New event to get summer hoops season started

FROM THE MORNING CALL

SportsFest basketball is not just a July event anymore.

SportsFest will actually get the summer tournament season started in two weeks — June 3-5 — with an event at Moravian College.

It's called the "SportsFest and Achievers Millennium Showdown" and it's for youth teams (age groups run from third to ninth grade), high school varsity teams and semi-pro and men's adult teams.

Toomey Anderson, the former Parkland High and Muhlenberg College player who served as a Central Catholic boys assistant last year, is also a member of the SportsFest staff.

This new, additional event was his idea and readily accepted by Chris Lakatosh, director of the SportsFest basketball tournament.

"We want to add some things that will perpetuate our tournament throughout the entire year, and Toomey had the idea of getting this started primarily for the youth and adult teams," Lakatosh said.

"Toomey does an extraordinary amount of work for the kids with his AAU program, and basketball in general in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. This is an extension of his work in the community."

Husky pride rekindled

The annual Lehigh Valley Old-Time Athletes and Friends Reunion, set for June 4 this year, will honor Dieruff High's former athletes and coaches at the UAW Picnic Grove across Mack Boulevard from the former Mack headquarters.

The picnic runs from noon to 5 p.m.

All former athletes and coaches over the age of 35 are encouraged to attend, and that's for any school, not just Dieruff.

The mission of the LVOAF is to provide the opportunity to renew old acquaintances from all over the country. Last year Emmaus was the featured school.

The LVOAF is a nonprofit organization that benefits Lehigh County and Bethlehem Special Olympics and the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation, which sponsors the annual Lehigh Valley Scholar-Athlete banquet.

The LVOAF is headed by Ken Cressman, a member of Allen High's Class of 1966.

For more information on tickets, call Dieruff graduate and longtime area football coach Gene Legath at 610-737-4542 or 610-434-9813.

Legath will also be appearing on Saturday morning's "Calling All Sports" radio show, heard 9-11 on AM 1470.

Pocono, NASCAR spotlighted

A new book titled "Pocono: NASCAR's Northern Invasion" figures to be a must-read for any racing fans who make a trip to Long Pond once or twice each summer.

The book, written by former Pocono Record sports editor Joe Miegoc, documents iconic Pocono Raceway and the role it played in spreading NASCAR above the Mason-Dixon Line and conversely, the role NASCAR played in saving Pocono after the Indy cars departed.

The book includes interviews and recollections of major NASCAR and Indy Car legends of the time including Richard Petty, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace, A.J. Foyt, Janet Guthrie, Bill Elliott, Geoff Bodine and others.

Details include how NASCAR creator Bill France helped Pocono survive the USAC-CART Indy car war, how the track rode the coattails of Hall of Fame drivers Petty, David Pearson and Bobby Allison to financial success and how Allison's career ended at Pocono and Tim Richmond's flourished.

The book is especially timely since Pocono is set to observe the 40th anniversary of its first major event, the 1971 Schaefer 500. For more information on this book, go to http://www.Xlibris.com.

Did you know?

Oakmont Tennis Club of Allentown was recently spotlighted in a USTA publication story titled "12 Great Places to Play on Red Clay." Oakmont was one of the places featured and continues to be one of those hidden gems on the local sports scene. Membership is open to the public. For membership information, contact Ed Nissenbaum at ednissen@ptd.net.

DeSales dandies

Kate Steiner and Jen Lococo, from Northampton and Freedom, respectively, were named the winners of the Dr. John Compardo Co-Female Athletes of the Year Award at DeSales University.

Steiner and Lococo led the DeSales softball team to a 26-13 overall record and a second straight ECAC South Region title. They both hit .440 and combined to lead the team in almost every offensive category.

Derek Long, a junior member of the track and field team, won the Male Athlete of the Year award.

Senior Kristin Schultz, a Parkland grad and another member of the softball team, won the first Al Senavitis Service Award.

Schultz was single-handedly responsible for organizing a "Pink Day" for the DeSales softball team in which funds from a raffle, T-shirt sales, and other donations were presented to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
SportsFest got involved with Anderson's one-day Millennium Showcase event at Moravian last October. That was all about players showcasing their individual skills for college coaches.

Discussion has already begun about beginning a one-day special event for high school teams — similar to The Hoop Group event at Parkland — on Martin Luther King Day in January.

Lakatosh said those talks are in a preliminary phase and because schedules are already complete for the 2011-12 season, the earliest that event could take place is in January 2013.

"It would be nice to have a quarterly event that highlights Lehigh Valley basketball, which is so popular and widely supported around here," Lakatosh said. "Toomey's got 20 teams so far and he's looking to add more. This is a first-time event and it's only going to get bigger in the future. We're going to support him in any way we can and do anything to support local basketball."

Lakatosh said plans are proceeding for this year's SportsFest tournament which is set for July 14-17, one week after the Stellar Construction "Catch a Rising Star" Showcase tips off a big month of high school basketball.

He said he has 36 of the 48 teams he's looking for in the varsity boys bracket and has 16 JV squads and 12 "riser division" youth teams set to go.

"We're in great shape considering our tournament is still two months away," Lakatosh said.

The men's adult title game from the June event would be played on the Sunday night of the SportsFest tourney, following the conclusion of the high school tournament. It is expected to be televised by Service Electric.

For more information on the June tourney, call 484-201-6530 or e-mail to: toomeyanderson@gmail.com.

Mauro headed to Austria

Branden Mauro, a 17-year-old junior at Bangor Area High School, is set to become just the second international competitor in the 83-year history of the Twin City Powerlifting Club of Easton.

Mauro will be on Team USA and lifting at the International Powerlifting Federation World Bench Press Championships in Solden, Austria, from May 24-29. He will be entered in the sub-junior (18 and under division) and will compete in the 105-kilogram (231-pound) class.

Mauro has only been competing for two years, but already holds both squat and bench press age-group records in the Anti-Drug Athletes United organization. He is trained by Nick Theodorou, the coach at Twin City, and follows Whitehall resident Mike Kuhns as the club's only world-caliber lifters.

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