Before we delve into the latest news concerning high school basketball in Eastern Pennsylvania, a few programming notes for our ATVN SportsTalk show…

• This Thursday, our special guests will be long-time Head Coach Ed McIntyre and members of his Easton girls softball team.  The Rovers were the eight “seed” in the District XI tournament and defeated the defending champs from Nazareth to win this year’s championship.  There’s also been rumors that this would be “Coach Macs” final season…we’ll tackle those and other issues on this week’s program
• Next Thursday (July 3rd), our guests will be the Bangor baseball team, who captured their first ever district championship in this sport last month.  The Slaters also have some special stories to share about this year’s team…tune in for those details on next week’s show!

Remember, everyone can watch a free live-streaming edition ATVN SportsTalk in addition to watching on the Astound TV Network.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel and get free alerts when ATVN is going “live” by going to: YouTube.com/@AstoundTVnetwork

Now, as far as the local high school basketball action, the “usual” suspects continue to play well as the outdoor temperatures rise.  Parkland, Liberty, Executive Charter and Northampton continue to be among the top local “big school” teams in our coverage area.

Emmaus and Nazareth are working with “new” head coaches this summer – although both hires were familiar names (more on that in a future edition of the “SportsTalk Shop”).  Lehighton, fresh off its first year in the Colonial League, also continues to play well and should be a team to watch again this winter.

Here are some of the pictures I took from recent action around the Valley…and check back for more in future blog entries!

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

As we reach the end of the school year, we are making our “last call” for honors, awards and special achievements by students in the ATVN coverage area!

We are making the transition to the “summer season” and will have some exciting events coming up over the next few months.  Plus, we will be having some special people on our Thursday night “ATVN SportsTalk” program – keep checking back to “The Shop” for more information and broadcasting dates.

Before we change this over, I wanted to send out one more “call” for information to highlight athletes.  Please email them to me at chris.michael@astound.com over the next few days to be included in our “final” blog for the past school year.

Speaking of “finals” (sorry for the pun for those students taking them this week), today we take our last look at the local high school tennis results for the spring…

Here are the 2025 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Championship tourney results: View Results

Next, here’s the 2025 Spring “All-EPC” listings… View Boys EPC Tennis Championship Bracket

Last but not least, here are the results from the District XI tourney, along with pictures of the 2A champions, Moravian Academy and the 3A champs, Liberty…

• 2024-25 District XI 2A Boys Team Tennis Finals
• 2024-25 District XI 3A Boys Team Tennis Finals

Congratulations to all these outstanding accomplishments!

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

We continue our look at some of the top video highlights and moments from the spring sports season of games broadcast on the Astound TV Network.

Among today’s highlights include:

• Parkland baseball winning its first District XI 6A title since 2015 (and ATVN Sideline Reporter Gabrielle DiPaula helping to set up the team’s “ice bath” of Head Coach Kurt Weber)
• Southern Lehigh girls lacrosse winning its fourth consecutive 3A championship (and clips of our exclusive post-championship interviews)
• Northwestern girls reaching its first ever district title game – AND coming within a minute of going to overtime
• Central Catholic boys lacrosse winning its 8th district title in the last 15 years
• Easton going back-to-back with another 3A boys lacrosse championship
• A very young Notre Dame-Green Pond baseball team overcoming a slow start to win a title AND state playoff game

Here’s a look at all those big moments….

ATVN Shorts: Parkland Trojans Win District 11 Gold

ATVN Shorts: Parkland Pitcher Sawyer Marsteller

ATVN Shorts: Parkland Manager Kurt Weber Celebrates District Gold

ATVN Shorts: Southern Lehigh Coach Eric Tesche Talks Titles

Astound TV Network Sports: Lacrosse – Northwestern Lehigh vs. Southern Lehigh (5/25)

Astound TV Network Sports: Lacrosse – Moravian Academy vs. Allentown Central Catholic (5/25)

Astound TV Network Sports: Lacrosse – Easton vs. Parkland (5/25)

Astound TV Network Sports: Baseball – Palmerton vs. Notre Dame Green Pond (5/25)

ATVN Shorts: Easton Red Rovers Strike In OT To Win District 3A Gold

Check back to “The SportsTalk Shop” for more memorable notes, interviews and highlights from this spring’s playoff season!

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

It’s been an eventful few weeks this month with ATVN covering a number of different District XI playoff games (when the weather allowed) in multiple sports this spring!

Before we start looking back at a number of special moments, plays and student-athletes during the district playoff season, a quick programming note…

Astound will be the exclusive video provider for the state 1st round baseball playoff game between Neshaminy and Parkland.  The game will only (and EXCLUSIVELY) be available through ATVN.  Per PIAA regulations, there is no “steaming” of this state games, so only Astound TV Network video customers can see this contest!

Be sure to tune live at 4pm on Monday!

Now, here’s a few of the biggest moments during this springs district playoff season…

The Bangor baseball team overcame a 7-0 deficit to capture its first ever district championship.  Here’s the rundown of highlights as they unfolded…

Astound TV Network Sports: Baseball – Bangor vs Whitehall (5/25)

Next, the Pleasant Valley girls lacrosse team continued its domination by winning its second consecutive EPC AND District XI title.  Here’s their Head Coach Toni Bush talking about her team overcoming adverse weather conditions en route to another mercy-rule playoff win…

Astound TV Network Sports: Pleasant Valley G Lax Postgame Interview (5/21/25) – Watch Here

Last but not least, here’s some amazing student-athletes’ performances in the District XI 3A girls lacrosse championship game…

Astound TV Network Sports: Lacrosse – Nazareth vs. Pleasant Valley (5/25)

Check back to “The Shop” for more memorable notes, interviews and highlights from this spring’s district playoffs!

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

Through all the rain we’ve had this month (Sunday was the first day in three weeks I was at a baseball game in which it did NOT rain!), we are busy getting ready for the District XI championships, and will be broadcasting a number of those games over the next several days on both ATVN and on the Astound TV Network’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/@astoundtvnetwork

Our first game will be the 3A final between Palmerton and Notre Dame-Green Pond, Tuesday at 4pm.

Our ATVN cameras caught up with the Blue Bombers’ winning pitcher Cameron Pengelly (6-innings, 2 runs and 4 hits allowed) and Shortstop Jason Carrelli, who had two hits and scored the first run in the team’s 3-2 victory over Pen Argyl in the semifinal game this weekend.  We ask for their thoughts on the win and insights into their rematch against the Crusaders (Palmerton defeated Notre Dame during the regular season back on April 10th)….

LV Baseball Notebook 25: Palmerton’s Cameron Pengelly

LV Baseball Notebook 25: Palmerton’s Jason Correlli

We’ll also be broadcasting the 5A championship between Bangor and Whitehall and the 6A final between Parkland and Liberty – a rematch of this year’s EPC title game.

For interviews with members of the Crusaders, Zephyrs, Trojans and Hurricanes, go back through our “SportsTalk Shop” archives and see more from our “Lehigh Valley Notebook,” to get insights and opinions from those teams before their championships.

Keep checking back to our ATVN website for possible changes – especially with rain probable in the forecast for both Wednesday and Thursday!

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

Before we put the spotlight on some local track-and-field honorees in the Astound TV viewing area, a quick programming note…

ATVN will be broadcasting the girls 2A and 3A District XI championship Wednesday night, featuring Southern Lehigh taking on Northwestern (making their first ever appearance in a girls lax final), followed by defending district champion Pleasant Valley facing off against Nazareth, who has not won a title in three years.

On Thursday night we’ll have live coverage of the boys championship.  The 2A game features Moravian Academy (in their first-ever championship game), taking on Allentown Central Catholic, who was in the district final a year ago.

In the nightcap, Parkland will face defending champion Easton in the 3A final.

We invite everyone to go see the game in person, but don’t forget to take Astound TV with you to use your phone or smart device to get multiple-camera replays, in-game stats and game analysis and sideline reporters for all four games via our YouTube channel.

The games can be live-streamed for free at YouTube.com/@AstoundTVNetwork 

Additionally, check back to the ATVN website next week for more high school District XI playoff coverage in other sports.  Bookmark and check back to our ‘broadcast schedule’ page early next week for teams and viewing information.

Now, we continue our review of the top student athletes from this spring’s track-and-field squads.

Here are Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s “All-Stars” for 2025, along with the new record-holders in the different events after the completion of this year’s campaign….

2025 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference All-Stars

New Record Holders

Check back to “The SportsTalk Shop” for more news from this past spring sports season, along with video recaps of our high school sports broadcasts, along with information on upcoming local sports action for over the summer months!

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

Here at “The SportsTalk Shop” we continue with our look at honoring the top players in different spring sports in the Astound TV Network coverage area.

First, here are the listings for both the girls and boys lacrosse “all-stars” from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference….

• Girls Lacrosse All-Stars 2025 EPC
• Boys Lacrosse All-Stars 2025 EPC

Next up we put the spotlight on girls softball from the EPC…

• EPC Softball All-Conference Team 2025

We have a few more sports in the ATVN area to highlight, so keep checking back to “The SportsTalk Shop” for more “all-star” listings as we receive them from the appropriate administrators, athletic directors and league/district chairs.

Also, be sure to check back to our website for our continuing coverage of local high school spring sports post-season action, the District XI playoff coverage of different sports in our region starting later this week!

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

After a very competitive regular season – with a few very talented teams NOT making the playoffs, just to show you how balanced the league was this year – the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship game is set, albeit now postponed twice already this week!

The top seeded Liberty Hurricanes will face the number-two seed, Parkland Trojans in the EPC title game, to be held Friday at Easton High School, first pitch: 4:30 p.m., (or whenever the weather cooperates this week.)

After defeating Central Catholic 5-1 in the quarterfinals, Parkland edged a very strong Freedom team 2-1 in the semifinals Monday night.  Veteran starting shortstop Will Dobil (who had three hits and the game winning RBI) and winning pitcher Sawyer Marsteller talked about the hard fought win and gave their thoughts on the team’s determination heading into the championship…

LV Baseball Notebook ’25: Parkland Interviews

A few years ago Liberty strung together five straight mercy-rule wins en route to league and district championships, but this year they’ve had to come-from-behind – TWICE by three runs in the final inning – to earn a trip to the title game.  We featured several Liberty players’ interviews on last week’s ATVN SportsTalk program that was also streamed live for free on our YouTube Channel.

While both teams are evenly matched offensively (Liberty has nearly identical team numbers compared to last year’s championship team), Parkland has the pitching advantage this year.  The Trojans’ team ERA is nearly 2-full runs LESS than the Hurricanes.  Also, Liberty’s ace Michael Mariano Jr. (8-0, 2.31 ERA) “maxed out” his pitch count, so depending when this game is played, he’s unlikely to be available to pitch in the championship.

We encourage everyone to head out to Easton HS to cheer on the kids to see the game in person, AND… 

Don’t forget to take ATVN with you to watch on your phone or smart device to get multiple angle replays, in-game stats and more as the game unfolds!

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

Before we continue with our look at honoring the top players in different spring sports in the Astound TV Network coverage area, a quick reminder to all the local athletic directors, league/district chairs and organizational leaders that handle the “all-star” listings – please send those lists and other honors to me at chris.michael@astound.com so that we can spotlight your favorite student – athletes.

I will try to remind as many of those people as I can to send me your school’s honors and other athletes’ achievements, but if you don’t see them in our weekly SportsTalk shop blogs, its because I never received that information…so please pass along those reminders or feel free to send news to me directly!

Now, we continue to honor the spring sports athletes by listing the All-EPC team members for volleyball and baseball, including “divisional” and “conference” honors.…

Eastern Pennsylvania Conference

• 2025 EPC Baseball All Conference 1st Team
• 2025 EPC Baseball All Conference 2nd Team
• 2025 EPC Baseball Lehigh Division 1st Team
• 2025 EPC Baseball Monroe Division 1st Team
• 2025 EPC Baseball Northampton Division 1st Team
• 2025 EPC Boys Volleyball All-Stars

Check back to the SportsTalk shop for more “all-star” listings as we receive them!

Also, be sure to catch the start of our coverage of local high school spring sports post-season action, with the EPC and Colonial League baseball championships slated for this Wednesday and Thursday evenings, live on ATVN and also on our YouTube channel!  Check our broadcasting schedule page on our website for more details following Monday night’s semifinal results!

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

While the outdoor spring sports are in a holding pattern thanks to the rain (and an ominous forecast) this week, the summer high school basketball season is now underway.

This area has become a hotbed for summer hoops action – both for the teams in our coverage area and all the various tournaments that are held in the Lehigh Valley, which brings in some of the top talent from the surrounding states and teams from other areas that the Astound TV Network broadcasts.

We’ll keep you posted on all this action throughout the next few months with pictures and videos of these events and news and information here at “The Shop” and on ATVN!

For our first entry for the 2025 campaign, here’s some images from the indoor action on the hardwood so far…

Check back to “The SportsTalk shop” for more on local sports as many of the other sports will start to unveil their “all-star” listings and other spring sports honors.

Also, keep checking back to our website for our broadcast information for our coverage of local baseball, softball and girls and boys lacrosse championship action coming up over the next several weeks.  Be sure to bookmark this site as things evolve due to changes from the weather (the opening round of the local EPC baseball playoffs have already been pushed back one day so far!)

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