Whew…that was fun!

First of all, a huge “thank you” to the media members and head football coaches that participated in a…well, rather “wild” high school regular season-worth of polling.  In a dozen years of covering scholastic sports and running a poll, I’ve never seen the number of different teams mentioned in a poll, nor seen as many different teams ranked number one in a single season—not to mention almost every voter’s “polling card” looked different—both from other voters and from themselves—from week to week.

We enter the playoff season with two clear “number one” teams in our poll and five different “number one seeds” (thanks to the expanded playoff system) through the teams in the five classifications in our area.  At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one or two of them fail to capture a District championship, due to the extreme parity in the area.

Speaking of the post-season, we hope you’ll tune in for our playoff preview edition of “RCN SportsTalk presented by The Morning Call” this Thursday and on our Friday podcast.  This week’s panel includes Morning Call high school football writers Keith Groller and Steve Miller, who will offer up insights, news and predictions on as many football playoff games in our area as time will allow.

Before we can move on to the playoffs, however, it’s time for the unveiling of our final high school football poll of this incredible 2016 regular season 

Big School Football Poll–FINAL
1) Emmaus (10 – 1^st place votes)
2) Parkland
3) Whitehall
4) Freedom
5) Pleasant Valley

Small School FB Poll — FINAL
1) Central Catholic (eight -1^st place vote)
2) Bethlehem Catholic
3) Saucon Valley
4) Notre Dame
5) Palisades

Thanks also to everyone who took the time to comment on our football polls throughout the season.  You may recall a few years back I was thinking of ending the poll, only to be surprised how many people enjoyed reading and seeing our local experts’ opinions on the local teams.

By the way– and, if we get enough feedback–I’m entertaining the thought of doing a first-ever high school basketball poll this winter.  If that’s something that you, our area high school sports fans, would be interested in, please email us at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com and we’ll see if it generates enough interest.  (Note: this would mean MUCH MORE work for me, but I’m willing to work late on Monday nights if it’s something you’d really like to see 🙂 ).

Now that our football polling is completed, don’t forget to check out and bookmark the RCN football playoff schedule here on the RCN-TV website and check back often for our schedule as we follow your favorite teams deep (hopefully, if they keep winning) into the state playoffs!

We’ve talked quite a bit this fall about how the early start to the high school football season has made the season go faster than normal.  That fact has almost been lost as a few of the winter sports coaches whose school will now probably not make the playoffs.  In talking with several of them over the last few days, they’ve suddenly realized that their athletes, as of October 29, may be turning their attention to basketball, wrestling, swimming and rifling.

As we head into the final week of the regular season for District XI teams, it’s time we once again look at this week’s “RCN SportsTalk” football poll for the teams in our coverage area.

First, a quick recap of how we put our polls together and arrive at our conclusions for our bi-weekly  results.

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, East 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, Northern Lehigh 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.

Unlike polls that consist of a couple representatives within the same organization, our poll is much more varied with input from many different people over a wider scope.  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 (unless they appear on our “SportsTalk” TV show and podcast and chose to reveal themselves) 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.

Now, here are this week’s poll results…

(Note/for the record: one of our voters was “MIA” for this week’s poll).

“ BIG” SCHOOL Football Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Emmaus – 48 (eight – 1^st place votes)
2) Parkland – 42 (two – 1^st place votes)
3) Freedom — 17
4) Pleasant Valley – 16
5-tied) Nazareth/Whitehall – 13
Other schools receiving more than one vote:  Stroudsburg

 “Small SCHOOL” Football Poll (8 pollsters)
1) Becahi – 41 (six – 1^st place votes)
2) Central Catholic – 35 (three -1^st place vote)
3) Saucon Valley – 29
4) Notre Dame – 16
5) Palisades – 10

Other schools receiving more than one vote:  Pen Argyl

Coming up on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show (7pm LIVE, RCN-TV), we have a jammed-packed show with different sports topics.  Keith Groller and I will break down all the various playoff scenarios heading into the final week of the high school football regular season.  Georgetown University Head Football Coach Rob Sgarlata will talk about his team’s impressive performance against Fordham last week and give his thoughts on this weekend’s game against Lafayette.  Plus, Phillies beat writer Stephen Gross will talk about the World Series and the Phillies off-season agenda.  Gross also covers the Phantoms and will talk about the Flyers upcoming season as well as top prospects to keep an eye on.

Email me at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com and tune in for this week’s “SportsTalk” show and podcast for more

 The next several days at the RCN TV studio is known as “parade week.”  We know, based on the feedback we get from our viewers each year, that our audience loves the fall/Halloween season and their community parades that celebrate the holiday.  These parades feature many local residents and organizations that we serve.  That means here at the studio (to borrow a baseball playoff term) it’s “all hands on deck” for our RCN crew members, as they are busy being out-and-about in the area in order to cover as many local parades as we can during the next ten days or so.

Consequently, some of our regular work assignments, including those of us on the “RCN SportsTalk” show, take a back seat for the next week in order to provide coverage of these special events.  This Thursday, instead of a live, call-in/email-us edition of the show, we will have a taped program (at 7pm), dealing with the controversial new high school playoff system in Pennsylvania, with local administrators & coaches giving their insights on the new systems, policies and changes that have/will continue to affect all scholastic sports.

We’ll return next week with our live show and a whole new round of District XI high school football poll results, leading up to the final week of the regular season.

In the meantime–and to get you set for what will be an exciting “playoff push” for teams in our coverage area, here’s a look back at highlights from recent games broadcast on RCN TV.  We hope you enjoy–and remember to check back here next week for more sports insights, videos and opinions.

*****
Last but not least, the RCN family lost two wonderful people this past week.

Former Sports Director Bob Gehris passed away last weekend.  While I never had the pleasure of working with Mr. Gehris directly—he retired prior to me starting with the company—I knew of his great reputation here in the Lehigh Valley for many years.  When I started here at RCN, he approached me warmly and always offered me great encouragement, advice and some tremendous stories of all of his great experience calling games over the years.  He would often greet me at local sports venues or the Allentown Fair to ask me how things were going, and he was always a wonderful guest when he made special appearances on our “RCN SportsTalk” program.

Ironically, one of Mr. Gehris’s close friends was our own Bob Gery, who also left us this weekend.

Bob served many roles for decades at Twin County/RCN and was a true friend to everyone who knew him.  He served countless roles—many of them not seen nor noticed by our viewers, and that’s because of Bob’s dedication and tremendous work ethic behind the scenes.  While we are scrambling to try to cover for all of Bob’s work responsibilities, it pales in comparison to the great human being the community has lost.

While he was a very quiet person to most people, he was very passionate about things he loved:  politics, history, the Beatles, the Flyers, golf and the local sports landscape.  Bob worked very long hours during our busiest times of the sports season, but always had a smile on his face when he’d be out at productions and see familiar sports personalities—Doug Snyder, Steve Shiffert, Bob Shriver, Bron Holland, were just a few of his favorites.

We spent many hours in the back offices coordinating different projects for “Community Spotlight,” “SportsTalk,” remote productions and whatever else came our way, but Bob was at his best when we could come into my office and relax and talk about whatever was on his mind—and he always had great insights in whatever he chose to talk about.

Both are viewed as Lehigh Valley television legends in my mind, while serving very different, but both essential, roles.  Both were class acts, and both of them will be very much missed by all.

Be sure to also check out Gary Laubach’s “Behind the Mic” blog this week for his reflections on the passing of Bob Gery.

While the Eagles have clearly stolen the sports spotlight in the Eastern Pennsylvania region, the Phillies’ “positives” this season should not be forgotten.

With their season coming to an end (and insights on the baseball playoffs with MLB.com’s Bill Ladson, and other guests, here: rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk), here’s a look at the top three “feel-good stories” of the year, along with my guesses as to who makes the Opening Day roster next spring.

The starting rotation
I thought at the beginning of 2016 that if half of the top-level prospects (eg., Aaron Nola, Jared Eickhoff, Vincent Velasquez) showed me some flashes of getting MLB-hitters out on an everyday basis, that this year’s team would be a great success.  Save Nola, who struggled before succumbing to a season-ending injury, I feel nearly every one of those prospects took a major stride forward this season. Throw in the better-than-expected performances of Ben Lively, Joely Rodriquez and others, and the team looks like it will actually be in the great position of having competition among those prospects for the top five spots in the rotation next year.  A quality team will use/need at least eight starting pitchers in a given season, and the Phillies might already have eight available (and quality) arms before you even think about your off-season shopping list.

Tommy Joseph
I remember talking with a scout behind the backstop at a Lehigh Valley IronPigs game in 2015 commenting on how far the once-prized catching prospect had fallen offensively, following several concussions that severely limited his playing time since being acquired by Hunter Pence.  In late August of that summer, Joseph looked completely lost at the plate and there were major questions whether he would even return to the 40-man roster.  Fast forward to spring 2016 and he not only excelled in what started as a platoon-role as a new position, but hit 20 home runs with the parent club.  Furthermore, he seemed to adjust and hit his way through slumps and, at the very least, should be counted in as the starting first baseman for Opening Day.  I’m not prepared to say he’s going to be a star in the Majors, but he certainly has worked hard enough to be given that position to start the 2017 campaign.

Hector Neris & Edubray Ramos
I talked with Phillies Manager Pete Mackanin in January about his bullpen, and he seemed really excited about a trio of young arms in the organization—one of them being Neris. Although he really didn’t get much of a chance to show what he could do as the team’s full-time closer, he certainly exhibited “closer-type stuff” all season long, and became the team’s most consistent pitcher.

Edubray Ramos was a guy I didn’t hear very much about from the organization’s top tier, but did hear a few people who have seen him pitch warn to “keep an eye out” for him.  He quickly rose from Double-A, to Triple-A briefly, and then to the Majors and formed a formidable bridge, along with Neris, to closer Jeanmar Gomez.

If Neris and Ramos equal their efforts in 2017 and the Phillies can get a couple more of their young arms to have success at the Big League level, the team’s bullpen will be a key part of future success without having to look elsewhere for much help.

Now, here’s a look at who I think we’ll start next season (along with a few suggestions for additions) for 2017:

Rotation
Jeremy Hellickson (or another veteran presence, if he elects Free Agency)
Eickhoff
Velasquez
Thompson
(combination of Alec Asher, Adam Morgan, Ben Lively and, when healthy, Nola and Zach Eflin)

Bullpen
Neris
Gomez
Ramos
Rodriquez
Severino Gonzalez (as a long-man/spot starter)
At least one or two additional veteran presence and perhaps another “swing man” to start in a pinch.

Catchers
Cameron Rupp, A.J. Ellis (both prospects Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knupp, if not traded, still need more time, and so a veteran backstop will be needed).

Infielders
Joseph
Cesar Hernandez
Freddy Galvis
Maikel Franco
Either re-sign super utility (and all-around good guy) Andres Blanco or another stable veteran backup.

Outfielders
Odubel Herrera
Roman Quinn
Aaron Altherr
Cody Asche (he MUST improve in 2017, and should learn to play first base as a left-handed compliment to Joseph on a part-time basis).

A significant, but not a ‘break-the-bank’ offensive threat who can provide some much needed support to a very young and erratic offense.  We’ll take a look at possible options and best fits for the Phillies in the coming weeks.

Note:  No Nick Williams or J. P. Crawford on this list.  I still think both could use some seasoning and, at the very least, keeps these guys off the MLB roster until you can get another year before free agent eligibility kicks in (cover your ears, agents).  Plus, I’d like to see a few guys (ie., Altherr, Hernadez, Galvis) try to continue (improve upon?) what they showed flashes of during the 2016 season—especially more offense needed from Altherr.

What do you think of my off-season shopping list and 2017 Opening Day projections?  Email me at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com and tune in for this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show for more sports conversations.

Without question, it’s been one of the wildest high school football seasons in recent memory, and our poll experts have had a heck of a time trying to give us perspective on which have been the top teams each week.  Heck, we pretty much went the last two years with Parkland being the definitive top team in the Lehigh Valley region.

Undaunted, we’ll proceed in unveiling this week’s listing of the best teams in the RCN coverage area for District XI.

But first, a quick recap of how we put our polls together and arrive at our conclusions for our bi-weekly  results.

Unlike polls that consist of a couple representatives within the same organization, our poll is much more varied with input from many different people over a wider scope.  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 (unless they appear on our “SportsTalk” TV show and podcast and chose to reveal themselves) 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.

Despite this fall’s change in the PIAA classification, our poll remains with the standard, tried-and-true format that we have utilized for many seasons.  We will 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, East 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, Northern Lehigh 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.

Now, here are this week’s poll results…

“ BIG” SCHOOL FB Poll (10 pollsters)
1. Emmaus – 50 total points (ten – 1^st place votes
2. Parkland – 40
3. Whitehall – 19
4. Liberty – 16
5. Freedom – 14
Note: Pleasant Valley and Stroudsburg also received at least one vote.

“Small SCHOOL” FB Poll (9 pollsters)
1. Becahi – 44 total points  (eight – 1^st place votes)
2. Central Catholic – 34  (one -1^st place vote)
3. Notre Dame – 26
4-tie  Northwestern – 15
Saucon Valley — 15
Other schools receiving at least one vote: Pen Argyl

Disagree with someone’s placement?  Should one team be ranked higher than another?  Feel free to email us at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com or call us during our live show this Thursday to voice your opinion and talk football with us.  Joining Keith Groller and me will be Philadelphia Eagles Beat Writer Nick Fierro to preview the Birds game against Detroit this weekend (Nick also has some interesting thoughts on HS football as well).  We’ll also have Bill Ladson (mlb.com writer) on this week’s show to talk about the MLB playoff races.

Since we started the high school football season, I guess it shouldn’t be hard to believe that we are already halfway through the regular season (although with the expanded playoffs, we still have over two months to go).

With that said, I wanted to recap some of the major high school sports stories in the Lehigh Valley from this past weekend, along with highlights of our RCN-TV productions through the season’s first four weeks.

• There have been very few head coaches I’ve talked with who did not say that Bethlehem Catholic had the best front six defenders in the entire Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. But they showed their balance last weekend against Liberty on Saturday. Their speedy, but at some spots, inexperienced secondary came through and equaled the effort of the players up front. On offense, they continued to grind out a solid running attack, led by Day-Day Rhodes and Randy Terry, and newly named (after week two) full-time quarterback Javon Clements, who led a balanced attack with a very solid passing game and excellent decision-making. The Golden Hawks wanted to send a message that they belong in the EPC South Division, and delivered their first statement win against a traditional power.

• We mentioned on our high school football preview shows in August that Emmaus’s Josh Artis belongs on a short list of the most talented wide receivers in the region. He’s continued to have proven us correct in recent weeks. At 6’5 and with great leaping ability, he’s very hard to cover for most corners in the league in single coverage. The only way to slow him down seems to be pressuring the quarterback–although that’s not a given with the Hornets solid offensive line.  Also, with Artis running the inside slant, it’s not an easy task for most opposing teams’ defenses to cover. Look for Artis to continue to be a m ajor playmaker this weekend versus Freedom and going forward this fall.

• Saucon Valley handled Southern Lehigh last Friday and Notre Dame also defeated the Spartans a couple weeks ago. This, in probability, should set up a rematch of what was last year’s Colonial League game of the year, when the Panthers will take on the Crusaders in week nine. Both teams lost some talented seniors to graduation, but have removed any doubt of their ability to reload and, barring a major upset, and will once again play for the top spot in the league.

Speaking of Notre Dame, we will find out firsthand more about this team, including how good they think they can be this year, along with insights on their success so far and their upcoming schedule.  Head coach Phil Stambaugh and his players will be our in-studio guests on this Thursday’s “RCN SportsTalk presented by The Morning Call” show, live at 7 p.m. on RCN TV.

Now, here are video highlights of all of our HS football productions, thus far…

Don’t forget to send us your sports comments and questions at any time via email (rcnsportstalk@rcn.com) and to tune in on Thursdays, when I’m joined by new co-host/Morning Call Senior Sports Writer Keith Groller on each show.

If you go back through the archives and read one of the earliest “SportsTalk Shop” blog entries that I ever wrote, I spoke at length about my admiration for The Morning Call Senior Sports Writer, Keith Groller, for a number of reasons.

One of the biggest reasons was how much I was impressed by his passion for local sports coverage—almost to, what some may believe, a fault.

A number of years ago, Keith was covering “higher end” sports as the NBA/76ers beat guy for the “Call.”  He made the surprising decision to give up covering professional basketball to devote more of his working time to covering high school sports.

I was shocked by that decision back then.  I myself was busy splitting my time between working part-time at a Philadelphia radio station, a New York station, a pair of sister stations in the Lehigh Valley and RCN-TV.  I had the good fortune of being offered not one, but three, significant full-time opportunities in a very short timeframe—any one of which would have moved my career forward, and any of those positions would have granted me a higher “status” in this industry.

But, I committed what many at that time would have considered career suicide by passing on all three offers—and I’ve never been happier.  I’ve never regretted staying in this area—especially a short time later when I was blessed to be offered my current full time position here at RCN.  And I will always thank Keith for being someone who I looked up to, when contemplating that decision.

And now, as fate would have it, Keith and I will become sports talk show partners.

Premiering this Thursday at 7 pm on RCN-TV, Keith will join “RCN SportsTalk Presented by The Morning Call” as our new co-host. We’ll be joined by the strong stable of The Morning Call staff writers making regular appearances on our hour-long program.  Many of the “old favorites” will return, including “the Roundtable” segment, our “Stone-Cold Locks,” trivia, prize giveaways and, of course, the opportunity to interact with us live on the program.  Also, Keith will sound off on any sports issue(s) that he chooses to comment on, during his “take” segment—much the same way Joe Craig had done before him.

Speaking of Joe, he is focusing his time going forward on our weekly “Football Friday” program—dedicated to talking about his favorite subject, high school football, during the scholastic season.  It will be great for me and our audience to continue to see him on RCN-TV this fall.

It goes without saying that I will miss him being a regular panelist on our show each week.   Despite our on-air combativeness—one that was never faked or pre-scripted like many other shows, I thought we provided an interesting balance of opinions and styles during the first 12 years of this show’s run.  We frequently disagreed on a number of issues, probably too many to even attempt to recap over time and our debates would frequently spill over after the program—so much so that many people would often ask me if we were on non-speaking terms away from the program, or if we really despised each other.

The answer is and was always “no.”  I have great respect for Joe as a football coach and as an athletic director and thought he added a great deal to our program.  Once more, he had a deep commitment to our local athletes and sports institutions—and that love of the local athletic programs in the RCN viewing area is something we shared and was the basis for our show’s core—one that allowed us to have strong disagreements and yet continue to have a solid working relationship.

It’s great that we are continuing to have passionate conversations about people who truly care for and respect local sports, on both our Thursday and Friday sports programs.  We hope you’ll tune in to watch both shows this football season, as we continue to add to our local sports coverage and feature the outstanding athletes, teams and programs in the RCN viewing area.

The biggest topic of conversation has been the shift from four classifications to six, with many schools moving to new groupings, approved by Pennsylvania’s governing body over high school sports—the PIAA.  We had a chance recently in studio to discuss this big shake-up with local media members…

Coming up on this Thursday’s live show at 7 pm on RCN-TV (the podcast will be available the next day), District XI Football Chair Jason Zimmerman, along with local head coaches, will be on “RCN SportsTalk” to discuss and debate the advantages of these new alignments.  They will also outline the changes to the regular season schedule, the playoff criteria, the reasoning behind moving some teams and not others and many more issues.

Viewers will have the benefit of calling into the show live or emailing us (rcnsportstalk@rcn.com) questions and concerns about the radical change—including the usually lengthy procedure for these alterations, which took place in a surprisingly quick fashion.

Among the areas of confusion that we’ll hope to clear up on this show include: identifying where the different teams “landed,” why a particular school is sometimes in different classifications for different sports (including different grouping for boys and girls sports), the number of teams that will qualify for the postseason and many more issues.

To help clarify some of the confusion ahead of the show, here is a rundown of where the various schools fall for a couple of the most-covered PIAA sanctioned sports.

FOOTBALL CLASSIFICATIONS…
CLASS 6A:
Allen, Dieruff, Easton, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth, Northampton, Parkland, Pleasant Valley, Pocono Mt. East, Pocono Mt. West and Stroudsburg

CLASS 5A:
East Stroudsburg North, East Stroudsburg South, Southern Lehigh and Whitehall

CLASS 4A:
Bangor, Bethlehem Catholic, Blue Mountain, Central Catholic, Northwestern Lehigh, Pottsville and Saucon Valley

CLASS 3A:
Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Northern Lehigh, North Schuylkill, Notre Dame-Green Pond, Palisades, Pen Argyl, Salisbury, Tamaqua and Wilson

CLASS 2A:
Catasauqua, Mahanoy Area, Minersville, Palmerton, Panther Valley, Pine Grove, Minersville and Schuylkill Haven

CLASS A:
Marian, Nativity, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley and Williams Valley

BOYS BASKETBALL CLASSIFICATIONS…
CLASS 6A:
Allen, Dieruff, Easton, East Stroudsburg South, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth, Northampton, Parkland, Pleasant Valley, Pocono Mountain Easton, Pocono Mountain West, Stroudsburg

CLASS 5A:
Bangor, Blue Mountain, Allentown Central Catholic, East Stroudsburg North, Pottsville, Southern Lehigh and Whitehall

CLASS 4A:
Bethlehem Catholic, Jim Thorpe, North Schuylkill, Northwestern, Pen Argyl, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Tamaqua and Wilson

CLASS 3A:
Catasauqua, Minersville, Northern Lehigh, Notre Dame-Green Pond, Palmerton and Pine Grove

CLASS 2A:
Mahanoy Area, Marian Catholic, Moravian Academy, Panther Valley, Schuylkill Haven, Shenandoah Valley and Williams Valley

CLASS A:
Lincoln Leadership, Medical Academy, Nativity, Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg, Tri-Valley and Weatherly

As I mentioned months ago on this blog, I myself am taking an optimistic “wait-and-see” approach to see how this new classification system shakes out.  There are some clear advantages for student-athletes and some of the local school sports programs. However, there have also been a number of coaches in the state who have raised concerns about this year’s changes.

Again, you will have the opportunity to call or email the show directly and our guests will be able to address your questions and concerns on this Thursday’s program.  We hope you’ll join us for this important show and let us know your thoughts!

First of all, a big “thank-you” to all the people who sent me positive feedback following our unprecedented THREE HOURS of high school football primer talk (which you can catch through RCN On-Demand or at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk).  We had some wonderful insights on the local teams and players in the RCN viewing area, along with predictions, identified athletes-to-watch, “must see” match-ups, and, of course, our RCN pre-season football poll.  We hope you check it out if you missed it!

Speaking of polls….

It seems bizarre that it’s already time for our “Week Two” high school football polls for teams and only now have we celebrated Labor Day. (I joke when people mention this holiday as I, along with nearly every coach, player, administrator and media member rarely can have a Labor Day Monday in which you’re not doing something football related, or else you find yourself massively behind in the preparation department for this week’s chores).

It’s the same thing for our high school football poll panelists, who were hard at work over the last 24 hours reviewing last weekend’s gridiron activities, comparing notes and sizing up the competition around the Lehigh Valley, in order to submit their picks for our bi-weekly poll.

With that said, here’s a look at our first “in-season” ranking of the teams in the RCN/Lehigh Valley footprint after two solid weeks of high school gridiron action:

BIG SCHOOL FB Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Parkland (5-1st place votes)
2) Freedom (4-1st place votes)
3) Liberty
4) Emmaus (1)
5) Easton
Other schools receiving more than one vote: Southern Lehigh, Whitehall

SMALL SCHOOLS FB Poll (9 pollsters)
1) Saucon Valley (5 – 1st place votes)
2) Becahi (4 – 1st place votes)
3) Central Catholic
4) Notre Dame
5) Northwestern
Other schools receiving more than one vote: Pen Argyl, Salisbury

Unlike polls that consist of a couple representatives within the same organization, our poll is much more varied with input from many different people over a wider scope.  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 (unless they appear on our “SportsTalk” TV show and podcast and chose to reveal themselves) 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.

Despite this fall’s change in the PIAA classification, our poll remains with the standard, tried-and-true format that we have utilized for many seasons.  We will 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, Northern Lehigh 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.

For the RCN viewers watching us in the Washington, DC region, we are once again featuring your high school football teams with highlights and news on the different programs on our Thursday show.

Feel free to send us your opinions on our poll to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and we might read your emails live on the air on upcoming programs.  You can comment directions on this week’s “RCN SportsTalk” program this Thursday and our podcast of the show available on our website.

Also, don’t forget to check back to the “SportsTalk Shop” for more on high school football and fall sports teams in the RCN viewing area over the coming weeks for more interviews, video highlights and insights!

The high school football season has arrived with an earlier-than-normal start to the season (the PIAA eliminated the second scrimmage week so that the season will start a week earlier and allow for an additional week of playoffs).

We have an unprecedented amount of local high school football coverage, both on RCN On-Demand and on our podcasts here at the RCN TV website.  Despite a busy week of transitioning to the football season, preparing for several “SportsTalk” programs as well as this weekend’s games and also conducting shows from the Allentown Fair this week, I was able to take a moment to reflect on the opening weekend of high school football action.

I’ve compiled a few “first impressions” after the first round of high school football games in the Lehigh Valley:

• I stirred up some controversy on our “primer shows #1 & #2” by making some lofty predictions about Dez Boykin, Zach Gilbert and the Whitehall Zephyrs (which you can hear for yourself at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk). After the first weekend of games, I saw nothing that would cause me to back off those statements.
•  There’s no question PARKLAND is the top team in the Lehigh Valley. They had their way with Allen in their season opener—and it won’t be the last time the Trojans put a licking on a local team this fall.  Without DeVante Cross and some other talented, graduated seniors, it won’t be easy for Parkland to equal its 2015 season, which culminated in a trip to Hershey for the PIAA title. Still, anything less than a couple wins in the state playoffs will be a surprise to me, and if you watched “SportsTalk” recently, you know other panelists have made even loftier predictions for the Trojans.
• I’ve been saying for over a year now that FREEDOM has perhaps the most underrated sports programs in the entire Lehigh Valley, especially now that Bangor has collected some well- deserved recognition after capturing several championships over the last few months.  There might not be a more under-covered football sports story than that of the Patriots’ football program, that has one of the most miraculous turnarounds in recent memory—and to do it in one of the most competitive football leagues in the state!  Furthermore, Head Coach Jason Roeder’s team proved not to be just a once-and-done story, with a dramatic turnaround following a 2-8 season in 2013, but sustaining the success with back-to-back playoff trips the last two seasons.

Still, when I ask people for their impressions of the top EPC teams this fall, the initial responses from most people are always Parkland, without any hesitation.  Freedom does have a very competitive start to their season, with games against Easton, Parkland and Emmaus all in September.  You could also argue that the Patriots had the most challenging week one opponent of anyone in the EPC-South Division.  However, I would be surprised if the Patriots aren’t once again one of the top two teams in their classification this fall.

Do you think Freedom gets the respect?  We’ll talk with Coach Roeder and some of his players on the September 8^th edition of “RCN SportsTalk,” and, if you think they should get more publicity, I hope you’ll make your voices known on that particular show.

• There’s no question NOTRE DAME lost some talented personnel from last year’s record-setting team, but with Phil Stambaugh back operating the offense, I’m not expecting much of a letdown for the Crusaders this season. I fully expect Cole DeFranco, a sophomore quarterback, to thrive given the teachings of new Head Coach Phil Stambaugh.  The players who do return, headed up by Mitch Daniel and others, might make Notre Dame into the new, consistent power team that the Colonial League has featured in the past, like Saucon Valley, Catty, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Wilson before them.

Also, we’ll have Coach Stambaugh and several of his players on a “SportsTalk” show this September as well.

Feel free to send us your opinions on our poll to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and we might read your emails live on the air on upcoming programs.  You can comment on this week’s “SportsTalk” program and also, don’t forget to watch this week’s show, in person, at the Farmerama Stage Area at this year’s Great Allentown Fair.

Also, don’t forget to check back to the “SportsTalk Shop” for more on high school football and fall sports teams in the RCN viewing area over the coming weeks for more interviews, video highlights and insights!