Kegger Awards

FROM KEITH GROLLER

The 2011-12 boys basketball season is now officially over in the Lehigh Valley.

Easton's loss to Lower Merion on Saturday afternoon officially dropped the curtain on a year that featured lots of competitive games, surprising twists, unpredictable results … and a real riot.

That's riot as in "Riot Squad," the Freedom High student group of fans that were perhaps the biggest stars of this season.

Encouraged by school officials and coach Joe Stellato to support the team, the "Riot Squad," which also went by the name of "Freedom Family," showed up in large numbers.

They dressed up in costumes, included one student who posed as "Moses" and they developed special skits such as Moses parting the Red Sea.

Most of all, they cheered and cheered loudly and on every play.

They created a special atmosphere at every Freedom game, home and away.

Best of all was that the "Riot Squad" drew a response from student bodies at other schools.

Parkland, Emmaus and Liberty kids, among others, began to show up in large numbers to counteract the noise advantage.

It was a throwback to earlier eras when every game featured large student rooting sections and kids came out in large numbers to cheer on their fellow students.

So, as I begin my "Kegger Awards," my annual tribute to the people, places and things that made the high school boys basketball scene a great place to be over the past 31/2 months, I am going to give my "Kegger of the Year" to Freedom's loud, large and legendary "Riot Squad."

As for the rest of the awards, here we go:

•Best game: Freedom beating Liberty in double-OT in the regular-season finale at Memorial Gym in a riveting game played in front of 2,500 fans — 1,000 of them students, many members of the "Riot Squad."

•Most exciting finish: There were many. All games in the Emmaus-Freedom, Emmaus-Parkland and Freedom-Parkland series seem to come down to the wire. Emmaus holding off Freedom for the LVC title at Allen stands out because a championship was on the line.

•Biggest team disappointment: Emmaus, Freedom and Salisbury share the honor after not making states. At least the Green Hornets and Falcons were able to secure league crowns.

•Most pleasant surprise: Easton somehow outlasting everyone and being the last team standing with a remarkable rally in the district consolation game and two state playoff wins.

•Best performance: Wilson's Gerald Terry against Central Catholic in the District 11 3A title game. The Warriors lost, but Terry's career-high 26 points kept this closer than most people ever expected it would be.

•Best finish by team: Allen didn't have a championship to celebrate this season, but the Canaries did celebrate two wins at the wire. One was at Central Catholic in December when Eric Ayers found R.J. Fletcher with a pass for a game-winning layup. Then in late January, Ayers hit a 3-pointer from near halfcourt to stun Parkland.

•Best finish by player: Freedom's Derike Chiclana delivering a buzzer-beating putback to beat Central Catholic at Rockne Hall. It was his only basket of the game.

•Best moment: Central's Seth Stoudt having a big night to help his team beat Easton on the same day that he attended his grandmother's funeral.

•Best coach to interview: Pocono Mountain West's Brad Pensyl, who is about as brutally honest as they come, always providing a refreshing contrast in a PC-oriented world where everyone's afraid to offend.

•Toughest interviews: With Emmaus' Steve Yoder and Freedom's Joe Stellato after their seasons came to an end.

•Toughest name to spell or pronounce: Liberty's DeShawn Oyeniyi.

•Funniest coach: Bangor's Bron Holland. Like Pensyl, he's full of one-liners. You can tell both Holland and Brad Pensyl learned from the master of the standup coaches, the legendary Bill Pensyl.

•Most well-connected assistant: Toomey Anderson, Central Catholic.

•Most loyal assistants: Bob Freed, Allen; Jim Filipovits, Easton; Mike DelGrosso, Pocono West; Kurt Zellner, Southern Lehigh.

•Assistant I wanted to see, but didn't: Bob Wootsick, Northwestern.

•Head coach I wanted to see, but didn't: Palisades' Mike Viglianti.

•Best player to interview: Allen's D.J. Brown repeats. Just a likeable, well-spoken young man who takes after his classy coach, Doug Snyder. Parkland's Zach Muhr, Freedom's Joe Lococo and Emmaus' Matt Wiseley share the runner-up role.

•Best description: Former RCN commentator Dick Tracy saying Parkland's Daulton Charles and Rob Dvoracek should have been labeled "The Bruise Brothers."

•Best dance: Central's Jean Lee Baez delivering some funky footwork after the Vikings' district title win.

•Best prediction: Whitehall's Nick Melosky telling me, via Twitter, that he thought Pocono Mountain West would beat Parkland.

Best sight: Seeing a healthy Lloyd Irons from Salisbury on a Monday at the Service Electric TV studio after hearing on Sunday that he had been hospitalized with possibly a stroke. As it turned out, it was dehydration.

•Best sight, part II: Seeing Princeton freshman and Nazareth grad Chuck Dibilio back out at games after he suffered a stroke in January.

•Best sight, Part III: Freedom coach Joe Stellato decked out in a John Travolta-esque white suit, part of a Coaches vs. Cancer night celebration.

•Best speech: Chris Herren's presentation at Bangor just before the season began. Hopefully, those kids in attendance paid attention, something Herren didn't do when he heard a similar presentation when he was in college.

•Best milestone: Moravian Academy's classy John Donmoyer reaching the 600-win mark.

•Best new gym: Stroudsburg's 3,200-seat beauty with seats on all sides of the court. Like the spaciousness of the lobby as well.

•Best official: Terry Stoudt for about the 30th straight year. Hey, he's holding a sharp object in his hand when I'm sitting in his barber's chair at 11th and Linden.

•Worst call: The technical that ended the season for Austin Beidelman and Parkland.

•Best service, food category: Whitehall's Mike Yadush at Whitehall, who makes sure I never have to leave my courtside seat to get fed at Zephyrs game. He even remembered the mustard-on the-hot-dogs preference.

•Best service, special delivery: Parkland parent (but always a Husky at heart) Cathy (Schulte) Piston sending a couple of hot dogs to me at courtside, knowing there's only 10 minutes in a halftime and it's a long way from the court to the refreshment stand at Parkland.

•Best service, furniture: Bethlehem School District A.D. Fred Harris rolling out special tables for me at both Freedom and Liberty to make sure my grousing is kept to a minimum.

•Best service, MVC-style: Stroudsburg's Shawn Thornton, who rolled out a table for the print media without hesitation for Easton's PIAA playoff game in his gym last week. Earlier, Thornton was kind enough to track down the CCHS team bus for me and this was after he just lost to the Vikes.

•Best food, refreshment stand: Liberty, although I miss the climb up the stairs to the old gym.

•Best postgame music: Easton's Greg Hess has a great disc, one that includes old songs, including one of my favorites, Billy Joel's "The Ballad of Billy the Kid."

•Best fan: Allentown's Bucky Paraszczak. He showed up at Northern Lehigh for a Class A district doubleheader involving Marian, Pius X and Moravian Academy because he just wanted to see somebody play on a light schedule night.

•Most inspirational moment: Andy "Weave" Weaver's special walk at the Nazareth pep rally.

•Nicest guy: Tie between former Catty coach and current District 11 committee member Dave Troxell, assistant Parkland AD Mike Dobil and Service Electric analyst Jim Wills. If there are better people, I haven't met them.

•Most dental damage: Two times I lost my large front tooth this season and both times, hoagies, and not a disgruntled reader, were the culprit. One was in the press room at Villanova where I went to do a column on Liberty grad Darrun Hilliard and the other time came in the athletic office at Liberty. Root canal is forthcoming.

•Fab five scorekeepers: Glenn Grigg, Allen; Bill Pensyl, Pocono Mt. West; Greg DeStasio, Liberty; Jim Yadush, Northern Lehigh; Stan Swartz, Southern Lehigh.

•Scorekeepers Hall of Famers: Roy Arlotto, Dieruff; Bob Trinkle, CCHS.

Fab five PA announcers: Mike Yadush, Whitehall; Eric Roberts, Parkland; John Schultz, Allen; Pete Nell, Bangor; and Irv Prutzman, Northern Lehigh, although I wonder if Prutzman isn't doing a little tongue-in-cheek shtick when he says, "And at halftime of this exciting Colonial League game, the score is …" I say that because, uh, sometimes the games aren't all that exciting.

•PA announcer Hall of Fame: Punkin Miller, Allen/Parkland.

•Best scorekeeper/play-by-play man: Karl Gilbert, Freedom. Karl went above and beyond this year, stopping to talk long enough to compile well-done pregame notes packages.

•Best timer: Freedom's Tim Fisher, who needs ear plugs while flicking the switches because of the award-winner listed above.

•Best reunion, team: The one I had just last week with members of the 1982 Whitehall state championship team for an upcoming feature on the 30th anniversary of their special season.

•Best Three Stooges routine: The trio of scorekeeper John "Beet" Bowman, timer Rick Garger and announcer Mike Yadush at Whitehall games.

•Best stat man: Allen's Brian Deppe, who helped at the LVC tournament even though his beloved Canaries weren't involved.

Top 10 athletic directors: Almost all are cooperative, but the 10 who helped me the most this year were Allen's Scott Cooperman; Mike Dobil/Jeff Geisel at Parkland; Bethlehem's Fred Harris; Bangor's Mark Farnan; Catty's Tom Moll; Emmaus' Dennis Ramella; Northern Lehigh's Bryan Geist; Easton's Jim Pokrivsak, and Northampton's Mike Schneider.

•Best rookie AD: Kate Miller, Southern Lehigh.

•Toughest decision: Deciding between covering the first round of states or being a presenter at Lehigh County's Hall of Fame ceremony. I opted for the ceremony and even though I got to meet Ben Stiller, I still missed the games.

•Best TV people: The guys and girls behind the cameras and on the crews at Service Electric, RCN and Blue Ridge who put a lot of labor into every broadcast. It's not a matter of just showing up and plugging in. Hours going into these things, both before and after the game.

•Toughest losses: Ralph Keeler, Dave Davis and Denise Pierce. We will miss them all.

•Biggest shock: Finding out that I was going to be inducted into the Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame.

•Bigger shock: Not getting a lot of grief — so far — from people saying I should be the last one ever inducted into the Hall of Fame.

•Best offseason story lines to follow: The coaching openings at Northampton and Pocono Mountain East and to see who returns at Central Catholic.

•Best bets for 2012-13: Salisbury in the Colonial League; Liberty in the LVC and Pocono Mountain West in the MVC. And Mike Schneider will be missed on the District 11 committee.

http://articles.mcall.com/2012-03-19/sports/mc-keith-groller-keggers-column-0317-20120319_1_riot-kegger-awards-lvc-title