SportsTalk’s Top 10 — Part 1

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I thought I had a really cool idea for this week’s SportsTalk Shop blog entry.

Since this week marks the 15th anniversary of our first ever RCN SportsTalk program, I thought it would be interesting to go back and pick out the top SportsTalk shows that come to mind when I think about our 15 years on the air.

I really got excited when I started brainstorming all the great shows that came to mind, the wonderful people we’ve had on, and the tremendous conversations and stories we’ve heard. I thought it would be best if I put a cap on the number of episodes I recollect, otherwise we might be taking up far too much bandwidth than we’re allotted on the website.  But before I got too deep in the process, I thought I better check my files to make sure I don’t leave off an important show that might be slipping my mind.

I could say my memory is not what it used to be – although since I’m constantly writing things down, I could also argue my memory has never been as good as it should be.

So I went to my computer to get the full rundown of all the shows we’ve done and, as bad luck would have it, the link to the file that stores all of our show episodes is not available. So I’m going to continue with my original thought (for now) of writing down the first SportsTalk shows that come into my mind when I look back on the history of the program. Keep in mind this is purely based on my recollections and no statistics or official barometer was used in its compilation.

I do want to apologize in advance if I’m missing an obvious choice that should make this list and I reserve the right to do this list again to make changes or to insert something that should be on this list in the first place.

So here we go, in no particular order:

• Saquon Barkley
  He only gets one spot on our list but the New York Giants star running back has actually made a few appearances on our program over the years.  As I’ve said frequently over the last ten years — since he was a sophomore in high school, his tremendous work ethic is amazing and it’s paid off, making one of the biggest personalities currently in sports.

• Dick Tracy & John Donmoyer
  I have no shame in admitting that sometimes our best shows are the ones in which I say very little, and this show was certainly one of them.  They are arguably two of the biggest high school basketball coaching names in the Lehigh Valley, and I didn’t have to do much prodding to get these two sports geniuses to start recalling stories of their heydays – both great memories playing against each other and other wonderful recollections brought back from decades of coaching excellence.

• Doug Snyder & John Donmoyer
  Another show where I didn’t have to ask too many questions…the wonderful stories flowed freely as the 25-year head coach of the Allen boys basketball team and his prodigy-turned-successor recalled the Canaries basketball program’s greatest moments, some very personal moments and rarely told recollections of the school’s most triumphant victories over the last four decades.  Incidentally, Snyder just retired after his 24th year (out of respect he quit one year before Donmoyer did) and we will have an entirely new show with Doug coming up on SportsTalk later this month.

• Freedom football team
  I knew the basic idea for Sports Talk would be a success, given the popularity of sports in this area. However, I’ve frequently been shocked at times by the outpouring of feedback that I receive, and this particular episode was one that really blew my mind.  Head Coach Jason Roeder, starting Quarterback Joe Young (now playing at Harvard) and his teammates had some great stories recalling the hurdles they had overcome four seasons ago, the challenges students face and on turning their program around while overcoming massive injuries in this particular year (at that time, they set a school record for wins in a season – recently surpassed by the team from two years ago). Furthermore, I remember the people who contacted me for WEEKS after the show aired, thanking me for having them on – I’m pretty sure the number of IN PERSON responses from Freedom fans alone were well over 300!
• Nazareth girls & boys basketball & wrestling teams
  I’m cheating here because we’ve had the pleasure of having several Blue Eagles teams on SportsTalk over the years.  The student-athletes have always impressed me — not only being great on-camera speakers but also in revealing some wonderful personalities. Head Coaches Dave Crowell, Joe Arndt and Rich Bickert have not only won a lot of sporting events but have produced some great kids which is always evident when they make an appearance on our show to talk about, literally, everything. From discussing their love of classic movies to the Bridgeforth twins singing “Roll Out The Barrel” live on air, these Nazareth teams always make for incredibly entertaining TV.

We’ll continue our look back at some of the top moments in the history of the RCN SportsTalk program next week!