{"id":84071,"date":"2020-09-29T19:14:14","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T19:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=84071"},"modified":"2023-04-13T20:06:39","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:06:39","slug":"never-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/never-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cNever\u201d Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The views expressed in this blog are<\/i> those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have been doing football games for 50+ years.\u00a0 There is a routine in the week of preparation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For football, it was always to prepare for Lafayette football<\/a> on Monday (stats for both teams, projected starting lineups, pre-game notes, etc.) and Tuesday (press conference, read game notes, do trivia, and prepare game-day sheets).<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday and Thursday were set aside for high school football with duties very similar to the Lafayette prep without the press conference and the game notes.\u00a0 That information was my job to gather.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, as you know, there is no Lafayette football to even prepare for.\u00a0 And high school football is starting a month later than it usually does.\u00a0 Many refer to this time as the \u201cnew normal\u201d.\u00a0 For me, this past week has been more like the \u201cnever normal\u201d.\u00a0 It has been a week like none other.\u00a0 Allow me recap the six days:<\/span><\/p>\n

Monday \u2013 First, I completed my blog for the week.\u00a0 Knowing that our first game was 12 days away, I asked for and received the rosters of both Central Catholic<\/a> and Parkland<\/a>.\u00a0 Those rosters were entered onto my game-day sheets.\u00a0 I then requested from my various sources the stats from last year, with particular interest in those players returning.\u00a0 I then read up on the prospects for both teams for the upcoming season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday \u2013 I entered the stats from last year for Parkland, since they would not play until October 2.\u00a0 I did the pre-game sheets and highlighted the impact players.\u00a0 I sent those sheets off to our graphics person so he could get a head start.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday \u2013 This was a ZOOM day with one virtual meeting scheduled and one in-person meeting held at our studio.\u00a0 The ZOOM meeting was a company gathering to bring everyone up-to-date on business operations.\u00a0 Next, was a studio meeting to discuss how we would be doing the games in this environment.\u00a0 The big difference, and it is big, is that the announcers would not actually attend the game.\u00a0 Instead, my color analyst and I would announce the games from the studio watching television monitors.\u00a0 In other words, we would call the game watching like our viewers at home.\u00a0 This would be a career first and, despite trepidation, seemed doable.\u00a0 We rehearsed everyone\u2019s role and left both fearing and anticipating Friday\u2019s broadcast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thursday \u2013 I began to gather starting lineups for our first game and organized all the information.\u00a0 Another ZOOM meeting followed.\u00a0 District XI<\/a> held a meeting to go over the thoughts on the football playoffs.\u00a0 They made a wise decision to forego state playoffs in favor of holding District playoffs (the two would have overlapped one another).\u00a0 A vote would be upcoming, but there was quite a bit of certainty that the votes would be there to have Districts, not states.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friday \u2013 I made plans to attend the Central Catholic-Nazareth<\/a> football game that night in order to scout both teams.\u00a0 A morning e-mail arrived from Whitehall<\/a> saying that their game against Bethlehem Catholic was postponed.\u00a0 No reason was given, but it was not hard to surmise the reason.\u00a0 Within an hour, Parkland sent out an e-mail saying they were shutting football down until October 2.\u00a0 Channel 69<\/a> reported the virus had infected a member or members of the team.\u00a0 I attended the Central-Nazareth game that night, with the knowledge that Central-Parkland the following Friday night probably would not happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday \u2013 I read that our scheduled first game Central at Parkland would not take place.\u00a0 We would need to replace the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was time to start the prep all over again for two new teams.\u00a0 The \u201cnew normal\u201d has become more like the \u201cnever normal\u201d.\u00a0 I look forward to the challenge.\u00a0 Watch on Friday night, no matter who is playing.\u00a0 Rest assured, we will do our best.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It turns out the Phillies<\/a> needed to win just one game against the Rays in their final regular season series in order to make the playoffs.\u00a0 They could not do that.\u00a0 Season\u2019s over as they lost seven of their last 10 games.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. There was poetic justice on Sunday when the Bengals<\/a> took on the Eagles<\/a>.\u00a0 Both teams were so bad that the football gods decided neither should win so it was an appropriate 23-23 tie.\u00a0 Both are now 0-2-1.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. As I suggested last week, the NFC East is not good.\u00a0 This past weekend, the Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, and the Washington Football Team all lost.\u00a0 The division winner may very well not have a winning record.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. I decided to scout some high school football on Friday night so I went to Andrew Leh Stadium to watch Central Catholic at Nazareth.\u00a0 The crowd was sparse, but maintained social distancing and wore masks.\u00a0 Nazareth was very impressive in their win, showing emotion and speed.\u00a0 They will be a tough opponent, for sure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Our scheduled high school football opener was affected by the virus.\u00a0 Parkland was forced to postpone their game against Central Catholic.\u00a0 We will bring you Northampton at Freedom LIVE on Friday night at 7:00pm.<\/span><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Gary\u2019s Guesses: NFL Picks \u2013 (LAST WEEK \u2013 9-6-1; OVERALL- 35-12-1 – 74%)<\/b><\/p>\n

            Denver<\/span><\/p>\n

            Indianapolis<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

            New Orleans<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

            Arizona<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

            Cincinnati<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

            Dallas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

            Houston<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

            Seattle<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

            Tampa Bay<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

            Pittsburgh<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

            Baltimore<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

            LA Rams<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

            Kansas City<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

            Buffalo<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

            San Francisco<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

            Green Bay<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

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

            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. I have been doing football games for 50+ years.\u00a0 There is a routine in the week of preparation.\u00a0\u00a0 For football, it was always to…<\/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":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe \u201cNever\u201d Normal - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The \u201cNever\u201d Normal - 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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