We had a chance last week to address some of the top stories in 2015. We’ll identify one more “award” here in this week’s blog entry along with a few predictions I’d like to make for the new year (if you read my blog last year, you’ll remember that I do hold myself accountable and will correctly identify if I get my predictions right or wrong!)
Best Story of 2015: Four District XI State Championship teams in a single “sports season”
There have been some tremendous state champions over the years, but there has also been a number of sports seasons in which no team from the Lehigh Valley team ends their season with state gold medal. However, this past spring, there were not one, or two, or three, but FOUR different teams that captured a PIAA title (this doesn’t include individual honors for tennis and track-and-field). Parkland boys volleyball team, the Parkland and Bethlehem Catholic softball teams and the Moravian Academy tennis teams all won high school’s biggest prize. We had the pleasure of hearing the stories of all of those teams on “SportsTalk” this summer—each one with its share of challenges en route to the championship. Just to have one representative from an area that is dwarfed in school enrollment numbers by the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh schools is pretty impressive, but it was tremendous to have four outstanding programs from the Lehigh Valley viewing area win state gold, all within a few weeks of each other.
Now, as promised, some predictions for 2016:
- Philly pro sports teams will win LESS games in 2016
Wait, they’ll win less games. Is that even possible?
Well consider this…
The Eagles are going to have to rebuild and the NFC “Least” cannot possibly be worse, and this fall’s schedule wasn’t really all that tough to begin with, so their level of competition will be tougher next year. The Birds will need at least one year to turn around the mess that Chip Kelly has left behind. Plus, they desperately need to find value in a draft—one that was depleted thanks to the Sam Bradford trade. Plus, with the 13th overall pick they’re not going to find a front-line premiere position player. Add in the fact that some of your top players will be a year older and you still have to revamp the offensive line, receiving corps, a couple defensive updates and…oh, yeah, decide on a quarterback. Yeah, I don’t think an increase in the win total is likely, much less a playoff berth for the Eagles in 2016.
The Phillies will be starting the season without some very talented names from last year’s team, among them Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Ken Giles, an optimist’s version of Aaron Harang (remember how good he was the first half of the year?) Plus, Ryan Howard, Carlos Ruiz and other veterans are a year older—with slower bat speeds and a higher percentage of injury. I like the team’s strategy of going after some “reclamation projects” and “diamond in the rough” gambles for next year—hoping to get a player or two you can hold onto until the younger, blue-chip prospects get here in 2017. But, while the youngsters will be fun to watch, the Phillies will probably challenge their 99-loss season again in ‘16.
The Flyers have been playing better of late, but when I consult with the hockey experts I know, they’re not real thrilled with the current crop of players, nor are they optimistic about a fast rebound in 2016.
The 76ers are already surpassing last year’s record of mediocrity and won’t win a ton of games the rest of this season to surpass last year’s level of mediocrity. Next year’s highly important draft picks? Even if they do hit the jackpot and are able to land a few HUGE names, they won’t be able to gel competently for the first few months. We’ll find out if the “Hinkie plan” is a success in 2017 or 2018, but pro basketball fans will actually have to suffer another calendar year of futility, before we even get a chance to find that out.
- The District XI 5A football tournament may be renamed the Spartan/Zephyr Bowl
In additional to this classification being one of the smallest groups (in terms of number of teams), the new “5A” looks to be dominated by two teams.
Whitehall, of course, has been playing—and winning—against larger schools for years. Despite the numbers disadvantage, the Zephyrs have faired quite well, if not better than, other current 4A schools in the area. There’s no reason to think they won’t continue their success and be perennial favorites in this new classification.
Southern Lehigh, meanwhile, has become perhaps the most consistently winning program (along with Northwestern) in recent Colonial League history. The talent level continues to rise every year, and a number of talented juniors and sophomores, from this past fall’s team, all will be returning. There’ll be something seriously wrong if the Spartans don’t parlay their current and future players into multiple championship appearances, along with capturing the school’s first ever district title, at some point on the foreseeable horizon.
Don’t be surprised if the PIAA turns this into a “Subregional” (with District XI schools playing teams from other areas in the playoff’s first round) like the current 4A teams have been doing. Otherwise, you may just see Southern Lehigh and Whitehall squaring off against each other for the District XI championship for many years to come.
- The Wizards, Nats AND Redskins – will have even greater success in 2016
I think all three programs are headed in the right direction, and each organization has quality people making personnel decisions. I like some of the moves the Nationals have made so far as they are continuing their search to acquire depth. This was an area of concern from a year ago and I think they will make the necessary tweaks to give Washington fans their long-awaited playoff appearance in 2016. The Redskins will be without the distraction of Robert Griffin III next year and will add the certainty of a proven quarterback—along with another year of experience for some of the young talent acquired last season. If they can add quality players through this year’s NFL Draft and a few key free agency signings, they can absolutely add more victories in the coming year.
I wrote last summer about how much confidence I have in the Wizards to add around the solid core of John Wall, and my contacts around the DC area have given no indication that I should change that opinion. In fact, I think the chances of an extra winning playoff series is much more likely this summer than it was a year ago.
Imagine a 2016 with all four major sports teams in the playoffs? I think you can probably count on it!
Feel free to email us your sports predictions for 2016 to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and join us on Thursdays, 7-8 pm on RCN-TV and on our podcasts here on the website for topical conversations and interviews with special guests dealing with sports in the RCN viewing area. We’ll resume our live shows this week, so tune in!
