Dieruff Throws Scare Into Parkland

Dieruff Scares Parkland

Summer league basketball is more relaxed than the winter games.Usually, teams are missing a few guys, and coaches are more apt to experiment. In many ways, that makes the games a lot more fun to watch. They are usually played at Allentown's Cedar Beach, with 20-minute halves in which the clock keeps running. If it rains, the kids descend on one of the area high schools.

That's what happened on Tuesday night. When the skies briefly opened up, the games were sent to Parkland High School. I was there to see my grandson playing for Central Catholic against Freedom High School. But in the court next to me, something very strange was happening, and just about everyone soon had their eyes on the other game.

Parkland High School is the elite basketball team of the Lehigh Valley. But they had their hands full with Dante Rockmore and the Dieruff Huskies. The Trojans were getting beat, at times by as much as eight points.

In the final two minutes of the game, however, Parkland's Trojans erased their deficit and finally took the lead with just three seconds to go. The Trojan who took the bite out of the Huskies is a very physical Jake Bartholmew, who plays with my grandson on the LV Blue Chips 15U AAU team.

Kids from high schools all over the Lehigh Valley will descend on Cedar Beach tonight for summer basketball. If you like basketball, drop in some time. You're in for a treat.

Becahi's Black Fly Bowl

As a former artilleryman in Oklahama, I've been in foxholes full of scorpions. In Louisiana, I've seen jeeps sink all the way to their steering wheels in the mud. In Virginia, in a lonely advance party, I'd listen to the music of coyotes as darkness fell. None of that is as bad as those black flies were yesterday. In addition to making it difficult to see, they crawled right up my legs, biting all the way. They even flew off with the Golden Hawk mascot at one point.

Becahi's Freshman and JV squads hosted the Dieruff Huskies yesterday in a field near the high school. I'm calling it the Black Fly Bowl. It was brutal. I don't know how the kids can play, but play they did. As 8th graders, Becahi was annihilated by Dieuruff. As Freshman, the situation was reversed.

My video is shaky for three reasons - the flies, I was working the chain gang and I suck. But I got three plays. The first is a kickoff return by Becahi's #5, Brandon Clark, for a touchdown. The second is a screen pass to Dat Lambert, #7, and the final play is a punt return by Dat in which he just scoops the ball up and goes.

Dieruff - The Team to Watch

Dieruff's loss to the now 5-0 Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks at J. Birney Crum Stadium on Friday night was no surprise. Nor was the lopsided, 65-21 score.  Simmons sizzled. McDaniel mauled. But they played a team that is getting better, week by week. In fact, two years from now, the Huskies are going to be a threat for the Districts.

I won't beat around the bush. The chief problem at both Allen and Dieruff has been poverty. This has led to a transient population in which families move frequently. That often prevents the most athletically gifted students in the Lehigh Valley from excelling. A few things have stemmed that tide for Dieruff. I can't put my finger on any one thing, but have seen a lot of interest in youth sports in East Allentown over the past ten years. Is it the East Side Youth Center? The Wall to Wall basketball program? The frequent tournaments in which fathers and mothers watched their sons and daughters grow up?

Something good is happening. Instead of seeing a deserted J. Birney Crum stadium on Friday night, there was a bit of a crowd. Lots of proud families. One young man, about 7, told me several times that his brother was playing. I sat near one woman who came because she's an alumnus and is excited at how the kids are doing, even though she knows none of them.

Freshmen football players walked up and down the concourse, proudly wearing their Jerseys. I begged them to go easy on my grandson on Monday, when the Freshman team plays Beca, and they laughed.

You won't find a better football stadium in the Lehigh Valley. You also won't find better food, including funnel cakes.

On the field, I could see #50, Badid Haddad, a linemen who made a few key stops throughout the game. He'll be back next year. He gives it everything and  happens to be pleasant young man off the field. 

Senior Shakur Lester (#6) took a kickoff all the way in for a score, and had several great long runs. So did Juniors Devante Robinson (#20) and Jayden Reyes (#1), who will be back next year.

For whatever reason, Dieruff is developing a core of athletes who grew up and have played in the Lehigh Valley. Tough and gritty, they know and have played the same kids who now play for Parkland, Beca, Central, Freedom and Liberty.

They never quit.

Another amazing phenomenon was the band. A reader observes, "They can't have more than twenty people who play instruments and I noticed two of the big bass drummers marching at halftime were actually football players who took their helmets off and never made it to the locker room! I was sincerely shocked at how loud they were, though; I never would have guessed they could generate that much noise."

I laughed when the Husky mascot pretended to pee on the Golden Hawk.

I did see a fight as I left, but it was broken up by the kids themselves. Another good sign. What I see at that football game is a much more hopeful prognosis for Allentown than the NIZ.

The big game Friday night was Whitehall's upset of Parkland. That's Dieruff in two years.

MaxPreps now rates Becahi #6 among AAA teams, and #15 statewide. Easton is rated #4 among AAAA teams, and #9 statewide.