FB FRIDAY: Local teams hit the road this weekend
Sep. 21—If you're looking to attend a high school football game somewhere in Schuylkill County this weekend, your choices are limited.
Very limited.
It's "Road Trip Weekend" for the local teams in the Schuylkill/Colonial Football Cooperative, with only two games tonight and two others Saturday slated for inside Schuylkill County.
All total, only three games — Thursday's clash between Minersville and Panther Valley (see Page B3), tonight's Pine Grove at Jim Thorpe game and Saturday night's Marian vs. Nativity showdown — pit Schuylkill League teams against one another, and two of them are in Carbon County.
For the rest of the Schuylkill League schools, it's time to gas up the car and line up a place to grab supper on the way, especially those who have to battle Interstate 78 or Interstate 81 traffic on a Friday.
Let's consider the treks that lie ahead for local teams tonight. Distances are one-way, from school to school, with distances and times using Google maps:
Williams Valley — 75.6 miles (1 hour, 28 minutes) up the Susquehanna River Valley to play District 4 power Loyalsock Township in a non-league game
Tri-Valley — 68.1 miles (1 hour, 18 minutes) to Muhlenberg College in Allentown to battle Executive Education Academy in a non-league game
Pottsville — 58.7 miles (1 hour, 18 minutes) to Hellertown to face Saucon Valley in a Schuylkill/Colonial Gold Division game. There's only seating on one side, so bring a lawn chair to sit atop the bank behind the Crimson Tide bench.
Schuylkill Haven — 57.3 miles (1 hour, 14 minutes) to Kintnersville to play Palisades in a White Division contest. Check out the pirate ship while you're there.
Mahanoy Area — 55.1 miles (1 hour) up Interstate 81 to Taylor in Lackawanna County to take on Riverside in a non-league game
Pine Grove — 52.8 miles (1 hour, 4 minutes) to Jim Thorpe. Sure, it's a matchup of Schuylkill League teams in a Red Division game. It is, however, one of the longest treks in Schuylkill League play, no matter what the sport.
Tamaqua — 40.3 miles (56 minutes) down Route 309 to Allentown to face Salisbury in a Red Division game. Route 309 is an alternative to I-78 for some of the treks listed above, but it's still going to take a while.
Lehighton — Has the shortest trek of any road team, going 21.9 miles (30 minutes) over the mountain to Northwestern Lehigh.
For those wishing to stay close to home, Blue Mountain and North Schuylkill have home games tonight, while Shenandoah Valley entertains Hancock, Maryland, at 1 Saturday afternoon and Marian and Nativity play at 7 Saturday night at North Schuylkill's Ghosh Orthodontics Field at Spartan Stadium.
There are positives to making long road trips to see sporting events, like visiting different places and the variety of places to stop for food and/or beverages along the way. But considering that gas climbed to $3.99 in some places this week, hitting the road tonight to watch one of the area teams listed above could be hard on the wallet.
If you decide to make a road trip tonight, that's great. Our kids and our teams need your support. Enjoy the ride.
Girl kicker gives Miners the boot
Local football teams have had female placekickers in the past, with a Football Friday feature on Pine Grove's Faith Shiffer coming to mind as one of several stories I've done on girl kickers over the years.
Williams Valley's Sage Smeltz took that to a new level last Friday night.
The junior four-sport athlete (football, soccer, basketball, softball) booted a 21-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Vikings to a 31-28 victory over Minersville. The field goal was the first of Smeltz's varsity career. She's gone 13-of-16 in conversion kicks so far this season, and her 16 points rank her among the top specialist scorers in the area.
At the same time, Smeltz has excelled as the goalkeeper for Williams Valley's girls' soccer team, which improved to 8-1 overall and 6-1 in Division II action with two wins this week. Smeltz had five saves in Monday's 3-2 win over Tri-Valley, then stopped all 15 Schuylkill Haven shots in a 3-0 shutout win Wednesday.
Republican Herald correspondent Chuck Curley had a chance to catch up with her after Friday's game to discuss the game-winning field goal.
"When (Williams Valley) called the first timeout, they were looking for me on the sidelines," Smeltz said. "So I was like, 'Oh, OK, so this is it. This is actually happening.'
"There was a lot of pressure, but I'm glad my coach had confidence in me," Smeltz continued. "I'm glad my line was great with blocking. The snap was perfect. Everything was great."
North Schuylkill inducts 4 into Hall of Fame
The North Schuylkill Football Hall of Fame will induct four new members as part of its 47th class during a halftime ceremony at tonight's game with Northern Lehigh.
Aaron Bolinsky, Scotty Grigas and Doug Weist, all 2018 North Schuylkill graduates, will be joined by athletic director and honorary inductee Jim Gross as part of this year's Hall of Fame class.
Bolinsky was a standout center, defensive lineman and long snapper for the Spartans who went on to a stellar career as a long snapper for Syracuse University. Weist was a two-year starter at quarterback for North Schuylkill, often throwing to Grigas, who led the Schuylkill League in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns as a senior and earned second-team All-State honors. Grigas tied the school record for receptions in a season and set the record for receptions in a game with 13.
Weist graduated from Wilkes and is employed as a designer for Alfred Benesch and Company. Grigas graduated with a degree in computer science from Muhlenberg College and is employed by Hearst Corporation, Manhattan, New York, as an optimization manager.
Gross, a 1992 North Schuylkill graduate, earned varsity letters in golf, basketball and baseball, scoring more than 1,000 points in basketball. He's been North Schuylkill's athletic director for the past 17 years, earning a bevy of awards and having been inducted into the Jerry Wolman Northern Anthracite Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
Congratulations to all four men.
Odds and Ends
Jersey Shore football player Max Engle passed away last Friday after collapsing during the Bulldogs' game with Selinsgrove on Sept. 8. A collection of $2,323 was raised during last Friday's Blue Mountain-Pottsville game for Engle's family, a figure that will be matched by the Pottsville Football Mothers Boosters. ... Tri-Valley's game, as listed earlier, is at Muhlenberg College. The GPS address is 2400 Liberty Street, Allentown, PA 18104. Tickets for the game can be purchased online at https://ee-raptors.org/main/ticketing.
Sad farewell
Tonight marks the end of an era for two long-time employees at the Republican Herald that are familiar faces on the high school sports scene.
Sports writer Charlie Roth and photographer Jacqueline Dormer have both accepted voluntary severance offers as part of restructuring by the paper's new owners, with the football game they are covering tonight being their final assignment.
Roth, who hails from Trevorton and went to Line Mountain, began his sportswriting career in 1983 with the Shamokin News-Item and worked two stints there, from 1983-99 and from 2006-16 as the sports editor. He also worked two stints at the Republican Herald, from 2000-06 and 2016 to today. A big dirt track auto racing fan, he's an encyclopedia of sports knowledge, and his stories from the past will be missed in our sports room.
A Pottsville native, Dormer's career mirrors mine as far as length at the Republican, starting in the early 1990s. She's the best photographer I've ever met and the most humble. I was overjoyed when she won a national first-place award from the Associated Press Sports Editors two years ago for a photo she took at the Schuylkill League girls' soccer championship game.
Congratulations Charlie and Jacquie on great careers and good luck in whatever the future holds for you.
We will miss you.
Contact the writer: Lboyer@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6026; @pubsportsboss on Twitter
