Friday, August 26, at 7:00pm, the high school football season begins!\u00a0 I know it seems early.\u00a0 That\u2019s because it is.\u00a0 To accommodate the addition of two more classifications (AAAAAA and AAAAA), and the PIAA state championship finals, the season begins a week earlier than in the past.\u00a0 Remember when no games were played until after Labor Day \u2013 this year, two will be played BEFORE Labor Day!\u00a0 That\u2019s the earliest start ever for Pennsylvania.\u00a0 And the earliest finish to the regular season if your team does not have a Thanksgiving Day game \u2013 October 28-29.\u00a0 Good or bad, that\u2019s the way it is.<\/p>\n
If you want to look ahead already to Districts, here are the Lehigh Valley teams and their classes:<\/p>\n
AAAAAA \u2013 Allen, Dieruff, Easton, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth, Northampton, and Parkland.
\nAAAAA \u2013 Southern Lehigh, Whitehall (both are guaranteed a spot in Districts with only four teams)
\nAAAA \u2013 Central Catholic, Bangor, Bethlehem Catholic, Northern Lehigh, Saucon Valley
\nAAA \u2013 Northern Lehigh, Notre Dame, Palisades, Pen Argyl, Salisbury, Wilson
\nAA \u2013 Catasauqua
\nA \u2013 No Lehigh Valley schools<\/p>\n
Five new coaches will lead their schools in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and the Colonial League.<\/p>\n
In the EPC, Harold Fairclough<\/strong> replaces Randy Cuthbert at Emmaus.\u00a0 Harold coached six years at Central and took the team to a state title in 2010.\u00a0 Tim Moncman<\/strong> takes over the Parkland program replacing Jim Morgans, who won over 250 games with the Trojans.\u00a0 Moncman coached 10 years at Liberty and took them to a state title in 2008.<\/p>\n Chris Labatch<\/strong> will start his first head coaching job at Wilson, replacing Matt Senneca.\u00a0 He recently was the defensive coordinator for Saucon Valley, which is coming off a record-setting year.\u00a0 Wilson was 1-9 last year.\u00a0 Phil Sams<\/strong> is the new Saucon Valley coach.\u00a0 He has the toughest act to follow as the Panthers went 14-1 last year under Matt Evancho.\u00a0 Like Labatch, Sams was an assistant last year at Saucon.\u00a0 Finally Phil Stambaugh<\/strong> will be the new head coach at Notre Dame \u2013 Green Pond.\u00a0 Former head coach Chuck Muller has moved to Saucon as a defensive coordinator.\u00a0 Stambaugh led Pius X to a 43-19 record before the school closed.<\/p>\n It appears that the EPC will be extremely competitive with Parkland coming back slightly to the pack.\u00a0 I still think the Trojans will win the South, but Freedom, Easton, and Whitehall all could sneak in; Central will win the North. Saucon Valley will repeat as the champion of the Colonial League, but Notre Dame could surprise everyone.<\/p>\n I will be at Frank Banko Field on Friday night for the Central Catholic \u2013 Freedom game.\u00a0 If you see me, say hello.\u00a0 I will be wearing an RCN shirt and have a big smile on my face because FOOTBALL IS HERE!<\/p>\n ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong><\/p>\n I need to preface my musings this week because they are about the Olympics and I watched the competitions on a big screen at poolside aboard the Anthem of the Seas while on a cruise.\u00a0 I was amongst people from all over the world which made for an interesting perspective.\u00a0 I recommend this viewing spot to anyone.<\/p>\n Friday, August 26, at 7:00pm, the high school football season begins!\u00a0 I know it seems early.\u00a0 That\u2019s because it is.\u00a0 To accommodate the addition of two more classifications (AAAAAA and AAAAA), and the PIAA state championship finals, the season begins a week earlier than in the past.\u00a0 Remember when no games were played until after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[220,705],"class_list":["post-78545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports","tag-high-school-football","tag-olymipcs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n