I saw your predictions of Easton going 3 and 7, and thought "he might be a little emotional after the Parkland beat down". I just looked at their schedule, and agree, they will struggle to get to 5 and 5. I believe people from outside Easton looking in believe that the city of Easton supplies most of the talent, so how could they lose. However, when Easton had the great run from the 1999 season to 2011, most of the starters were from Palmer and Forks township. The majority of the offensive line, tight ends,
fullbacks and quarterbacks as well as most of the defense came up through the midget programs of both townships. They were coached at that level by some really quality coaches who taught them how to win, and prepared them to play at the next level. I'm not sure how the two townships football programs are doing these days, and what type of talent they have. I know a few years back they didn't have enough kids to fill a roster and had to combine to make one team. Also, going back to the last Easton coach. While unpopular with many, he knew how to win, and he surrounded himself with great assistant coaches, especially the defensive coordinator and offensive line coach. They produced tough, fundamentally sound winning teams. The new guy seems to be in over his head, and has not surrounded himself with quality assistant coaches. He is so well connected at that school that I don't see any changes happening any time soon.
1. They definitely beat William Allen and Pocono Mountain East. They're probably the favorite against Whitehall? I'd say Liberty is a toss-up, they played ACC way tougher than I would have expected. Becahi maybe is a toss-up too. I don't see a world where they beat Freedom, Emmaus, Nazareth, or Allentown Central Catholic.
2. I know Palmer and Forks collapsed for a season in the 2017ish range. I also know that they have the numbers to be back at two separate programs.
3. The point I've always made about the townships is, Easton has been the most successful when there is a good mix of all three feeder programs. When Easton had down(ish) years in that run, it's been years where they're virtually all township kids and don't have as significant of a talent base from the city, South Side, and West Ward. Certainly the 2004 and 2009 teams were city heavy (Goulbourne, Kresge, Coon, Myers, Hartzell in '04, Caldwell, Gaddy, Murphy, Pankey, Parker, Hughes, Hall in '09). The population of the townships at this point is way bigger than the city itself, and has been since the housing boom of the 1990s (I think the city has held around 30,000, while the total population of the drawing district is around 70,000).
4. I'm a Steve Shiffert defender, so take this for what it's worth, but yes. There are valid criticisms about scheme and adopting more modern football principles, but he and his staff were really good at teaching kids how to play football - blocking, tackling, ball security, not committing penalties, getting lined up, reading basic keys on defense, executing a playbook.
4b. You mention his offensive line coach, Scott Byrd. He moved on to coach the offensive and defensive lines at Nazareth after Shiffert got fired. There has been a direct correlation with Byrd going to Nazareth and that program going from 6-5ish years to winning two straight D11 titles and consistently being a top of the Valley contender - they're 29-13 since he joined the staff, and seven of those losses came in his first season. Since he left, Easton forgot how to block and run the football.
5. Jeff is totally in over his head. I don't think it's a "won't", I think it's a "can't". Nice guy, means well, wants to do well, but has no idea how to do that. If you look at the coaching staff, it's basically the young guys who had JV/freshman roles for Shiffert (Bryan Falcone at DC, Scott Ordway was the OC in the first two seasons, now coaching running backs and DBs, Brian Gaumer - offensive and defensive lines) plus some guys he got from pee-wee programs (Scott Ransom - receivers coach, Mark Cosover - freshman coach). He did go out and hire a new OC this year - Kevin Morton, who was a successful quarterback at Kutztown and came in from Muhlenberg township, so I'm going to reserve judgment there until some more time elapses. There are WAY too many coaches and people around the program who have kids on the team. The only other outside hire he made was Mike Palos, who is now coaching receivers at Emmaus.
Again, it goes back to leadership in the athletic department. Now, the athletic director did say in his deposition that he was planning on retiring at the end of this year. Since that deposition was part of a federal case that cost the school district $250,000 in damages plus back pay to their former wrestling coach as part of a discrimination and wrongful termination case, I wouldn't necessarily be thrilled about keeping him on board much longer if I were the new superintendent (and the other administrator who was a key part of the suit already has been fired). But with that as a backdrop, it's not a wonder that football, wrestling, and boys basketball are all dumpster fires after long runs of success (and boys hoops just made a Braido-esque hire to replace another Braido-esque hire, I can do a whole monologue on that program if anybody is still listening).
