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Hero Bowl 2018

click on this image to go to the Hero Bowl web page.

By Havenfootball.net Staff

Those of us who love high school football get our late spring football fix by attending Delaware County High School Hero Bowl game which features outstanding senior football players from 25 local high school public and private schools.  Mark the date: May 31, 2018 at Cardinal O’Hara high school for a 7:30 kick-off.  Tickets are only $5 each and proceed benefit the Hero Scholarship Fund providing scholarship aid to children of fallen Police, Firefighters and EMT’s.

If you can’t catch the game in person you can listen to it LIVE right here on havenfootball.net on our audio Internet broadcast!

If you would like to promote your company or cause on our Internet audio broadcast please contact us at havenstatguys@aol.com.  Spots are $50 for 30 seconds and 100% of the fee to given to the  Hero Scholarship Fund.

Legislators say it’s time to dive further into ‘complicated issue’ of PIAA tournament structure

By Mike White

More and more school superintendents have recently called for the PIAA to have separate postseason tournaments for public and Catholic/private/charter schools. Now, two state legislators who sit on a committee that oversees the PIAA believe separate tournaments deserve consideration and the public vs. private issue needs to be looked at further.

Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, and Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Ambridge, met Wednesday morning with New Castle Area Schools superintendent John Sarandrea and attorney Larry Kelly, who are spearheading an effort across the state to have the PIAA possibly create separate tournaments. Critics feel public schools with geographical boundaries are at a competitive disadvantage against private/Catholic/charter schools that have no boundaries to attract students. Over the past three seasons, 69 percent of the PIAA boys and girls basketball champions have been teams from non-boundary schools, and many from the Philadelphia area.

“My view of this rises to the level that we need to start having conversations [on the oversight committee] about this issue and I will be making a request that we have hearings in the future,” Costa said. “I’m moving toward the need to address this issue. What we can do and what anything might look like, I can’t speak to that. But the path we have been going down has really created a competitive imbalance that I don’t think is in the best interest of overall interscholastic athletic activities. It’s a complicated issue.”

(click on this link for the full article)

PIAA needs to change its playoff model, at least in basketball and football

By Rick O’Brien

The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League recently sent an online survey to its member schools to find out their opinion regarding the current PIAA playoff format.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette listed the six questions in the survey. The No. 1 – and most pressing – question: Do you believe schools without geographical boundaries have a competitive advantage over schools with established geographical boundaries?

According to the Post-Gazette, 86 percent of the 108 schools (there are 138 WPIAL schools) that responded to the survey “said they would favor separate tournaments for boundary and non-boundary schools.”

Connor steps down at Carroll, will be Widener’s defensive coordinator

By PAPrepLive

Dan Connor admitted it wasn’t an easy decision.

After two years, the two-time Daily Times Football Player of the Year from Strath Haven is moving on from his head coaching position at Archbishop Carroll. Connor resigned this week to become the defensive coordinator at Widener University.

“This past year I started to get the itch a little bit, to really get back into the college game and pursue that career and see where it takes me,” Connor told the Daily Times Thursday. “I had a great experience at Carroll. I really, really enjoyed my time. But in the back of my mind, it was always there, making the jump back to college especially to be a coordinator at a school like Widener. It was too good of an opportunity to turn down.”

Widener coach Mike Kelly reached out to Connor in December to notify him that the defensive coordinator position was available.

“Coach Kelly, I’ve known him since my time at coaching at West Chester (University) and I’ve had a good relationship with him,” Connor said. “Over winter break, he gave me a call and said the position just opened up and asked me if I was interested. It was somewhat out of the blue. It was nothing that I was aggressively attacking, it more or less just fell on my lap.”

(click on this link for the full story)

Weak PIAA transfer rule works to Conwell-Egan’s advantage

By Matt De George

The usual bite will be in the air Saturday afternoon at West Chester Rustin High School, host of a PIAA Class 3A football semifinal between Middletown and Conwell-Egan.

It won’t have anything to do with the weather or glad tidings, though. It’ll be the all-too familiar scent of controversy, courted year after year by the gaping loopholes pockmarking the PIAA’s governance.

Saturday’s installment will center on Conwell-Egan lineman Tom Burns IV, not because he’s a bonafide blue-chipper or even a potential game-breaker for the Eagles. The symbol of Burns’ presence could exceed the junior’s actual impact on the field.

Burns has generated controversy for the simple trajectory of his season — he’s at his second school, in his second state, in the same season.

He logged a full season as a lineman (and kicker) at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, N.J. He transferred to Conwell-Egan in mid-November, and the laxity of PIAA rules plopped him right into a surprising run to the PIAA semis by the Catholic League side. And for whatever actual influence the lineman has on the final score, his 6-4, 250-pound frame provides a large canvas on which observers can cast their aspersions.

(click on this link for the full story)

Kevin Clancy takes another football coaching milestone in stride

By Rick O’Brien

It was just the way you expected Kevin Clancy to react to a personal milestone.Last Friday night’s PIAA District 1 Class 5A first-round playoff triumph at Bishop Shanahan marked Clancy’s 300th career victory, but he made it clear that he wanted the attention and accolades to go to his players.

“It’s nice, but it wasn’t as exciting as the game or what the kids accomplished,” Clancy said. “The big thing is this team and what it’s done this season. The kids are playing their hearts out, getting better every week.”

Sophomore Emmet Young’s 23-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining lifted the 11th-seeded Panthers to a dramatic 24-21 victory over the No. 6 Eagles in Downingtown.

Clancy, who is widely regarded as one of the area’s classiest coaches, posted his 233rd victory in 27 seasons on Providence Road. Prior to coming to Wallingford, he won 67 games in nine years at Archbishop Carroll.

“Obviously, you strive to win every time you take the field,” he said. “But football, just like any sport, should support the educational goals of the school.

“I want the kids to learn a strong work ethic, a commitment to their teammates, a commitment to the program, and how to fight through adversity. These are skills they can use later in life.”

(click on this link for the full story)

A note on archived articles

By Havenfootball.net Staff

Just a quick note to our readers about the articles that appear on our web page.  Our home page, the one you are viewing now, can only accommodate a fixed amount of “posts”.  As the season gets more involved the articles will appear, move down the page, and then vanish from the home page.  All posts, however, are stored in our archives.  At the bottom right hand side of this home page is our Archives listing.  It is listed by month.  Simply click on the month you believe the article originally appeared and a list of the articles posted will appear along with the first few lines.  Click on the headline and you’ll get the article, photos and appropriate links.  Enjoy!