Former Mountain View soccer and baseball standout Dylan Thomas is in Breckenridge, Colo. continuing his chase for a potential spot of the U.S. Olympic team in slope style snowboarding.
Since high school, Thomas has been splitting his year between training and competing in snowboarding for sixth months and spending six months working to help provide financial backing for training.
Thomas finished last season ranked 40th in the world, moving up each of the last three years from 120th to 81st to 59th and now 40th.
In the only Olympic qualifier last season, Thomas finished third at the Toyota Grand Prix. He also competed on the World Cup Circuit.
The Olympic Trials begin Dec. 4. The 40th ranking left Thomas 11th among Americans at the end of last season.
Thomas got his start in snow sports in Pennsylvania at Elk Mountain and Boulder Mountain.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Dunmore football team is the last District 2 fall sports team still in contention for a state championship.
The Bucks scored 23 straight points to erase an early 14-point deficit, then held on to defeat Ligonier Valley, 23-20, Saturday at Hersheypark Stadium.
Scranton Prep (Class 3A), Valley View (4A) and Wyoming Valley West (5A) all lost in Mercy Rule games in the state quarterfinals.
Dunmore tied the game by halftime and had a 23-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter when Ligonier Valley battled back.
Ligonier Valley had a fourth-down pass fall incomplete in the end zone in the final minute to stop the comeback.
Aaron Tutino gave the Rams a 14-0 lead on a pass reception and interception for a touchdown in the first quarter.
Noah O’Malley set up the first Dunmore touchdown and scored the next one.
Frank Damiano ran 2 yards for a touchdown, then O’Malley took a screen pass from Gavin Darcy 22 yards for a touchdown.
Kyle Harrity blocked a punt through the end zone for the go-ahead safety with 6:49 left in the third quarter.
The Bucks then added a touchdown on a 24-yard run by freshman Cristian Buckley.
Dunmore avenged its season-ending loss from a year ago, but Scranton Prep was eliminated by Middletown in the same round for the second straight year.
Brady Fox ran for three touchdowns and Middletown posted its fourth shutout of the year to win, 35-0, in the meeting of the state’s top two Class 3A teams, according to pafootballnews.com, Friday night in Bethlehem.
Valley View and Wyoming Valley West each lost to Philadelphia schools in games at Northern Lehigh High School in Slatington.
Imhotep Charter piled up 472 yards rushing and 560 yards total offense Friday night in a 41-0 Class 4A romp over Valley View.
Penn State recruit Isheem Young turned 10 touches into 287 yards and 2 touchdowns. He carried 6 times for 152 yards and a touchdown, caught a 59-yard touchdown pass on the last play of the first half, returned 2 kickoffs for 68 yards and returned a punt 8 yards.
Carl Jones added 148 yards on 11 carries and Khadarius Sampson ran for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns on just 3 carries.
Virginia Tech recruit Nasir Peoples went over 100 yards rushing in the first half and joined Adrian Lambert in running for 2 touchdowns as Archbishop Wood defeated Wyoming Valley West, 41-14, Saturday afternoon in Class 5A.
Archbishop Wood, the defending state champion, opened a 41-0 lead in the first minute of the fourth quarter before Wyoming Valley West scored two late touchdowns.
COLLEGE CORNER
Meghan Gilhool is finding new ways to contribute to the women’s basketball team at Western New England College.
The 5-foot-7 junior guard from Montrose is the team’s leading offensive rebounder through three games and is tied for the team lead in blocked shots.
Gilhool is averaging 6.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.3 blocked shots and 1.0 assists during the team’s 2-1 start.
Nicole Chaszar, another Montrose graduate and a former Temple University captain, is Gilhool’s head coach.
Chaszar, who is into her 13th season at Western New England, is the school’s all-time winningest coach with a 189-136 record and .582 winning percentage. Her teams have won 65 percent of their conference games.
Western New England has been to the postseason for 11 straight years and has had 10 winning seasons out of 12.
The team has been on an upswing during Gilhool’s time there, winning 19 games and reaching the Commonwealth Coast Conference championship game both seasons.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Dunmore and Southern Columbia will meet Friday at 7 in Danville in the PIAA Class 2A football semifinals.
The Bucks have been the most successful team from the Lackawanna Football Conference and its predecessors in state play, but Southern Columbia has the longest run of success in the state playoffs of any team in Pennsylvania.
Our high school football predictions were 2-1 (66.7 percent) last week, making us 21-3 (87.5) for the playoffs and 104-24 (82.5) for the season.
This week’s prediction: Southern Columbia 40, Dunmore 27.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
Saga Of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Congratulates Truex On His Cup Series Championship Win
There were two top stories that came out last week. NASCAR crowned a new champion, Martin Truex Jr. and its most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. said good-bye.
While Earnhardt has given up his driving career, he plans to remain very active in other aspects of racing. His 2018 schedule calls for him to be in the television broadcasting booth, and continue operating his Xfinity series team, JR Motorsports. He hasn't ruled out running a couple Xfinity races in the future.
Earnhardt has come full circle in NASCAR racing.
“I want to be a race car driver someday. It’s a great sport, I love it to death. It’s all I’ve ever dreamed about,” he said in a 1990 interview.
And, race he did.
In 1998 he won his first race in the Busch Grand National Series driving for his dad’s team (Dale Earnhardt Inc.). It was his 16th start in the series, as he crossed the finish line ahead of Mark Martin.
Earnhardt won back to back Xfinity Series championships in 1998-1999 before heading to the Cup Series full-time in 2000.
“Winning isn't everything to me, but it's a close second,” he said. “Losing isn't something that I can just brush off and fake a smile to hide my frustration. It's that will and determination that I hope will get me where I want to go.”
Throughout Earnhardt’s career, we’ve watched him grow into one of the most likable and respected drivers in NASCAR. He scored 24 victories in the Xfinity Series and has 26 victories in the Cup Series, including two Daytona 500s. NASCAR fans have voted for him as the most popular driver for 14 consecutive years.
Though he has never captured the ultimate prize of a Cup Series championship, it’s a career that will certainly land him in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Still, there will always be those that hold him to an unattainable standard.
Perhaps the biggest single emotional event in his life happened in February 2001, when his father passed away.
“My father could look straight ahead but concentrate on something on the very edge of his vision, nearly behind him,” he continued. “I never had that ability. I've had to work at what was out in front of me and hope for things down the road.
“Everyone knows I miss my father. There was an empty and sad feeling inside me for a long time. Sometimes, when I'm in a quiet place, I can still sense it.”
However, no one could ever fill those shoes. His dad’s life was cut short, a legend immortalized in time that will never be duplicated. Instead, Dale Jr. has crafted his own unique legacy.
And it extends well beyond the race track. He has left an indelible impression with his charitable contributions and his mentoring of younger drivers.
How do you measure a man’s worth? For Earnhardt, it’s not about the number of trophies but about the quality of his character.
“I hope people just thought I was good and honest and represented the sport well,” he said. “I hope people that work with me enjoyed working with me, whether it was in the late model ranks or whatever, and I hope the guys I raced against enjoyed racing with me. That’s really all that will matter. Hopefully, I left a good impression. I’ve had a lot of fun.”
In the end, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has done exactly what his father wanted him to do.
His dad was once asked how he kept his son grounded, and said, “He’s seen where we’ve come from, he knows the story. Material things are great but that’s not the important thing in the world. God and family, what people think about you is more important to me. To be able to take what he’s doing and make it work for him for the future but be a nice person as you go. That’s the important thing.”
Earnhardt’s humility, his passion for racing and his innate ability to connect with the fans has made him an invaluable asset to the sport. His impact on NASCAR will live on in the broadcast booth. But his absence from competition will leave a huge void that will be difficult, if not impossible to fill. It’s hard to imagine a NASCAR race without Dale Jr. but one thing is clear. It won’t be the same without him.
“Everything we do needs to be geared toward making the sport [auto racing] more accessible to the fans - the rules of the sport, how the race plays itself out, how people qualify into the races - everything needs to be as easy to understand as possible,” he said.
“I hope all the fans enjoyed this season. I know it wasn’t everything we wanted on the race track, but we just had fun off of it, and I’m going to miss everybody, but we’ll be back. I'm not leaving, just going a different direction,”
ONE MORE RACE FOR DANICA
For Danica Patrick and NASCAR, it's the end of a chapter.
Patrick caused a stir on August 25, 2011, when she announced she would be leaving the world of Indy Cars to run full-time in NASCAR.
In 2013 she won the pole for the Daytona 500, becoming the first woman to win a NASCAR Series pole. She went on to finish eighth in the race.
While there might have been a few other career highlights during her six-year tenure at Stewart-Haas Racing, victory lane eluded her, with only seven top-10 finishes.
But Patrick has made the most of her career and has more starts than any female in the NASCAR Cup Series. She became the first female to make over 250 combined starts in the three NASCAR national series.
While she is still one of the most popular sports figures, lack of money and sponsorship forced her out.
Team owner Tony Stewart said she had more future options than anybody in the garage area, in that she could do NASCAR, Indy Car, road racing and had her own entrepreneurial career.
“I work really hard and have good people around me that believe in me,” she said. “I have great opportunities, but I think the most important thing is answering, 'what is it that I want to do?' I don't mean that from a conceited viewpoint of just pick and choose, but you've got to love and want to do whatever it is that you're doing and have your whole heart in it, or else you probably might not make it happen.
“Give yourself the best opportunity to show what you can do. I think it's a matter of evaluating options, and really being honest about what makes the most sense. Right now, I'm looking at what do I want to do, and can I really be the architect of my life?”
Patrick will end her career next season at Indianapolis.
“Nothing that was being presented to me was exciting, until about three weeks ago.” she said. “I just thought, 'What about Indy? Why not end it at the Indy 500?' That ignited something in me. My plan is to be at Indy in May, and then I'm done.”
In other racing news, “Cousin” Carl Edwards, who retired in January told Sporting News that he feels like he will be back dirt racing in 2018. So far, he has no plans to return to NASCAR
Tony Stewart announced his engagement to former 39-year-old Playboy Playmate Pennelope Jimeniz. No date has been announced for the wedding.
For television viewers the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series Award Show will be held in Las Vegas on
Thurs., Nov. 30. Starting time: 9 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Racing Trivia Question: Which driver will replace Dale Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports?
Last Week's Question: Where is Danica Patrick's hometown? Answer. Phoenix, Arizona.
Gerald Hodges is a syndicated NASCAR writer and author. His books may be viewed and ordered online at Amazon.com. You may contact him by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.
