February 10-14

Monday night at Lancaster Catholic for the opening night of league playoffs, for JPM it marks the first time since 2016 the program has advanced to any kind of postseason play. I was contacted recently by the local print media's beat reporter, he wondered if I might know the last time McCaskey played in LCHS's gym. When I returned to JPM in 1988 the schools were actually in the same division, that ended the next year when LC moved down due to declining enrollment figures. In the 1996-97 school year McCaskey proper was closed for renovations, at the same time the brand-new McCaskey East building opened and we played our home games in the gym there which could only sit about 500 people at the most. The exception was our annual holiday tournament, the good folks at Lancaster Catholic made their gym available because its seating capacity was more in line with what we would have had at JPM proper. Those two tournament games in December of 1996 were the last time the McCaskey varsity played at LCHS (although JPM played a JV-only date there this season on December 30). On this night at Rossmere the gym was packed, the crowd (unsurprisingly) was about 50-50. The Red Tornado fought to the bitter end but fell 63-57. LC was 19-2 coming in, there are those who might say they don't play the kind of schedule JPM does but a 19-2 record needs to be respected no matter where it is. The officiating was not a huge factor, both teams had calls go for and against them and to try to blame the referees for the result would be unfair. No other excuses can be made, it was simply a case of two good teams going head-to-head and LC came out on top. JPM's season record drops to 15-8, the boys host Chambersburg in the opening round of district playoffs on Tuesday the 18th. The rest of the week was quiet since there was no further evening activity, I had lunch with Jenny on Tuesday and Friday since she had medical appointments both days. The league playoffs continued on Wednesday with the championship game on Friday, as it played out we lost to the team that lost to the team that lost in the title game (LCHS, Warwick and Cedar Crest in that order). Take care, thanks for reading.