With all of the Lehigh Valley teams now out of the running for a PIAA state football title, it’s now time to fully devote our attention to the rapidly approaching high school basketball season.

We are extremely fortunate to have some incredibly insightful people giving their opinions on the 2016-17 scholastic season.  In addition to local media members (Morning Call’s Keith Groller, RCN Sports Director Gary Laubach, RCN announcers Tom Stoudt and Dennis Laub, and LehighValleyBasketballRankings.com’s Toomey Anderson), we have three distinguished head basketball coaches giving their takes on five important questions for the upcoming season.  We won’t reveal the names of the head coaches to avoid any “bulletin board” material, but, just like in fall with our football poll, we are blessed to have some long-tenured and well-established basketball names with us this year!

So…let’s get started with each of our pollsters giving their opinions on:

1) 3 KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH THIS WINTER
Toomey Anderson: We all know about the top players in the district.  Here are some others to expect good seasons from:
Lehigh Valley –  Jay Vaughan (ACC).  Charles Hudson (Whitehall),  Arnell Lewis (Easton);  Colonial League-  Dylan Benton (Bangor), Jack Reichenbach (Salisbury), Isaiah Graves (Catty);   “Mountain teams”- Jalen Vaughns (PM West), Shon Wilson (Stroudsburg), Darin Bellinger (ES North)

Keith Groller:  Talek Williams, Sam Iorio, David Kachelries
Dennis Laub:  Talek Williams, Sam Iorio, Dave Kachelries…although I personally like Logan McGinley from Whitehall
Tom Stoudt: Talek Williams, David Kachelries, Tyrese Martin
Mystery Coach 1:  Talek Williams and Tyrese Martin both of Allen; Sam Iorio of Parkland and the Kachelries twins of Emmaus. I know that is 5, but they are all special players.
Mystery Coach 2:  Tyrese Martin (Allen); Isaiah Wiggins ((PM West); Mickey Esquilin (Whitehall)
Mystery Coach 3:  Talek Williams (Allen), Sam Iorio (Parkland), Lance Singh (Poc. Mt. West)

2) “CAN’T MISS” GAME OF THE YEAR
TA: Salisbury vs. Bangor (Colonial) & Parkland vs. Allen (EPC)
KG: Parkland at Allen, Feb. 6
DL:  Allen vs. Pocono Mountain West (at least 150 points scored…if not 180)
TS:  Parkland vs. Allen (Oh, wait, they don’t play each other), Parkland vs. PMW (Oh, they don’t play each other, either), Parkland vs Allen on 2/6/16
MC 1:  Bangor vs. any of the EPC teams they play. A good way to see how Bangor, the biggest school in the Colonial League, “hangs” with the big boys of the EPC. Also, Pocono Mt. West vs. Allen should be a heck of a game.
MC 2: Allen vs PM West; Bangor vs Easton
MC 3: Pocono Mt. West vs. Whitehall

3) “NEWCOMER” THIS SEASON
TA: Mohammed Dunbaya (Easton). New to Easton last year but didn’t play much—he will be a force defensively this year.
KG: Chico Whyte, Dieruff
DL:  Aidan Ellwood returning to Northampton, where he’ll thrive again.
TS:  Zach Sabol, 6’7 Sophomore at Emmaus
MC 1:  Aiden Elwood and his return to Northampton. Also, the big kid Sabol from Emmaus.
MC 3:  Justin Paz (Bethlehem Catholic)

4) “TEAMS TO BEAT”
TA: Bangor & Parkland
KG: Allen and Bangor
DL:  Allen & Pocono Mountain West
TS:  Allen & Pocono Mountain West
MC 1: Allen in the EPC-South, Bangor in the Colonial League and Pocono Mt. West (in the EPC-North). They all have a lot of talent.
MC 2:  Allen; PM West
MC 3: Allen and Liberty

5) “SLEEPER TEAM”
 TA: Bethlehem Catholic
KG: Bethlehem Catholic in the EPC; Southern Lehigh in the Colonial
DL:  Emmaus (they have a huge advantage in their home gym)
TS:  Bethlehem Catholic
MC 1: Whitehall. They finished 2^nd in the Stellar and Sportsfest tournaments and won the Allentown Summer League. Also, watch out for Northampton with the return of Ellwood from CCHS.
MC 3:  Parkland – people think they are down but they still have one of the best players in the league. I never thought I would say that Parkland is a sleeper, but this year they just might be

Don’t forget to catch RCN’s first broadcast high school basketball game this Tuesday, December 12, with Gary Laubach and Tom Stoudt and be sure to check out our winter sports schedule here on the RCN-TV website for all the top games!

It’s almost time for our annual “year-in-review” special on RCN-TV and this year, we want to incorporate your opinions on the top team, players, games and more!

Senior Morning Call Sports Writer Keith Groller and I will be giving our picks for our favorite sports moments of 2016—and your votes will help shape who we will be featuring in the coming weeks as part of a special program.

Email us at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com with your suggestions for favorite 2016 sports moments, video clips and/or features that you would like us to mention or you might like to see again.  Also, we’re taking your votes on the following topics:

1).Best Defensive Football Player in Eastern PA this fall
2) Most Intriguing HS Team
3) Best & Worst Sports Decision Made in 2016 (any level)
4) Best “Professional” Sports Story in Philly or DC
5) Most Underrated Story (any level)
6) Favorite Sports Moment of 2016
7) Sports Personality You Would Have Liked to See More Of
8) Most Disappointing News of the Year (Any level)
9) Something Witnessed That You Hope To See Again In 2017
10) Something You Hope Doesn’t Repeat Next Year
11) Best Performance By An Underclassmen
12) Most Overplayed Story of 2016 (any level)
13) Biggest Turnaround in 2016 (any level)
14) Most Lasting Image of 2016 (Local / National)
15) Best Coaching Job of 2016
16) Most Outstanding Individual Performance of 2016
17) Most Impressive Team Performance of 2016

And, predictions for 2017…
18)  One Team & Player to Watch in 2017
19) Something “New” You’d Like to See in 2017
20) One Piece of Advice for an Athlete/Coach in 2017

And…a “Stone-Cold” Lock To Happen in 2017.

Keith and I will be coming up with our own lists but welcome your input—you may just sway us with your votes/comments!

Then, check back to the “SportsTalk Shop” in a few weeks, along with our “RCN SportsTalk Presented by The Morning Call: Year-in-Review Special” that will air multiple times during the holiday season (check the broadcast schedule here on the RCN-TV website for the specific dates and times of this show’s airings).

Again, the decision is yours for our annual program and blog postings.  Feel free to vote on any of these above topics or suggest your own by emailing rcnsportstalk@rcn.com.

We also have some video highlights of recent District XI and PIAA state playoff games broadcast on RCN recently:

We also have a “Best of RCN-TV” contest here on the website for you to check out and vote on your favorite overall game/programs. The top choices will be shown again on RCN TV ON New Year’s Day.

Last, but certainly not least, make sure you mark your calendars, set your RCN TiVo boxes and make sure you tune in to the “Dream Come True Telethon” on RCN-TV, on Monday, December 5, from 6:00-9:00 pm to help one of the Lehigh Valley’s most worthwhile charities.  The auction is already active online! Click here to view and bid on lots of items, including one-of-a-kind donations from your favorite cable TV networks! It’s an excellent way to take care of your Christmas shopping list in addition to supporting a tremendous cause. Or just make a donation – no bidding necessary! And then tune in to the telethon next Monday night; it’s very entertaining with special guests from around the region.  Be sure to watch and thank you in advance for your donation!

Sometimes I think I have a big mouth!

As we got to the end of the high school football season (a campaign that FLEW by this year), I mentioned both here at “The Shop” and on “RCN SportsTalk presented by The Morning Call” that our football poll season went by much too quickly and that maybe, if our audience was interested enough and would send me positive feedback, we might entertain the possibility of doing a scholastic hoops version of the poll for our viewers in the District XI area.  This suggestion caused me to once again prove something I’ve known down deep for years…

The Lehigh Valley LOVES their high school sports!

Needless to say, I did get a number of people who said they’d like to see a basketball poll for the winter.    So now, it’s time to put the wheels in motion (basketball practices did get underway last week, if you didn’t realize that in the middle of all this football playoff news).

First, we are going to present a “preseason” poll (we’ll publish this right around the start of our RCN broadcast schedule),  including a ranking of teams from one to five (#1 being the best, then #2 for the 2^nd best, #3 for the 3^rd, etc).

Also, for our pre-season poll, we’ll also be asking our voters’ opinions for the following questions…

• Three players to watch for the upcoming season
• A “can’t-miss” game to watch this season
• “New” player to watch this season
• Top two “teams to beat”
• “Sleeper” team

Then, starting January 8 through the start of the playoffs, our voters will continue to rank their top-five teams each week.  All District XI schools are eligible for the poll and will be divided into either our “big schools” (5A & 6A classifications) or “small schools” (3A & 4A) polls within the RCN footprint:

The “small schools” consist of Wilson, Saucon Valley, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame-GP, Palmerton, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.

The “big schools” are Bangor, Central, Southern Lehigh, Whitehall, Allen, Dieruff, Easton, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth, E. Stroudsburg North & South, Pocono Mountain East, Pocono Mountain West, Stroudsburg, Northampton, Parkland, and Pleasant Valley.

Last but not least, we are going to have some great basketball minds weighing in on our poll!

Among them:

• RCN TV Sports Director Gary Laubach
• RCN Basketball Commentators Tom Stoudt and Dennis Laub
• Lehigh Valley Basketball Ranking’s (and former high school and collegiate standout player) Toomey Anderson
• Morning Call Sr. Sports Writer/Lead HS Hoops Writer Keith Groller

PLUS…

We also will have local coaches giving their insights.  Like the football season, we will not divulge their names publicly so that they can give their honest impressions, without having to worry about getting negative push-back from the teams they play and avoiding any potential “bulletin board” issues.

So thanks for everyone’s feedback and input suggesting we do a poll for the winter high school basketball season (despite the extra work—it will be fun to see the results for me, too–but don’t tell anyone J. Don’t forget to check back to the “SportsTalk Shop” in two weeks when our new basketball poll will debut for the season!

Last, but not least, we hope everyone has an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day holiday and enjoys the state playoff high school football action on RCN-TV this weekend.  Also, please be safe if you do venture out and are traveling before Thanksgiving Day and/or on Black Friday!

We are right in the middle of an exciting run of District XI high school football action on RCN-TV.

First of all, the EPC announced their All-Star class, so let’s take a moment to spotlight some of the outstanding high school players during the regular season.

Last weekend, the district’s 4A and 5A champions were crowned and will move on to the PIAA state playoffs, commencing on Friday night.

This weekend will also be the 6A and 3A title games.  Of course, this time of year is even more exciting as it’s “do or die” time, with the loser of these playoff games seeing their season come to an end.   For that reason alone, there’s a little more adrenaline running through the hearts and minds of the players, coaches and people associated with the football teams involved at this time of year.

Here is a look at RCN’s recent coverage of the final regular season games, along with the opening rounds of the district playoff season.

Don’t forget, you can see more highlights, along with insights, predictions and previews of our local teams in the state playoffs by watching “RCN SportsTalk presented by The Morning Call” live on Thursdays at 7pm and also by catching our podcasts at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk.

We hope to have a special guest on this Thursday’s show in which we’ll discuss the Lafayette/Lehigh game—both past and present, along with high school football talk and some commentaries on how this time of year used to mean some great Thanksgiving Day rivalry games.  Of course, we’ll also talk about a few of those traditional holiday game classics, like Easton/Phillipsburg, Catasauqua/Northampton and others that still exist.

Also, make sure you check out RCN’s broadcast schedule each week as we follow our local teams through the state playoffs.   Best of luck to all the teams still playing!

The state high school football playoff season is officially underway in Pennsylvania (it actually started last week for Lehigh Valley teams due to the expanded playoff format, but we’ve talked about that in great detail before…)

There are several big matchups coming up this weekend.  Here are some insights on each of the games which feature teams in the RCN viewing area.

CLASS 6A
EASTON AT PARKLAND
Parkland is getting key people healthy—especially at running back—at just the right time.  During his tenure at Liberty, Head Coach Tim Moncman has often shown his desire to grind out long scoring drives if he has the horses available, and the improving health of Nick Suriel has allowed his Trojans to do that last week in their win over Nazareth.

This sets up an interesting issue:  Easton has had much more success stopping (or at least containing) the run against almost every team they’ve faced this year.  Even through injuries, the Red Rovers were the second best 6A team in points allowed this year during the regular season (Parkland was first), and they, too, are getting guys healthy—especially lineman—heading into the post-season.

This figures to be a low-scoring game.  Time of possession, turnovers and the ability to pick and choose your spots to throw deep will be keys and should make for one of the more entertaining games on Friday night.

FREEDOM AT EMMAUS
I’m really surprised it took a gutsy coaching decision by Emmaus Head Coach Harold Fairclough to put away his Hornets’ first round win over Liberty.  Both teams were missing key personnel and Liberty did a nice job containing Emmaus’ running attack.

In the first meeting between these two, the Hornets proved to be one of the few teams that found a way to pressure Freedom QB Joe Young and made him rush his passes.  If the Patriots’ offensive line can buy him more time—and I’m sure Head Coach Jason Roeder and his staff will also be making adjustments—Freedom could have much more success offensively this time around.

Emmaus’ Josh Artis helped to stretch the defense in the second half of the regular season matchup, which led to a Hornets victory.   As long as Freedom doesn’t hurt themselves with penalties/turnovers, a Patriot win wouldn’t surprise me at all.

CLASS 5A
Southern Lehigh vs. Whitehall
This is the matchup that surprised no one once the new classifications were laid out and both of these teams, along with East Stroudsburg North and South, were guaranteed playoff spots.

This is the game RCN will broadcast Friday.  We’ll be talking about this contest in much more detail on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show, when I’ll be joined by The Morning Call high school football scribes Keith Groller and Steve Miller for insights, analysis and predictions.

CLASS 4A
Saucon Valley vs. Bethlehem Catholic
In my opinion, this championship game is the most intriguing playoff contest this weekend.

Becahi steamrolled through most of the top teams in the EPC and featured the best run defense in the area before hitting an injury wall in the last quarter of the regular season.  They had to bounce back from a Central Catholic beating the week prior to avenge the Vikings’ defeat in the playoffs (see video above).  They also accomplished last week’s victory without some of their top players due to injuries.

Furthermore, Becahi—a team last year predicted to go deep in the state playoffs—is looking to get revenge on Saucon Valley—the team that knocked them out of the post-season last fall in the district semi-final.  Both teams have had great success defensively this year and also feature solid players on special teams.  I think you would have to give the Hawks the advantage offensively, but the same was said last season and that didn’t stop the Panthers from using its underdog status to fuel a hard fought win.

CLASS 3A
Pen Argyl at Palisades
The Green Knights have been a tough team to figure out this year.  Pen Argyl was one of our top four Colonial League teams in our pre-season and scored some impressive wins.  They’ve also lost a couple games that surprised some of our football experts here at RCN-TV.  Palisades has really been playing well under Kevin Ronalds and looked strong last week in their win over Northern Lehigh.

I’d give the advantage to Pen Argyl given Logan Sterner’s running ability and the Knights having a more battle-tested group, but this should be another interesting match-up this weekend.

North Schuylkill at Notre Dame

Notre Dame took a while to get its motor running versus Lehighton last weekend, but once they did, it turned into the blowout that I had predicted it would on last week’s show.

The Crusaders clearly have the most offensive weapons of any in this classification and have been doing a better job defending the run over the last several weeks, which traditionally has been North Schuylkill’s bread-and-butter.

I haven’t seen North Schuylkill in person this season as they play outside our coverage area but already have some calls in and am waiting for more information and details on this year’s squad as this week’s blog goes to press.  Again, I’ll have to use the “tease” button here and invite you to watch this Thursday’s show (or hear the podcast at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk) for more on this playoff game.

Don’t forget to bookmark and check out RCN’s broadcast schedule here on the website and check back throughout our local team’s playoff run for more details on our featured games.

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.