We reached the end of another record setting season at Astound TV Network!
Even with Mother Nature affecting (aka cancelling) a handful of planned broadcasts due to inclement weather, ATVN broke our own record for the overall number of winter high school sports telecasts. We also brought you more girls basketball games, more girls wrestling matches and tournaments and more Colonial League contests than ever before!
Before we dive deep into examining the playoff picture (which will be our next blog entry), a few observations on the boys and girls seasons we just completed.
In the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, quite a few teams proved to separate themselves as this season wore on. On the girls side, Emmaus proved that their magical run a year ago was not a fluke and was the only team to go through the league undefeated. They enter the postseason currently first in both the league and the District XI 6A standings. Easton, Liberty, Parkland, Nazareth, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic and Dieruff were the Lehigh Valley teams that also had good seasons and will have chances to compete in the playoffs. All of those teams posted some impressive wins during the season and it should make for a competitive post-season in their respective classifications.
On the boys EPC side, it seems clear that Pocono West, Central Catholic, Whitehall, Liberty and (after a rare rocky December) Parkland were in the upper “echelon” this season. Northampton has been inconsistent, but has beaten several good teams (including Central) and came into the season very young in terms of varsity experience. Any of these teams are capable of beating another team on any given night. (Note for next winter, most of these teams have very few graduating seniors in their rotations.)
There were a number of standout individual performances this winter (including Adrian Brito, A.J. Hines and Jake Pukszyn, who all should get consideration for most valuable for their respective teams), but I’ll be shocked if Jahrel Vigo doesn’t get the MVP award when league honors are released later this month.
ATVN will have first round EPC playoff action starting this Friday (check out our broadcasting plans/schedules here on our website).
The Colonial League playoffs also get underway Friday evening. The boys teams from Notre Dame-Green Pond, Lehighton (making their debut in the Colonial League this year) and Northwestern had great regular seasons. Those three teams will be favored to get into the league’s semifinal round (ATVN will broadcast those games slated for Wednesday).
On the Colonial League girls side, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Palmerton Northern Lehigh, Wilson and Pen Argyl were among the top squads this winter and all should be in the mix for both league and district championship hopes. Their semi-final playoff coverage on ATVN begins Tuesday evening.
Now, here’s some of the top recent plays for boys and girls teams featured on the Astound TV Network.
Astound TV Network Sports: Emmaus vs. Parkland (1/25)
Astound TV Network Sports: Pen Argyl vs. Notre Dame Green Pond (1/25)
Astound TV Network Sports: Allentown Central Catholic vs. Parkland (1/25)
Astound TV Network Sports: Whitehall vs. Allen (1/25)
Copies of all of ATVN’s broadcasts and sports productions are available by contacting the Astound TV Network’s studios.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
