The Board has fallen into the malaise of the "off-season".

Now what?

In the days the Turnpike was down, I found myself wandering over to the other sites-especially basketball. And it got me wondering which school has the best combination football/basketball program? Ridley, STJPrep,Dtown, Pennsbury immediately come to mind.

And why now does it seem so difficuly to be top notch at both sports? Why cant Chester or Lower Merion field competitive football teams? They certainly have athletes.

Even more intriguing is why the large school enrollment teams(NPenn, Neshaminy, etc.) have such difficulty putting a decent hoop team on the floor? Is it coaching, community support? Do the football coaches "discourage" participation in other sports?

Things look interesting south of the long river sammy. Doing post season check of maybe 20 historic powers each class and did a look at Carmichaels. Think I told you earlier they graduate 9 from ‘07 team, turns out it is 10. Some by size alone (no stats) say they may have contributed like linemen Ty Lewis 6-0 320, Zack Durban 6-4 235 and Phillip Jody 6-3 235 (starter), Cody Spangler 6-1 205, Talen Duke 6-2 215. Other five, WRs Jeremy Ganovy 6-4 180 (starter) & Matt Simkovic 6-0 170, RBs Ethan Virgili 6-1 216 (starter), Josh Maraney 5-7 144 and FB Cody Andrews 6-0 240 also starting LB. Ganovy, Virgili probably DE/LB.

These guys have size everywhere, all classes; check out the juniors in Jacob Penich 6-0 240, Jon Zack 5-9 245 and Josh Hegedis 5-8 210. Soph linemen are Jon Maskil 6-0 245, Justin Maurin 6-2 210, Zack Doman 5-10 225, Shayne Krause 5-11 195 and Cody Tedrow 5-9 190. Real size at frosh (sophs ‘08) George White 6-3 257, Shane Dolan 5-10 223, Garrin Guesman 5-9 240, Josh Holliday 5-7 220, Trevor Robinson 5-11 170. Where do they get these guys?

QB returns so they’re set there with junior 5-11 175 Jody Lapowicz/ DB. Big RBs, juniors, Bill Hyatt 6-2 200, Vincent Freeman 5-9 195, Chuck Gusti 6-2 170, Josh Green 6-1 170. Soph returns are 6-0 155 Bill Musgrove and 5-9 155 and Anthonie Farrar 5-9 190. Frosh back Phil Zack 5-8 190. Two 5-9 145 and 150 sophs return at WR.

Looks like they could make a run with QB, linemen and those backs returning. Still in the Tri South with bad ass Monessen, same teams as last year except for new comer Beth Center in re-alignment. They ended the year winning 5 straight getting to 5-4 before playoff loss to Monaca. Before last three years 14-16 record they went 49-12, ‘99-’04 so maybe they got a shot in the arm with the 5-1 finish.

does pinciotti from prep live in ridley??

Not for one moment would I have thought that the Waco High Tigers (Texas, of course) would have been able to stop the powerful Cleveland Cathedral Latin Lions, 44-12, in the last high school game (1927) that was played for the sole purpose of determining the national champion.

I also point out that Cathedral Latin is now known as Notre Dame - Catheral Latin after a merger of the two parochial schools (in the 1960s as I recall).

One more note, in November of 1946, Cleveland Cathedral squared off against Holy Name High School in Cleveland for a charity game to decide the city title.

There were 70,955 people in attandance as Holy Name stunned the Lions, 35-6.

Those were the days.
This post was edited on 1/26 11:20 AM by PA2CAMoleskinner

I heard part of a NPR program Friday talking about steroids in Texas HS football, saying its abuse has gotten so bad they'll spend millions (probably a lot more) testing at least 30% of those playing. Didn't hear other specifics, how often, beginning what grades but I thought that was a high percentage to hit..admirable, but high. A random check of 30% may cause others to reconsider their usage but the pressure to get a scholarship especially in TX is tremendous by all accounts.

Rex Ryan was hired as defensive coordinator and also named assistant head coach. He has said all along that he would bring Pettine wherever he went. Fortunately, for their personal lives anyway, the only that changed was their ovverrated boss and an unproven special teams coach with one year of experience as a position coach is now in charge. Sounds a little odd, but I have no idea how the Ravens decided that Harbaugh was more qualified than Ryan.

That should raise his stock.

http://gopsusports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/012708aaa.html

the monster tackle from Harrisburg High committed to Penn State according to Philly Daily News. I saw him and thought he moved well for his size, 6-4 340-345. He took up a lot of space and had to be double teamed at that level. Also, Joe Migliarese from LaSalle opted for Rhode Island.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08027/852634-49.stm

Blitz -

When you get to You Tube you go to the search box at the top and type in "Hitler: Bloodthirsty" - then you'll see he was really a Cowboy fan (watch the clip).

www.YouTube.com

Sam,

I noticed that you said you run your strength program also. What do you guy use, or do you have a self designed program? I have been toying with the idea of further modifying the BFS deal we now use to make it more position specific. This will be something I need to broach with our head coach. I like BFS, because with limited eyes on a lot of kids, it makes it easy to see who is strictly folowing the program, especially with the written record keeping we do. However, I feel there are certain areas slightly lacking that I would like to add. Sooooo, coach, what are you guys doing?

would just enjoy seeing this contest in future

Hey, looks like we´re back in business here after that major Blackout over the last few days. Man, that was the worst disaster to hit the Philadelphia area since the Eagles traded away Sonny Jurgensen for ´Stormin´Norman Snead.

Does anybody know how/what/why that occured? The Blackout, I mean. One hundred buck reward for the person who uncovers the "Turnpike Hacker," that creepy computer culprit!

Well, looks like another "Writers´Strike" here Lift, so another off-topic. Just took a gander at the photo you attached to your site "profile." Hadn´t seen it before. Looks like you and the family in Wildwood....but what caught me the most is: you look like you´re still carrying only about seven (7) percent bodyfat! Amazing.

The question is, what BF percentage is ideal for a high school footballer? Now, obviously, there´s gonna be a difference between an offensive lineman and a safety. But as a rule, what would you say?

Check it out at http://www.pennlive.com/hssports/football/

The big news is AAA power Pine-Richland moving up to AAAA playing in Northern 5 with North Allegheny, North Hills others. Also play Upper St Clair. Some services had PR in State Wide Top 10 along side AAAA teams so there should be a shift in power out west at least at AAA.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20080123_Roman_Catholic_football_coach_resigns.html

Ok, it's a slow day. I would like to hear everyone's choice for Sub 1 champ, Central champ, Del-Val champ, Ches-Mont, etc. I know it's early, but mine now are Central League,,,,,,,,,,,Garnet Valley!! Del-Val,,,no surprise, Interboro. I don't know the leagues up there, so you guys will have to fill us in. Jump right in now, don't be shy.

Ok blitz, you shamed me into this! Just wondering what everyone feels the impact will be with the CL in and going up against district 11? I have a question, will all classifications from D-12 play D-11's teams? That could give us some interesting encounters with Archbishop Wood, North and Lansdale Catholic at AAA, going against Becahi, Allen CC, Pville, Blue Mt etc. Then at AA, West Catholic could replace LC as the real force at that classification..at least this coming season where they look strong.

Right off the bat you think of some of the monster teams St.Joe's has had and how well they'd rep the area until the reality of the last two seasons is recalled. What do you think?

Is this kid getting any looks? Nice player and kid, IMO.

i was checking out stalkers preview, and couldn't help but notice how big the lines are getting. It seems to me like 5 years ago there werent so many 270 + guys on the lines. am I wrong about this?

and if guys are getting bigger, isn't it likely that steroids that have infiltrated NFL and MLB so much, are being used at the high school level?

ck this site for you to send resume

http://www.pennlive.com/forums/hsfootball/

I wish that District 1 had a football site like this, just a ton of info.

http://www.pa-d1wrestling.com/index.htm

Hey, early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and ? well, two out of three aren´t bad. Before you head off to work....waddya think of that Pennsbury Basketball Squad?

Blitz -

Do you have any idea why Pennsbury chose the Falcons? Does it have anything to do with Billy Penn and his hobby?

Plus I'm curious if there are other reasons for nicknames or mascots (the Williamsport Millionaires, for instance). Or how about school colors?

Course, I'm just waiting to roll this one out (and it will involve both the University of Pennsylvania and the Carlisle Indian School).

One more thing, Blitz, did you know that Hiram Thorpe (Jim's Dad) was 1/2 Native-American and 1/2 Irish? His Mom was full-blooded so Jim was actually three-fourths Native-American and one-fourth Irish. And that's one reason why he ended up at Carlisle (his Dad had received a fairly substantial education for his day and also spoke English with ease because of his parentage - thus, he pushed young Jim to get some schooling in the "white man's world" and to smooth out his tremendous physicality). By the way, Big Jim had a bit of a temper and was a bear of a man who had multiple wives and a load of kids - but was well respected in his community in the Oklahoma Territory.