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.

 There is a great fundraising event going on in a number of areas in the RCN-TV viewing area over the next several weeks that you really should know more about.

We had the pleasure on “RCN SportsTalk” to speak with Merry Troper, the Executive Director of a special charity event centered around the sport of lacrosse, called “Shootout for Soldiers,” which raises money for the men and women serving our country in the Armed Forces.

The event has been gathering momentum over the last several years and has turned into much more than a simple lacrosse tournament. The games and the ceremonies strike an emotional accord with veterans and their family members who attend.  There are plenty special events that go on, before, during and after the games.

One of the highlights includes the playing of the National Anthem, by different performers, every hour before each match starts. The match kicks off with two teams made up entirely of veterans playing each other, which starts at 9am on June 23^rd.

Merry talked about more of the highlights of this year’s event in Washington, to be hosted at Long Bridge Park.

Among the other “Shootout for Soldiers” events coming up include:

Baltimore                           June 20^th-21^st

Washington, DC               June 23^rd-24^th

Philadelphia                      June 26^th-27th

Boston                                July 6^th-7^th

Long Island                       July 12^th-13^th

…and more!

The games have traditionally been very competitive if you are a hardcore lacrosse fan and want to attend the matches for the quality of play, but it’s also important that people in the area of these events try to make an attempt to support our servicemen and women in this worthy cause.

The event has raised millions of dollars over the years and is setting its sights on trying to raise $50,000 for this year’s event in Washington, DC alone.

For more information on the event specifically in DC, go to:

Click on “Shootout for Soldiers,” to get more information on other “Shootout for Soldiers” events taking place in Boston, Long Island, Baltimore, Philadelphia and more!

There, you can learn more about the other cities’ events, as well as find out about ways to help financially, by working as an intern or volunteer, or through other sponsorship opportunities.

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.

With the warm weather here and the Memorial Day weekend (and unofficial start to summer) nearly upon us, it’s time to talk about the start of the “remote” season for the “RCN SportsTalk” show and our first “wild” episode coming up this week.

For the past several years, we’ve done a number of broadcasts live from “Buffalo Wild Wings” on Grape Street in Whitehall.

We’ve had great shows featuring special guests and we have an exciting lineup of guests for this summer as well.

But first things first.

Our 2018 debut will have members of this year’s Lehigh Valley high school All-Star football team, including Head Coaches Kevin Ronalds and Tom McCarroll.

Both coaches had outstanding fall campaigns (which we’ll be talking about on this Thursday’s show), but we’ll also talk about the top moments of some great football players from this past season, along with their thoughts on the upcoming All-Star contest and next step in their careers.

You can pose a question to our guests and make a comment if you come out to see the show in person and be part of the fun.

Those of you who attend will have a chance to win prizes, but more importantly, you will help a local charity. For this show, proceeds raised in our “patio section” of Buffalo Wild Wings (10% of your total food bill) will go to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of the Lehigh Valley.  Find more information on this Thursday’s event here on the RCN-TV website.

Hope to see you there!

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.

From time to time we like to honor the young athletes in the RCN viewing area when they are named to special teams or reach accomplishments.

First, here are the current Track & Field performance results for boys and girls student athletes in the Lehigh Valley’s Colonial League:

Boys

Girls

Here are the final results from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conferences Cheering competition: Congrats Easton!

Here is the All-Star list for the EPC wrestling team (Nazareth’s Sammy Sasso was named the league’s MVP).

1st Team

Nate Lackman, Becahi

Matt Maloney, Liberty

Cameron Enriquez, Stroudsburg

Patrick Noonan, Stroudsburg

Patrick Gould, E. Stroudsburg South

Steven Storm, Pocono Mt. East

Cole Handlovic, Becahi

Luca Frinzi, Becahi

Caden Wright, Emmaus

Sammy Sasso, Nazareth

Adam Lizak, Parkland

Cade Wilson, Nazareth

Jacob Frank, Easton

Sami Khamis, Stroudsburg

2nd Team

Peyton Brown, Emmaus

Evan Gleason, Easton

Matt Lackman, Becahi

Kenny Herrman, Becahi

Jonathan Miers, Easton

Ryan Anderson, Becahi

Zach Ortman, Parkland

Lenny Pinto, Stroudsburg

Kevin Vrablik, Parkland

Tyler Delorenzo, E. Stroudsburg South

Tavion Banks, Becahi

Robert Spezza, Becahi

Damen Moyer, Liberty

Hunter Werkheiser, Northampton

Last but not least, the Colonial League basketball All-Star teams for the girls…

…and the boys…

As we get closer to the end of this scholastic school year, don’t forget to send us your lists and/or encourage your school’s athletic directors to pass honors and accolades along to us here at the “SportsTalk Shop” by email at chris.michael@rcn.net and we’ll try to mention them in an upcoming post.

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.

There have been some wonderful stories to follow for local sports fans so far this spring that we have covered on our “RCN SportsTalk” program.  Here are just a few of the Lehigh Valley highlights over the last two week’s worth of shows.

One of the area’s nicest and most skilled coaches took over the reins of the Northampton boys volleyball team this spring.  Sue Arndt has been a successful head coach at Emmaus and Catasauqua high schools, a local AAU program, and with an assistant at Dieruff when that program made a strong turnaround.

The K-Kids have a strong core of now senior players who have had great scholastic careers.  Now led by these 12th graders, the team has already posted some impressive wins this season.  With their aggressive, take-no-prisoners style on and off the court, they are looking to be major players in the post-season.

Speaking of volleyball, the Whitehall squad has gone underrated, in my opinion, for the last couple of seasons.  The Zephyrs were the 2017 runner-ups in both the EPC and the District XI championship games, but didn’t receive much mention in the local preseason previews.

Like Northampton, Whitehall is playing well and is looking to take the next step in the playoffs.

We talked a few years ago about the outstanding job Saucon Valley has done turning around its girls lacrosse program.

Now, defending District XI 2A champs seem determined to stay among the elite teams in the Lehigh Valley.

We caught up with the Panthers, currently undefeated, following another win over a bigger, EPC school and they seemed determine to keep their squad playing at a high level.

The Easton baseball team is once again having a fantastic season under head coach Carm LaDuca.

In addition to posting yet another EPC victory last Saturday, the Red Rovers also took the opportunity to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Easton team that advanced in the state playoffs, featuring both LaDuca and long-time assistant Greg Hess.

The Rovers will see some tough competition in the Class 6A district playoffs again in a few weeks, but another run in the PIAA tournament should certainly not be ruled out for this year’s squad.

With the playoffs upon us, there’s just a few weeks left in the high school sports spring season. If you have an idea for a feature, a team you’d like our cameras to stop by and visit or high school athletes who deserve a “Shout-out” on the show, email me at chris.michael@rcn.net

For more on the above stories and additional interviews with high school teams in the RCN viewing area, you can check out “SportsTalk” through RCN On Demand.

Programming note: we’ll be rebroadcasting our interview with Saquon Barkley (drafted by the Giants in last Thursday’s NFL Draft) on this week’s “SportsTalk” program.

Also, be on the lookout for more information on our first “remote” edition of “RCN SportsTalk” presented by ‘The Morning Call’” out on location. We’ll have several “remote” shows coming up over the next few months.

See more details coming soon here at “The Shop” and on the RCN-TV website.

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 been one month into the “Great Experiment” known as the “Gabe Kapler Era” (aka “Be Bold.”) Time to take an objective look at how things have fared so far.

In full disclosure, I am not “heavy” into the analytics that have made their way into every corner of professional baseball. I have always been a fan of stats and using statistical information when analyzing players, but I was not a big fan of being “all-in.” While I enjoyed the movie “Moneyball,” I don’t believe you can use the philosophy started by the Oakland Athletics several years ago and base most/all aspects of building a team on numbers.

Also, (and again being completely honest), I admit I was very critical of Kapler with some of his experiments in spring training and several gaffs that took place during the first week of the regular season.

I was worried.

But I always try to have patience when making my analysis. I had an opportunity to speak with the Phillies Manager during the team’s first home stand at Citizens Bank Park, and I have to admit, he did impress me—for several reasons.

Firstly, he answered all of the questions and issues through the first week of the season (including his outfielder Nick Williams openly questioning his decision and another anonymous player saying his manager should “stay out of their way”).

He didn’t skirt the question or try to say that it was made up. Instead, he said he talked with Williams and addressed those and other issues with the respective players. He was firm in his decisions, addressed them privately but was still open in admitting that everything he has done has not worked out.

This in itself is quite different from previous Philly managers—among them Terry Francona (who later went on to win a World Series). When “Tito” was questioned early in his career (ironically, for not starting his best player on Opening Day—something Kapler also did), Francona starting whining about the media being out to get him and tried to make himself out to be victim, something that will never endear a person to the baseball fans in the Delaware Valley. (I believe he learned his lesson and is much more responsive in media interviews since his departure and not coincidently, had much better success as a manager).

Secondly, Kapler has cut back a bit with making in-game decisions solely based on numbers. He’s left his starting pitchers (who have pitched surprisingly through the first three weeks) in longer than he initially said he was going to do and has rarely gotten caught without available players—even while working with a shorter-than-typical bench.

These things have paid off with an impressive record (albeit against playing some of the worst teams in baseball during the season’s first four weeks).

However, Kapler has won over one skeptical observer so far with the way he has handled his club. I’m still not 100% convinced that they are playoff contenders this season, but I haven’t been impressed with very many other teams so far this year, and I’m certainly more confident of the Phillies’ direction than I was a month ago.

For more insights and Phillies interviews with manager Gabe Kapler, pitcher Vince Velasquez, Maikel Franco, Hector Neris and more, look back through recent episodes of “SportsTalk” through RCN On-Demand and here in previous “SportsTalk Shop” blog entries.

We’ll continue to talk baseball on this week’s “SportsTalk” show with Oakland Athletics pitcher Lou Trivino. Lou was born and grew up in the RCN of Pennsylvania region and just made his MLB debut last week. He will have some great stories to tell about his rise to the Big Leagues and what his first few games in the Majors have been like.

Also on this Thursday’s program, we’ll bring in beat writers from different areas to recap the NFL Draft, with an emphasis on the teams most popular with fans within the RCN-TV 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. 

When I first created the “SportsTalk” program on RCN-TV, I wanted to feature some of the incredible people from the RCN viewing area. Recently, I had the good fortune of interviewing a very special individual on our show.

Jack O’Halloran has continued to have a tremendous career, in sports, movies, books, productions and, in many other circles of life.

Jack, born in Philadelphia, grew up in the Delaware Valley and fought some of the greatest names in boxing history, and acted alongside some of the cinema’s biggest names of all time.

A California Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, Jack shared his personal stories of Mohammad Ali, George Foreman, Ken Norton and other great, ranked fighters.

He is developing his 2010 novel, “Family Legacy,” into a film (looking to release it next year) which deals with thought-provoking questions and unique aspects of American life, in addition to writing and producing other projects.

As an actor, Jack’s most well-known role was that of “Non” in the classic “Superman I” and “Superman II” films. He told us wonderful stories about his friends and colleagues – Sarah Douglas, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando and Christopher Reeve – as well as Robert Mitchum, James Earl Jones, Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, Ted Kennedy and many other well-known celebrities.

He talked with me about his excitement following his childhood team, the Eagles, to the Super Bowl this past winter, and shared a great story involving former Birds Hall of Fame Quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, Head Coach Joe Kuharich and how he “almost” went to play for this favorite team. Check it out!

********

Speaking of the Eagles, we also caught up with CBS Sports/247 NFL Reporter Jeff Kerr on “SportsTalk” to get his insights and observations on the current Eagles team and general NFL off-season news. He also shared his opinions on potential roster moves, more free agent acquisitions, Penn State’s Saquon Barkley, the NFL Draft and the latest rumors…

Tune in for more insight from Jeff on the NFL Draft on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show, live at 7 pm on RCN-TV

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.

With the expanded playoff format, we are just a couple days removed from the final Pennsylvania high school basketball games of the 2018 season.

Strangely enough, as I’m typing this on the second day of April, I’m looking out my window and seeing at least three inches of snow on the lawn. In keeping with the weather outside, it’s time for our final look at the winter basketball season with video highlights from all of RCN-TV’s exciting coverage of the Pennsylvania high school playoff races, featuring teams from both the Lehigh and Delaware Valley areas!

Don’t forget RCN customers can see all these games in their entirety for free, at any time, by viewing the games through RCN On-Demand.

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This week on “RCN SportsTalk presented by ‘The Morning Call’” we’ll start our transition from the winter to the spring high school sports season by meeting two of the Lehigh Valley’s defending District XI champions—the Allentown Central Catholic lacrosse team and the Emmaus volleyball team. Coaches (both of them voted “Coach of the Year” by the “Call”) and their players from both teams will be in-studio to talk about last year’s success and preview the upcom

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.

The HS basketball playoffs are beginning to wind down—you can see this week’s Pennsylvania championship boys and girls basketball games on RCN dial position 97 in the Lehigh Valley.

The RCN TV crew was busy the last few weeks with our district and state basketball playoff coverage. Here are the highlights from recent broadcast games …

Don’t forget, RCN customers can see all these games in their entirety for free, at any time, by viewing the games through RCN On-Demand.

Coming up on the next “RCN SportsTalk presented by ‘The Morning Call’” we’ll be talking with various members of the Nazareth wrestling team following another tremendous year.

Guests include legendary head coach David Crowell, who recently won his landmark 300th coaching match. We’ll also have female coaches and student-wrestlers with the Blue Eagles program in-studio to talk about their struggles for equality and their experiences wrestling at the scholastic level this past winter.

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.

We’re nearing the end of the winter sports playoff season and there’s been some exciting action over the last few weeks on RCN-TV!

Be sure to keep watching the final state playoff games of the season and, in case you missed it, here are video recaps of some of the recent basketball games and wrestling matches on RCN. Don’t forget RCN customers can see all these games in their entirety for free, at any time, by viewing the games through RCN On-Demand.

Check back here for our RCN TV broadcast schedule covering the Pennsylvania state basketball playoffs!

And…coming up on our “SportsTalk” show (Thursdays at 7pm), we’ll continue to talk high school basketball playoffs, plus get you ready for the start of the Major League Baseball season, with live reports from spring training facilities in Florida!

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.

A few years ago, one of additions on our “SportsTalk” show was the “DKN Sports Minute,” a 60-second reel highlighting a recent DC-area high school football or basketball game produced by the great people at the DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music & Entertainment (OCTFME) located in Washington, DC.

Well, the OCTFME has been busy adding to its own plate with expanded coverage of news, community events, public affairs, entertainment and sports in the DC region.  In its enhanced sports coverage are more-detailed and more in-depth interviews, videos and features of scholastic, collegiate and professional teams, personalities and special happenings.

With these additions, we’re proud to announce that we will share even more of their outstanding programming going forward on our Thursday night “RCN SportsTalk” shows.  Plus, you can see the “DKN Sports Reporters” show itself on RCN-TV on Fridays at 4:30pm each week.  The DKN sports channel is also available to RCN customers in Washington, DC on channel 18.

Starting this month,  there are a number of features we’ll look to present on “RCN SportsTalk”  that have been produced by the office of OCTFME, including:

“Britt Waters’ Recap of the DC Red Bull Reign”

“New Team, New Look”

“ESPN’s Lisa Salters on Her Keys to Success”

“Redskins VP Tony Wyllie on Football, Family, and Fandom””

“RFK Campus Block Party”

Plus, features on several high school sports programs in DC

…and many more!

And, to coincide with the start of the spring sports season in April, we’ll have regular interviews and videos of sports teams in the Washington, DC region.

We’ll look to have guests from OCTFME on a regular basis to get their opinions, sports rumors and first-hand impressions on sports action and previews of upcoming events of interest to sports fans in the DMV.

There’s an abundance of great student-athletes and sports action in the Washington, DC area, along with a number of nationally ranked teams and players in different sports, which is of interest to sports fans in many different markets in which RCN-TV broadcasts and is available.

We look forward to adding these interesting elements to our lineup in continuing to provide entertaining sports conversations and stories to our RCN viewers and followers here on the RCN-TV website!  As always, we appreciate your opinions on our coverage and would welcome your thoughts via email: rcnsportstalk@rcn.com