December 1-6

The final month of 2019 began on a Sunday, there was rain in the area but it meant little to me since I spent the day in the quiet of home. The first few days of the week were uneventful, typical of that time between seasons since dek hockey is over and basketball at McCaskey is not yet in full swing. High school winter sports began practice on November 18, the JPM boys had a scrimmage on the road on the 23rd. On Tuesday the club traveled to Wilson HS in suburban Reading for its second scrimmage, I rode along on the bus just for the hell of it. Freddy Ramos is starting his second year as head coach with virtually an all-new support staff. Tim Glackin and Ray Lewis are both taking the year off due to work/family concerns, the only coaching holdover is Cedric Horne who did a lot of the advance scouting in '18-19 but he'll be present at our games more frequently going forward. Jason Yurchak has joined up as a varsity assistant, he and and Freddy have worked together previously. The new junior varsity head coach is Reggie Watson (a former JPM football player in the early 90s) and former 1000-point scorer Devonne Pinkard (JPM class of '13 who played at the University Of Delaware) has returned as JV assistant. The organizational roster lists twenty-four players, twelve each for varsity and JV. The varsity features three returnees, four additions from the '18-19 JV squad, one player from the '17-18 JV club returning from a season's absence and four others entirely new to the program. One of the new players is Lancaster Mennonite transfer Elijah Terry who scored 804 points over three seasons at LM, he comes to McCaskey for his senior year and has an excellent chance to become the twelfth 1000-point scorer in program history. The road begins for real with a varsity-only date in Chester on the 7th, the JV squad makes its season debut on the 11th. Take care, thanks for reading.