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Mike White's high school sports chat: 03.12.19
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Mike White
10:59
Sunny outside. Conference tournaments this week in college basketball. NCAA next week. State playoffs heating up in high school. Special time of the year. I love it. Here we go.
JOHN
10:59
Mike enjoy your insight on high school sports. Do you get to attend PIAA finals ? Unfortunately if the W Pa teams aren't loaded the eastern teams will steam roll the west. What WPIAL teams have the best shot in the finals. thanks
Mike White
11:01
Yes I go to finals regardless every year. Since 1984, I missed two years. So that's 32 out of 34 years. From WPIAL, I would say best shots to get to finals are in girls - 6A and 5A especially. For boys, best shot to get to finals might be in 5A. Or maybe 3A also. Note: I said "get" to finals. I didn't say win it. Although I still say WPIAL girls have better shot to win than boys.
bball
11:01
Are you surprised Petcash isn’t getting more D1 attention? Really like his game.
Mike White
11:02
Yes and no. Brother, Andrew, was kind of in the same boat. I really like Dan Petcash game also. I would think he could play at a lower D-1 school definitely.
Ochotexto
11:02
Any word on who might succeed Coach Crummie at Central Catholic ? Are you hearing any names ?
Mike White
11:03
This was asked last week and will continue to be asked I'm sure. I'm still hearing it's Dan Marino's job if he wants it.
WPIAL fan
11:04
How is Coatesville? Would it be an upset if Butler won?
Mike White
11:06
Coatesville is very good. 27-2. One of top 6A teams in state. Two losses to Abington and Abington Heights. But Coatesville does not appear to be biggest team. One player 6-5 on roster. No one else over 6-2. If you made me choose, I'd say Coatesville would be the pregame favorite. But with Ethan Morton, Butler always has a chance.
Ballerz
11:06
Thoughts on Kennedy Catholic and Pine-Richland @ The Rock tomorrow night? Obviously, I think KC is the heavy favorite with 3 DI guys, but do you think P-R has enough to pull an upset?
Mike White
11:08
Kennedy definite favorite. I will be there. Pine-Richland has a chance because they shoot well. They will to shoot extremely well to have a chance in this one. And they will be shooting against size also. Four of starters for KC are 6-5 or taller. Pine can look at Allderdice and how game was close in fourth quarter against Kennedy. Then again, Fox Chapel was only able to score in 20s against Kennedy. Pine doesn't have size. That will really hurt in this game. And Oscar will probably hurt Pine also.
Ballerz
11:08
Rumor: I was at the Pete for the WPIAL Basketball Championships a few weekends ago. I was sitting in the Lebo section for the Butler/Lebo game Saturday night. There was a group of Lebo fans sitting behind me talking about the Palko situation. A few of them were even teachers at Lebo. They made the comment that Bob Palko was paid over $30,000 to be the head football coach at Lebo? They didn't seem too thrilled about this as I won't repeat some of the comments that were made. Did you hear of any price on the deal Palko was given? $30,000 to be a head high school football coach in western PA seems pretty outrageous. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Mike White
11:10
I do not know what coach Palko's salary is. Not uncommon for coaches are larger WPIAL schools to make more than 10,000 for football. Some schools also might give them another job. They might be in charge of weight room or offseason conditioning and get about 8-10 grand. But to answer question, I don't know his salary.
North side Jim
11:10
Pine vs. KC should be fun if Pine could trade 3's for Oscar's dunks
Mike White
11:10
I know Pine will have some 3's. I know Oscar will have some dunks.
John Steigerwald
11:10
Seems like lots of schools are getting to make the cross state trip earlier than normal this year.  I know the PIAA "re-did" the brackets this year.  However, its a pretty brutal trip for kids to make to go from Wexford/Mars to Altoona/Chambersburg on a school night.
Mike White
11:13
Yes, it is. First round had Pittsburgh teams going to Hershey. But Hershey teams also coming to Pittsburgh. Doesn't seem right. Problem is eastern opinions vs. western opinions. East has more schools in many classes than west. East feels they should have more representation than west, and rightly so. So PIAA has to put some eastern teams in western bracket. What complicated matters this year is PIAA wanted to do everything possible that teams from same district didn't meet in first round. This was common for WPIAL larger classes. TO make that happen, District 3 teams (Harrisburg area) were put in western bracket. Thus, more travel.
I wish we just had true east-west brackets again. Doubt it's going to happen because of pressure from east.
11:15
I've thought of this. Take 6A boys for example. Let the east have more teams than the west. Take maybe four WPIAL teams, one City League team, a District 6 team and two from District 10. That gives you eight. Let the east have 16 teams and play on their side of the bracket. But here's the problem. East teams and coaches will complain they have to play one more game to get to finals, which makes it harder.
John Steigerwald
11:16
Is their any solution to this make the trips more reasonable?
Mike White
11:16
Yes, true east-west brackets. But read above. Likely won't happen.
John Steigerwald
11:16
Class 4A Boys' State Final is destined to be Imhotep vs. Bonner Predergast.  Over/Under 150 fans in the stands from those schools at the Giant Center for that.   Do you have the over or under Mike?
Mike White
11:17
Attendance from most Philly teams is horrendous. Funny thing is, Catholic League championship or even Public title game draw well. They don't care about states, though.
Adam
11:17
Can any WPIAL team make it to the next round of boys' basketball playoffs?
Mike White
11:17
No, absolutely no chance. All WPIAL teams should just not show up for second round games tonight and tomorrow. C'mon, man.
John Steigerwald
11:18
It's a really cool story you did on the Joe David situation with coaching on Saturday.  I'm amazed the PIAA didn't take the iPhone off the JV player filming the game as they threaten others who try to live-stream playoff games.  I know the PIAA has threatened spectators a fee to live stream their events.  Did Lebo ask the PIAA if they were allowed to live-stream?
Mike White
11:19
Supposedly Mt. Lebanon checked. No problem. You know, you are allowed to film games. 6A teams do it on Hudl. Might have done it through there.
Joe Montana
11:19
Ringgold 95 vs New Castle 2014, who wins?
Mike White
11:21
I'll take New Castle 2014. I know RInggold had Horan 6-9 and the great name Czar Walsh. But that New Castle team wasn't bothered by size and had the one and only Malik Hooker. And tough as a bad steak Anthony Richards.
Indian Fan
11:21
What WPIAL basketball teams left do you give the best chance to win PIAA titles this season?
Mike White
11:21
See above. Best chances for titles are 6A, 54 and 4A girls.
WPIAL Guru
11:21
Do you believe Justin Walther is a serious candidate for Central Catholic? He’s a former standout player at Central and he’s turned Serra Catholic around nicely in a short amount of time.
Mike White
11:22
I have no idea if he's interested. You would think he might be. He's done a really nice job at Serra. Helps when you have a 6-8 player with skill, though.
North side Jim
11:22
Farrell and OLSH could be lined up for another PIAA semifinal.  Football wasn't close, any thoughts on hoops game if it happens
Mike White
11:23
Farrell basketball is nowhere near as good as Farrell football. And OLSH basketball might be a little better comparatively than OLSH football.
Greg
11:23
Do you think that a team, comprised of the top 10 basketball players from the WPIAL, would beat Kennedy Catholic?
Mike White
11:23
Good question. Would probably be a good game. One big difference --- Oscar.
P.
11:24
Great article on Coach Blundo last week, it's refreshing to see a coach that cares more about his kids and the image of his school more than wins and losses.
Mike White
11:24
Ralph is one of the best. Perfect match for New Castle. But he's still not the best athlete in his family. That would be his wife, Kate. 12 varsity letters at Avonworth. Three sports - four years.
Indian Fan
11:24
Is Marino a man to man or zone guy?  Motion offense?
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