournaments in place for June and July within the RCN-Lehigh Valley footprint.

Last year, in lieu of bringing you pictures of the summer’s local basketball action, I uncovered many “never before seen” shots of the special people participating in summer games and tournaments in our viewing area.  Until we have games being played, and because I received some very nice comments about posting these images a year ago, I am bringing you more previously unpublished pictures from the prior summer’s basketball action.

Also, like in 2020, I’ll be checking in with local representatives as we get closer to the bigger summer tourneys in June and will present an update–one way or the other–on the status of this year’s local activities on the courts.

Stay tuned!!

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

Recently, we highlighted the different all area teams for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

The Colonial League did away with their “all star teams” a few years ago — at least, those listings that were provided from the participating schools’ athletic directors and administrators.

However, that hasn’t stopped the “CLGBBA!”

The Colonial League Girls Basketball Coaches Association was formed in 2019-20 when the Colonial League decided not to recognize its student-athletes through the selection of All-League teams.  The GBB coaches have gotten together to continue the tradition of honoring the league’s best players by selecting, 1st and 2nd Team All-League Players as well as Honorable Mention Athletes. The Association consists of the head coaches from the Colonial League’s 13 member schools. 

So, here are their listings of top performers during this past season…

Colonial League Girls Basketball Coaches Association  ALL-LEAGUE Honorees 2020-21  

(All Selections Listed Alphabetically) 

FIRST TEAM 

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: 

TRINITY WILLIAMS, SR, PALISADES 

SECOND TEAM 

HONORABLE MENTION

Again, a big THANK YOU to those involved and in charge of these organizations for passing those lists along to us, so that we can put them in the spotlight here at RCN’s “SportsTalk Shop!”

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

Last week here at “The Shop,” we started our annual listings of outstanding individual accomplishments by student athletes in the RCN-TV viewing area, but highlighting the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s standout girls basketball performers from this past winter season.

Today, it’s the EPC boys turn as we spotlight them with the league’s All-Star selections.

Among the highlights are two firsts–at least, as far back as I can remember.

First, we have “tri-most valuable player awards” given out.  We frequently have seen ties in the voting, precipitating leagues to give out “co-MVP” honors, but I don’t remember a three-way split between three different players in the same league–let alone three students within the same division AND county.

Also, I don’t ever recall any freshman from the EPC-18 ever garnishing first-team accolades.  Nate Ellis from Allen High School got “second team” honors two years ago but I haven’t found anyone to disagree that Parkland’s Nick Coval was the first ninth grader to capture that accomplishment in this league’s history.

Here is the complete rundown of the post-season accolades:

Lehigh County 

1^st Team

Mel Copeland – William Allen

Nick Coval – Parkland (Tri-MVP)

Nate Ellis – William Allen (Tri-MVP)

Liam Joyce – Allentown Central Catholic

Tyson Thomas – Allentown Central Catholic (Tri-MVP)

2^nd Team

Danny Bohman – Emmaus

Will Meeker – Parkland

Manny Ozuna – William Allen

Daniel Quinones – Dieruff

Trey Rolle – Parkland

Monroe County 

1^st Team

Jahkai Barnes – Stroudsburg

Christian Fermin – Pocono Mountain West (MVP)

Qadir Mitchell – Stroudsburg

Christian Sapp – East Stroudsburg South

Justin Smith – Pocono Mountain West

2^nd Team

Matt Campbell – Pocono Mountain West

Colin Castillon – Pocono Mountain West

Joel Contreras – Pleasant Valley

Kyle John – East Stroudsburg North

Tamir Thompson – Pocono Mountain East

Northampton County 

1^st Team

Nick Ellis – Freedom

Edixon Gomez – Bethlehem Catholic

Isaac Harris – Northampton

Chris Hewey – Easton (MVP)

Lucas Lesko – Northampton

2^nd Team

Joseph Barnes – Liberty

Jalen Fletcher – Freedom

Ryan Glassmacher – Bethlehem Catholic

Ryan Kresge – Nazareth

CJ Santos – Nazareth

Keep checking back to the “SportsTalk Shop” for more pos-tseason awards and accolades for student athletes in the RCN viewing area!

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

Although the 2020-2021 basketball season had its share of hurdles, the student-athletes, parents, coaches, athletic directors and everyone involved in local high school sports deserve a round of applause for dealing with all the adversity faced during the past four months.

Through the pandemic, snow/weather-related events, limitations/restrictions imposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and other happenings that took place, it was an accomplishment to have as much of a season as we did.  Some areas in the RCN viewing area outside of the Lehigh Valley would have been thrilled to get in as many games as most of the teams within the Valley were able to play this past year.

When the student-athletes did get on the court (albeit with a drastically reduced amount of practice time–something I’ve heard more than one coach lament this winter), we saw some exceptional play and great individual and team performances.

The Colonial and Schuylkill Leagues both conducted their conference playoffs as close to “normal” as they usually do.  The revamped — and some would argue, improved — district tourney format was also a success with some great games that you saw on RCN-TV.

As part of our return to normalcy, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference recently released their annual “All-Star” listings for the girls and boys teams.  We spotlight the girls teams this week and hope to have the boys listings coming up next week here at “The Shop.” 

Lehigh County 

1^st Team

Lindsay Berger – Parkland (EPC League MVP)

Jaydalise Cartagena – Dieruff

Shanaiya Ellis – William Allen

Julia Roth – Allentown Central Catholic

Emily Vaughan – Allentown Central Catholic

 2^nd Team

Molly Driscoll – Allentown Central Catholic

Ella Laky – Whitehall

Joey Madison Shaul – Whitehall

Sonya Shivok – Parkland

Talia Zurinskas – Parkland 

Monroe County 

1^st Team

Kendel Card – Stroudsburg

Vatijah Davis – PM West

Isabella Horvath – PM East

Azahni Simmons – PM West

Emily Strunk – Stroudsburg (MVP) 

2^nd Team

Chanel Davis – ES North

Kania Day – ES South

Layla Hernandez – ES South

Samantha Merklin – Pleasant Valley

Ella Muir – Pleasant Valley 

Northampton County 

1^st Team

Talya Brugler – Nazareth (MVP)

Morgan Sterner – Northampton

Sara Tamoun – Easton

Kailey Turpening – Freedom

Kourtney Wilson – Bethlehem Catholic

 2^nd Team

Jessica Farrell – Liberty

Grace Lesko – Northampton

Kelly Leszcynski – Nazareth

Brenna Ortwein – Freedom

Emily Violante – Easton

PROGRAMMING NOTE:

We will continue our exclusive interviews with spring sports coaches and players to talk about their return to the playing fields on this Thursday’s “RCN Sports Talk” program, featuring teams from Easton and Bethlehem Catholic high schools this week. Tune in this Thursday at 7pm to RCN-TV, set your DVRs or look us up through RCN On Demand (free for RCN subscribers)!

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

Last week we looked back at some of the highlights from this past winter sports season.

This week, we continue our glance back at the last several weeks of wrestling and basketball sports action that we brought you on RCN-TV.

RCN Sports: District XI Individual Wrestling Championship (3/21)    

RCN Sports: Nazareth vs. Archbishop Carroll (3/21)
 

RCN Sports: Parkland vs. Nazareth (3/21)

 RCN Sports: Parkland vs. Northampton (3/21)

 RCN Sports: Pocono Mountain West vs. Allen (3/21)

RCN Sports: Allentown Central Catholic vs Jim Thorpe (3/21)

RCN Sports: Allentown Central Catholic vs. Middletown (3/21)

 RCN Sports: East Stroudsburg South vs. Bangor (3/21)

 RCN Sports: Notre Dame Green Pond vs. Executive Education (3/21)

Remember, RCN viewers can see all of our sports programming for free at any time through RCN On-Demand for shows and sports events for up to two months from the day their first air on RCN-TV.

Also, we’ll continue our look ahead to the spring sports season on this Thursday’s “RCN SportsTalk” show with more interviews from players and coaches currently participating in the season that just got underway.  This week’s guests include members of the Freedom girls softball team.

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

As we reflect upon the recently completed winter sports season, there were certainly some ups and downs for teams, administrators, fans, members of the media and everyone associated with high school sports.

Fortunately, we got through the season with no “catastrophes” (aka, zero COVID-19 deaths among student athletes in Pennsylvania according to the PIAA’s recently released information about the winter sports campaign).  We completed the state championships the previous weekend with only two teams having to withdraw from the state tournaments due to the pandemic…and that is for ALL winter sports.

And…we had our share of very competitive games on RCN-TV this past winter.

Here is a look back at some of the sports action we brought to our audience this season…

 VIDEO CLIPS: 

1) RCN Sports: Allen vs. Parkland (2/21)

2) RCN Sports: Allen vs. Parkland 2 (3/21)

3) RCN Sports: Allentown Central Catholic vs. Pope John Paul II (3/21)

4) RCN Sports: Palmerton vs. Northwestern Lehigh (3/21)

5) RCN Sports: Liberty vs. Emmaus (3/21)

6)  RCN Sports: Bangor vs. Bethlehem Catholic (3/21)

7)  RCN Sports: Bangor vs. Notre Dame Green Pond (3/21)   

8) RCN Sports: Allen vs. Archbishop Wood (3/21)

9) RCN Sports: Allentown Central Catholic vs. Bethlehem Catholic (3/21)

 More video highlights from this past winter coming your way next week here at “The Shop.”

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

It’s not uncommon for me to congratulate an individual wrestler and/or a Lehigh Valley wrestling team for winning a state gold medal here on this blog this time of year.

However, it’s been 35 years since anyone from the Lehigh Valley could congratulate a boys basketball team for accomplishing the same honor during the winter sports season.

Allentown Central Catholic became the first Valley boys basketball team since…Central Catholic did it back in 1986.  We’ve had a few girls basketball teams bring home titles over the last several decades but many skeptics around the area thought we might never see another boys title from this area again. Fortunately, the Vikings proved them wrong and defeated Hickory High School, 41-40, last Thursday evening.

Like most teams this winter, Central Catholic had to overcome some adversity. 

Their team was shut down three times because of COVID–either via state mandates or because of reported cases within their own program.  Among their constatent scheduling issues…three times they scheduled and had to postpone their non-conference game vs. Notre Dame-Green Pond in what would have been a match of two of the Valley’s best teams (an additional storyline:  Central’s assistant athletic director is related to Notre Dame’s head coach and best player).

Two other times we were scheduled to broadcast a Central game–one time the game was cancelled 47 hours before tipoff, the other time, 3-½ hours before it was slated to start.

They also had personnel issues.  Their biggest concern among the players was the loss of their starting center, Christian Spudnardi, for two-thirds of their season with an ankle injury.  He recovered two weeks before the playoffs started and gave the Vikings their first 100% healthy starting lineup roughly ten days before the postseason got underway.

We’ll hear more on the Vikings’ historic season from Central Catholic Head Coach Dennis Csensits and members of his team on an upcoming edition of “RCN SportsTalk” (a number of their players also play spring sports, so we’ll have to find a date that works for as many of their student-athletes as possible).

This winter also gave some vindication to the Nazareth and Bethlehem Catholic girls basketball teams–both were alive in the state playoffs when the coronavirus took a hold of everything going on in the sports world last year and made for a premature ending on their quest for a championship.

Although both teams lost before getting a chance to play in the Pennsylvania state final, at least they had a season and had the opportunity to compete for the championship without having the games pulled out from under them–as was the case a year ago.

As far as wrestling, Lehigh Valley teams did well in states…although not their usual dominance that local squads normally have at Hershey.

There were a few individuals who won gold medals but for the first time in several years, no school walked away with the PIAA trophy.

The reasons are both most probably tied to the pandemic.  

Lehigh Valley teams have an advantage competing in one of the most prominent wrestling communities in the country.  Because of the limited scheduling of meets, many wrestlings did not get to compete against some of the other best wrestling teams like they normally do in any other season.  A number of schools use the motto “iron sharpens iron,” and facing that tough level of wrestling on a weekly basis can’t help but make wrestlers better prepared for states.

Furthermore, some schools gain skills by competing at outside tournaments featuring some of the best wrestlers in the country–utilizing those skills learned and applying them in state competitions.  Because many of the nation’s top tourneys were cancelled, the top wrestlers didn’t have those experiences as well.

Still, just to get through this winter season while staying healthy was an accomplishment.  For the Central Catholic’s boys basketball team, who persevered through all its hurdles (and had a number of nail-biting victories over the last two weeks), they captured the ultimate prize for a high school sports program.

Congratulations Vikings!

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

 Before we take our final look at this winter’s high school basketball poll (and in the interest of full disclosure)…let’s look back at which teams our poll experts had predicted when we started the season – the first time – back in late November/ early December.

EPC-LV TOP 5 (Preseason Version)

1)     Central Catholic

2)      Allen

3)     Easton

4)    Parkland

5)    Northampton

COLONIAL TOP 5 (Preseason Version)

1)  Southern Lehigh                   

2)  Notre Dame

3)  Bangor           

4)   Northwestern        

5)  Palmerton

As you’ll see, the biggest change – and the biggest surprise – was Southern Lehigh.  The Spartans were tapped by many to be the best team in the Colonial League and in Class 5A, featuring the return of one of the premier basketball players from the previous season.  Instead, the defending Colonial League and District 11 5A champions were eliminated in the first round of both the conference and district playoffs.

Obviously, the main goal for all teams was to just try to get through this past winter sports season healthy.  Otherwise, you would have to look at Southern Lehigh as one of the biggest disappointments of the winter.

The EPC poll had fewer surprises and was a little easier to predict.

With that, it’s time for us to take our final look at our high school basketball or teams in the RCN viewing area within District XI boundaries.

For this winter, we broke the two polls down into the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (Lehigh Valley teams only) and Colonial League schools, within the RCN broadcast area.

Like the fall, our pollsters consisted of local media members and coaches/administrators from our local teams, who will remain anonymous so they can vote honestly without retribution and to avoid any “bulletin board” material.

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

Feel free to email me at Chris.Michael@rcn.net for your thoughts on our final poll and we might read and respond to your emails on this week’s SportsTalk show.

EPC-LV TOP 5

1)    Allen

2)    Central Catholic

3)    Parkland

4)    Easton*

5)    Northampton

*Season concluded due to school district protocols

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

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

COLONIAL TOP 5

1)   Bangor               

2)  Notre Dame

3)  Northwestern

4)  Palmerton

5)  Southern Lehigh

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

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

We will be looking at the last several months of scholastic sports action in our viewing area over the next few weeks here at “The Shop” and on our RCN SportsTalk television program.

Simultaneously, we’ll start gearing up for the spring sports season, present some interviews and previews of local teams and storylines of interest and more … all coming your way over the next month!