{"id":79524,"date":"2017-04-24T17:28:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T17:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=79524"},"modified":"2017-04-24T17:30:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T17:30:52","slug":"behind-mic-scotts-super-scheduler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-scotts-super-scheduler\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Mic: “Scott’s Super Scheduler”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s \u201cBehind the Mic\u201d blog is written by long time RCN personality Scott Barr. He has covered a wide range of sports, including kick boxing, track and field, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, football, and baseball. Most of our viewers, of course, will know him for his work with District XI wrestling. Fans across the valley have heard him call \u201cGive him six!\u201d after a pin, while working with three legends of Lehigh Valley sports\u2014Gary Laubach, Ray Nunamaker, and Jim Best. Outside of RCN, Scott helps small businesses set up retirement plans for their employees, and lives in Macungie with his wife, Melissa, and their four children.<\/em>
\n___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
\nThere can be no doubt, if there ever was, that the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference<\/a> is the nation\u2019s toughest wrestling league.\u00a0\u00a0 In the coal-stoked furnace that is PA High School wrestling, our own little geography is feared from here to the banks of the Youghiogheny River<\/a>.\u00a0 Our wrestlers are tough, talented, and fierce.\u00a0 Our teams are packed with blue chippers who always win, and peppered with scrappers who always fight.\u00a0 The dual meet season, outsiders must think, is a complete meat grinder of one terrific matchup after another.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

The past two seasons have \u201cfeatured\u201d long drives on school nights to see horrible mismatches, and a near complete absence of headline matchups between elite programs.\u00a0 Packed gymnasiums, once a hallmark across District XI<\/a>, have become an endangered species.\u00a0 Saturday night marquee events were an excuse for all-day, armchair coaching by devout fans.\u00a0 These, too, have nearly disappeared.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to find any supporters of the newly aligned schedule of dual meets.\u00a0 In private, coaches, wrestlers, and even referees have complained about the lack of intensity, the absence of close dual meets, and driving \u201cup north\u201d for a 72-0 dual meet punctuated by five or more forfeits.\u00a0 Fans also complain, but not privately.\u00a0 I hear, often, that the current offering is \u201ckilling wrestling\u201d.\u00a0 That\u2019s an exaggeration, but it\u2019s definitely not helping, either.<\/p>\n

Selfishly, I want to broadcast two great dual meets every week.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the past two years, I\u2019ve only pointed to one or two great matchups in our entire broadcast season.\u00a0 RCN <\/a>is committed to bringing you the best that high school wrestling has to offer, but none of us wants to show a blowout.\u00a0 Several times, I\u2019ve said, \u201cThere has to be something better,\u201d<\/em> on a particular night.\u00a0 Usually, there is not.<\/p>\n

The good news is that a correction is pretty simple.\u00a0 The alignment of the conference would have to change, but this would receive almost no resistance.\u00a0 The coaches want it, and so do the fans.\u00a0 So here is my off-season gift to you:\u00a0 Scott\u2019s Super Scheduler<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Division Rohrbach<\/strong>\u2014Named for the first four-time champion in DXI history, Russ Rohrbach<\/a>:\u00a0 Beca<\/a>, Northampton<\/a>, Parkland<\/a>, Nazareth<\/a>, Liberty<\/a>, and Easton<\/li>\n
  2. Division Oliver<\/strong>\u2014Named for @that_dude_JO<\/a>, Jordan Oliver: Freedom<\/a>, Emmaus<\/a>, Whitehall<\/a>, Stroudsburg<\/a>, ES South, and Pleasant Valley<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Division Nunamaker<\/strong>\u2014For Nunny<\/a>: Dieruff, PM West, ES North, PM Eas<\/a>t, Allen, and Central Catholic<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Wrestle five dual meets within your division, plus anyone else you want.\u00a0 At the end of the year, the last- place team from Rohrbach drops down to Oliver, and the top Oliver team moves up to Rohrbach.\u00a0 Same between Oliver and Nunamaker.\u00a0 This keeps the divisions aligned by strength, which is what we all want to see.<\/p>\n

    This gives us, without exception, the most competitive dual meets we can have, every single year, every single week.\u00a0 If you want to have an EPC Championship day, with the #1 and #2 from each division, that\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n

    Nobody wins when we have the need for a long caravan of parents driving to Swiftwater, PA to watch their son receive a forfeit, and getting home after 11:00 p.m.\u00a0 My schedule fixes that.<\/p>\n

    Teams don\u2019t chew up \u201cpoints\u201d on their schedule for mismatches that don\u2019t even qualify as a decent workout.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t paying officials for 30 minutes of hand-raising.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t wasting money on staff for gymnasiums that are devoid of fans.<\/p>\n

    It works, and it\u2019s simple.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t cure everything, but it\u2019s on the right track.\u00a0 My final fix is to get us down to 10 or 11 weight classes.\u00a0 Next time Laubach gives up his blog, I\u2019ll let you in on that one. . .<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This week\u2019s \u201cBehind the Mic\u201d blog is written by long time RCN personality Scott Barr. He has covered a wide range of sports, including kick boxing, track and field, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, football, and baseball. Most of our viewers, of course, will know him for his work with District XI wrestling. Fans across the valley…<\/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":[810,560],"class_list":["post-79524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports","tag-lehigh-valley-wrestling","tag-wrestling"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBehind the Mic: "Scott's Super Scheduler" - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-scotts-super-scheduler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the Mic: "Scott's Super Scheduler" - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week\u2019s \u201cBehind the Mic\u201d blog is written by long time RCN personality Scott Barr. 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