October 12

Friday night football at McCaskey, the Red Tornado hosted Hempfield. This was the annual Athletic Hall-Of-Fame induction day, among the honorees in 2018 were longtime basketball coach Steve "Bird" Powell and the 1988 JPM football team. Coach Powell was of course being inducted posthumously, he passed away in June at age 68. His accomplishments are well-documented within this very blog, I had the pleasure of knowing and working with him for thirty years and they truly didn't come much better. His wife Gloria was there to accept his honor, I've known her just as long and it was especially good to see her again. The 1988 football team was the second in school history to complete an undefeated regular season, the 10-0 mark earned them the division title and the program's first-ever district playoff appearance. They beat York in a classic semifinal before losing to the defending champion in the title game, the club's eleven total wins still stand as the program's record for a single season. On a personal level that season was special to me because the fall of 1988 marked my return to JPM and my first season on the PA at the stadium. It was also Homecoming, the halftime introductions of the HOF class and the Homecoming ceremonies were unfortunately the highlight of the evening. The game itself was never really in doubt, JPM was down 28-0 at the half and 37-0 after three by which time the mercy rule was long since in effect. The Red Tornado got on the board in the closing moments on a touchdown pass from Ben Desmarais to Deondre Young but it meant little more than erasing the zero from the scoreboard. The club's record drops to 1-7, after one final road game on the 19th the boys finish at home on the 26th. Take care, thanks for reading.