No. 1 A trio of East Shore athletes figure strongly in coach Jim Monos' plans this season with the Lebanon Valley College football team. Lower Dauphin grads Josh Borreli (safety) and Joey Miller (wide receiver) are being counted on to help the Little Dutchmen improve on last season’s 6-4 record, while Central Dauphin alum Sean Fakete, a two-time All-MAC selection, will handle the kicking chores for LVC.
No. 2 The Dutchmen, who open the season Sept. 7 at home against Montclair State at 6 p.m., have a large group of East Shore players, including former LD Falcons Joey Scerbo and Zach Smith, Brandon Houser and Jermaine McQueen of Milton Hershey, Trey Manning (Middletown), Matt Smoluk (Palmyra) and Zach Wierman (Central Dauphin). Assistant coaches for LVC are Vince Pantalone, a Hershey grad who formerly coached Lower Dauphin, and Mark Costello, whose wife, Kristi, coaches field hockey at Palmyra.
No. 3 LVC will be counting on East Shore athletes in other fall sports, as well. Senior Sarah Dowhower (Central Dauphin) is a starter for women's soccer coach Lauren Salerno, as is Jim Fisher (Bishop McDevitt) for men's soccer coach Charlie Grimes. In cross country, coach James O'Brien will feature Sarah Black (Bishop McDevitt), Emily Banks (Lower Dauphin) and Hannah Salapa (CD East), in addition to Elliott Bonds (Palmyra).
No. 4 Big things are expected of the Palmyra field hockey team this season, with six seniors headed to collegiate programs next year. Megan Miller (Richmond), Kendall Kreider (LaSalle), Nicole Berger (Delaware), Haley Bova (Central Michigan), Megan Soucy (Slippery Rock) and Kylie Huffman (Slippery Rock) ) are all back for their senior years. Another top player for Palmyra is junior center mid Katie Dembrowski, who is also well known for being part of Palmyra’s 4 x 800 state champion relay team this spring, as well as the Cougars’ 29-1 basketball team that won Mid-Penn and District 3-AAA championships.
No. 5 Palmyra coach Kristi Costello, a two-time NCAA champ at Wake Forest, has supreme confidence in this group. "This is a fun group to coach,” said Costello. “They came into the season very fit. Attendance was high during open gym sessions this summer. They have a lot of experience and really enjoy playing field hockey together. They’re very unselfish.” Joinng Costello’s staff this fall is her sister Kayla Harshman, following her All-American career at Shippensburg University.
No. 6 Golf gets off to a faster start than most sports in the fall. The Mid-Penn Keystone Division boys met for their second match of the season Aug. 27 at Royal Oaks. Hershey's Jake Reilly shot 71 to lead the Trojans to a 393-395 win over Lower Dauphin. Christian Friberg of State College was runner-up at 73, followed by Tyler Maiman of LD at 75 and Kyle Walsh of CD at 76. LD’s Chad Stine, Hershey’s CJ Zachary and CD’s Colin Roschella all shot 77s. Palmyra’s CeCe Richardson, the lone girl in the field, shot an 86.
No. 7 A former Palmyra golfer, Mike Schmidt, Jr. continued his successful summer of amateur play by teaming with Ryan Weaber of Lebanon to win the Lebanon County Better Ball Tournament held Aug. 25 at Iron Valley Golf Course. Schmidt and Weaber won the title on the third playoff hole from Steve Allwein and Chris Gebhard, after both teams finished the tourney at 3-under 141.
No. 8 For Schmidt, it was his second big win of the summer, the other coming earlier in the Lebanon County Amateur at Fairview. He had previously won the Amateur in 2004 at Monroe Valley. Schmidt won his second Amateur title a few days after his grandmother passed away. "That one was for Grandma," he said. "She was born in 1934 and I played the same ball, a Titleist 3, both days. I painted a little 4 next to the 3. That ball's sitting on a nice shelf at home."
No. 9 Another former Palmyra golfer, Andrew Morgan, is also having a good summer. The assistant pro at Pebble Beach in Calif., Morgan is good friends with Los Angeles Dodgers' starter Clayton Kershaw, whose 1.72 ERA as of Aug. 27 was the lowest in the Major Leagues by far. "Andrew's assistant at Pebble Beach and Kershaw are best friends," said Tim Morgan, Andrew's dad who is skipper of the Campbelltown Legion baseball team. "They're both into gospel rock." Kershaw is expected to sign one of the richest contracts in baseball history in the near future.
No. 10 Supporting the Dodgers is nothing new for the Morgans. "When I was a little kid," Tim Morgan said, “my dad and I used to stay up to listen to the Dodgers on the radio until 2 or 3 in the morning." Morgan said his family members routinely went to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida for spring training. A former Dodger star, Kirk Gibson, was in Philadelphia last weekend with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he signed a 1988 World Series program in honor of his historic home run 25 years ago.