Category: Sports

By Hayden Gonzalez –

Trading spaces, trading places, the NBA is getting a mix-up on its teams.

So far this year  in the NBA, there has been several trades that have affected the teams on the East coast.  With the New York knicks acquiring Carmelo Anthony, a former Denver Nugget, there are many teams stacked with superstars. Then, there’s the Miami Heat with Lebron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. The New York Nicks have acquired Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups in the trade with the Denver Nuggets. Also, former Utah Jazz, all-star point guard, Deron Williams was traded to the New Jersey Nets.

With so many new faces on new teams, how do their fans feel about it?  Will people continue to follow their dominant team or will their loyalty to one player make them become fans of a new an improved establishment?

Some Penn Manor NBA fans think teams nowadays need a superstar lineup in order to dominate.

“Its funny how good players can’t win on their own, ” said sophomore Daulton Parmer.  “Michael Jordan didn’t do that, he just wanted to win and he did by himself.”

Parmer also stated that the Los Angeles Lakers are going to be the most effected team in the NBA because, “Lakers are an experienced championship team, and they are all around good.”

The Lakers have what is considered a “stacked” team with Lamar Odom, Kobe Bryant, Derrik Fisher, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum, when he’s  healthy

With the trade of Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks, the East is becoming stacked with players. Although there was speculations of Anthony going to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Denver Nuggets weren’t willing to trade a superstar on a championship team that will have Anthony for the next couple of years. Trading him to the Lakers, that would mean they will be visiting him during in-conference play.

There are some Penn Manor students carefully watching the trades to some of their favorite teams.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for the Nuggets [to trade Anthony] to the Nicks,” said freshman Austin Cline.

With all of these star players stacked on the East and West coast teams the second half of the NBA season will leave various Penn Manor students cheering for joy and others sobbing with losses.

By Corbin Gillichbauer –

Facing expectations and capitalizing.

Coming back from a great year, Penn Manor boys baseball has a lot to live up to. Losing eight out of the nine starters last season, the baseball team has a lot of inexperience and will face some challenges this season.

Jim Zander coaching Penn Manor varsity baseball for 16 years now says he has great expectations from his players to step up and fill the places of those seniors who left.

Coach Zander has led his team to districts seven times in the past eight years coaching.

“Some kids show the desire to play baseball some do not. I expect everyone to be first class in practice and working hard in everything and have pride in their work effort,” said Zander

The high school team started out with 32 kids at morning weight room, now since the season is about to start it has dwindled down to 22 kids, according to Zander.

This shows the dedication to the baseball program with players getting up and lifting before school even starts.

“We are going to be a gap power alley team this year,” Zander predicted.

Hitting the baseball, between two of the outfielders, is a hit in the gap.  Zander expects his players to do it over and over again this season.

“Some guys can hit home runs but some guys can’t, we just have to work on eye on the ball,” said Zander.

Streeter Stuart, the Penn Manor baseball pitching coach for 14 years, is expecting an uneasy season with his pitchers.

“We have nice pitchers but not a single one of them is a varsity pitcher that gets those strike outs deep in the count. The pitchers need to be accurate,” said Stuart.

Zach Buterbaugh the starter right fielder last year for Penn Manor, gives information that provides great wisdom for those playing baseball.

“Not sure on how the team is going to fare, since there is only one to two players that have had the varsity experience. What I think my ace is this year doesn’t even show up for weight room and open gyms,” complained Buterbaugh.

“Don’t worry about how strict the coaches are,  just have fun playing baseball and relax,” added  Buterbaugh.

It sounds like it is going to be a hard season for the Penn Manor baseball boys, but with hard work and determination anything can happen.

By Brandon Bowers –

Matt Duvall, a junior at Penn Manor High School, really wants to make the baseball team this year.

But Duvall is not dedicated to the open gyms and the weight rooms Coach Zander encouraged prospective players to use.

Duvall is hoping his heart and natural ability will make up for the lack of pre-spring training.  He said he is going to give it his all to show the coaches he deserves a spot on the varsity.

Time will tell.  High school tryouts start March 7 and the team roster will be announced March 10.

Can Duvall make it through without going to any of the extra help or early practices and make the team?  It’s going to be a test.  It turns out that fate intervened to decide the whole issue.

“I just have to work all the time when the open gyms are and basketball the other times and I don’t have the energy to go to baseball right from basketball because I’m so tired and want to sleep,” said Duvall.

“Weight room is hard because that starts at 6 in the a.m and I’m not a morning person so my good friend usually comes and wakes me up to go lift,” Duvall said.

Duvall may be the kind of kid that you look at and say he doesn’t look too active or doesn’t play any sports because of how slim he is.

“It’s not like I don’t have the baseball mentality to play and know what I’m doing when I’m in action on the field,” said Duvall.

“I love to lay out and get dirt to keep the ball in the infield to save a big play, I may not be the best at the hitting part, but I can bunt to move the runners over for the next batter to get the runs in,” Duvall said

“I’ve never been good at batting. Some players are good at batting and some are just good at defense but, the best players are good at both and can hit home runs and make big plays in the field. I just perfected one of those skills and that is my defense. I would rather make a diving play in the field to save an inning then hit a home run,” Duvall said.

The varsity baseball team may want to have Duvall to be a part of the team because he may have a big role to play in this year’s season.

“I really want to make the team and have a part because we are going to have a small team and hopefully Coach Zander keeps me in case someone gets hurt or I prove to him I should start in practice,” said Duvall.

“If I don’t make the team, I will work on what I need so I can come out next year and surprise the coaches and make the team next year and hopefully get a scholarship to play in college,” Duvall said.

It may be a hard tryout for this little second, baseman but he is going to show up and give it his all to make the team.

As it turns out, an emergency due to a sudden illness and missing school on the first day of try outs put him on thin ice and is keeping him from trying out.

By Alyssa Byers –

For some, it’s a celebration. For others, it’s an ending.

When a sport’s season comes to an end at Penn Manor, a senior night is held for each individual team to recognize the accomplishments and hard work of its senior members. Senior night is usually held at one of the last home games, meets, or matches. For parents and coaches, it’s a celebration of the effort and success of their kids and the team.

It can even be a celebration for the seniors themselves, but it’s also a reminder that their high school sports careers are coming to an end. For some students, it will be the last time they ever play their sport.

“Senior nights are kind of bittersweet. They are sad because it’s the last time you’ll be with your teammates and the last time you’ll play that sport in high school,” said senior athlete Maddy Hess, “but it’s exciting because it means you’re moving on to bigger and better things.”

Hess plays field hockey, basketball and lacrosse for Penn Manor. She plans to attend Virginia Tech to play lacrosse. According to Hess, her lacrosse senior night will be her saddest and most memorable night, but she’s looking forward to it.

On senior night, each senior and the position they play are individually announced. The achievements of both team and player are listed. Most students feel a sense of pride at moments like these, but for some, it finally hits them.

“I was really excited about it, but it was kind of sad because it was the last time I’d wrestle in that gym,” said senior wrestler Bobby Rehm.

Each senior night has the same basic purpose, but teams often have certain traditions. In past years, the girl’s soccer team has had its junior members write poems for each of the seniors. Some teams celebrate with food.

The girls basketball team introduced its seniors, brought out their parents and presented each member with a rose, a card and a balloon. The celebration ended with cake for everyone.

Wrestling coach Steve Hess sees senior night as a sense of accomplishment and enjoys seeing how his players have grown.

Twelfth grader Hannah Willet has mixed feelings about her senior night.

“It’s like a recognition of all the hard work you’ve done, but then you also know that it’s kind of a goodbye,” said Willet.

Willet isn’t sure if she’s going to play soccer in college, but she knows this past season was the last time she’d play basketball.

It seems that for most students senior night brings excitement, but uneasiness follows close behind. Seniors are hopeful for the future and upset about the conclusion of their high school sports careers all at the same time.

Junior softball player Jenn Hanner knows how hard senior night can be for some, but she likes to see it as a night of recognition.

“You never want your friends to go, but you always want what’s best for them and this is a huge change in their lives, so you want them to feel good about moving forward. It’s sad, but it’s also a pretty proud night,” said Hanner.

“I like the competitiveness, the individuality. It’s just you out there.”

Over the weekend, a total of five Penn Manor wrestlers made it to the District III Triple A Tournament. Of those five, two are moving on to states.

Bobby Rehm, winning first in his weight class, and Evan Singleton, placing third, are set to wrestle next Thursday. Both are excited to move on, especially after all their hard work.

“I was excited to go to Districts because I knew I was going to do really well,” said Singleton.

Rehm won all four of his matches at Districts, battling wrestlers from East Pennsboro, Carlisle, Southwestern and Central Dauphin.

In his final match, Rehm wrestled against Max Good from Southwestern. By the end of the first period, the score was 0-0. Rehm pulled through, winning 8-3.

Rehm, however, almost didn’t make it to the tournament. He suffered a concussion a week before during practice. If he had so much as a headache before his match, he would have been forced to forfeit. He felt good before his match though, he said.

“It was actually super stressful,” said Rehm.

Singleton also placed at districts and won third in the heavy weight class. He won five of his matches and only lost one. He beat Kyle Friend in the semi-finals in overtime. His only loss was to Avery Robertson from Susquehanna Township.

“It was awesome. All of my followers, the people supporting me, came out to watch and they all shook my hand,” Singleton said. “It was a good experience.”

Tyler Funk, Alex Sorce, and James McElroy all made it to Districts but didn’t place. Funk left the tournament winning two out of his four matches. Sorce lost both of his matches and McElroy won one and lost two.

It was McElroy’s first year at districts.

“Districts was tough at my weight, but it was a good experience,” he said.

Coach Steve Hess said his team wrestled well. He also said that Rehm wrestled up to his potential and Singleton had a really good tournament and beat some tough kids.

“They both worked very hard and they both deserved to go,” said Hess.

By Zach Campbell –

Is it hip to injure a hip or out of style to ignore?

Sports injuries happen frequently.  Some major, some minor, but the ones that are serious can affect someone’s life in many different ways.

Dillon Walker, a student at Penn Manor was faced with that fate. Walker learned that he had femoral ace tabular impingement in his left hip.

That means his bone was pushing through the socket and rubbing against the other side.  Walker still isn’t able to dead lift or squat. That’s what he did best. He was strong and he has different world records for power lifting. Now, Walker is starting his rehabilitation and is regaining his strength back and his mobility.

Some young athletes push their limits, unaware of the consequences lurking in the future. Most athletes are very stubborn and don’t stop when they get injured and make it worse, resulting in surgery or therapy and even risking their sports career.

“If I start again the same injury could happen all over again. Then I’d be back to square one,” Walker said.

Now Walker is taking it easy.  Walker was scared going into his surgery because it could have ended his lifting career forever.

He is nervous for his future and doesn’t know how the rest of his lifting career will go because of his current injury.

Walker is working hard to recover his injured hip by going to therapy and taking it easy for a while until he is cleared to lift again.

According to the Penn Manor senior athlete, his recovery has been long and hard considering what he had done.  Walker currently is allowed  to lift whenever his pain goes away, so Walker is making a full recovery.  This is what overworking your body will do. Wear down and end up broken.

By Brandon McCormick & Spencer Barnett –

Behind the back, over the shoulder, between the legs, and diving crease shots were all on display at the National Lacrosse League’s All-Star Game at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, NY.

On Feb. 27, the East topped the West 30-26, in one of the highest scoring games in NLL history.

Some Penn Manor lacrosse players took a keen interest in the game.

“I think [fans] got what they expected,” John Tarvares of the Buffalo Bandits said to a reporter of NLL.com.  “A lot of offense and no defense. I feel bad for the goalies.”

Tarvares hit a NLL milestone this year. He holds the record for All-Star Game appearances with nine.

“John Tarvares deserved the MVP for the game,” said Alex Cummins, a junior on the Penn Manor lacrosse team.

The East came out strong winning the first face-off, but the West immediately took the lead scoring the first goal with a frozen rope pass from Brett Mydske to Jeff Shattler, only 33 seconds into the game.

The East responded 84 seconds later with a goal scored by Cody Jamieson.

Midway through the first quarter, Andrew Watt, representing the Minnesota Swarm, deflected a shot from Washington Stealth’s Luke Wiles, putting it right past the East goalie Brandon Miller, of the Philadelphia Wings, to put the West up 4-2.

The scoring was an even exchange, yet the East was in charge at the end of the first quarter with the score 8-6.

Tarvares scored his second goal of the day for the East just 16 seconds into the second quarter.

After a series of acrobatic shots and  unbelievable passes, the first half closed with a stalemate score of 12-12.

“One thing I loved about the game was all the behind-the-back shots and tricky moves,” Cummins said. “I was rooting for the East to win.”

John Grant, team captain of the West and captain for the Colorado Mammoth, got his turn, putting in three goals in the third quarter alone.

“It was great to be here,” said Grant to a NLL.com reporter. “I was excited to be asked to play. We came and gave it our all.”

Another late scorer, Ryan Benesch of the Minnesota Swarm, put in his first goal late in the third quarter.

Both the East and West put in eight goals a piece in the third quarter, to keep the game going in to the last quarter tied 20-20.

As the fourth quarter rolled around, things started to get serious with both sides. With the score 25-26, the East scored five unanswered goals. Brett Bucktooth (3), Mark Steenhuls (5), and Josh Sanderson (4) all added goals in the last five minutes of the game to give the East a victory by a score of 30-26.

“I’m so pumped for next year’s game,” said Cummins. “It’s gonna be great.”

East goalies Brandon Miller (Philadelphia Wings) and Anthony Cosmo (Boston Blazers) totaled their saves to 55, while the West goalies, Chris Levis (Colorado Mammoth) and Nick Patterson (Minnestoa Swarm), ended the night with a total of 51 saves.

Shawn Evans (Rochester Knighthawks) was named MVP of the night, totaling his stats to four goals and eight assists.

“It was a good, hard game out there tonight,” said Evans. “I’m just honored to play with the guys that played on my team; Josh Sanderson, Colin Doyle, John Tavares, and the veterans on the team. It was great.”

By Lauren Richards –

Imagine you’re on the girls basketball team.

It’s game night, you’re playing your rival. You’re having a great game and you end up scoring the game-winning basket, but the crowd doesn’t go wild.

For a lot of teenagers, basketball games are a regular occurrence on a Friday night.

Boys basketball games, that is.

While students fill the bleachers to cheer on boys basketball, the girls basketball team has to play with a crowd of mostly parents. Girls basketball takes a backseat to boys basketball in high school sports and the girls basketball team has their opinions about this. There isn’t a definite explanation as to why, but it’s apparent that, to students, boys basketball trumps girls.

Devin Yecker, a senior on the girls varsity basketball team, said she’s bothered by the lack of attention her team gets.

“They announce guys away games and not girls home games,” Yecker said,  “I hate it.”

There’s never a big crowd at girls basketball games, not even close to the amount at boys. The team agreed that they usually have about 25-30 spectators.

“We usually only have parents come,” said Hannah Willett of the varsity girls basketball team.

Willett said that the lack of fans doesn’t bother her.

“I can understand why people don’t come to our games, it’s a little boring to watch,” Willett said.

Abby Newport, senior on the girls varsity team, agrees with her teammates that the school should show more support for the girls teams.

“It bothers me a lot,” Newport said.

Student sections are notorious for making the game more intense, pumping players up and motivating teams to play harder. Most high school athletes will tell you that large crowds containing student sections help them play better, the girls basketball team agrees with this even though they never get the luxury of that kind of support.

“We play well when people come,” Willett said.

Sarah Nagy agreed with her teammate, “I think we’d play better if more people came, it’d be more intense.”

Girls basketball may not be as popular to watch as boys, but the girls team feels they should still be acknowledged. They work hard and play hard, even with the lack of fans.

“Penn Manor girls basketball is amazing,” Nagy said, “I think we’re better than the recognition we get.”

By David Mohimani –

The 2011 boys rec league championship started fast with an opening three by sophomore Travis Wells and it ended nearly just as fast.

The Magic led by seniors Mark Curtin and Connor Rowe jumped out to a 15-0 lead over the Sixers.

The Magic played a suffocating two-three zone that led to Sixer turnovers and easy transition points. It was clear that the Magic had gone over the scouting report, they were able to hold prolific Rec league scorer senior Garret Young to one point in the first half.

“We just tried to tire him (Young) out, I mean Dudley Rowe came up with a great game plan, the harder he works in the back court the harder it is for him to score.”said Mark Curtin.

The Sixers significant size advantage turned to disadvantage quickly when their lack of foot speed and poor stamina was exposed by the smaller, quicker Magic.

After getting out to the early lead, the Magic never relented, keeping a consistent double-digit lead that was never truly threatened.

Curtin, while a very adequate and adept scorer, chose to play the role of distributor in the championship game.

“I mean Steve Nash is one of my idols,  I was just trying to distribute,” said Curtin.

The Sixers were clearly frustrated by the aggressive zone and never seemed in rhythm offensively. They were held to just a measly 15 points in the first half and 35 points in total.

Some doubted that the Magic were a championship caliber team.

Rowe said that before the game Young called him out saying that he was not a “scorer.”

Clearly they were not affected by the critics.