Prep Talk

PrepTalkTV: Big night for St. Joe's on court & ice, plus more highlights & a look at hoops' final week

PrepTalkTV was on the court and the ice Thursday night -- and that's where St. Joe's won a pair of big games.

Check out highlights, interviews and analysis as well as coverage of big wins for MST Seneca and Frontier -- plus a lookahead to the season's final week:

Our previous videos from the 2012 basketball season: Jamestown wins in final seconds at Will North (Feb. 3), St. Joe's beats Timon in OT (Jan. 30), St. Joe's beats No. 1 Canisius (Jan. 27), Six stops, including Tim Nobles' 500th win for the Pine Valley girls (Jan. 20), a big win for Williamsville East (our debut on Jan. 17).

Our weekly football episodes from the fall are available here, while you can watch additional videos at Prep Talk Live. 

More sports and seasons are documented in PrepTalkTV episodes are on our video page -- click "PrepTalkTV" there for the archive.

---Keith McShea

(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/highschools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Prep Talk Live from St. Joe's big win over Canisius, along with great #preptalkscores updates

Last week, the PrepTalkTV team was all over Western New York.

Tonight, our focus is on one game, as it should be.

We'll have a live blog going below from the terrific 7 p.m. matchup of top-ranked large school Canisius at No. 3 St. Joe's. 

Tweets to the hashtag #preptalkscores will automatically show up there. So if you are out at one of tonight's many other good matchups, and you're updating that game via Twitter, be sure to include that hashtag. I'll have periodic tweets updating the game at @KeithMcSheaBN, but most of my updating will come in the live blog.

Check out tonight's full schedule on our scoreboard page, and check back throughout the night for updated box scores and highlights.

See you out at the big game, in the chat and on the tweeter. :-)

The PrepTalkTV video is here.

---Keith McShea

(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/highschools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

St. Joe's QB Chad Kelly is state's AA Player of the Year

Add another postseason honor for St. Joe's quarterback Chad Kelly. 

Kelly, who was The Buffalo News Player of the Year and was the only player from New York to participate in last week's Under Armour All-American game, was announced today as the New York State Sportswriters Association Class AA Player of the Year. 

More information and the complete list of all-state teams are at the NYSSWA site.

---Keith McShea

(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/highschools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Review blog from Monsignor Martin Association championship

Review blog from Canisius-Joe's MMA semifinal

PrepTalkTV's Plays of the Weekend for Week Five

Here are the Plays of the Weekend for Week Five of high school football.

Watch video highlights below and vote in the poll:

1. Patterson Off To The Races: Alden's Justin Patterson left defenders in his path as he ran 76 yards on this touchdown run in Alden's 14-13 win over Depew in a battle of unbeatens.

2. Kelly Krunch: It isn't very often Chad Kelly gets sacked, but St. Francis' Joseph Smith delivered the quarterback quite the blow on this play. St. Joe's defeated St. Francis 27-20.

3. Akeel Airborn: St. Francis' Akeel Lynch usually uses his feet to get the ball to the end zone. This time he sent some airmail 35 yards to Jarrett Dolegala for The Red Raiders' first score of the game.

4. Lake Shore Sack Attack: Lake Shore's defense delivered back-to-back- sack's to South Park's quarterback Maurice Howie in the first quarter. Final score: Lake Shore 29, South Park 6.

5. Zach Zips On By: St. Francis' Zachary Wells wiggled through defenders to return this kickoff 78 yards and into the end zone.

poll by twiigs.com

More great plays: Here are the Plays of the Weekend for Week One, Week Two, Week Three, and Week Four.

PrepTalkTV will be on the sidelines again this weekend to catch more exciting plays during Week Five action.

--Lauren Mariacher

 

PrepTalkTV: Week Three

Here's our PrepTalkTV wrapup of Week Three, including a major recap of St. Joe's victory over Canisus and co-starring News Sports Reporter Lauren Mariacher.

Here's our Week Two and Week One episodes.

You can watch more videos from Friday night at Prep Talk Live. 

My bad (chest tap): St. Francis plays Friday night in Week Four, not on Saturday.

Additional PrepTalkTV episodes are on our video page -- click "PrepTalkTV" there for the archive.

---Keith McShea

(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

High school football: Day One from St. Joe's and St. Francis

Just got back from watching St. Joe's and St. Francis on their first day. Wasn't able to see any 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 stuff at either camp, but did get to speak with Joe's quaterback Chad Kelly and St. Francis running back Akeel Lynch.

Lynch and Kelly are regarded as the top two prospects in the area. Over the summer Kelly comitted to play at Clemson and Lynch comitted to Boston College.

Highlights from the summer for Kelly included meeting numerous NFL and college level quaterbacks and being named one of the best QBs in the country at the Elite Eleven camp in Malibu, Calif.

But on Monday Kelly was all about getting his team back to the Monsignor Martin championship game.

"I'm ready to win a championship again, hopefully we can repeat," Kelly said. "St. Francis, they reloaded, Canisius, they reloaded too. It's going to be a great league again this year and hopefully we can get back to another championship. Hopefully we get new chemistry with all these new players and hopefully they are ready to go."

St. Joe's has lost 16 players from last year's squad said heach coach Dennis Gilbert.

As for Lynch, he said he is hoping to be able to play a full 12 games this year. Lynch was forced to sit on the bench for the season's final six weeks because of a ruptured tendon in a finger on his left hand.

One of those six games just happened to be a loss to St. Joe's in the championship game.

"I only played half the season last year. My first goal is to just make it through the season," Lynch said with a laugh. "Then just take it one game at a time. We're trying to go and win every game, that's our goal."

Lynch also said that even though he is comitted to Boston College he still plans on looking at other schools before signing his letter of intent.

St. Francis coach Jerry Smith was pretty optomistic about his teams chances. He said that he thinks he has 22 solid players that he can rely on. As always with high school football though, Smith wondered about his teams depth.

I have to go write a notebook up for tomorrow's paper now, but check back here later. If some stuff doesn't make it into the notebook I might put it up here.

***

More from St. Francis

St. Joe's QB Kelly on ESPN tonight

St. Joe's quarterback Chad Kelly has had a busy -- and impressive -- summer, and you can catch some of what he's been up to tonight on ESPN.

The network has created a line of programming titled "Year of the Quarterback," complete with its own home page (currently Kelly is featured on that page's main photo; he's prominently featured as the fourth QB from the right side).

Tonight's 8 p.m. program focuses on the regional rounds of the Elite 11 -- a skills competition among high school quarterbacks. Next Friday at 8 there is a second program on the Elite 11 which focuses on the final 24-quarterback competition in Malibu, Calif. Kelly, a rising senior who has verbally committed to Clemson and is the nephew of Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame QB Jim Kelly, will also be part of next week's broadcast.

The 2011 season for Kelly -- and all of Western New York -- begins with Monday's first day of practice.

---Keith McShea

(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk

Playing catch (up) with some summer hoops

I had a summer break that started as soon as the 2010-11 season concluded, and now I'm back -- and here to throw some notes out regarding some summer news and notes ... 

* Late in the spring season we told you about the BCANY Hoops Festival set for Johnson City from Aug. 5-7. The event seems like a great one, and it's one that came about due to the unfortunate absence of the Empire State Games this summer. 

The roster has been selected by the coaching staff of head coach Larry Jones (Depew) and assistants Mike Haskell (retired Pioneer) and Mike Berkun (Medaille):

Reggie Agbeko (St. Joe's), Stan Wier (who has transferred back home to East Aurora), Sterling Taplin (Williamsville North), Ryan Whelpley (Walsh), Matt Hart (Canisius), Aaron Frasier (Seneca), Aaron White (Canisius), Jamaal Carter (City Honors), Adam Weir (Canisius), Jordan Williams (Bishop Timon-St. Jude).

Alternates are: Matt McDonald (Canisius), Demone Harris (Timon), Kyle Kobis (Timon), Derrick Sekuterski (Depew).

The team will play Long Island on Friday, Aug 5 at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, Aug. 6, the Buffalo team plays New York City at 9 a.m. and Hudson Valley at noon. Saturday's evening session includes a dunk contest and three-point contest at 4:30 p.m.; a parent clinic on recruiting at 5:30 and a player clinic with college coaches at 6:30.

The event concludes on Sunday, Aug. 7 with the seventh-place game (9 a.m.), fifth-place game (10:30 a.m.), consolation (noon) and championship (1:30 p.m.).

While the event is being run by BCANY, there are some expenses that will need to be covered for teams and players (food, lodging, transportation -- costs mostly taken care of by the ESG during the Games). The squad is seeking sponsorships -- if you are interested in helping the team defray some costs, call Jones at (585) 746-8327.

This team deserves some serious commenting -- that squad is a really good one, a much better collection than I expected for what is a startup event this year. Great talent, great depth, great mixture of schools. Excellent job by the basketball community in getting the word out and credit the coaching staff for what must have been some difficult choices after the tryouts. 

* Speaking of some good hoops competition, this weekend might be the Taste of Buffalo but fans can get a taste of hoops up in Niagara Falls. Some top programs are in action at the Niagara PAL Team Camp at Niagara Falls. Here's the lineup: 

Friday: 5 p.m. -- Main gym, Niagara Falls vs. Canisius; Aux. gym, St. Joe's vs. Niagara-Wheatfield; 6 p.m. -- Batavia vs. Grand Island; Aux. gym, Wilson vs. Holland; 7 p.m. -- Main gym, Jamestown vs. Sweet Home.

Saturday: 9 a.m. -- Main gym, St. Joe's vs. Niagara Falls; Aux. gym, Canisius vs. Jamestown; 10 a.m. -- Main gym, Sweet Home vs. Wilson; Aux. gym, Batavia vs. Niagara-Wheatfield; 11 a.m., Main gym, Grand Island vs. Holland.

Single elimination tournament begins at noon, with championship at 5 p.m.

There is a $2 admission for fans 13 and older.

* I will hopefully hit some summer events of all sorts -- I'll be soon selling raffle tickets to benefit the Tom Borrelli Award and Scholarship Fund. We have some great prizes and it's a great cause as we continue to honor our fallen coworker. 

The third Borrelli Award for boys and the inaugural Borrelli Award for girls will be announced later this month and the winners will receive their trophies at the July 27 Tom Borrelli Golf Tournament at Holland Hills. For those interested in golfing ($100 per person) or donating, please email me at kmcshea@buffnews.com. 

* By the way, the spring All-WNY teams and all-league teams (for baseball, softball and boys and girls lacrosse), which have been published over the last month, have all been collected at the high school home page.

---Keith McShea

(@KeithMcSheaBN on Twitter)

buffalonews.com/high-schools     facebook.com/preptalkblog     twitter.com/bufnewspreptalk