A FACE IN THE CROWD – WEEK 3
“Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.”
While many have sung those words from the musical The Fantasticks, I only hear the voice of Ed Ames. It’s like the voice of God, if God sang show tunes. For the semi-literate, like Cousin Gino, who sits across the room perusing the latest copy of Scungilli Sessions, a strange mixture of cookbook and self-help manifesto, the word “callow” means immature or inexperienced. I long to be callow again, rather than callous, which is certainly the best adjective to describe my current attitude toward this situation in which I find myself. This will be a paean to innocence. Gino is looking over my shoulder, so I’ll lean into my erudition. All of my observations this week will center on “callow”. If you’d like, turn up some Ed Ames to put you in the mood!
So, what have we learned?
LESSON 1
Some who dabble in punditry are indeed callow. I have read many extolling the virtues of the Wyoming Valley Conference and the behemoths that dwell there. I don’t believe any of it. I think you could choose at least six programs from the LFC that are convincingly better than any down South. Wyoming Area and Wilkes-Barre stand as the two most significant representatives of the “Junior Circuit”. And let’s throw in Berwick for good measure. I will wager that none of them will beat a top-tier team from Lackawanna County at any time during the season. Gino just placed that wager with Tommy C, his bookie and barber. Tommy C is the tonsorial equivalent of Edward Scissorhands. No nuance. Back to the lesson – there isn’t anyone south of our humble abode above the Legion in Avoca who can hang with the big boys to the north. That’s like advancing the foolish notion that Pizza L’Oven can hang with Revello’s. Absurd.
LESSON 2
This is more of a question, than a lesson. Does rock and roll even exist anymore? Not a music column, I know. But I go to games. I hear what’s played over public address systems during warmups. What happened to AC/DC? Where is Van Halen? Whither the Stones? Hell, I’d be amped up to hear some Blue Oyster Cult right about now. Everything now is either bass with off-kilter lyrics or sad girl music (I believe the term is EMO) that does nothing but make me wonder about my life choices. Gino just turned on “Jailbreak”. We all need a Thin Lizzy fix now and then. Gino is human, after all. Let’s get these stadiums jumping before games.
LESSON 3
There should be no “Pre-Festa” high school football. Back in my callow days, before Taylor Swift, Venmo, and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives”, the high school football calendar began in September. In games that I have personally observed this season (truly “a face in the crowd”), the field is littered with cramping athletes who were not properly heat acclimatized (I hate that word). Well, perhaps if we didn’t start the season in the dog days of August, kids could function at a high level when the air gets a bit crisper in the evening. Let’s have the intelligentsia that currently runs the PIAA try to function in summer temperatures with pads and helmets. I don’t care how much acclimatization (ha!) they do, it gets ugly in the second half. I saw one trainer who looked like he was playing Twister as he worked on three different “crampers” at the same time.
LESSON 4
Scot Wasilchak, Joe Repshis, Greg Dolhon, Dave Piwowarczyk, Steve Jervis, Harry Armstrong, C.J. Curry, and Randy Spencer. What do they have in common? Each man is at the head of a program that has won its first two games in the 2025 season. Each one is either a veteran coach, or hails from a family (see Wasilchak and Curry) that has coaching in its DNA. Experience shows. While it was nice for Ed Ames to sing of his callow days, football, at least in NEPA, favors those men who have been through tough situations, lean years, and the utter devastation of heartbreaking losses. Leadership is a non-negotiable for success in coaching, particularly in an age where young people need motivation and someone to emulate. The gentlemen at the top of this paragraph are certainly leaders who have mastered their craft.
LESSON 5
It’s time for the leading candidates for the inaugural Henzes Award. This list will be tweaked and twisted each week, much like Gino’s scungilli. Below you will find those student-athletes who embody “electrifyingness”, Gino’s word for scintillating athletic ability and the knack for making a big play in a big moment. If you don’t like the list, make up your own award. Don’t cost nothing.
1. COLE WEST NORTH POCONO
2. ISAAC RYON LACKAWANNA TRAIL
3. NICK BRADLEY ABINGTON HEIGHTS
4. TY’MEERE WILKERSON BERWICK
5. JAKE HOWE WILKES-BARRE
And now we move on to this week’s Fistfights. Last week, I went 3-1, improving my record to 5-3. I’ll chalk it up to my callow views on prognostication. See what I did there? Gino won again, still undefeated at 2-0. He took a tough one this weekend, so that streak is tenuous at best. This week’s games are easily the most compelling so far.
FISTFIGHT #5 DALLAS (0-2) at ABINGTON HEIGHTS
While the records are disparate, the talent levels are not. The Comets have not yet been tested like they will be on Saturday afternoon at THE PIT, the most gorgeous venue for high school football in NEPA, and there isn’t a close second. Don’t get me started. Let’s play on turf in an antiseptic environment and remove all of the romance from our home games. Not even the Comet Band’s stirring rendition of High Chapparal can cheer me up now. Both teams can throw but are questionable defensively. Dallas has given up 54 points in two games, a statistic that will activate the saliva glands of Comet quarterback, Nick Bradley. I will take the LFC undefeated team over the winless WVC team in a game that will be decided by one score.
FISTFIGHT #4 LAKELAND (2-0) at RIVERSIDE (2-0)
The Old Ball Coach has a big one on Main Street in Taylor. While it is not a league game (I’m really not sure why – the LFC is not run by Mensa), it does have ramifications down the road in the Class 2A tournament. The Chiefs have big play guys – Naniewicz, Spataro, Pochas, Rosenkrans – and have worn out the scoreboard in their first two contests against Carbondale Area and Holy Cross. But are we going to pick against Harry Armstrong at home in a meaningful game? Hell’s nah!!! The Vikings learned how to win last year and that has carried over in two nailbiters to begin the season. Lakeland will score but I’ll take the Vikings by a touchdown.
FISTFIGHT #3 HONESDALE (1-1) at WALLENPAUPACK (1-1)
And here he is, that paunchy purveyor of prophecy, that husky harbinger of high school football horoscopes, la mia famiglia, Cousin Gino.
Minchia, this kid likes to talk, no? All kinds of big words and what not. In the neighborhood, that’ll get you a slap. He might catch a beating before too long. So, I’m Gino. My cousin told yas a couple two three times already. Now I gotta drive to the freakin’ lake. But alright, these teams are rivals and what have you. So that’s something. And it should be a good game, on account of their records. So, I’m gonna go with this guy who used to coach at the other school. He’ll have his team all jazzed to play. To prove that he still knows his stuff and all. I’ll take the kids from Honesdale, but real close. And they got seafood places up there so it’s scungilli post-game. But if yas see me, pretend yas don’t know me, cuz yas don’t.
Thanks, cuz. I think he just picked Honesdale, but I’m consulting an Italian grammarian to be sure.
FISTFIGHT #2 WILKES-BARRE (1-1) at VALLEY VIEW (2-0)
This is a pride game for the Wolfpack, if for no other reason than to shut me up about the Junior Circuit… I mean the WVC. A loss for Coach Cinti’s Pack here is a gut punch to the entire league. After all, the Knights of the Keyboard who make grandiose statements before any snaps are taken all told me that WBA was the best team in NEPA. Lots of top rankings for them, as far as the eye can see. Well, we’ll see on Friday in the Upper Valley, where lofty pre-season rankings have gone to die. Ask the Jesuit Giants and the group at Crestwood. VV is still unblemished. Toughness wins. Discipline wins. Grit wins. Cougars win. Take that, Junior Circuit.
FISTFIGHT #1 LACKAWANNA TRAIL (2-0) at BERWICK (2-0)
You are looking live at Crispin Field, the home of the Dawgs and the specter of the Big Dawg himself, George Curry, will be stalking the sidelines, whispering into the ear of his grandson, C.J. Sorry, I slipped into my inner Brent Musburger there. In another incredibly intriguing inter-league matchup, the guru of the Delaware Wing-T, Coach Steve Jervis, travels south to meet Berwick, a team that has been revamped, replenished, and rebuilt in the image of the Dawgs of old. I might have to jump in my rusty, brown Ford Fairlane and escape to the land of the power plant to see this one. Trail laid one on Berwick last year to the tune of 35 to nada, but that was up in the country, as we like to say. It’s a tilt that features two of the top dudes on our Henzes Award watch list, Ty’meere Wilkerson of Berwick and Isaac Ryon of Trail. So what gives? Well it sure as shootin’ ain’t the Delaware. That insanity travels, to Berwick or anywhere else you’d like Coach Jervis to go. I like the Lions in a wild one.
So there you have our intrepid speculation for Week 3. And do yourselves a favor, “Try to remember the kind of September / When you were a tender and callow fellow.”
Finally, the Power 5, our ranking of the top 5 teams in District 2, heedless of classification or record.
1. NORTH POCONO (2-0) (4A)
2. LACKAWANNA TRAIL (2-0) (1A)
3. VALLEY VIEW (2-0) (4A)
4. WYOMING AREA (2-0) (3A)
5. ABINGTON HEIGHTS (2-0) (5A)
