Now that another high school football season is behind us, time to look back and give our a few thoughts on the 2007 campaign. Perhaps the best and the "not so best" of the season. Nothing scientific or accurate about it....just some thoughts on the many games we covered during the last three months.

Best Player: Akeem Satterfield of Cathedral Prep. He was a stud of a running back who could beat you with power and speed. There were lots of good runners like Tyler Sargeant of Fairview, AJ Fenton of McDowell and Eric Divell of Harbor Creek...but Akeem was tops in our minds.

Best Team: Strong Vincent, since obviously, they advanced the farthest into the playoffs, reaching the state semi-finals but it was in the way they played over the last six weeks before they lost that got our attention, scoring over 41 points in five straight games including two games in which they scored over 50 points. In addition, they beat Cathedral Prep in early October when no one gave them a chance and the Ramblers turned out to be the Quad-A District 10 champions.

Best Coach: Matt Morgan of Mercyhurst Prep. This was a tough one because Tom Cacchione of Vincent and Dan Budziszewski of Harbor Creek both did outstanding jobs in 2007 building their teams into winners. The difference to us is that Morgan had to replace his entire backfield, went undefeated during the regular season and won the District 10 title for the first time in school history.

Best Fans: General McLane. The Lancers come to party and win on a Friday night home game and we experienced that when we broadcast their game against Cathedral Prep in mid-October. As stated before on an earlier posting, they are the best fans in the area without a doubt and the class that the team showed after losing to Strong Vincent in the D-10 title game spoke volumes about General McLane.

Biggest disappointment: Fairview Tigers. Although they had a good season, much more was expected of the Tigers than what they delivered. A close second was McDowell who season-in and season-out play a top quality schedule but at the end, can't beat Cathedral Prep when it counts, home or away.

Best Game of the Year: Habor Creek's last second TD to beat Fairview. That set the tone for the rest of the Huskies unbeaten regular season.

Best TV Viewers: Those who watch Friday night Frenzy every Friday night. KC and I had a blast this past fall covering a great season of high school football and hope you enjoyed all of our efforts to get you the hilites. A big thank you to all who called in scores, gave us rosters and stats.

Best Football Photogs: WSEE, of course. Ben, Rob, Steve, Jake, interns Mark and Chris certainly piled up the miles this fall to bring you our Friday night Frenzy show.

Thanks for a great season to one and all and as always, would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts, good or bad. e-mail me at gary.drapcho@wsee.tv

Time to look back at the top local sports stories of 2007. Filled with great athletes and great teams that kept our attention from January to December. Here are our top five stories in
2007.

5. Seawolves First to Last
After two seasons of losing, Matt Walbeck was able to bring a winner back to Uht Park as the Seawolves would win the Division. Although they failed again in the playoffs as they have done in the past. Unfortunetly, Walbeck has left to become the 3rd base coach with the Texas Rangers and many of the key Seawolves won't be in Double-A ball next season. But, we got a pretty summer with the highlite, other than clinching the Division Crown, being Nate Robertson's no-hitter while on a rehab assignment in Erie.

4. Coleman's Triple Crown
Golfer Ron Coleman became the first golfer in EDGA history to win all three events this summer. Golf is a tough game as everyone who plays it knows. Even the best players in the world don't always play well enough to win. Coleman defied the odds and played well all summer to win the local version of the golf Triple Crown. To do that, he had to beat a lot of young guns at the top of their game.

3. The Otters Saga
It was quite a ride for the Otters in 2007, from the hype of getting the first overall pick in the OHL draft in May, to a franchise record 16-game losing streak, to a head coaching change from Peter Sidorkiewicz to Robbie Ftorek. It seemed as if the Otters were in the news week in and week out, in season or out of season in 2007

2. Prep goes AAA, McDowell left alone
Cathedral Prep made the decision after getting clobbered for the third year in a row in the state tournament to leave the Quad-A bracket but that left McDowell as the lone Quad-A team in District 10 and that scenario will change the landscape of high school football in the area for years to come. Think about it.....no Prep-McDowell District 10 title games anymore in football....but on the bright side, the Ramblers games with McLane and Vincent will now have a little more meaning to them, especially if the rivals meet for the AAA District 10 title. Now, McDowell must take a different direction in football in terms of scheduling and getting into the state playoffs. They can't become full-time WPIAL members in just one sport, so their journey in the upcoming seasons will be different.

1. General McLane makes History
When the Lancers won the state basketball title in March, they became the first school to win both the football and basketball state titles in the same scholastic year. They speaks for itself. They had a group of senior athletes that had a special bond with each other that comes along once in a lifetime. No question, the top sports story of 2007.

Honorable Mention
We could put a lot of different things into this category, like the Villa Girls Basketball team finishing second in the state, North East Track and Field winning the state title and just this month, Peek'n Peek cancelling the Nationwide Tour stop in '08 with doubts it will ever return to the Upper Course again. State wrestling champs and state track and field champs as well....all made 2007 a memorable year in sports. We were just along for the ride and enjoyed every moment of it.
Thanks for a great 2007, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year and we'll crank it up again in local sports in 2008. Stay Tuned, the best is yet to come.