Around District 11 with Pam and Guy: 2025 Season Review—The Epiblog
Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News, pfn
Guy Smith | December 29, 2025
We started the blog in 2021 as PA Football News redshirt freshmen. Five years later, we graduate as fifth-year seniors. Senior citizens, that is.
After being shut out of most 2020 games due to COVID, with games being canceled or played without spectators, when the 2021 season was about to begin Guy emailed Billy Splain (who we did not know at the time) and asked if there were any restrictions on fan attendance. He told us that all games were “wide open.” Guy told him of our plan to see how many of the District 11 schools we could visit in one year, and Billy said “You should write for me!” After much deliberation, especially since Guy already writes a weekly auto racing column in Area Auto Racing News and has done so for 45 years, we decided it sounded fun and perhaps people would enjoy reading about the view from the stands as an alternative to those on the sidelines.
It has been nothing but fun from the start. As of now, our intent is that this will be our final blog. Five years is a great run, nothing but good from start to finish. But it is time consuming for us to do this blog every week for the last four months of the year, plus Guy writing the racing column 48 weeks annually. We did cut back somewhat this year, as this is our 19th football blog, well down from 34 last season when we wrote weekly about the 8-man semi-pro league as well. In the five years, we’ve written in the neighborhood of 100 of these blogs.
We are live local sports junkies. Racing and football dominate, but we also like to see local college sports of all types. Guy went to over 200 sporting events for the past three years (226, 219, and 215). His 2025 New Year’s Resolution was to cut that number to under 200. Last Monday, we went to see the Lincoln Leadership Lions basketball game. That was event number 199 and thus the season ending live sporting event for us.
For the winter, we are visiting the ten District 11 schools that don’t offer football to see basketball. Lincoln Leadership was the fifth in December. We’ll finish off the other five in January.
We are planning to cut back even more in 2026. It’s a slow process, so next year’s resolution is to cut the total by at least ten. We go to yoga, Pilates, or Tai Chi class six mornings per week, try to do outdoor exercise whenever possible in the early afternoon, then finish off in the gym or pool in late afternoon. It used to be easy to follow that up with an evening event, but it’s getting harder and harder to make those post-game drives home.
Medicare Guy may be 65, but he still has the Wanderlust. The “Around District 11” title was perfect when we were trying to see how many of the 47 schools we could see in one year, and when we were trying to see every one of the teams on both their varsity and JV fields. Now it feels a bit limiting. Pam loves the D11 schools, and will always pick one of them on her weeks to choose. Guy wants to explore more of the teams in District 2 and Pennsylvania college teams that we have never seen at home.
The breakdown of our 199 sporting events for 2025 is thus: 86 races, 65 football games, 31 non-football college events, 8 non-college baseball, 5 high school basketball, one pro hockey, one bicycle track racing. Auto racing tops Guy’s list for the 55th consecutive year.
College sports for this year were football, basketball, swimming, ice hockey lacrosse, indoor track & field, STUNT, equestrian, baseball, softball, tennis, volleyball, soccer, and field hockey. It might be fun to see how many different college sports we could see in a year. Hey! Now that’s an idea for 2027!
Football breakdown was 37 high school varsity, 12 high school JV, 7 college, 7 spring 8-man semi-pro, 2 high school all-star games. We decided not to blog about the spring games this year. We did not make it to a WFA (Women’s Football Alliance) game for the Harrisburg Havoc this year. Nor did we see an arena football game as the Harrisburg Stampede folded. Arena football is not really our thing anyway. Some say Arena Football isn’t really football. We don’t dissent when they say this.
Of the 37 high school varsity games, all but two of the state championship games we attended had District 11 schools or subregion schools playing.
We went to see six high school football stadiums for the first time this year. Biglerville, Exeter, Halifax, Academy of the New Church, Wallenpaupack, and Strath Haven. All were when they were playing District 11 schools. We missed out on a couple others planned for the week that Guy’s herniated disc left him unable to attend. Holy Cross was new for Pam. New for PA colleges were Keystone, King’s, and Penn. Villanova was new for Pam. We also went to Misericordia, but it was a sea of homecoming chaos and we left after not being able to find a parking spot. That’s a thorn to be plucked another day.
In five years of going to well over 50 games per year, Pam has only missed seven locations. All but one were late season November playoff games with District 11 teams playing. Delaware Valley (Whitehall), Governor Mifflin (Pleasant Valley), and Dunmore (Northern Leight) were due to the ASHA National Conference held annually just before Thanksgiving. The lone college missed was Delaware Valley (NCAA National Playoffs), also for ASHA. The other three were all in 2024 when Pam had knee replacement surgery. Those were Berwick (Northwestern Lehigh), Shamokin (Southern Lehigh), and CB West (Southern Lehigh). On the list at the start of the season were Holy Cross (Subregion) and Villanova (NCAA National Playoffs), but that pair were scored this season.
One of Guy’s quirkier goals this year was to go to enough JV games to make the total 50 for the five blog years. Since the JV season lasts ten weeks, that would mean an average of seeing a JV game every week for all five seasons. Mission accomplished.
Games of the Year. 3) Our number three game of the year is an odd choice. Two teams with a combined record of 1-17 squared off in the last game of the season. Mahanoy Area was the visiting team and had one win, barely beating one-win Pine Grove by just two points. The host team, Shenandoah Valley, was trying to avoid going winless for the second straight year and was on a 25-game losing streak. The Blue Devils were on the short end of Pine Grove’s only win, but by just two points. Porous defenses made the offensive players look like first-team all-staters. The game went back and forth from the start, with Mahonoy ending up barely holding off Shendo’s final drive for the 44-43 win.
2) It was the state 4A semifinal. Cardinal O’Hara travelled to D11 country to take on Southern Lehigh at Whitehall on the day after Thanksgiving. Southern Lehigh jumped out to an early 21-0 lead and it looked like it might be a blowout. But the Spartans got a case of fumbleitis, and the turnovers cost them bigly. O’Hara scored 24 unanswered points and looked in control late in the game. Southern Lehigh had time for one final drive. They marched down the field, caught a break on another potential fumble ruled down by contact, converted a pass on fourth and five when a field goal would likely have sent the game into overtime, then scored the winning touchdown with 31 seconds left to advance to the state championship.
1) Southern Lehigh again, this time in the state championship game against the unbeaten Twin Valley Raiders. It was the first state final appearance for either team. Spartan fans got a scare early when Twin Valley scored in just five plays to take the 7-0 lead. Twin Valley had a 14-10 lead in the second quarter, with Southern Lehigh up by just three at halftime. The only difference was Southern Lehigh had a field goal, while Twin Valley’s field goal attempt was blocked. The second half was nearly all Spartans, and they pulled away for a 43-21 victory and their first state championship. The temperature was just 28 degrees with a real feel of 17, but somehow it didn’t seem all that cold as we had a case of Spartan Fever keeping us warm.
Worst Condition Games of the Year. Overall, it was a good year. Of the 58 fall games seen, there were very few that were very cold and very few that were very wet. The only hard rain we sat in was an early season game at Pocono Mountain East, but the rain ended when the first quarter ended, and that game didn’t even make the list. Had we included the spring games in this list, those would have taken two of the three spots as two were played in heavy rain, another in very cold conditions.
3) Southern Lehigh had a couple of JV games canceled but instead of having next year’s varsity players sit at home, they rescheduled with teams from outside the area. That gave us a shot at seeing a new high school stadium. We made the 90 minute-plus drive to Wallingford, near Philadelphia, on the expensive PA Turnpike in Monday afternoon traffic, for the game. There was light rain/mist all afternoon and we confirmed with the Strath Haven AD several times that the game was a go. We sat in the damp/wet conditions for that one and successfully converted the rare Monday opportunity to visit a new stadium.
2) An “outside the box” choice here. We say that because weather conditions were perfect, the stadium was nice. The game was Executive Education @ Biglerville. That’s a good haul of two and a half hours under smooth traffic conditions. As usual, we planned on getting there almost an hour early since it would be a first-time stadium visit. However, getting from “here” to “there” proved a nightmare with Friday rush hour traffic around Harrisburg. Every couple of minutes, the GPS would add time to our estimated arrival. It got so bad that we said if it gets to a point where it says we will arrive after kickoff, we will abort the mission and go to one of the Schuylkill County games instead. Guy drove, Pam checked Skook alternative options. For a brief moment, the arrival time moved past kickoff and we decided to change plans. But before we reached the exit off I-81 for our new game choice, the arrival time moved to a few minutes earlier and we soldiered on. By the time we arrived, parked, bought tickets, and got seated on the visitor side, it was about 30 seconds until kickoff. Yes, we do indeed rock. That traffic was excruciating.
1) Without question, the worst conditions we sat through was for the Eastern Conference Big School Championship game with Governor Mifflin visiting Pocono Mountain West. The game had an early kickoff so we thought it might have better conditions than most of our other choices that day. However, it was cold to begin with and the wind was blowing at near gale force velocity. The flags at the top of the stands were flapping so hard it sounded like a helicopter was hovering overhead. Felt like it too. At one point during the game there were only two kids sitting in the student section, and West was only down three at that time. The fact that West led most of, and to the very end of, the first half but once they lost the lead they basically quit and ended up being mercy ruled 51-14 certainly didn’t help
Special Moments for Us. 3) In mid-August, Guy injured his back. It got worse as the month went on, eventually diagnosed as a herniated disc. Two months of physical therapy and chiropractic adjustments and he is back at full throttle. But Labor Day weekend was horrific. The pain was so bad we cancelled plans to see three new high school football fields (Berks Catholic and Honesdale with D11 teams visiting, and D2 Susquehanna). Also cancelled were racing plans at Selinsgrove and Port Royal Speedways. Determined to “mind over matter the pain,” Guy refused to have a holiday weekend without attending a sporting event. We picked what we determined to be the easiest for us to attend, a Saturday morning Nazareth at Whitehall JV game. In “pain and with a cane,” Guy toughed that one out for a moral victory.
2) Pam grew up in Catasauqua and attended high school there. A tradition at all games is at the end of the third quarter, a cheerleader yells into the stands: “Come one, come all. It’s time for The Horse.” People run down to the track from the stands, hold hands, and do sort of a dance while the band plays “The Horse,” a 1968 instrumental by Cliff Nobles and a staple for many marching bands. When Pam was a Catty student, of course she participated in the ritual, as did almost all the girls. During the past few years, Pam’s knees got worse and worse until she could no longer walk without pain. Last winter, Pam had both knees replaced. One of her goals for this fall was at age 62, to go to a Catty game and do “The Horse” with the kids, for the first time in 45 years. It was a great day for us when that box was successfully checked off.
1) Even a longer time span between Pam’s Horse participation was Guy’s visit to Franklin Field. His Pop took him to see a Philadelphia Eagles game there in 1968, and he had not been there since. Guy’s Pop didn’t like travel or crowds (or Guy sometimes), so the two of them went to very few sporting events (or any events) outside of Allentown. In a three- or four-year span, they went to see the Eagles, Jets (to see Joe Namath), and the Mets (to see Guy’s favorite player Ron Swoboda). But that was basically it forever. When Guy and Pam returned to Franklin Field this year to see the Penn Quakers play Cornell, it really brought back the memories, 57 years later, from an eight-year-old Guy seeing his first NFL game.
D11 Teams of the Year. 3) Easton Red Rovers. The Rovers went 14-1 this season, losing only to the eventual state champion. The 14 wins was the most in school history and the most in Pennsylvania this year in 6A. They won both league and district titles, and defeated Phillipsburg (NJ) on Thanksgiving morning. They are the second winningest team all-time in the state, and they cut the Mount Carmel all-time lead in half this year, now nine games. In the top ten nationally in terms of all-time wins, they got win number 900 this season.
2) The Northwestern Lehigh Tigers lost in the state final to Avonworth, but completed a 15-1 season, tying for the most wins in the state this year in all classifications. Their incredible three-year run including three straight state championship game appearances and their first-ever state title. In three years, they went 46-2. Some schools won’t win 46 games in two decades. They also beat the eventual 4A state champs Southern Lehigh, giving the Spartans their only loss of the season
1) The Southern Lehigh Spartans were a joy to watch during their playoff run and their eventual state championship victory over undefeated Twin Valley. Besides the varsity going 15-1, the JV team was 9-1, and the middle school team was 8-1. Both the latter two losses were to Northwestern Lehigh. But the combined teams record of 32-3 bodes very well for the future of this program going forward.
Events of the Year. 3) It’s hard to top the atmosphere of the Big 33 game. For the past several years held at Cumberland Valley, the game currently pits Team Pennsylvania vs. Team Maryland. There is so much going on besides the actual game, it’s just a great feeling to be a part of it, even as just a fan in the stands. Various Big 33 activities happen year-round. In what is just about the most amazing stat in all of high school football, at least one Big 33 alumnus has been a part of every single NFL Super Bowl since the late Herb Atterley, from Northeast High School in Philadelphia and who played in the 1957 Big 33 game, suited up for the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I in 1967. In 2025, a District 11 player Jahan Dotson helped keep the streak alive going Nazareth to Big 33 and eventually to the Philadelphia Eagles.
2) As the NCAA keeps expanding the college football playoffs, it’s getting easier to locally see an early round national championship tournament home game for a Pennsylvania team. But to host a semifinal game for one of the final four, the team would have to be ranked in the top two in the country. This year, the undefeated Kutztown Golden Bears got the number two seed and brought a D2 national football semifinal to campus. Although they were defeated and ended the season 14-1, it was pretty cool to see the game on the campus where Pam and Guy both attended. We can both see our dorms from the stands.
1) Even though we only attended four of the games this year, the state championship weekend at Cumberland Valley reigns as the event of the year. Hard to top seeing the best of the best square off for six games in three days. And this year there were two of our District 11 teams playing, with a D11 team taking home state gold for the second year in a row.
And that’s a wrap. Can’t sign off without a huge thank you to Billy Splain for letting us be part of the “PA Football News” team. Billy is among the nicest people you could ever be fortunate enough to meet. We’ve made some friends on the staff, like Ryan Scipio who always comes up in the stands to visit; plus Brian, Dan, Jared, Corey, Nittany Pete, etc. Pam and Ryan play a game where Pam sends Ryan a picture of himself on the sidelines and based on the angle of the picture vs. where he is on the sidelines, Ryan must figure out where we are sitting and find us. Kinda like a real life “Where’s Waldo.” Also, can’t forget people like Marlin Fultz, who always “loves” our blog on FB. Don Gillet always sends feedback on the way he sees things, often the opposite of us. There are the coaches at Nativity BVM, who always take the time to welcome us whenever we see them play, home or away. To Guy’s former teaching colleague and Freedom head coach Jason Roeder, who never fails to tell us that he enjoys the blog, even though it has to be obvious to such an exceptional football strategist that we are basically just fans in the stands with little hardcore knowledge of the intricacies of the game. To Panther Valley. We never ask for “press credentials” of schools, preferring to buy our tickets to support the athletic programs. Panther Valley is the one that invited us to be their guest. To GEFA President James Simerson, who always treated us with respect, inviting Guy to be a “celebrity judge” at the GEFA Games, and handing him the MVP trophy for the GEFA All-Star game to not only present, but to also pick the winner. To Kevan Schaeffer and all those who approached us at games and said: “Hey, aren’t you Pam & Guy?” And every one of those people had nice things to say about what we do that is a little bit different than the normal high school football reports. Finally, to Thomas Swank who has read them all, and whose wish is that we reconsider and return for season six next year.
Alas, probably not. If we would return, it would have to be with a different format outside of covering basically the District 11 specific region. Perhaps something like a “Guy & Pam Pennsylvania Game of the Week” that would allow for more flexibility to visit new schools and not be as time consuming to write. Of course, Billy would have to approve the change. So never say never. In any case, if you see us in the stands at games next season, stop by and say hello. We’re all there to support high school athletics and the kids playing the games.
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