Rain is never a welcome addition
to SportsFest weekend.
But if Mother Nature has to intrude, the best time is on Friday.
That's the attitude the guys running the boys basketball tournament had as
they shifted their base of operations from Cedar Beach to nearby
Muhlenberg College to get in the 14 games scheduled on Day 2 of the
four-day tournament.
''You don't want rain on Thursday because that's your opening night,'' said
tourney director Chris Lakatosh. ''You don't want it on Saturday because
that's your busiest day and you don't want it on Sunday because that's when
the biggest games are played. So, actually, this was a blessing in disguise
because we got the rain out of the way and it's going to cool it down for a
beautiful day on Saturday.''
Lakatosh said the transition was smooth to Muhlenberg.
''We thank Ray Ramella [Muhlenberg's facilities manager] for allowing us to
come up here and it went off without a hitch,'' Lakatosh said. ''We didn't
miss a beat.''
But that's not to say all of the teams stayed in stride.
Parkland, fresh off winning the Stellar title with a perfect record, was
beaten by Nazareth of Brooklyn, 40-34, in the night's last game.
''They put some pressure on us and we didn't handle it,'' said Trojans coach
Andy Stephens. ''But that's great for us because it's one of the things we
need to work on.''
Unlike a double-elimination format where a first-round loss can dig an
insurmountable hole, Stephens said that his team will just look to bounce back
against Phoenixville and Gov. Mifflin in the rest of its pool-play games today
and qualify for the final 16 that will fight it out on Sunday.
''Whether we win or lose, I just hope we play better,'' Stephens said. ''We
didn't play well at all. We were flat. It's a big gym and there were few
people here and there was little noise. So, the atmosphere was a little flat.
And we've had a busy week with a lot of games and we're running our own
basketball camp. But all of that is no excuse. We need to get better.''
Nazareth of Brooklyn wasn't even at full strength since two promising
sophomores didn't make it back from their AAU team.
''We graduated 11 seniors and we're young, but we try to play a particular
style,'' said coach Todd Jamison. ''We're not super-talented, but I've got a
bunch of kids who really play hard. We'll play man-to-man, get after you and
see what happens.''
Jamison said he has been coming to Allentown for summer tournaments for years
and always enjoys the experience.
''This is my 17th season of coaching coming up and as long as I'm here, we're
going to keep coming back,'' Jamison said. ''I tell the kids that the teams
from around here are good. Parkland is a 4A school and I knew we were playing
a good team and I'm going to tell our kids that we just beat a good team.
''We play in a tough Catholic League in New York City so we're used to playing
good competition.''
Rising senior Terriell Adams led the Brooklyn team with 12 points.
Salisbury upset Nazareth of Brooklyn 39-31 in the first round of last year's
SportsFest tourney and it looked for a while like the Falcons were going to
pull another first-round surprise.
Salisbury led Emmaus 23-16 at halftime.
But the Green Hornets tightened it up defensively, went to the hole more
aggressively and used a big second half to post a 43-37 victory.
''Defense has been our focus all summer,'' said Green Hornets coach Steve
Yoder. ''Our goal is to hold teams to 45 or less and we've done that every
game except one when we gave up 46. It was a good second half and a good way
to start the weekend.''
Emmaus went 3-2 and made it the final eight of last week's Stellar tournament.
''We came out a lot a little flat in this one,'' Yoder said. ''The thing I
liked the most is that we played poorly at times and still won. That's the
sign of a good team''
The program's freshman team won 22 games last season and Yoder said he's going
with a youth movement. Anthony Palencar, Bobby Campbell, Greg Bobal, Danny
Kinek and Nick Billera were among those standing out against Salisbury.
While Emmaus is young, all teams in new ''Riser Division'' are very young. The
tournament is for 7th and 8th graders and former Parkland and Muhlenberg
standout Toomey Anderson is happy to be running the tourney for the kids.
''It's great to have the younger guys being a part of this spectacle they call
SportsFest,'' Anderson said. ''This is the future. These guys are going on to
play in high school soon and it's good for them to see what it's all about.
We're trying to build something from the bottom up.''
Anderson is assisted by former Faith Christian and East Stroudsburg star Danny
Hargrove and the two of them enthusiastically work with the kids.
''I'm used to playing and coaching, but now I'm directing,'' Anderson said.
''I feel like I'm [
NBA commissioner] David Stern out here. It's a lot of fun.''