Category Archives: Dell’s Column

Dell’s column Dec. 10

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Column – Dec. 10th

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Tip off…Dec. 8th and 9th

Most teams got started this weekend. Big tourney wins by Donegal, Crest, TWP, Lancaster Cath., Spot and AC. Congrats to getting off to fantastic starts. Splits include Penn Manor, CV, LMHS, Northern Lebanon, Lebanon, Columbia, PV, Ephrata, and Etown.   Warwick championship game at Octorara was ppd due to weather as was Leb. Catholic’s first game. Make-up dates for these games TBD.

LLhoops was at Lancaster Catholic this weekend – subbing for the veteran scorekeeper Joe Herman on the score-book for Penn Manor. Let’s just say it’s a good thing that we use pencils on the score-book. Lots of scratch but the good thing is when calling in scores to LNP they using typed words. Lancaster Catholic’s admin. (Rich Hinnenkamp @LCHS1022) was great to work with, the crowd was awesome (@CrusaderCrazy), seeing old friends (Tony Arcudi (sp?) and our go-to guy for Lanc. Cath. scores – Micheal Rudy @Rudedogg23) and the teams played hard. I learned a new PIAA rule this weekend (the refs can give a warning to a coach for….???), and we saw it implemented as Penn Manor’s JV Coach Bill Southward (ex head coach of Lancaster Cath.) got a warning this weekend. In typical Bill-speak, “I’ve never been warned before” = priceless! I spent 10 minutes trying to find a math-adding mistake when dealing with the newspaper. Two sets of numbers added up but a third did not—quarters and players totals were right on…the foul totals were off. (Confession – appropriate as doing a Lancaster Catholic game- this score-keeper taught math for 36 years, did not use a calculator, and thinking too much common core and not enough adding in recent years!)

Lanc. Cath. … the Crusaders are coming off an historical year 2016-17 as they won Section 4,the LL, and District 3 titles. They practically lost their entire team…and as history reveals to us – the Crusaders reload. Joe Klazas has led Lancaster Cath for the last 12 years. He earned his 242nd win this weekend. LC beat down Spring Grove in the first game using a 19-1 run the second quarter to put the game away. LC pushed Spring Grove to the baseline and let its big back-line swat shots and contest anything inside. The back-line of Dwayne Caine (6’4” jn), RJ Van Tash (6’2” sn) and David Kamwanga (6’6” soph) would dominate both games over the weekend (69-31 over Spring Grove and 58-48 over Central York) Central York features a perimeter oriented , 3 ball shooting team. The Panthers got down early 19-6 after one and made a very late push but basically the Crusaders rode the emotional wave of the first quarter to claim the championship.

High scorers for the weekend:

vs Spring Grove Johnny Besecker (5’11” jn) 12, Dwayne Cain 11, RJ Van Tash 10

vs C. York David Kamwanga (6’6” soph) 14, Van Tash 14, Miles McCaskey( 5’10” sn )10

Pict by Alison Caine @AYoungCaine

Penn Manor split this weekend. Central York used a three point barrage in the first half (8 of them) and pretty much coasted to the win: 59-35.

The Comets earned a W in second game as PM held Spring Grove to 2 points in the 4th quarter turning a 33-32 deficit into a 42-35 win. Penn Manor pounded the off. glass to keep the game close. Alex Arias, 5’6” jn, provided a huge spark (7 pts all in the second half) as point guard Kevin Roldan, 5’9” jn, was in foul trouble. Spring Grove had a good look at a 3 ball late, but it was short. The Comets finished it out on the line. PM had no players hit double figures.

All with 7 points :

Ty Erisman, 6’ jn, Colin Morrison, 6’4” sn, , Alex Arias, Kevin Roldan

LLhoops.com…Misc.

  • Standings need to be sorted. We might or might not keep it that way.
  • Berks Beat coming soon.
  • Podcast? You like or not? We’ll put up survey on twitter soon.
  • Re-design—takes some time and adjustments on viewers and authors.
  • Andy Herr—starting his All LL hoops tour with wrap on Spot.
  • Scores: our followers help us so much getting the scores up quickly.
  • Links—needs to be added. I find myself looking for info from LNP and other places.
  • Double team? Andy and Bruce Badgley (Berks Beat) will be doing some work   together this year- some periscope and tweeting from the same game- capped off by Andy’s weekly wrap of the game.
  • Picts—we hope to have some game shots in the future
  • Comments sections- must be approved by LLhoops staff. Keep it clean and we’ll probably allow 🙂
  • periscope…excuse us if not real good- yet. Will try to do a clip or 2 each game we cover.
  • Rosters–check out the team pages. We have most. Need some tweaking.

Looking ahead ..

Some key match-ups this week. All games are big for the schools involved but here are a few that caught our eye. Follow @llhoops this week as we will tweet out which games our staff is attending.

Monday: Crest @ M Central, Chester @ McCaskey

Tuesday: Columbia @ Donegal, Lanc Cath @ LS

Wed: TWP @ CD

Thurs: LL openers for Warwick @ PM and Crest @ McCaskey

Friday: ALL LL play except for Crest vs York at Philly

Sat: McCaskey @ Harrisburg

 

Predictions…ok I’m cheating as we have had a weekend to evaluate. Bring on the Bulletin boards (do teams still have B Boards or blogs, twitter sites, huddle and instant gram protected sites? )!

Section 1…The big boys will be beating on each other all season long. Front-runners include Hempfield, TWP, Crest. Sleepers will be McCaskey and Lebanon.

Bulletin Board material: Crest, Hempfield, TWP,  Lebanon, McCaskey..

Section 2…A lot of talent coming back in this section..plus a lot lost.

Bulletin Board material: LS, Spot, Ephrata…sleepers Etown, Donegal

Section 3…LL History leads us to believe LMHS and Lancaster Cath. will battle for the title…Not a bad conclusion.

Bulletin Board material: Lanc. Cath, Columbia, LMHS…sleepers AC, NL, ELCO.

 

Looking way ahead

Thanks to Warwick AD, Ryan Landis, for providing us with the 2018-19 section breakdown.

Here it is…

 

Basically, the LL is getting ready for possible expansion of smaller class teams into the LL. The playoffs are to be determined. So… we will see the return of crossover games in Sec 1 and 2, Sec 3 and 4, and no crossovers for section 5. The re-alignment should help with power points for district placement. For example, Lancaster Cath. would now be playing higher power point teams and not playing 1A teams such as Lebanon Cath. The smaller teams would be playing a much more level playing field. The big boy schools (Section 1 and 2) are mostly 6A classification so would not be hurt too much by cross-over games. We believe there will be more movement in the LL in the future as far as adding teams.

LL play…

Opens for some Thursday..most teams will be opening Friday.

 

Thought of the week:

“You can’t undo the past… all you can do is face what’s ahead. It’s up to you to change. No one else” Jay Williams, ESPN @RealJayWilliams

 

LL trivia: Coach Joe Klazas has over 200 wins in the LL. Besides Coach Powell, McCaskey (over 400), what coach has the most LL victories with his CURRENT team?

 

Check out some High School hoops games this week!

You can contact us at webmaster@llhoops.com

~Dell Jackson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to LLhoops.com

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Welcome to the new and improved LLhoops.com

The LL league has been in existence since 1972. Dell Jackson has been part of the league as a player, coach, a college recruiter, and operator of LLhoops.com. Jackson has been a trial blazer in the digital world as he created and implemented LLhoops.com in 1999. LLhoops has come a long way since carrying a little digital camera and being removed from the sidelines of a game to being recognized as a legitimate media outlet (LL league, District 3, and the PIAA).

We strive to improve our coverage of the LL. Many followers of PA high school hoops have stated to us: “We wish we had a site dedicated to our league”. Pretty cool…. can we say pretty accurate? Can we?… Perhaps.

Let’s check out where we’ve been and where we are right now.

LLhoops has gone thru many mini-changes over the years: new buttons, new sections, many additions (and subtractions), new beats, twitter feeds, digital picts, “hot” buttons, and many others changes/upgrades.

The first total redesign is now up and running. Our core staff (Andy Herr, Kirk Neidermyer and Dell) has been discussing redesign for the last 2 yrs. After many bumps, starts, stops and a lot of dedicated time, you/we are now here! A very special thank you goes out to Kirk N for his relentless determination to “get the job done”.

New:

top drop down menus on ALL the page

Searchable tab for entire site is on the right tab on all pages- try it 🙂

The most recent posts are now on the main page- no more checking for updates.

New welcome logo—thanks to Tom Constanzo-Afire Creative Group

Rotating ads on each page (we really appreciate support)

Contact us: webmaster@llhoops.com (Kirk Neidermyer and Dell will monitor)

“Sortable” standings, schedules, and rosters (to be added soon)

“Archives” section on the right tab, where you can search for key words for ANYTHING on the site. Listing the last few months worth of material but will go back to any years posts.

“About Us”…who we are and where we came from.:)

“Beats” section: includes Dell’s, Andy Herr, N East PA, Jerry Shenk, Delaware Beat, and, we welcome the Berks Beat by Bruce Badgley.

“Archive” menu on the top will include “old LL history”

 

LLhoops has been around since 1999- 2000. I took the time to look at our selection for ALL Section 1 team (llhoops started out covering only Section 1 teams)

Check these names out:

Butter McFadden McCaskey, Jerry Johnson McCaskey, Ryan Butt Hempfield, Ian Daecher Warwick, Kevin and Ryan McHugh TWP (Yea we can do things others can’t such as naming 2 players instead of one J). Second team included Justin Moyer, Darron Pressley, Brandon Kirsch, Perry Patterson, and Eric Carpenter.

 

Since that year, LLhoops posted all section teams every year. We will slowing be posting the old teams under the menu Archive. It’s been a great ride as we watch players/teams/coaches/programs grow from year to year and decade to decade. We can’t mention all the players/teams we have seen, but it is fair to say that LLhoops.com tries to involve/cover all the teams of the LL.

Thanks to all who visit/support Llhoops.com. Check it out- we’re sure you will- and give us some feedback as we get around to covering the LL in 2017-18.

In the end, we are all fans of the players/teams in the LL—isn’t that why you are here? 🙂

~Dell Jackson

 

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Ryan Trupe – Spot

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Coach Trupe is now a veteran in terms of longest tenure in Section 2 of the LL. Some interesting info. that he shares below. Enjoy.

1) Give LLhoops followers a rundown of your playing and coaching career

I was a three year starter at Garden Spot and fortunate enough to be a part of two section title teams while playing there in 1999 and 2000 under coach George Stroup.  I played collegiately at Alvernia College under coach Jack McCloskey.  While at Alvernia I was primarily a back-up point guard, but was lucky enough to win a PAC title my junior year and qualify for the NCAA Div 3 tournament during my sophomore and junior years.    

I got into coaching while I was in college. During the summers I would coach 5th and 6th grade travel teams for players in the Garden Spot area.  Once my college career ended I got an opportunity from coach Leo Ward who offered me a position coaching 8th graders.  The following year I moved up to serve as a varsity assistant for coach Ryan Landis.  After four years of learning as an assistant I was offered the head job and have been here ever since.  

2) You are now the longest serving head coach in LL  Section 2 (9 years?). What are the keys to being a veteran coach?

I’ve been very blessed to be in this position at Garden Spot for the past 9 years, but thanks for making me feel old with this question 😊!  The biggest key for me has been my wife Kelly, who has allowed me to spend a lot of hours away from home to do something I truly love.  I’ve also been fortunate to not have a lot of turnover within my staff.  Coaches like Nate Mussleman, Marshall Usner, Dale Sensenig, and Leo Ward have all coached for me while I have been the head coach.  Having that stability and coaches you can trust really has helped me out.  Besides my staff, the opportunity to learn from a lot of different coaches has been a huge asset.  I truly believe we have a great group of coaches in the LL, who are all willing to share ideas.  As a head coach you are presented with a lot of different situations during the season, which you may not be prepared for, but the coaches in our league have always been very helpful offering advice. 

3) Last year your team went to Florida over the Christmas break. Can you tell us how that came about and what the experience was like to take your team away to the sunshine in Dec?

I got the idea actually from my wife, who was a JV coach for the Owen J. Roberts girls team.  They had taken their program down, so I looked into it and pitched the idea to our program.  From there I got the support from our school administrators and then it was a year full of fundraising to make it happen.  Our coaching staff and booster club did a tremendous job raising the funds to help offset the financial costs that it takes to go on a trip like that. The experience was awesome because some of our players have never been out of the state, never been on a plane, or never been to Disney and the wide world of sports complex.  At that time of the year last season, we were not playing that well, so having the opportunity to get away and enjoy some fun and sun really helped us turn things around and have a strong finish.

4) Can you give us a list of players that were tough for you to defend during g your time at Spot?

A few players that come to mind over the years are Matt Walsh and Taylor Funk from Manheim Central, Jason and Martin Dietrich from Donegal, Sam Light from Northern Lebanon, Kobe Gantz from McCaskey, Dylan Hastings from Solanco, and Evan Horn from Cedar Crest

5) What are your thoughts on the new 5 section setup in the LL for 2018-19?

With any change there will be some pros and cons to it.  I’ve been a part of 4 sections and now 3, so why not give 5 a shot?   

Bonus: What is the most difficult things to do as a head coach?  And the best? 

The most difficult thing to do as a head coach is spending time away from your family.  That and riding in a uncomfortable school bus to all away games.  The best is having the opportunity to work with our student athletes teaching them a sport that has done so much for me.

~dell jackson