More Mount Carmel Video

This is the fist play of the year for the Red Tornadoes.

Legendary Mount Carmel football coach Joe "Jazz" Diminick was honored Sunday for his 80th birthday and former MCA Big 33 players were on hand on the 50th anniversary of the all-star game. Diminick was also inducted to the NHSACA Hall of Fame for 2007.

The testimonial comes 15 years after Mount Carmel and Diminick parted ways not under the best of circumstances. At the time, Diminick was on top of the Pennsylvania win list with 290. Dave "Whitey" Williams took over for "Jazz" and won three state titles in '94, '96, and '98 to go along with a runner-up finish in '99. "Whitey" shared the same story that he shared with me over a decade ago. He said he had called "Jazz" to get a recommendation for a coaching job. Diminick basically said to put in for the Mount Carmel job and the rest was history. At the time, Williams was the man out at Tamaqua due to a teacher's strike. Tamaqua's program has never recovered.

Around the area scrimmages

I attended the MCA-Blue Mountain Scrimmage on Saturday and liked what I seen from the Red Tornadoes offensively. Marcus Wasilewski looked good coming back from a season ending ankle injury. There is improvement in the line and attitude. Defensively, Mount Carmel will have to improve on outside contain, but overall did a good job against much bigger foe. Look for the line to improve on both sides of the ball under line coach Bob Chesney.

Shamokin on the other hand, was once again the victim of the big play. One of the things to sink Shamokin last years was giving up the big play especially in losses to Mifflinburg and Mount Carmel. The Indian's need to shore this up before the start of the season. Hopefully, I could see them live on Friday at Williamsport.

Southern Colombia doesn't seem to have lost a step. Check Scott Dudinskie's account here. What will make the Tigers so dangerous this season will be the way the ball is distributed. Ted Heitzman and Colby Snyder will be an awesome combination. With Heitzman's touch on the long ball and Snyder's hands, look for Snyder to approach the great receiving season Ardie Kissinger put up in 1994.

In what may be one of the early good news stories, Bill Scott of Selinsgrove is back on the field. Good luck with your continued recovery.

Hat's off to the Black Diamond Sports Network for their successful broadcast of high school football above the Arctic Circle.

Finally, in the very unscientific poll conducted by the Coal Region Voice, 130 fans voted and said Southern Columbia will beat Shamokin Area on September 1st. The vote count favored Southern by a 65% to 35% for Shamokin. In 2005, I think it would have been about 90 to 10 in favor of Southern. They are high school kids and that's why we play the game. Not to blow my horn, but I predicted a Shamokin win in 2005. (The Hillside Coaches can back this claim.) I thought at the time, the Indian back 7 was very good and Heitzman would have difficulty in his first varsity start. However, I didn't account for all the cramping that took a big bite out of Southern late in the game.