The third month of 2021 began on a Monday, the first three weeks of it were very slow and unnoteworthy. With the end of basketball season at McCaskey we're back into The Black Hole, the morning errand run is about all that goes on. The baseball team at JPM began practice on the 8th, the first home game is scheduled for Friday the 26th. They were supposed to have a scrimmage at home on the 16th, early in the afternoon a round of rain blew through. I don't know if the scrimmage went on or not, I elected to stay in because standing outside in the dampness and wind didn't appeal to me (at a regular game I would have been upstairs in shelter in the press box). On Thursday the 18th I had an afternoon internet message from former McCaskey basketball star Jerry Johnson. Jerry graduated from JPM in 2001 as the program's all-time leading scorer, a distinction he still holds twenty years later. These days Jerry is the athletic director and head basketball coach at a small charter school here in Lancaster called La Academia. The school has been around since the mid-90s, in 2019 they established a basketball program and they play all their games on the road because their school has no gymnasium. Jerry's squad qualified for district playoffs at the single-A level and won the championship, on Friday the 19th they were playing their first official "home" game in the state tournament. Jerry worked out a deal with Lancaster Catholic HS to serve as host, he called me because he needed a PA announcer. Jerry's assistant coach is former JPM teammate Dustin Salisbery (Class of 2003), Dustin's son Damajh is on the roster along with former McCaskey player Kevin Polite. At the game on Friday night a limited attendance was permitted, Jerry's parents were there along with a number of others with past McCaskey connections so in many ways it felt like The Band was back together. In the game itself La Academia won 55-50 over Phil-Mont Christian Academy (from the northern suburbs of Philadelphia), that puts them into a semifinal matchup on Monday the 22nd back at LCHS. On Saturday Jenny had an afternoon appointment at the hair salon in Quarryville, we had our usual lunch date as well (that's something NOBODY will take away from us no matter what BS they try to pull). Take care, thanks for reading.
