Winter Hoops All-Stars 2021

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Although the 2020-2021 basketball season had its share of hurdles, the student-athletes, parents, coaches, athletic directors and everyone involved in local high school sports deserve a round of applause for dealing with all the adversity faced during the past four months.

Through the pandemic, snow/weather-related events, limitations/restrictions imposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and other happenings that took place, it was an accomplishment to have as much of a season as we did.  Some areas in the RCN viewing area outside of the Lehigh Valley would have been thrilled to get in as many games as most of the teams within the Valley were able to play this past year.

When the student-athletes did get on the court (albeit with a drastically reduced amount of practice time–something I’ve heard more than one coach lament this winter), we saw some exceptional play and great individual and team performances.

The Colonial and Schuylkill Leagues both conducted their conference playoffs as close to “normal” as they usually do.  The revamped — and some would argue, improved — district tourney format was also a success with some great games that you saw on RCN-TV.

As part of our return to normalcy, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference recently released their annual “All-Star” listings for the girls and boys teams.  We spotlight the girls teams this week and hope to have the boys listings coming up next week here at “The Shop.” 

Lehigh County 

1^st Team

Lindsay Berger – Parkland (EPC League MVP)

Jaydalise Cartagena – Dieruff

Shanaiya Ellis – William Allen

Julia Roth – Allentown Central Catholic

Emily Vaughan – Allentown Central Catholic

 2^nd Team

Molly Driscoll – Allentown Central Catholic

Ella Laky – Whitehall

Joey Madison Shaul – Whitehall

Sonya Shivok – Parkland

Talia Zurinskas – Parkland 

Monroe County 

1^st Team

Kendel Card – Stroudsburg

Vatijah Davis – PM West

Isabella Horvath – PM East

Azahni Simmons – PM West

Emily Strunk – Stroudsburg (MVP) 

2^nd Team

Chanel Davis – ES North

Kania Day – ES South

Layla Hernandez – ES South

Samantha Merklin – Pleasant Valley

Ella Muir – Pleasant Valley 

Northampton County 

1^st Team

Talya Brugler – Nazareth (MVP)

Morgan Sterner – Northampton

Sara Tamoun – Easton

Kailey Turpening – Freedom

Kourtney Wilson – Bethlehem Catholic

 2^nd Team

Jessica Farrell – Liberty

Grace Lesko – Northampton

Kelly Leszcynski – Nazareth

Brenna Ortwein – Freedom

Emily Violante – Easton

PROGRAMMING NOTE:

We will continue our exclusive interviews with spring sports coaches and players to talk about their return to the playing fields on this Thursday’s “RCN Sports Talk” program, featuring teams from Easton and Bethlehem Catholic high schools this week. Tune in this Thursday at 7pm to RCN-TV, set your DVRs or look us up through RCN On Demand (free for RCN subscribers)!