Despite a long stretch of rainy weather and unplayable field conditions, there still have been some great storylines so far during the scholastic season in the District XI/RCN viewing area this spring.
Here are a few of the interesting stories that we have featured on our “RCN SportsTalk” program, along with samples of our show interviews–the completed, finished features are available to watch on RCN On-Demand or you can listen to the podcasts here.
SAUCON VALLEY GIRLS LACROSSE
Lacrosse is a very interesting sport in terms of its growth. In many parts of the country, lacrosse–for both girls and boys—is as popular a sport as any activity in a given community and has been around as a state-sanctioned sport for decades. In the Lehigh Valley, it’s still in its “newer” stages, with many programs still growing. This is especially true in the District XI region, because there are only a small handful of schools that have been playing at a high level for some time, and it is much tougher for younger programs to have success.
A few seasons ago, the Panthers girls lacrosse team was 0-52. This year, they not only clinched their first winning season in school’s history, but will be going to the District XI playoffs.
On top of that, Madison Stump scored her career 100th goal in a recent win over Nazareth. The entire coaching staff has been unbelievably proud of their players and the resilience of their upperclassmen over the last few years. It’s really great to see a program faced with an incredibly competitive schedule rise to the challenge and soar to new heights, as the Saucon Valley team has done.
DIERUFF BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Like the Panthers, the Dieruff boys volleyball team has struggled in recent years, in a sport that hasn’t been around nor sanctioned as long as other sports like baseball, basketball or football. Last year, the Huskies had just four wins. This year, however, they clinched a district post-season berth midway through the season, and currently have won 10 of the team’s 16 matches thus far.
Once more, this team has been part of a conscious approach by many of the Dieruff sports programs to be more involved in the community. I had a chance to see the Huskies at the Bethlehem Cops-n-Kids program a few weeks ago, and the volleyball players from the East Side were incredibly wonderful in working with young kids (from 2-15 years-of-age) in teaching them about the sport and also allowing them to have fun and win ribbons during impromptu “tournaments” that they held with kids at this event.
To be successful on the court or playing field is a tremendous achievement, especially in the Lehigh Valley, which has featured some of the top volleyball teams in the state for several years now. But a big “thumbs-up” to the Dieruff boys volleyball squad for going one step further, and really brightening the days of some young people in the community—and possibly opening the eyes of future volleyball stars.
NORTHAMPTON GIRLS SOFTBALL
The Lehigh Valley has been a hotbed for scholastic softball for decades. There’s been a steady pipeline of outstanding individual stars who have gone on to play Division-I collegiate softball, and you only have to go back to last summer to find, not one, but two, Pennsylvania State Champions in this sport from the District XI region.
However, this current season has been one of the wildest seasons in quite some time (my opinion, along with several of the coaches I’ve spoken with).
There has been a number of very talented teams, but not a single-dominate club, with teams knocking each other off. Don’t try to look at “common opponents” for inside information about who the respective favorites are in each classification and league as we come up on the playoff season starting very shortly—even the smallest school in our coverage area (Catasauqua) defeated a high-quality “4A” team.
A great softball story has been the Northampton softball program. The K-Kids, by their own admission, started off the season slowly and at one point, was trounced 12-0 by another team. Instead of giving up, Northampton went back to work on their hitting and rebounded from that loss by winning nine of their next 10 games and becoming, at one point, the hottest team in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (included in that stretch was ending a long losing streak to Parkland).
The K-Kids have clinched a district playoff berth setting up with a very competitive playoff season. Currently, there are six other “4A” teams in districts (Freedom, Whitehall, Parkland, Liberty, Easton and Nazareth) and all of them have at least three losses. In the 2A classification, there currently are nine teams with winning records that could make the post-season. With all the rain postponing games and the schedule getting backed-up, there are still quite a few teams that can make a push, creating a very crowded District XI softball tournament.
There are a number of other great storylines that we hope to cover (weather permitting) over the next several weeks. Among them:
- Bangor baseball team’s 16-0 record in a very competitive Colonial League slate
- Easton Head Softball Coach Ed McIntyre earning his 400th career victory and being a contender in both the league and district playoff races
- Outstanding efforts by track-and-field stars with the league championships coming up this week
- Some impressive victories from a number of teams, including the Dieruff and Salisbury baseball programs (who play each other this Friday—cross your fingers it doesn’t rain!)
Feel free to email (rcnsportstalk@rcn.com) your suggestions to let us know which players and teams deserve some mentions over the final weeks of the season. Also, don’t forget to check out our live sports coverage of the EPC and District XI baseball playoffs with Gary Laubach and Scott Barr coming up over the next several weeks on RCN-TV!
