The Lehigh Valley high school summer basketball season is winding down.

Parkland, the defending District XI champions this winter, also won the local summer league regular season basketball title last week.  Ironically, the Trojans boys Head Basketball Coach, Eddie Ohlsen, and a team composed of many former Parkland players, also won the adult summer league championship last weekend, played at the Catasauqua playgrounds.

Meanwhile, Southern Lehigh, with a first-year head coach, was the only Lehigh Valley team to make it through the “Small School” summer league regular season without a loss.

Most local schools are now starting to make the transition from summer sports to preparing for the fall sports seasons (“heat acclimation week” starts at the beginning of August.)

Today here at The SportsTalk Shop, we bring you our final look at pictures from local basketball games involving the student-athletes in the Astound TV Network viewing area…

I will be heading out on vacation but when I return in a few weeks, the ATVN Sports crew and I will be busy bringing you the deciding games in the Blue Mountain League Baseball championship series, as well as getting you ready for a brand new season of high school sports broadcasts on Astound TV Network.

In addition to kicking off the season with the Opening Night of HS football on Friday, August 22nd, we’ll also have our annual football preview show on the Thursday, August 21st edition (live at 7pm) of ATVN SportsTalk, which will also be broadcast on our YouTube channel:  YouTube.com/@AstoundTVNetwork

And, we at Astound have some other exciting news for this new scholastic season involving students-athletes in our community.  Keep checking back to our website and The SportsTalk Shop for details and our broadcast plans for the first few weeks of the football season (along with our annual football “polls” as well, ranking the top teams in the ATVN viewing area!)

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.

The local summer basketball season continues and our ATVN cameras have been out and about covering the local action on the hardwood – or concrete – depending on the locations!

Here’s a look at some still pictures of recent summer basketball action in the Astound TV Network viewing area…

Coming up on this Thursday’s ATVN SportsTalk, we have an exclusive interview with the new District XI Chairman, Steve Panczer.  We’ll discuss his background from his playing days at Bangor high school to becoming the school’s athletic director, along with discussing issues facing the area as well as his plans for the area’s local sports teams.  The show airs live at 7pm on ATVN.

If you have a question or comment for Steve or issues concerning District XI sports, feel free to email us at chris.michael@astound.com and we might read/respond to your questions on our live program.

You can watch the show for free from anywhere by going to youtube.com/@AstoundTVnetwork 

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 look at more pictures from around the area at local basketball league and tournament action, a quick recap of last week’s “Bash at the Beach” (aka, held indoors at nice, climate-controlled gymnasiums…thank you, Whitehall-Coplay School District!)

The winners for the second straight year were the Parkland Trojans.  In addition to winning the district title and going further than any other boys team this past winter, they have a ton of people back for this year and show no signs of slowing down.

Ironically both Parkland and fellow defending district champion Central Catholic both lost the day before and found themselves in the ‘losers bracket’ for Sunday’s events.

Emmaus, under the direction of a brand new head coach, made a great showing, advancing into the winners bracket Saturday night by beating both the Trojans and the Vikings.  The Hornets then lost to Wilson WL, who lost to Parkland in Sunday night’s finale.

In the small school classification, both Salisbury and Southern Lehi had great weekends, with the Falcons beating the Spartans in the final game in overtime. Veteran Steven Lozada had the game-winning bucket.  Both teams have a ton of talent returning from last year and, as you saw on ATVN last winter, that game was also a close affair that went right down to the wire.

Now, a look at some still pictures of summer basketball action…

Check back for more pictures and updates on local summer basketball action here at The SportsTalk Shop! 

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.

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.