{"id":82011,"date":"2019-01-21T19:25:40","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T19:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"\/rcntv\/?p=82011"},"modified":"2019-01-21T19:47:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T19:47:21","slug":"chris-underrated-football-edition-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/chris-underrated-football-edition-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris\u2019 \u201cALL-UNDERRATED\u201d Football Edition (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-Ld_3Ed8sLA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A week ago I started naming my underrated sports personalities from last fall\u2019s football team (see last week\u2019s blog entry for the \u201crules\u201d and the previous week\u2019s \u201cwinners.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>Continuing on with that list\u2026<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>MOST UNDERRATED RUNNING BACK<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Liberty High School\" href=\"https:\/\/basdwpweb.beth.k12.pa.us\/liberty\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Liberty<\/a>\u2019s Nasir Legree.<\/p>\n<p>While Legree was one of several outstanding backs in the Lehigh Valley, I think you could argue that none of those other stud backs had as much of a single target placed upon him than this senior.\u00a0 When I saw him against <a title=\"Parkland High School\" href=\"https:\/\/phs.parklandsd.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Parkland<\/a>, which featured one of the fiercest rushing defenses in the <a title=\"EPC\" href=\"http:\/\/epc18.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">EPC<\/a>, Legree was working with a quarterback making his debut (who showed great flashes of potential and will be a player to watch for 2019-20).\u00a0 The team was also without several key lineman and facing a Trojans\u2019 squad that was sending everything they had at Nasir, daring someone else to beat him\u2014a strategy many opposing teams employed during the year.\u00a0 Legree was also huge in one of the biggest upsets of the year\u2014against the eventual<a title=\"District XI\" href=\"https:\/\/districtxi.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> District XI<\/a> 6A champions\u2014and Liberty\u2019s biggest rival, the <a title=\"Freedom High School\" href=\"https:\/\/basdwpweb.beth.k12.pa.us\/freedom\" target=\"_blank\">Freedom<\/a> Patriots.\u00a0<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>MOST UNDERRATED CONTRIBUTION OFF THE FIELD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Parkland Cheerleaders, band and PA announcers.<\/p>\n<p>The Lehigh Valley boasts some of the top cheering squads in the state and the Parkland cheering section has to be one of the Valley\u2019s best in terms of their spirit and their routines on the track during football games.\u00a0 They do a tremendous job adding to what already is normally an exciting atmosphere for the school\u2019s home games.<\/p>\n<p>While Liberty, Freedom and <a title=\"Easton High School\" href=\"https:\/\/eahs.eastonsd.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Easton<\/a> seem to get the most attention for local bands, the Trojans can\u2019t take a back seat to anyone with their performances every year.<\/p>\n<p>But a personal highlight for me this past football season was when these two groups, along with Parkland Stadiums\u2019 announcers, went through the different branches of the military at their home games.\u00a0 The band played the theme songs from the corresponding service corps and the cheerleaders led a salute to the veterans in attendance for standing during their halftime shows.\u00a0 It was a really great idea and well-executed! (Also, the Parkland dance team has been exceptional again so far this winter\u2014keep an eye out for their performances in the gym!)<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Parklandcheer2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"244\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-82015\" src=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Parklandcheer2.jpg\" alt=\"Parklandcheer2\" srcset=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Parklandcheer2.jpg 600w, \/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Parklandcheer2-300x122.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/parklandcheer1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"244\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-82014\" src=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/parklandcheer1.jpg\" alt=\"parklandcheer1\" srcset=\"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/parklandcheer1.jpg 600w, \/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/parklandcheer1-300x122.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>MOST UNDERRATED PLAY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Easton Wide Receiver Nahjee Adams getting an extra six yards for a first down after it appeared he was going to be down before getting to the sticks in a key game against Liberty.\u00a0 Not only did Adams make a spectacular grab but he had the idea of fighting to get the extra yardage needed to get the first down on a 3<sup>rd<\/sup> down and 25. \u00a0This play also set up the game-winning touchdown and gave the Rovers a big win en route to qualifying for the district playoffs.\u00a0 It was one of the most dramatic plays in a crowded field of close regular season games this past fall.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>MOST UNDERRATED QUARTERBACK<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Notre Dame High School\" href=\"https:\/\/ndcrusaders.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Notre Dame<\/a>\u2019s Cole DeFranco.<\/p>\n<p>It might be hard to say that the District XI\u2019s leading passer (by far!) could be underrated, but in a year which Ethan Parvel, Jared Jenkins, Logan Edmond and others were getting tons of attention, all DeFranco did was complete 208 passes for a school record 3,441 yards (more than 1,600 yards than any other District XI player) and set another seasonal school record with 43 touchdowns thrown in a season.<\/p>\n<p>All told, DeFranco finished his career completing 675 of his 1,026 attempted passes and set career school records with 9,904 total yards and 99 touchdowns.\u00a0 He threw over 4,500 more total yards than any other active player in the district.<\/p>\n<p>DeFranco got some accolades in the media, but probably deserved more than was given after you look at both the team and individual accomplishments this season (not to mention some of his tremendous throws in their dramatic win over <a title=\"Saucon Valley\" href=\"https:\/\/www.svpanthers.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Saucon Valley<\/a> which gave his school its first-ever <a title=\"Colonial League\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colonialleague.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Colonial League<\/a> championship).<\/p>\n<p>Coming up on this Thursday\u2019s \u201cSportsTalk\u201d program, we\u2019ll have an all-star panel of wrestling experts breaking down thoughts from the current regular season for high school wrestling, including thoughts on the top teams and individual wresters heading into the post-season.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, we\u2019ll be previewing this weekend\u2019s Colonial League wrestling championships and the EPC \u201cChallenge\u201d and next week\u2019s District XI team wrestling finals\u2014the latter two events can be seen live on RCN-TV.<\/p>\n<p>Among this week\u2019s guests are the Morning Call\u2019s wrestling beat writer Tom Housenick, long time wrestling official Gene Waas and members of the RCN wrestling announcing crew!<\/p>\n<p>Email your wrestling comments and questions to us at <a href=\"mailto:rcnsportstalk@rcn.com\">rcnsportstalk@rcn.com<\/a> and we might read and respond to your emails live on this Thursday\u2019s live show!<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. A week ago I started naming my underrated sports personalities from last fall\u2019s football team (see last week\u2019s blog entry for the \u201crules\u201d and&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chris\u2019 \u201cALL-UNDERRATED\u201d Football Edition (Part 2) - 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\/chris-underrated-football-edition-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chris\u2019 \u201cALL-UNDERRATED\u201d Football Edition (Part 2) - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 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