March 10-11

We'll get the bad news out of the way first: basketball season at McCaskey is over. The boys lost to Chester on Saturday afternoon by the count of 86-43. Chester is the defending state champion and they haven't lost a game since December of 2010 so perhaps the result is no surprise, I had just hoped it would be more competitive. At any rate JPM has little to be ashamed of. The final record was 22-8, in twenty years at the helm Coach Powell's personal mark is 372-179. The club won a league championship that few outside of Lancaster expected. The boys advanced to the second round of districts for the first time since 2007 and into the state tournament for the first time since '06. Devonne Pinkard led in total points (424) and average (14.1), Diante Cherry also averaged in double figures at 12.0. Diante reached a milestone against Chester when he scored his 1000th career point, he becomes the eighth player in school history to achieve this and the first since Leontae Turner in 2010. We lose five seniors but we have seven juniors eligible to return next year, with a JV club that went unbeaten and an undefeated ninth-grade team as well the future looks good. We'll see how it comes together next December. As the boys were playing in Norristown on Saturday the ladies and I were on the road to Reading, the Trenton Titans were the opponent. On this night the Royals won their second consecutive home game by the slimmest of margins 2-1. This marked the first time all year the club has won two straight on home ice. Mikael Bedard and newcomer Chris Doyle scored for the Royals, Mark Owuya was the winning goaltender. The club is back at home on Wednesday the 14th as the Florida Everblades will visit. There was little going on Sunday, with the semi-annual clock change overnight and the loss of an hour's sleep that was not a bad thing. I spent a portion of the afternoon getting that hour back. Take care, thanks for reading.