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HS FB Preseason Polls ’22

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The kickoff of the high school football season is here!

This Friday, the season begins with a pair of great matchups that we will be featuring on the Astound TV Network, featuring four teams that qualified for the district tournament a year ago.  The EPC South Champion Parkland will take on Easton, while the two teams that played for last year’s district title–Emmaus and Freedom–will rematch against each other this Friday.

Not surprisingly, all four of these teams will begin the season ranked high in the ATVN pre-season polls.

Several of the other teams ranked in both our polls will be seen on ATVN later in the season (we’ll have Nazareth and Allentown Central Catholic on our channel next week).

Not familiar with our annual scholastic football polling?

I’m glad you asked.

I’m proud to say (and no, I don’t vote myself) our football polls have proven to be among the most accurate, year after year, among all media organizations that attempt to rank teams in our coverage area each fall.  (Check out our archived polls from previous years if you’d like proof).

We never announce nor release the names of our non-media voters to get their honest opinions on the local football landscape while avoiding any thoughts of retribution or potential “bulletin board” material.  Our “media voters” usually reveal themselves when we have the pleasure of having them on our weekly SportsTalk program, seen on Thursday nights on the Astound TV Network and available to watch at any time for free through ATVN on Demand.

This year, we are going to break the two polls down into EPC and Colonial League schools, within the Astound broadcast area.  With the Colonial teams will be cross-scheduling and playing teams from the Schuylkill League and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playing different “cross-over” teams, our poll will be an interesting barometer for teams in the Lehigh Valley since many local teams will not have the same opponents on their schedule.

Below we have high school polls for both leagues in the ATVN viewing area, along with the listing of all of the teams that are included in our respective categories.

EPC TOP 5

  1. Freedom
  2. Parkland
  3. Nazareth
  4. Emmaus
  5. (tie)  Easton/Central Catholic

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Dieruff, Allen, Allentown Central Catholic, Parkland, Whitehall, Emmaus, and Nazareth.

COLONIAL TOP 4

  1. Northwestern 
  2. Notre Dame-GP
  3. Northern Lehigh
  4. Southern Lehigh

Eligible Teams (in no particular order):

Bangor, Pen Argyl, Notre Dame – Green Pond, Wilson, Catasauqua, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Northwestern, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh.

Be sure to check back to  the “upcoming events” section here on our website and check it frequently for any changes and for our ongoing playoff broadcast schedule information throughout the postseason.

 

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