Local crew working a state final tonight; plus a coaching departure at Dieruff

FROM KEITH GROLLER

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/

As has been the case all too often in recent years, there will be no local team in State College today or tomorrow for the PIAA basketball finals.

However, the District 11/Lehigh Valley officiating crew of Karen Pammer, Steve Houloose and Johnny Hymans will work the PIAA Class 4A final between District 12 champ Archbishop Carroll and District 7 champ Oakland Catholic. That's a 6 p.m. tip at the Bryce Jordan Center.

In addition, we've learned that the Allentown School District on Thursday night officially approved the release of Steve Middleton as the Huskies girls baketball coach. Middleton was 6-60 in three seasons, including 3-19 in the just completed season.

"I am very disappointed, very hurt and upset by it,'' Middleton, a 1991 Dieruff graduate, said on Friday morning. "I had no warning this was coming.

"We felt we were buillding some enthusiasm and were building a feeder program from third grade on up. I went into the office two weeks ago and the principal [Sue Bocian], just told me that they wanted to go in another direction. They said something about us not having a freshman team. Allen, a much larger school than us, didn't have a freshman team either. We had coaches go into the cafeteria and try to get more kids out, but you can't make kids play sports.

"I tried to tell them [Bocian, assistant principal Patrick McNulty and athletic director Tim Geiger] that you have to walk before you can run. I asked them for more time. We were competitive in a lot of games this past season and won three. I felt we were on the right track with the kids. And in the community we were doing some good things with the youth programs. I don't know what's going to happen with them now. I don't want to give up on those youth programs because we were helping kids. I am just very disappointed and don't think this was fair.''

Middleton also pointed out that there have been other Dieruff coaches who didn't win a game and were not fired.

"I don't like mentioning other coaches, but we've had people go 0-30 and 0-20 and they were not treated this way," Middleton said. "Again, it's very disappointing.''