While I always enjoy an extended vacation and quality time at home with my family during the holidays, I was excited to get back into the local high school basketball scene this past week and to talk with some of the local players, coaches and media members about the first few weeks of the hoops season.
There are several interesting storylines developing in the District XI region. Here are three of note:
1) Salisbury is good—AGAIN…
I honestly don’t know if there’s a more underrated head basketball coach than Jason Weaver…and a more underrated program than his Salisbury basketball team. We’ve been touting Weaver and his programs for years on both the TV edition of “SportsTalk” and on this blog. Every season he has a winning team—and most years he loses most (all?) of his entire core of players to graduation, only to come back the following year and find success. And not only do his teams rebuild during the offseason and have good years—but they always play well out of the game—something truly extraordinary when you’re bringing in nearly a whole new set of starters most seasons.
They’re coming off a huge win over previously undefeated Bangor (a 4A school) and have a few other 4A-level teams on its non-conference schedule over the next few weeks. Despite not getting much hype, the Falcons look like they will “surprise” people again in February, when they most likely will play deep in the league and district playoff rounds.
2) …and so are a number of other Colonial League teams.
Salisbury does not own a monopoly on quality basketball play in the Colonial League this winter. Bangor and Southern Lehigh have just one league loss—both losing its first Colonial game of the year last week (both losses to Salisbury). Both teams are well-balanced and led by incredibly knowledgeable head coaches, and both the Slaters and the Spartans had battle-tested contests one year ago, which will help them come crunch time(s) this winter.
Also, don’t count out the teams that got a late start due to their school’s football team playing late into the fall. Saucon Valley, Notre Dame and Catasauqua all posted wins over quality opponents last weekend, and all three teams have climbed back above .500 in league play.
Once more, there’s some interesting head-to-head battles over the next few weeks, which include (but are not limited to):
Jan. 13
Southern Lehigh at Bangor
Catty at Saucon Valley
Northwestern at Notre Dame-GP
Jan. 15 (and again on Jan. 25)
Saucon Valley at Notre Dame-GP
Jan. 22
Saucon Valley at Bangor (on RCN-TV)
Southern Lehigh at Catty
Jan. 25
Salisbury at Notre Dame-GP
Jan. 26
Saucon Valley at Salisbury
Jan. 28
Catty at Notre Dame
Southern Lehigh at Saucon Valley
Feel free to check out the Colonial League’s website for the latest league news, scores and schedules.
Don’t forget, RCN-TV is scheduled to broadcast the Colonial League semifinals as well as the boys and girls championship games. Keep checking back to the RCN-TV website for scheduling updates!
3) Glovas returns!
After an outstanding playing career at DeSales University and becoming one of the schools’ all-time top scorers, Sondrine Glovas has returned to Wilson High School to continue her career as the head coach of the same Warriors program that she once played for. In addition to a tremendous student-athlete career and being a standout player in a high quality collegiate program, Glovas benefitted from legendary Bulldogs Head Coach Fred Richter and his outstanding staff in preparing her to take over at her alma mater.
Glovas’ Warriors have gotten off to a good start and have their targets set on qualifying for a District XI playoff appearance this winter.
Keep checking back here at the “SportsTalk Shop” for more winter sports updates and news and features on teams and players in the RCN viewing area. Next week we’ll put the spotlight on our local wrestling teams with video highlights and insights for next week’s blog entry. We’ll also be talking wrestling on this Thursday’s “RCN SportsTalk” show (live, 7-8pm on RCN-TV) and featuring long-time wrestling Head Coach Dave Crowell and members of the Nazareth wrestling team, along with a feature on the Bangor wrestling program. The podcast of the show will also be available on Friday and can be found at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk.
Finally, a big “THANK YOU” to all the people who voted for and watched the “Best of RCN-TV” marathon on New Year’s Day. The event was a huge hit and while the RCN marketing team developed the idea and deserve all the credit, I’d like to think “RCN SportsTalk” had a tiny role in the outcome, as one of our programs—“NFL Draft Preview”—was one of the shows selected as the “best of” for 2015. Again, thanks for voting for all of our RCN-TV programs and we are already planning on another NFL draft-oriented preview show once again in 2016.
