Who will be this year’s surprise and who will dominate football this year. It’s never too early to talk High School Football.
Who are your top players in 2012? Who do you think will be the top teams going into the 2012 season?
Please support our Reporters
The Opening Kickoff Of The 2026 Season In
Days
Hours
Minutes
482 Responses
Sorry, last word- first line last post should be “interesting.”
Great job Dave and crew on this website making high school football most intesting. As the number of thread comments show, a high level of interest exsists in eastern PA. The coaching versus school size argument is fascinating. Based on current enrollments the top ten schools for size in 4A in PA now are, biggest to smallest of the ten – Reading Central, North Penn, Hazleton Area, Upper Darby, Northeast (Phila), Pennsbury, J P McCaskey, Parkland, William Allen, and Neshaminy. Only three have claimed a state title: Neshaminy, North Penn and Parkland. Without checking up on records, I believe that Reading and William Allen have struggled for some time, and none of the others have set the world ablaze, Pennsbury has a district title about 2006. I cannot comment on the length of coaching tenure for all of the schools to add anything to the argument. But, it would seem that size is not a panacea to success in itself.
back @wildcat
Sounds like he on the road to a full recovery, as for western wayne making a lot of noise.They play in divison 2 of lackwanna league they are going to be hard pressed to have enough points to qualify for the dictrict playoffs.Most aaa schools in the district have 3 aaaa teams on their schedule and only one aa team.Western wayne has only 4 aaa team on their schedule and no aaaa teams,they probaly have to run the table or at least 9-1 to get in.I believe they have Prep and Coughlin early so we will know where they stand in Sept,good luck on the season.
@mark
Misericordia would make more sense. I see him lifting there often.
@Rob
I think he is scouting for WVW. He is also helping at College Misericordia. That is what I heard from several Misericordia players. Not sure how true it is.
I am hearing a rumor that Ted Jackson will be an assistant at Berwick. Can anyone confirm or is this hooplah?
@ mark d,
I hear what your saying about the contact. I also agree about the defense, they were terrible. Robbie was a huge part of that defense/team. Its hard to loose a player of that caliber and still be competitive. I do hope they grow up, if they do look out for the Wildcats to stop being pussy cats and make some noise.
P.S.
Robbie’s performance at the University @ Buffalo
Ht: 6-2 Wt: 210
Bench Press: 225 13 x
40-4.55
Pro-agility: 4.4
Vert: 30
Thats a kid on the right track to getting back to 100 %
@wildcat
with an acl you have to wait till you take some contact on it before you know where you are ,but i heard the kid is a stud.as for 8 coming back on defence ! hope they grown up becuse and please not trying to knock the kids but they were very bad last year.
I saw Old Forge in a pssing scrimmage, they have some speed to go along with a mean streak. Look for them in single A.
Trouble is they will have to get by Dunmore and Riverside.
I have also seen the Western wayne Wildcats peform in a few passing scrimmages, They have some weapons. Any time a team goes 3-7 you tend to look by them, but they lost 3 games by 3 pts. They also lost their best player Robbie Siclari last year to an ACL injury. He is back and even bigger and better. I heard he has been getting serious interest from D1 schools. The team also returns 9 Starters on Offense, 8 on defesne.
Phoenixville Senior LB/TE Ryan Pannella is expected to have another great season. Last year put up huge number tackles 195 total. Was a key leader on defense for the Phantoms. Pac 10 2nd team,ALL-Area 2nd team,3rd team All- state PA.
Starting to get alot of feedback from 1AA.
i havent seen del valley and yes i been told scranton may be weak up frount.i seen dunmore scranton and valley view in 7 or 7 and yes i understand it a lot different when it live , but i am telling you this kid was showing great arm strength.
Parrish Bennett, the running back on Hanover has transfered to Meyers. Personally, I think he will help more in the secondary than on offense simply because he will not have the luxury of running behind a big O line on Meyers, unlike last year when he had some maulers on Hanover.
Although he’s a nice addition, I don’t see Meyers’s record changing. Looking at their schedule they will go 4-6 with losses to GAR, Old Forge, Lehman, Wyoming Area, Northwest and Trail.
mark d, Scranton goes 7-3, what did you think about delaware valley?
mark d, Scranton goes 7-3 How did del val look
mark d, scranton looked good but when the rest of the d is there evrything changes. Scranton goes 7-3 How did del val look
The North Penn losses to Liberty weren’t that big of a deal. All I am saying is Beck didn’t give his team the best chance to win either contest. He STUNK and in big games he tends to get out coached to a huge degree. He’s not the entire reason they lose as their opponents were good and should be at that point. I just know that he NEVER makes adjustments. He plays one way, coaches one way and it’s why superior coaches dominate the Knights.
The Akins, Oliver, & Hearns team was so talented my 92 year old grandmother takes them to a state title. I’m sorry, I wish I could give the guy more credit but he’s not a head coach. If he’d step down and be an OL coach and let a real HC in the Knights would have 3-4 state titles by now.
He’s the Eastern PA version of Terry Smith.
@all the d2 guys
saw a 7 on 7 with scranton and dunmore. scranton qb got a big time arm ,saw lot of speed from scranton
North Penn’s ’08 loss to Liberty was to a very good team. The ’10 loss to LaSalle likewise. Maybe you could argue they should have won the ’05 eastern final to Libery but even that team was really good. Dan Persa played at Northwestern and there were a couple few other D1 players on that team. That deep in the playoffs, the teams can ball. It’s been a little frustrating/disappointing but one of these years it’s all going to line up.
@ Chuck:
I have questioned his adjustments ( or lack thereof) at times also. He can make them on defense ( last year was a good example), but not on offense.
If pettine Sr. was still coaching West, EVEYBODY would be losing to them.
That Liberty game, their ( Liberty’s) line was bigger and tougher. Not sure how you adjust to that.
That liberty team, and the LaSalle teams, were very good. You say NP had no right losing to them? Both rosters are huge ( number of players), like NP’s. And the talent was there, like NP.
Size of the school does matter, but I think the coaching matters more. Upper Darby is a good example. There are others also.
I don’t give Pettine Jr. as much credit as you do, possible because he’s such an arrogant ass ( just listen to some of his pep talks). Beck could have left the school flounder, but he didn’t. Remember, they have district boundaries, unlike LaSalle & Prep.
What’s your responce to past NP teams being so bad considering their size? Merely bad coaching?
Which makes Beck a helluva improvement.
@Buddy,
If Pettine Sr. was still coaching at West (and there were only two CB’s)…North Penn would still be losing to West. Pettine Jr changed the culture at NP and Beck reaped the benefits of it. He’s a decent coach, but the advantage they have in D-1 currently is a joke…With how large a school they have and the players they have had…they shouldn’t be sitting with one state title.
Beck got out coached in at least 3 playoff games. He absolutely doesn’t ever make adjustments. In the Liberty game he looked like a deer in headlights. No answers for the load option. Liberty didn’t have much business beating NP that day and I was ashamed to even think Beck was a decent coach. God awful! He’s never been good at making adjustments.
He made no adjustments last year in the state final 14-7 loss to CD. I don’t hold it against him that NP lost. I consider it foolish to continue to do something that isn’t working. Slight adjustments in the game and they have a fighting chance. Why you think his record stinks in big games? He knows one way to play football and if it isn’t working he has no clue what he’s doing. If he was any worse at making adjustments his name would be Mark Schmidt.
I think it’s cool that North Penn has not split. There’s tons of smaller schools out there. Can’t there be a few giants out there? What’s the big deal? It’s probably cheaper too. Isn’t everybody always worried about how taxpayer money is spent? Welp, it’s cheaper to have one big school. How you like them apples?
@ Brian Hope:
Yes, NP should have split 20 years ago. Taxpayers keep fighting that and, obviously, winning.
@ Chuck:
Riddle me this: NP has ALWAYS been a large school. Very large. Even when there was only one Central Bucks, one Downingtown, one Council Rock, they were still one of, if not the, largest school in the district. Yet they sucked at football ( Track & Swimming, somewhat wrestling, was their forte).
The school decide to ear-mark football until the late 90’s, starting with Pettine Jr.( only 2 years I believe) then taken over by Beck.
So I suppose those coaches back in the day were the worst ever to coach, OR something must be said for the current coaching staff.
The biggest upset Beck ever had was the 2009 district final at Ridley. NP looked past them I believe, and Ridley was on fire. Those other games you mentioned was a case of the other teams were simply better. It’s NOT just W’s & L’s I look at, it’s the history of the school.
C’mon dude, you’re being silly!!
@ Buddy
I’m older than you think, went to Souderton back in the 70’s. Dont hate NP just think they need another High School, two many great kids that will never see playing time that could play somewhere else. Big Souderton, Q-town, Pennridge & CB West fan (the Old Bux-Mont). Also Pennridge has had around 40-50 on their roster the past few years. This year I heard Pennridge has a very large senior class team.
@David Mika,
Like your idea of “2012 HS Football Season”
@phillyboy
Yes imhotep is a magnet charter. However, the criteria as to which you are referring does not apply to all students. I personally know 2 kids on their basketball team who barely read at a 3rd grade level. Not saying it’s the kids fault or anything like that, just saying exceptions are made.
@Buddy,
It’s unfortunate people everywhere including you judge coaching based on W’s and L’s. When you coach at a school like NP, you could play without coaches and win league titles. It’s not brain surgery when you’ve got the biggest drawing areas. Why do you think NP and Neshaminy are ALWAYS in the playoffs?!?!?
As I mentioned in a post down below, the only state title Beck has as HC is with a team so stacked it was a joke.
If you look at NP’s two East Finals losses to Liberty, Beck was out coached very badly. Especially the 2008 game. NP beats Liberty 23-15 at Liberty then loses to them in the East final by 7. Liberty came out in the game running load option and NP looked lost defensively. NP’s offensive gameplan was a joke. Let’s try and pound the football, if we get stopped we have nothing else except spider 2 banana. C’mon dude, you’re silly.
There are probably 10-15 WPIAL AAAA coaches who are eleven times better than Gordon, Schmidt, or Beck. Those guys are OK coaches with supreme talent. Nothing more!