As much as I love basketball season, I do enjoy the start of the spring sports season. If the weather cooperates and allows athletes time to get outside (and leads to warmer weather), it’s even better!
I’ve always felt the spring coaches, in general, have the toughest assignments preparing for their seasons. They not only have to wait for the winter sports teams seasons to conclude to get going, they almost always have to wait for Mother Nature to accommodate them—not just with current weather issues, but snow, rain and cold temperatures during the previous months can literally set sports programs back days, or even weeks.
Then, they have to contend with the mandatory final days of the school year (and sports season) that sneak up on them in seemingly no time. Factor in all the proms, socials, year-of-school activities, vacations and so many other distractions…it really is tough for high school kids to keep their focus this time of year—not to mention have success on the field (or on the court, for the tennis and volleyball athletes).
There are some interesting Lehigh Valley storylines for the spring sports high school season, including the following:
“Tony’s Return”
Our good friend Tony Cocca is making his return to coaching after a long tenure as both the softball and football coach at Whitehall High School. Tony compiled a 90-78 record while piloting the Zephyrs teams in the early 2000s. He takes over a Blue Eagle team that dipped a bit last year, finishing 6-10 in league play (7-13 overall), but still captured a Lehigh Valley Conference title just a few seasons ago.
District XI has always been a hotbed for outstanding softball programs, and this year will not be an exception (both Parkland and Bethlehem Catholic won State Championships a year ago). Despite losing some very talented players to graduation, the Trojans figure to be one of the top teams in the league again this year, and Coach Cocca will have his hands full with a ton of EPC teams loaded on the schedule.
“Another ‘Tony’ Moves On”
Speaking of Parkland, one of the area’s top baseball coaches, Tony Galucy, will not be at the helm of this year’s Parkland baseball team. Tony was very accommodating when we in the media would ask for questions and was a great interviewee, whether his teams won (which they usually did) or lost. I’m sure the Trojans will be in good hands this year and will be one of several teams expected to do well in the very competitive skyline division (it’s nearly as competitive for baseball as it has been for boys’ basketball).
Another team in their division, Northampton, is rumored to be fielding a very strong team this spring, and we’ll be taking a closer look at this year’s K-Kids team with a feature on them for this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show.
“Hail Hannah”
It has not been uncommon in recent years to have Lehigh Valley athletes and teams receive national attention, but Hannah Edwards has received some MAJOR accolades on an incredibly large scale. The Catasauqua senior softball player was just named to the 2016 American Family Insurance Preseason ALL-USA Softball Team. Hannah is one of three outfielders who were selected on a nationwide team that included a total of 25 players. The Rough Riders’ star was also recently named to the MaxPreps 2016 Pre-Season Softball Team and has now been named to nine All-American teams during her high school career.
Catasauqua is always competitive in softball and features a number of talented players on this year’s squad, so don’t be surprised if we hear quite a bit about their softball team in the weeks ahead.
“One More Winter Shout-Out!”
The sport that also always gets lots coverage during the winter sports season is the girls and boys swimmers and divers. With the conclusion of their season, the names of the All-Eastern Pennsylvania Conference members were released to the media last week.
I hope everyone checks out the list of some tremendous accomplishments by these athletes in the pool this winter!
Remember, we are always on the lookout for high school teams and athletes to feature here on our blogs and on our “SportsTalk” TV show and podcasts. Email your suggestions to us at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com and tune in for our spring shows and high school features!
