August 2008 Archives

Was that the sound of a crying newborn varsity football program leaving the womb on its first night on earth? No, it was the sounds of an angry three-year-old throwing a tantrum and destroying everything in its path.

The Northeastern football program made a sound decision in taking the gradual approach to football, starting with a freshman team and then a junior varsity squad before adding a team at the varsity level in the third season. Coach Brendan Brown (above) was with them the entire way through. On Friday night, the Bobcats were able to celebrate triumphantly after its first varsity game in school history for which the Northeastern players had been preparing over the last three years.

It meant an electric atmosphere in the stands and a positive enough experience to draw fans back for more.

Nobody was as big a winner as Northeastern in Week 1, but there were a few other teams that should feel encouraged by their strong performances to open the season.

Received this morning...

I've read over your criteria several times and you are correct in saying that it is not scientific but is it even intellectual? I have done my research as any seasoned educator would do and I would suspect that a seasoned reporter would do as well. You would think in your so called two years of research/interviews you would have contacted West York's athletic director and surveyed each and every one of its coaches. You did not do this. So what roundtable were you at, a local VFW over pizza and beer! You wanted to cause controversy and you have and you have disappointed and angered many parents and athletes who, after being named the best in their respective sports in the State of Pennsylvania,and going on to success at a college, "OTHER THAN PENN STATE or being named to "YOUR" All star teams for their respective sports were IGNORED by your "list". I am also a bit concerned over your sexually biased reporting. You mean to tell me in all these years of WY sports there were only 3 female "top" athletes and all those males...wow, now we have a need for concern. So to all the parents that know for a fact their sons and daughters should have been chosen, take comfort in the fact that the grossly under-researched and biased reporting of this newspaper and its reporters was done without fact and without even contacting the school district, it's present or past coaching staff and present and past athletic directors. Sincerely, Mrs. TM Laucks

It's about 24 hours until the football season begins. Here are some quick takes to keep in mind before the first whistle is blown:

Best game: West York at Central York. These schools are two of the strongest in the area, bringing back a ton of talent from squads that made the playoffs last year. But there is more to this contest than just a couple of skilled squads battling in the season opener. These guys have built up a bit of a rivalry over the last few seasons and will almost certainly battle to the finish again this year. In 2006, West York picked up a 20-14 victory. Last year, Central battled back from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 23-19, but the Bulldogs reeled off 10 straight victories and advanced further in the Class AAA playoffs than Central did in Class AAAA. The game clearly means a lot and these two teams will certainly put on a show.

Most at stake: Dallastown. The Wildcats started 0-3 last season and still managed to make the playoffs by winning six of its last seven games, making a strong argument that early-season play doesn't necessarily make or break a team's season. The thing is, one of those five late-season wins was a 14-7 victory over York Suburban. If the Wildcats can't beat the Trojans again this year, their chances of keeping the "legacy living" with a return to the playoffs and a spot near the top of the Division I standings won't look nearly as good.

Littlestown alum Brett Stoops will begin the season listed as Shippensburg University's No. 1 right-halfback.

The redshirt-junior appeared in seven games last season and carried the ball three times for an impressive 29 yards, although 22 of those were on one carry against Lock Haven.

The 5-foot-10, 178-pound Stoops also caught one pass for five yards. He also returned one kickoff for 19 yards and was involved in two tackles on Red Raiders special teams.

I going to try to channel Frank Caliendo/Jim Rome here and make a few predictions for the YAIAA football season. I'm sort of supposed to be an expert on this stuff, so I might as well dispense my apparent wisdom for all area high school football fans to see, right? Right?

Anyway, remember, these picks are for entertainment purposes only. Don't blame me if you end up losing a slap bet because you wagered based on my predictions.

Division I champion: William Penn. There are just too many strong weapons not to pick the Bearcats to win the division for the second consecutive year. I'm convinced they are going to finish the regular season 10-0 if they remain relatively healthy.

Division II champion: West York. This is another case of too many solid players back from last season's championship team. The Bulldogs are fast, disciplined and talented, and I can't see anyone else in Division II derailing West York's success.

Division III champion: Delone Catholic. The Squires get the nod here by process of elimination. In addition to winning the division last year and taking the District 3 crown under the guidance of first-year coach Steve Wiles, they don't have to compete with Littlestown, which moved up to Division II. Bermudian could give the Squires a run, but I like Delone to make it three repeat champs in the YAIAA this season.

Here's an intriguing quirk in the Week 1 schedule: There are four games between YAIAA Division I teams and Division II teams (West York-Central, Dallastown-Suburban, Littlestown-Dover and Spring Grove-Kennard-Dale).

What better way to determine which football division is stronger this season?

They do this sort of thing ever year in big-time college basketball. Here's a chance to do the same for area high school football. I think these matchups are particularly appropriate to settle the question of which division is better top to bottom.

Assigned to bounce around York County for four days last week in order to get a better understanding of some of this year's most intriguing high school football teams, I would like to think I learned a thing or two about while roaming the sidelines, listening to coaches, interviewing players and watching drills.

I would also like to think you might be interested to hear my observations and analysis from those four days beyond what I wrote in the print edition. Of course, even if you don't they pay me to do it anyway. So, here we go...

The clear favorite to repeat it's Division I title from last year, William Penn did things a little differently at this year's camp. As I wrote in the story, the most significant thing about the change is not that the Bearcats aren't practicing in the morning, it's that coach Matt Ortega "is confident enough in his current players' abilities and commitment to the task at hand to tailor at least a few aspects of training camp to their preferences."

It's part of the reason Ortega has had success at William Penn. He understands his players and can easily relate to them. During practice, he is more of a sympathetic teacher than a drill sergeant. He doesn't feel like he needs to bark at his players to get them going. They are already dedicated and motivated.

The Bearcats looked like a squad that had its act together. Combine that with the immense talent of players like Jordan Davis, Brandon Walker and Malik Generett and it all makes me even more convinced that William Penn will not only win Division I again, it will finish the regular season with a perfect 10-0 record.

Northeastern football coach Brendan Brown (above) wasn't exactly thrilled with his team when we spoke on the phone Saturday afternoon. He mentioned mental mistakes on the field, a lack of leadership and struggles tackling among other things.

Brown said there is still work to be done this week, but remains supremely confident in his squad's ability to earn the victory in its historic first varsity football game in history at home on Friday night against East Juniata.

"They're expecting to come in and beat us, there's no doubt about it," Brown said. "They have a tailback that can scoot and they like to throw the ball to the tight end. That being said, the fact that East Juniata isn't down here for me to give them bulletin board material, I do expect to win that football game. I absolutely expect to go out and win that football game."

More from the interview, condensed for clarity and space, after the jump.

ESPN The Magazine has declared that Penn State owns the best football student section in the nation.

In the categories that determine the overall winner, Penn State ranked No. 1 for "most fun," No. 2 for "most creative" and No. 4 for "loudest."

South Western grad Emily Colburn, a solid lacrosse player at Millersville University, was named to the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Division II Academic Honor Roll.

Colburn, who will be a senior when classes resume is a graphic arts major. She started 14 of the Marauders 15 games this season and fielded 35 ground balls and caused 13 turnovers.

To be considered for the IWLCA list a player must be at least a junior and maintain a minimum of a 3.2 grade point average.

OK, so some guys in Georgia found a Bigfoot in the forest. And he was dead. So they took him home and stuck his poor, dead bones in a freezer. And that's where it is right now.

Sure.

The whole story, along with some murky photos, appears on page 6B of Saturday's York Sunday News. Here's the Associated Press version of the story.

Here are some additional layers to the story, as promised in today's Daily Record sports section.

1. The YouTube version of the Patterson-Gimlin film from 1976:

2. For past Bigfoot articles on The Lineup Card, including coverage of the Jacobs photos taken in Pennsylvania last year, click here.

Finally, click here to check out the latest news on Bigfoot, via Google. Many newspapers covered Friday's news conference in California, so you can read all the different perspective on those fellas from Georgia and the hairy beast they supposedly have on ice.

The college spotlight is preparing for another academic year and the first update to come across the mess that is my desk is from Hartford, Conn.

It is there that York Suburban graduate Alison "Ali" Schmidt completed her senior season this past spring on the Trinity College rowing team.

Schmidt was also named to the 2008 New England Small College Athletic Conference spring all-academic team.

It is am impressive accomplishment as to be on the NESCAC list an athlete must be a starter or key reserve for a varsity team while maintaining a 3.35 or better grade-point average.

Congratulations Ali.

Two former Nittany Lions who recently left the team have apparently found new football homes.

Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Josh Marks is reportedly enrolling at Pitt. Coach Joe Paterno announced last Friday that Marks had left the team for undisclosed reasons. He was expected to battle for a key backup spot this fall.

Maybe the 16-year old from Bunnell High School in Connecticut was just trying to traumatize his 17-year-old teammate enough while pinned so he would never let himself get turned on his back on a wrestling mat again. It ended up getting him arrested for fourth-degree sexual assault.

"The 17-year-old victim was wrestling with another teammate, police said, when he allegedly heard the defendant tell his opponent to pin him to the mat. While the victim was pinned on his back, police said, the defendant approached, bent down and exposed his genitals in the victim's face."

Deadspin has an entertaining take on this bizarre and unsettling story. While there is some humor involved, in a sophomoric sense, I think the perpetrator deserves severe punishment for this.

As much as it might entertain his teammates, forcibly shoving one's genitals into another person's face (allegedly) isn't something to just laugh about and shrug off. This is more than just boys will be boys.

Wrightsville resident Mike Dunn was one of the NHRA's top drag racers in the 1990s and for the past six years has served as a television analyst for the sport on ESPN.
We caught up to Mike and posed a few questions for him:
Do you miss driving at all? I miss the driving part, I don't miss the politics of driving. It is pretty political.

What is it like to go 300 miles per hour? It is fast. It is hard to explain. What a lot of people don't realize a top-fuel dragster on a good run will get from zero to 280 miles per hour in the first ‰ mile. That is right over three seconds. The run happens so quick you don't have time to sit and look. You are focused on where to shut off. You can't tell it is going 330 miles per hour.

Sometimes a trade seems to work out for both teams.

So far, that is the case in the Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers and Jason Bay to Boston deal, which also helped restock Pittsburgh's future -- until those players are good enough to be traded away.

Ramirez has already boosted a sometimes anemic Los Angeles offense and should be happy for awhile. Bay is off to a solid start with Boston and gives the Red Sox another quality bat along with a much better defensive outfield.

Plus, getting rid of the biggest headaches the Sox' organization had might be addition by subtraction.

Michele King, a junior at the University of Tennessee and a native of York, tied for first place in the 50-meter freestyle at the recent U.S. Open swim meet in Minneapolis.

King and Madison Kennedy each posted a time of 25.22 seconds to share the title. The tie for first place earned King an automatic berth to the 2009 World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia.

In this photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a baby gorilla shouts from atop its mother's back in the Republic of the Congo on July 31. Female gorillas produce on the average one baby about every five years. A new census conducted by WCS and the government of the Republic of the Congo tallied more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas in the northern part of the country. Previous estimates from the 1980s placed the entire population of western lowland gorillas, which occur in seven Central African nations, at less than 100,000.

It didn't take long for Chris Baker to find another football team.

The redshirt junior who was thrown off the team for good last week, will play football at Division I-AA Hampton University in Virginia.

The losses are coming on offense this week.

Though not as critical as last week's departures of starting defensive tackles Chris Baker and Phil Taylor, Penn State still is practicing without two offensive linemen.

Redshirt freshman Josh Marks and junior college transfer Nerraw McCormack both apparently have had problems meeting the physical conditioning requirements for preseason practice.

Here's a look at what the Ravens hope former Rutgers' RB Ray Rice (Ray-Ray) can bring to the field.

The Baltimore Ravens will be facing off against the New England Patriots on Thursday at Gillette Stadium. For the Ravens, it's a new era of football in Baltimore. The Ravens have a new head coach in John Harbaugh, a highly-touted rookie quarterback in
Joe Flacco and a rookie running back stealing the show in training camp in Ray Rice.