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?
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482 Responses
@ Soup — Just curious, was there anybody on that 87 North Hills team that made it to the NFL or had a stellar college career?
One of the best teams I have seen in PA AAAA…87 North Hills(Pittsburgh).They were Ranked #1 in the Country by several National publications,had over 10 Div.1 scholarship kids on that squad (between their soph,jr, sr. class). Their 1st team D was not scored on the entire year…
The score was still very close. Garnet Valley had the ball
coming out at the half and thats when it happened. Im pretty sure it was a one score game, not sure though. The sophomore quarterback was obviously not ready. For them
To have a chance in that game they needed the passing game desperately, which im still worrisome about next year because they will be thin at receiver losing both starters
@Jeff Smith
I hate to say this, but unfortunately I have to say that had Corkery not been injured in that game against CR South, they still would’ve had a difficult time coming back. CR South was a very physical team and clearly the best team Garnet Valley faced that entire year. GV is my top pick to win the Central Leauge as well, but it will be very interresting to see how they stake up against the teams from the Suburban One.
Garnet Valley will be back next year projected to be Central League Champs. 3 out of 4 years champs int the Central League, not bad. I see the Central League being very competitive this year though. Penncrest is getting much better, Harriton will have Moriarty back, and Springfield, Ridley, Marple, and Stoga will all still be in the mix.
I can possibly see Garnet Valley getting to the D-1 Championship this year. In the semis against CR South, their Quarterback Corkery went down in the beginning of the game, forcing them to put a sophomore in. If Corkery were to never go down, i truly believe they would have made that game go right down to the wire. But no excuses, its just my opinion
An ’03 Prep/N.Penn game would have been great. I saw both teams that year. Saw N.Penn at Hershey when the beat up PCC and saw theCatholic League final at Plymouth Whitemarsh when they throttled Cardinal O’hara. That N.Penn team was CB West-esque, a power team with talent. Meanwhile, that Prep team had incredible team speed. They were dynamite. Hard to say who would have won had they played. Prep was ranked 3rd in the nation and I think N.Penn was ranked 8th in the final USA Today rankings. I don’t know. But one thing is for sure. N.Penn
was PIAA state champs whereas the Prep just won their little PCL tournament.
Joe, your last sentence below is correct, and point I was making. In ’03 they rather handily beat an PCC team that was essentially the same team the following ( ’04) year that won going away. Too bad the ’03 Prep team didn’t play in the PIAA for states that year. An ’03 Prep/NP game would have been great.
@Hentz of course they are a great program. Just because they got into the playoffs every year does not mean that one specfific team was great, although there 2003 team was great. But I would not put them in over the other 5 teams. Just my opinion. I would say that the 2003 North Penn Team was very good, not better than Prep in 2003. They might be the next team in there you could make the argument they should be in there in there over the Parkland and Neshaminy Team.
@ Joe:
Big omission Joe for the 2000’s. North Penn has never NOT been in the playoffs since 1999. Going to the state finals twice ( 1 win, 1 lose). Something like an .854 winning percentage. The 2003 team would have to be in the top 5. Quite possibly would have beaten some of the CB West teams of old.
Here are my top 5 from different decades.
1980’s- 83 Berwick, 87 North Hills, 86 Gateway, 88 Berwick, 89 Upper St. Claire.
1990’s- 98 CB West, 92 Berwick, 97 CB West, 93 ACC, 91 CB West.
2000’s- 04 PCC, 03 St. Joe Prep, 11 Arch Bishop Wood, 02 Parkland, 01 Neshaminy
If I had to Pick 5 in order:
1. 98 CB West
2. 04 PCC
3. 92 Berwick
4. 87 North Hills
5. 03 Prep
Who do you guys think were the best 5 PA teams in the past 30 years regardless of classification in order?
@philly boy who did berwick play ? in 1988 they played aliquippa for the aaa title. the quips had 10 div 1 players including pro bound sean gilbert. they were ranked 2nd in the country by usa. berwick dominated the quips 13-0. quips had no first downs in first half and finished with only 2 first downs.
in 1998 they defeated clev. st. ignatius 30-28. they also played and defeated glen mills when they were highly reguarded. in their quest for 6 state titles they had to beat acc, manheim central, and strath haven. nobody comes close to the great run of state titles berwick had and i dont think nobody ever will.
Joe,
In D2, Wallenpaupack used to be AAAA, but they’ve dropped down for the next enrollment cycle. Abington Heights also used to fluctuate between AAA and AAAA in the early and mid 2000s. You are right – Williamsport is the lone AAAA school in District 4. They are kind of in no-mans land, literally smack dab in the middle between State College and Wilkes-Barre.
As for the other districts in AAAA, beginning with D1, keep an eye on North Penn, Garnet Valley, Ridley, Downingtown East and Pennsbury – all have pretty good returning cores to build around, especially Ridley and Garnet Valley. GV has its QB, 2 of 3 top rushers (QB was one of them), 3 OL, 2 DL, 2 LBs and 2 DBs back; Ridley, I’m told, returns RB/LB Shane Dougherty, 4 OL, its TE/DE and 3/4 of its defensive secondary. NP needs a QB, but has a few more pieces returning from its state runner-up team than it did entering the 2011 season, so NP will have fewer holes to fill than it did at this time last year. Pennsbury will be very stout defensively – six of eight returness I know of (and there could be more than eight) are on the defensive side of the ball. But the Falcons need to reload on the OL. DTE returns QB Kyle Lauletta, RB Riley Angeline, WR/KR Jay Harris, a pair of OLs, two DL and LB Nelson Lee Lucas-Murphy (a law firm-esque name and the team’s leading tackler each of the last two seasons). All five teams could legitimately make a case for a preseason ranking in AAAA.
In D11, Easton will have a very good team. Look for another 10-win season (at least) from the Rovers, who are 36-8 over the last three years. I’ve heard rumblings that, supposedly, Nazareth has a good QB coming up through the ranks who will be a freshman in 2012. Dave Mika might be able to elaborate more on the Nazareth athlete a little more than I can.
In D12, La Salle will always be a contender with their coaching. Never, ever discount the Explorers. I thought Roman Catholic might be a legit contender last year, and they have some nice pieces to build around with their QB Michael Keir, WR William Fuller and a young RB (Dimitri Kelly), but, until otherwise decided, La Salle should be considered the favorite.
@Josh Funk is it safe to say it will be usual suspects come playoff time? Easton, Lasalle, and North Penn? I thought that there were more 4A teams in district 2, and District 4 only has one 4A team right?
In D2, there will be only 4 AAAA schools for the 2012-13 enrollment cycle – Hazleton, Wyoming Valley West, Delaware Valley and Scranton.
Hazleton really struggled last year. I am not very well-versed on what the Cougars have returning.
WVW lost a pair of solid players in Eugene Lewis and TaShawn Bunch, both of whom ran for more than 1,200 yards last year and contributed the bulk of the team scoring. It’ll be interesting to see what the Spartans do in terms of replacing that offensive firepower.
Del Val returns its QB Bryan Schor (consecutive 1,400-yard passing seasons, 3,600+ career passing yards), top three rushers (Joe Santiago, Martin Strenk and Schor), TE Connor Decker and at least two OL (Jack Fagan and Tom Everson). Not quite sure what the Warriors have back on defense, but they’ve got a nice nucleus to build around offensively.
Scranton returns, at a minimum, its QB Marlon Waiters, a sophomore RB (Jake McCarthy), OL/DLs Mike Condrad and Brandon Navoczynski, LB Matt Gorton, FB/DL Kyle Czarkowski and WR/DB Karlon Quiller. A nice nucleus to build around from an 8-3 team which rolled past WVW in the 2/4/11 qtrs and fell to Easton in the semis of the 2/4/11. I think that final score of the Easton/Scranton game was 29-20, but I could be mistaken.
who all is in D2?
Parkland opens up against Del Val this year.
The topics below are about football.
Who is going to be good in 4a d2 this year? What about d11? I would assume Easton,Parkland, and Whitehall in D11? Del Val is D2? Prob Lasalle out of district 12? Dave or Josh what are your thoughts on 4A in the east? Lets get back to just talking about football.
You don’t have to have played high school football to know high school football, particularly when it comes to knowing the teams, their players and strengths.
@brian hope Josh Funk would not know what coaches think, since he’s never been involved in football. Josh thanks for the clarification I knew you never played football, considering what most HS coaches say about you
@ Josh Funk,
Got ya, that’s fine just wanted to say the coaches do not want to reveal everything they have going into a season from what I see Pennridge will not necessarily be that big but tough, quick and experienced and should make for an exciting season. They will have to get pass Souderton & North Penn other than that should do very well. As for Berwick I believe they were the best in the day and should have been ranked nationally, they probably had one of the best coaches in the country next to Pettine.
@philllyboy don’t disregard or look down on the anthracite region football, believe me it is/was tough. I saw the Berwick first national championship team at the Silver Bowl and it was one heck of a game. As Joe said, the AAA ball of the time was simply great- deep, talented. Berwick played more than PA teams, they went to and had some great out of state teams in Berwick. Manheim Central, MC, and others gave them all they could handle at times.
@phillyboy they absolutely were great. CB West had unbelieveable teams as well. If you looked at 3A football in this time period, it may have been the best quality football played Berwick, ACC, Manheim Central, Strath Haven. National Rankings are mostly based off reputation, bust consider that Orlando, Kelchner, Powlus, and Robbins. Thats 3 Division 1 QB’s (Orlando played DB in college. That is pretty darn good. They hands down had the best coach in the state.
@pillyboy
i saw thouse berwick teams play and yes they were that good in the mid 90 i saw then take some great valley view teams and just destroy them