No one knows York Sports like Dick VanOLinda
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If you’ve followed York-Adams football the past decade, you won’t be surprised to learn that Delone Catholic is the winningest team the last 10 seasons.
Beginning with the 2000 season and closing with 2009, the Squires won 89 games and lost just 29 for a sparkling 75.4 winning percentge.
West York is second at 73-39 (65.2 percent). South Western is third at 69-40 (63.3 percent) followed by Littlestown at 68-44 (60.7 percent) and Central at 63-45 (58.3 percent).
New Oxford and York Suburban will be moving up one classification for the 2010 and 2011 football seasons.
Enrollment figures released by the PIAA place New Oxford in Class AAAA and York Suburban in Class AAA. The Colonials were in Class AAA, and the Trojans were in AA the past two seasons.
New Oxford will be the second smallest school in AAAA, and York Suburban will be the fifth smallest school in AAA.
Also, four York-Adams girls’ volleyball teams, West York, Susquehannock, Kennard-Dale and Dover will move from Class AA to Class AAA, and York Suburban’s boys’ cross country team, which won the Class AA state team title earlier this month, will switch from AA to AAA next year.
York Suburban’s boys’ cross country team blew away the field at the District 3 Meet winning the Class AA title by 49 points.
On Saturday, the Trojans’ pack will go after an even bigger prize: a state championship.
York Suburban, which placed fifth last year, will be in the mix for the crown along with defending champion Elk Lake, Holy Redeemer, Quaker Valley and a few others.
Meanwhile, Dallastown’s Chuck Lockwood, who won the York-Adams Run and District 3 Class AAA races, will seek to close his brilliant career with an another outstanding performance. Lockwood will be running on the same Hershey Parkeview course where he captured the district title.
York Catholic’s golf team will seek to write another chapter in its championship season by winning the District 3 title on Tuesday at Briarwood East Golf Course.
But even if the Fighting Irish don’t win district gold medals, the players will still be able to look back fondly on a tremendous year.
Coach Mike Staab’s team won the York-Adams title after finishing the regular season with a perfect 42-0 league mark. They were 55-4 counting exhibition matches.
York Catholic’s talent ran deep. Four of the five starters had regular-season averages under 80, and the other starter, Matt Holmes, hit 80 on the nose.
Mitch Steelman led the team with a 78 average. He was followed by Nate Hess (78.9), Matt Daryman (79.1) and Alan Shalkey (79.7).
“It was a storybook, dream season,” Staab said.
So what did we learn in the first three weeks of the high school football season that we didn’t know back when teams were still going through two-a-day practices?
Not a whole lot.
The Division II and III favorites going into the season, West York and Delone Catholic, have lived up to expectations. The Bulldogs scored three victories over Class AAAA teams, and the Squires went 2-1 with the only setback being a one-point loss to Trinity.
Division I didn’t have an overwhelming favorite at the beginning of the season, and it still doesn’t have one. There are a number of teams with legitimate championship hopes. Two of those teams, York High and Red Lion, will meet on Friday night at Red Lion’s Horn Field.
York Suburban’s boys’ cross country team delivered an impressive showing at the PTXC 1 invitational meet at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster.
The Trojans finished third in a field of 28 teams from throughout Eastern Pennsylvania. York Suburban was the highest finisher among Class AA teams. Conrad Weiser and Governor Mifflin, the first- and second-place teams, both compete in Class AAA.
York Suburban’s girls also did extremely well. The Trojans took sixth behind Pennsbury, West Chester Henderson, Central Bucks West, Manheim Township and Conrad Weiser.
Dallastown got the attention of York-Adams football fans with an impressive 42-7 victory over York Suburban on opening night.
This week, the Wildcats will attempt to do something that no team has accomplished in three years: defeat West York on its home field.
The Bulldogs will take an 18-game home winning streak into Friday night’s (7 p.m. kickoff) contest.
West York graduated 14 seniors from last year’s 13-2, but it appears that the Bulldogs could be very good again this season.
They can run and pass and their swarming defense kept Central out of the end zone last week.
Dallastown is clearly the underdog. Of course, not many people expected the Wildcats to beat the Bulldogs last year, either. And they pulled off a 48-47 victory.
Can Dallastown stun West York two years in a row? It’s possible, but not probable. The Bulldogs’ big-game experience, combined with the home-field advantage, should be the difference.
If you remember when York High’s basketball team played in the Central Penn League, you’ve been following the Bearcats for quite a while.
York High was a charter member of the league which enjoyed a more than 60-season run (1916-1979).
High school basketball historian Jerry Shenk of Lancaster has written a history of the Central Penn which was considered one of the premier leagues in the state.
Shenk’s booklet contains year-by-year standings, names of players and coaches and how the Central Penn champions fared in the District 3 and state playoffs.
A copy of the booklet can be obtained by sending $5 to Shenk at 607 Fairway Drive, Lancaster, Pa., 17603.
Was it the high-tech suits or just a group of highly-talented swimmers?
Or a combination of both?
Whatever the reason, the swimmers at this year’s PIAA State Swimming Championships made major revisions to the record book.
Twenty-two new records were established in four days of competition at Bucknell University.
York Suburban’s Kevin Marsteller was part of the record-setting crew. The Trojans’ senior closed his brilliant career by setting records in the Boys’ Class AA 100-yard butterfly (48.56) and 50-yard freestyle (20.69). Marsteller’s rewrote the 50 mark with his leadoff leg on the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Four records, belonging to York-Adams swimmers, remained intact: Michele King’s marks in the Girls’ Class AAA 50-yard freestyle (22.80) and 100-yard freestyle (49.54). and the York Suburban boys’ Class AA 200-yard medley relay (1:34.63) and 400-yard freestyle relay (3:08.27). King, who set the records in 2005 while swimming for Spring Grove High School, currently swims for the University of Tennessee. Marsteller, Chris Manning, Harry Foster and Ben Appleby were the four York Suburban swimmers who put up the relay marks.
York Suburban’s girls’ cross country team has been in three different divisions the past eight seasons.
But the result has always been the same: the Trojans finish on top of the standings.
Suburban recently sewed up the York-Adams Division II crown. The Trojans won Division II three times, Division I three times and the Eastern Division twice in the last eight seasons.
Meanwhile, Dallastown’s girls’ tennis program is on a nice championship run of its own. The Wildcats captured their seventh consecutive Division I title this season.