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Well…we MADE it!
Honestly, back in August when I first heard the unofficial .. and then the “official”… plan for fall sports in the Lehigh Valley, I was skeptical.
The local administrators had put in a TON of time putting together an action plan for trying to play as many games as protocols allowed–limiting the amount of travel, the number of teams any one school would face and other modifications to try to keep kids safe.
By the third week of October, the playoffs had started for all fall sports but football, and only a handful of schools had to cancel more than one sporting event due to COVID. Considering how the weather usually wreaks havoc with scheduling, this was really an amazing accomplishment to get in as many games as they did.
Then things changed.
The number of reported cases of the virus spiked and numerous schools across the region either closed or reverted back to “hybrid” learning strategies. Sports teams either had to cancel their seasons or forfeit games–a few while in the running for championships.
Journalists in the area who have covered sports for many more years than I have agreed it was THE wildest ending to a fall sports campaign they had ever seen. Games were canceled due to one school reporting COVID cases, then that school would be “OK” and the games were back on…only to have the OTHER school have to postpone or forfeit because THEY then had reported cases.
Some games were announced as “cancelled completely” one day, only to have that change and be played a few days later. Some games were played on Mondays, Thursdays and even Sundays–days that were unheard of (and used to be ‘off-limits’) in previous years.
Sometimes there were different sets of rules even within the same school district. Parkland had nearly all of its fall sports teams continue with state championship runs despite having the school closed due to the virus. Meanwhile, the football team had to end their playoff hunt prematurely, even though they would have been heavy favorites to beat Stroudsburg and advance in the district playoffs.
So it is with just as much skepticism (and I sincerely hope I’m wrong) that we will be embarking on the winter sports season in a few weeks, and I’m hoping the number of cases can miraculously drop dramatically between now and then.
But before we do, it’s time to take our final look at our RCN high school football polls for our Lehigh Valley teams.
EPC-LV TOP 5
1) Nazareth
2) Freedom
3) Emmaus
4) Parkland
Eligible Teams (in no particular order):
Allentown Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, Nazareth, and Northampton
COLONIAL TOP 5
2) Northwestern
3) Palisades
4) Northern Lehigh
5) Southern Lehigh
Eligible Teams (in no particular order):
Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh, Southern Lehigh and Palisades
There weren’t too many surprises for our Colonial League poll–four of the five teams finished the season in exactly the same spot they started in our pre-season poll back in mid-September. The only exception was Northern Lehigh — the lone “honorable mention” team in our pre-season picks — moved up into the #4 spot, while the team that owned that spot back in September — Saucon Valley — had its season prematurely end because of the virus.
The EPC Poll had a couple wrinkles, with Nazareth (our pre-season #5 team) reaching and winning the district championship game (SportsTalk Co-Host Keith Groller had them much lower in his own personal poll–listing them fifth in their own division, let alone making our top five in the area–something that did not set well with many of our Blue Eagles’ viewers). Central Catholic was another team that received pre-season votes but did not make our “Top 5” in September. However, a playoff win over “our” #5 team, Bethlehem Catholic, and their subsequent win in the 4A District Title game gave the Vikings the credibility to move up over the Golden Hawks.
Traditionally, we have not done a basketball poll in the winter–with the sports seasons overlapping and the holiday season “interrupting” the winter season, it usually doesn’t provide the regular, weekly interest of a football poll. However, 2020 is not your typical year. With our high school football season ending nearly a month earlier than normal, it’s something I’m considering incorporating in our blogs and “SportsTalk” show for over the next few months.
Would you like a high school basketball poll this winter? And, how would you like to see it laid out–EPC vs. Colonial? Big schools vs. small? Boundary vs. non-boundary?
Feel free to email me at Chris.Michael@rcn.net for your thoughts and check back in a couple weeks to see what the majority of our readers would like to see!
