Three members of the Susquehanna Sabers Eastern Conference Class A championship football team recently announced their commitments to play football in college.
Susquehanna football player Eric Peters announced his commitment to Lackawanna College. Seated, from left: Ann Litz, mother; Eric Peters, John Peters, father. Standing, same order: Susquehanna athletic director Roxann Lloyd, head football coach Kyle Cook; principal Carmella Bullick.
Susquehanna football player Michael Hilkert announced his commitment to plan football at Misericordia University. Seated: Jennifer Sherman, mother (left) and Hilkert. Standing, from left: Susquehanna athletic director Roxann Lloyd, head football coach Kyle Cook; principal Carmella Bullick.
Susquehanna football player Jarred Mills announced his commitment to play.
Jarred Mills and Michael Hilkert intend to play on the NCAA Division III level while Eric Peters is headed to one of the top Division II junior college programs.
Mills is headed to St. John Fisher in Rochester, N.Y.
Hilkert is going to Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa.
Peters committed to Lackawanna College in Scranton.
Mills ran for 203 yards and three touchdowns in his final regular season game against Holy Cross then scored three more touchdowns in a 40-13 Eastern Conference championship game victory over Old Forge.
NPF Sports named Mills a second-team Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 all-star on offense as an athlete. He also received honorable mention for his play at linebacker.
Mills also starts for the Blue Ridge basketball and baseball teams. He plays for the Sabers as part of a cooperative sponsorship between the two schools.
Nationally ranked St. John Fisher has made 14 straight playoff appearances and finished 8-3 in 2016.
Hilkert, a two-way lineman in high school, is joining northeastern Pennsylvania’s newest college football program. The Susquehanna student started for two years.
Misericordia began playing football in 2012.
Peters, a Blue Ridge senior, was named first-team LFC Division 3 all-star punter by NPF.
Lackawanna is coming off an appearance in the Valley of the Sun Bowl after going unbeaten in the regular season.
The Sabers finished 5-6.
COLLEGE CORNER
Hunter Watkins earned a chance to complete his first college season at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
The Mansfield University freshman landed a spot in the meet in the javelin and was scheduled to compete May 27 at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
Watkins was one of just four Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference javelin throwers to make nationals and went in seeded 16th out of 20 based on his throw of 64.14 meters (210-3 ½) at the Millersville Metrics in April. He exceeded the provisional national qualifier mark four times during the season, making him eligible for selection into the meet.
The Elk Lake graduate finished second in the PSAC Outdoor Championships. He then earned All-East recognition by finishing second at the IC4A Championships, which are made up primarily of Division I schools.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Caleb Ely had four hits May 22 to lift Elk Lake to an 11-7 victory over visiting Mountain View in a District 2 Class 2A baseball quarterfinal.
Ely had a double, scored three times and drove in a run.
Second-seeded Elk Lake and top-seeded Blue Ridge, which had a bye, were each alive into the district semifinals.
Susquehanna missed out on its chance to play for a District 2 Class A title when MMI Prep beat Lincoln Leadership Academy, 15-2, in a District 2-11 Subregional.
MMI Prep advanced into the District 2-11 semifinal against Forest City, which was also serving as a district final.
In softball, Elk Lake and Blue Ridge were lost in Class 2A and Forest City fell in Class A.
Old Forge defeated host Elk Lake, 8-1, and top-seeded Holy Cross handled Blue Ridge, 12-2, in five innings in the May 23 District 2 Class 2A quarterfinals.
Mahanoy Area defeated Forest City, 4-3, in a District 2-11 Class A quarterfinal.
Those losses left Montrose as the only surviving Susquehanna County softball team heading into the weekend.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The District 2 Class 3A softball tournament championship game is scheduled for Thursday.
Montrose, the third seed after winning the Lackawanna League Division 4 title, went into the weekend as one of eight teams with a chance to play in that game.
The first round of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association baseball and softball state tournaments are scheduled for Monday, June 5.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Because of earlier deadlines for the holiday weekend, the PIAA Track and Field Championships and District 2 baseball championships are not included in this edition.
Those events will be recapped in next week’s edition of the Susquehanna County Transcript.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached on line at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
PETTY STILL GOING STRONG AT 80
Richard Petty in 1997.
Richard Petty will celebrate his 80th birthday on July 2.
“The King” is still going strong as he tends to his family business as well as his two racing teams.
As part of a year-long celebration of his 80th birthday, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will be hosting a birthday party prior to the series championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, November 18. As part of the event, racing fans will have the chance for an exclusive meet and greet, and Q&A session with the NASCAR legend.
Petty was born in Level Cross, North Carolina, the son of Lee Petty, winner of the first Daytona 500.
He won the NASCAR Championship seven times, winning a record 200 races during his career, winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times, and winning a record 27 races in the 1967 season alone.
Statistically, he is the most accomplished driver in the history of the sport and is one of the most respected figures in motorsports as a whole. He also collected a record number of poles and over 700 Top-10 finishes in his 1,184 starts, including 513 consecutive starts from 1971-1989.
He was inducted into the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.
In an interview with Thom Taylor of Hot Rod Network, Petty gave some of his views on the current racing scene.
“I guess I look at it that you wave the green flag and race until it’s over,” said Petty. “The deal of having a couple of breaks like quarters or halftimes in a football game, I can live with that because that gives me a chance to adjust my car or do some other stuff because I know how far I can run, and I can get a strategy for how far my gas gets me and how my tires are doing, and then we can sit down and not have to make a pit stop for adjustments.
“As far as giving points and stuff, I can’t keep up with it. I don’t think the fans can keep up with it. Who ran third in the first segment, or who was 10th in the second segment, or who won it. When you really get down to the end of the thing, it’s confusing. But the guys that have the best season, they are going to win the championship, and they’ll be up front no matter what. I don’t care how you count them or how you run the thing, the cream rises to the top. That’s what’s going to happen, no matter how they count everything.
“To me it seems like it must be confusing for the fans, and maybe over a period of time I’ll even learn them. It doesn’t change the field at all, it just changes the positions when you make a pit stop, and it puts cars closer together. Basically, it’s not a bad deal from the TV’s standpoint because we get to see more green-flag laps now. Most times when you’re watching TV, just as the commercial comes on, something exciting happens.”
He went on to talk about the last few years he raced, and how difficult sponsorships had become for his team.
“The big deal was that when I decided to quit, I started looking back,” he continued. “Equipment-wise with Petty Enterprises, and with the way I drove the car, if I had quit in 1984 or 1985 then I wouldn’t have had those six to seven years where Petty Enterprises was kind of going downhill sponsorship-wise.
“At that time, you had people like Penske, Roush, and Hendricks that were bringing in monetary deals like ad sponsors from outside, because they could wheel and deal. When we were running, you had Petty Enterprises, Woods boys, Bud Moore, Junior Johnson. We would go out and try to get sponsorships. We’d say, “Hey, here’s our record, here’s what we’re winning,” but we couldn’t get the attention or have situations to put the pressure on the sponsor.
“With Hendricks, you go into DuPont and say, “I want $20 million for my race car,” and they say, “What are you going to give back?” Well, [Hendricks] had 100 dealers and every one of those shops will have DuPont stuff, so it was a no-brainer for them. We didn’t have that kind of operation, so I was going downhill, but my car was going downhill also.
“Age caught up with me and I got more cautious. But the big deal and the reason I stayed as long as I did was that driving a race car was my hobby. It wasn’t work. When I got in that car, I would turn the radio off and I was by myself. I did my own thing, so I really enjoyed it, and I had to change some things when I got out. It just took a long time to give up my hobby, I’ll put it that way.”
In addition to his business interests, Petty attends most Cup races.
WRECKS ARE PART OF RACING
Is it racing or wrecking that fans love the most?
I think it’s both. Without any racing, there wouldn’t be any thrills, which adds to the glamour of the sport.
I have a friend, Robert Burroughs, who lives near Jackson, Mississippi. For many years he raced a late model at many southern race tracks, and ran two seasons in the ARCA/REMAX Series. He came very close to winning a 200-lap ARCA race at Daytona, before running out of fuel with two laps-to-go.
He financed his racing through his construction business. In addition to working and racing, he flies all around the country in a twin-engined Cessna airplane.
“Flying and racing help me to focus and it’s a definite adrenaline rush,” he said. “The friends I’ve met in the racing world are some of the closest because we share that passion for competition. We all want to win.
“There are days that I’m worn out. If I can get my race car out to a track and just run a few laps, it brings my emotions back to life.”
Emotions, yes, that’s what racing is about. Each big NASCAR team has several engineers that methodically plan, design, and test each race car before it hits the track. But it’s the driver that must push that machine into a turn at over 180 miles per hour.
It ain’t for the faint-heated.
I once had a psychology professor tell me that race car drivers have some type of death-wish inside them.
I don’t have the mind of a psychologist, but I do know that I don’t have what it takes to have a real, don’t give-a-damn attitude, or let-it-all-hang-out driver, like Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt.
But I can watch. And I can get my thrills when I see two cars bumping and careening off each other before they smack the wall.
Drivers that can do and take that kind of stuff are heroes. Racing heroes.
And that’s why many of us get enjoyment out of going to races, or watching them on television.
In case my statements sound crude or uncivilized, just remember how you feel after a dull, boring race. Then think about how excited you become when there are several on track incidents.
It gets your adrenaline flowing.
That’s exactly what my friend Robert Burroughs said.
There’s nothing more eerie than a silent racetrack, and it almost always signals that something really bad has happened. When the only sound is the Jaws of Life tool used to cut a driver out of the car and the stands go terribly, ominously quiet, it’s scary, but it also shows the racing community at its best.
Fans are at their best when the sport is in its darkest hours, and that’s the way it is.
Wrecks are a reminder of how dangerous the sport can be, even with NASCAR’s long and continuing history of trying to make it as safe as possible.
Racing is a dangerous sport.
Nevertheless there are drivers willing to accept the risk, and as long as they climb in their cars, fans will be watching.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.
