News and information of interest to the Seven Fields Borough area including Cranberry, Mars and surrounding towns.
As noted before, Ben Roethlisberger will be hosting a kid's football camp in Mars from June 23-25. There are still a few slots left, but if you'd like to win your way in, KDKA is running a contest to win a spot in the camp.
The contest starts today and is open for a week. The camp is for kids aged 7-14.
Mars Area High School will be host to the first annual Old Spice Ben Roethlisberger Football Camp this summer. The camp will run June 23 through June 25, 2008 and is for football players between the ages of 7 and 14.
More from the official website:
Each Camper Receives
• Ben Roethlisberger Camp T-Shirt
• Autographed Camp Team Photo with Ben
• 9 Hours of Expert Instruction
• A Fun and Educational Experience Guaranteed!
Stations and Fundamentals
Each day, the campers will experience various stations, sspecializing in non-contact fundamental skills and the team concept of football. Groups will be small to assure that each camper gets maximum personalized instruction from the top coaches in the Pittsburgh area.
Games and Competition
11 - on - 11 non-contact games and skill contests will be a staple in the Old Spice Ben Roethlisberger Football Camp. Each camper will be placed on a team according to his or her skill level and age. He or she will play a minimum of one game each day in addition to participating in various camp competitions.
Dick's Sporting Goods is going to put up $2.2 million for 11 years to put their name on new Cranberry park that will be built over the next two years.
More here (3rd item down):
The township hopes to begin building the park this spring and have the three football fields ready for the fall season, with baseball and soccer fields available in the spring of 2009.
Today's Steelers/Patriots game went out for almost an entire quarter on Armstrong Cable today. The problem was isolated to Armstrong's KDKA signal. From the KDKA website:
Armstrong Cable had an equipment failure at their head-end which affected KDKA-TV's signal during the Steelers/Patriots game.
The equipment failure took KDKA-TV and other stations off the air for much of the first half of the game.
No other cable systems, satellite providers or our on-air signal were affected.
Armstrong Cable is investigating to find out what happened.
In a statement released today, the cable company now says "equipment failure at the central facility in Zelienople" is to blame for the outage that occurred at 4:40pm.
The company says the outage, which affected about one-third of its channel line-up, lasted about an hour.
All the channels were restored after a technician managed to re-set the equipment that had failed.
A recent Post-Gazette article featured Mars running back Bill Bair. Bair has rushed for more than 2,000 yards this season, which just may be an area record.
A 5-foot-11, 190-pound halfback, Bair finished the regular season with 2,112 yards on 219 attempts, possibly the best regular season in WPIAL history -- at least the best in the past three decades.
The Post-Gazette was the first to keep WPIAL statistical leaders, starting in 1979. Since then, the only running back to gain 2,000 yards in the regular season was Laurel Highlands' Jim Smith, who had 2,026 on 308 carries in 1989. Smith had a 10-game regular season while Mars (8-1) played only nine regular-season games.
Although there are no statistics to prove it, no one is known to have rushed for 2,000 yards in the regular season before Smith.
On top of that, Bair finished the regular season with 204 points, which ties Rochester's Essex Law for the most since 1979.
Seneca Valley 24, Shaler 14 -- Seneca Valley coach Ron Butschle announced earlier in the week he would cross the picket lines to coach the team. The Tribune-Review has more:
After crossing striking teachers' picket lines, Seneca Valley coach Ron Butschle directed his team Friday to its biggest win in five years and secured its first playoff berth since 2002. Three turnovers in the second half led to scores and helped No. 10 Seneca Valley (5-3, 3-1) keep Shaler (6-2, 2-2) scoreless in the second half. Butschle said he didn't use the strike as a rallying point for his team, which has won its past three games. "We didn't talk about the situation at all with the boys," he said. "We told them there are no distractions. The only thing that matters is what happens Friday nights. These kids are just focused on taking care of business. Whether not it was a motivating thing, I don't know." Running back James Daniels scored two touchdowns, and quarterback C.J. Brown had one -- a 33-yard run -- for Seneca Valley. The game was marred by a combined 29 penalties.
Though Seneca Valley teachers will begin their strike today, the football team may still have its coach. Coach Ron Butschle, 10th grade English teacher, has said he'll cross the picket lines to lead his players. From the Post-Gazette:
"I couldn't look myself in the mirror if I didn't coach," Butschle said. "One of the things we talk about constantly with the team is the idea of commitment, and being dedicated to one another. It's kind of like being a family. I feel like I'd be turning my back on those kids if I didn't coach.
"I know this [crossing a picket line] is not going to sit real well with a lot of people. But I'm just going to have to deal with it. I'd rather deal with that, than knowing I was being disloyal to these kids, because I've asked for a lot of loyalty from them."
Seneca Valley has a 4-3 record and is in good shape to qualify for the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs for the first time in Butschle's four years as coach. The Raiders are in third place in the Northern Five Conference. The top four teams are guaranteed a postseason spot.
Butschle has two assistants who are teachers. He said one has decided not to coach if there is a strike, but the other will continue coaching.
There were a few local news items from the weekend that related to the Cranberry area. Here's a quick summary:
Seneca Valley scored late to bring home the state baseball title 9-1 against Souderton. Here's multiple recaps.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Altoona Mirror
Pocono Record
Carlisle Sentinel
Allentown Morning Call
Washington Observer-Reporter
Here is the write-up in the Post-Gazette and the Tribune-Review and information about the title game.
The most recent USA Today High School baseball rankings lists Seneca Valley #6 in the East region. A win this weekend will most likely move them up into the top 25 National rankings.
East1. Seton Hall Prep, West Orange, N.J. (31-1)
2. Calvert Hall, Baltimore (33-0)
3. James Monroe, Bronx, N.Y. (47-1)
4. Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey, N.J. (27-2)
5. Amity, Woodbridge, Conn. (23-0)
6. Seneca Valley, Harmony, Pa. (19-2)
7. Eleanor Roosevelt, Greenbelt, Md. (24-2)
8. Immaculata, Somerville, N.J. (24-2)
9. West Allegheny, Imperial, Pa. (23-1)
10. Portsmouth, R.I. (19-0)
Bill Cowher returned to the area to dedicate the Cowher Fields at the Facilities Retreat Center in Cranberry.
Cowher inaugurated the fields with a mini-camp for about 200 kids who have benefited from the Family Resources program. Family Resources offers programs designed to help prevent child abuse, and the fields have an all-purpose court, football fields and baseball and softball fields.
