January 11-12

Monday morning: my mother had another eye appointment at the health campus, I made my usual rounds while I awaited the call that she was done. In the afternoon we convened at McCaskey for the short bus ride to Conestoga Valley HS, about five miles out of town. This was the start of the league season's second half and the final round of crossover games with Section II. The league is realigning for the '16-17 season, if I were a betting man I would guess (going solely on current enrollment) that CV and Lebanon will be joining our division as it expands from six schools to eight. The night began with the JV squad's first league loss and their second overall, in the varsity game JPM was looking to get back on track after the Friday loss to Hempfield. The mission was accomplished but it wasn't easy against a very game opponent. We led at the quarter by seven but by halftime the advantage was down to two, in the third quarter the Red Tornado was able to open it up and win handily 69-49. Coach Powell used nine players but only four broke the scoring column: Randolph Speller had the big night with 25. Kobe Gantz added 21, Ricky Cruz had 16 and Greg Nunez scored seven. Ran's effort puts him on the threshold of the cherished 1000-point plateau, his career total stands at 989. The club's record improves to 8-1 in the league and 10-3 overall. The three-game week continues on Wednesday at home against Lebanon, on Friday we play Solanco in Quarryville. That's an opportunity for Jenny and her mother to see us play and it's a lot closer than Royersford was for that playoff game back in March. Not much going on Tuesday, there were snow showers forecast for the evening hours. The local newspaper noted that it's been ten years since we've been this far into the winter season without any snow (not that I'm complaining about it at all). The snow squall arrived around 6:30 or so but as expected it amounted to very little, it was all but gone by 7:00. Take care, thanks for reading.