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Here are three local sports observations before we take a look at this week’s high school basketball polls:
1) While a few schools have struggled to remain competitive in high school wrestling, and others are struggling just to stay healthy and get on the mats, this Wednesday could be one of the premiere regular season events of the season. Northampton has looked solid against some of the premier wrestlers in the area (and therefore, the state) this winter and their matchup with Parkland will be a great barometer for both teams. Also, the Trojans are one of just a handful of teams in Pennsylvania that have added female wrestlers to their regular rotation. If you’re a wrestling fan, there’s a few outstanding talents to keep an eye for years to come as more schools adopt women into their wrestling programs.
2) If you were watching RCN SportsTalk two weeks ago, you’re probably not surprised that the Dieruff boys basketball team posted some of the biggest and most impressive wins over the last 10 days. New Head Coach Marlon Randall talked about his new strategy and reasons for optimism among the Huskies ball club – a vision that quickly came to fruition with a pair of wins over Whitehall and our previously number one ranked team, Central Catholic. Dieruff is for real and, for the first time in a couple years, the traditional Battle of Allentown between Allen and Dieruff should be a great one to watch as they play each other twice over the next week.
3) Two other teams that really have been playing well and pulled off some impressive victories over the last couple days are Northampton and Northwestern (yes, we also had Tigers Head Coach Jerry Lloyd on Sports Talk last month as well). There have been six or seven really outstanding games featuring Colonial League teams in the month of January. Northwestern, along with Bangor, Notre Dame and Palmerton could make some major waves come league and district playoff time.
With a couple exceptions, most teams got at least two, if not more, games in last week. With that, it’s time to look at our scholastic basketball polls involving the District XI teams in our viewing area heading into this week’s action.
Before we do, one more quick plug for our Thursday night show. We mentioned in BOTH of our preseason high school basketball shows that the Lehigh County Division of the Eatern Pennsylvania Conference would be much further along in their development than the Northampton County teams. Therefore, it’s no surprise to our viewers that four of our top five teams in our EPC poll are all from schools west of the Lehigh River.
For this winter, we are breaking the two polls down into the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (Lehigh Valley teams only) and Colonial League schools, within the RCN broadcast area. With the reduced schedules and many of our teams staying mostly “in country” with their opponents this year due to the COVID-19 restrictions, this plan for our polls will keep things interesting since many of the top teams within the local conferences will not have the opportunity to actually face each other this fall.
While both local leagues are trying to press on with conference playoffs, the possibility of being able to crown league/district champions is still not 100-percent definite thanks to the pandemic. Our polls will be an intriguing barometer to who in fact is the best team in each conference (and, of course, bragging rights through the winter months).
Feel free to email me at Chris.Michael@rcn.net for your thoughts on this week’s poll and we might read and respond to your emails on this week’s SportsTalk show.
EPC-LV TOP 5
1) Allen
3) Dieruff
4) Parkland
5) Northampton
Eligible Teams (in no particular order):
Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, Nazareth, and Northampton
COLONIAL TOP 5
1) Notre Dame
2) Bangor
3) Northwestern
4) Palmerton
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
Be sure to bookmark our high school winter sports broadcast schedule here on the website and check it frequently. With several games already postponed or canceled so far this season, there could be changes from day to day!
