Frog's Corner, BB '06

Frog's Corner

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Mark "Frog" Carfagno, a true website legend, has come out of
retirement to comment on the Neumann-Goretti /Roman title game.
Frog may be reached at markcarf@verizon.net.

MARCH 28
PIAA STATE FINAL THOUGHTS
   "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sweetest town in America!!"
   Those were the first words from the mouth of the PA announcer at the Giant Center
before introducing the players of all 8 Title games. Of course he was speaking of
Hershey, Pa. home of the famed Chocolate Company and the PIAA STATE
CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES. MMMMM.
   My favorites are the Mini Dark bars. This weekend though, myself and the Pub
had to settle for the Medium variety. The Philly schools would take home one title
instead of the two they were striving for.
   On Friday, the Phoenix of Communications Tech lost to Franklin, 74-63,
in the AAA Final. Saturday, the Huskies of Prep Charter schoolyarded the Tigers
of Beaver Falls 82-51 in the AA FINAL.
   It was my first trip to the finals and it was a neat experience. For Hoop-A-Holics,
may I suggest staying overnight and enjoy watching 16 of the state's elite teams.
Oh, by the way my roommate was none another than Tom "Hockey
Puck" McKenna. The man never stops talking. He did reveal something about
himself that was intriguing. Tom was drinking a Six Pack and stopped for a second
and said; "People tell me the more I drink the less I talk." Yes, it is true.
He fell asleep while watching the NCAA Tournament. I think the next time
I am supposed to meet the "Puckster" I will carry a Sixer with me. Another
thing we found out at the Giant Center was that there is a Western Pa. version
of Tom. That's right, Super Statman II. Tom went over to check him out and
came back screaming; "Man that guy never stops talking." WOW!! Upon hearing
that, Ted, Amauro and myself fired back, "Look who's talking!!" Speaking of talking,
cheering or just opening your mouth. I found out that it is not proper to criticize
along Press Row. I'm sorry Ted. The play that got me stirred up was when a CT
player was on his way for a breakaway slam or lay-in and got pushed in mid air
and no foul was called by the nearest official. There was a whistle but it was late
and came from the ref waaaaaaay down the other end of the floor. I hollered out,
dropping some f-bombs in the process, and two gentlemen seated to my left looked
at me like I was from another planet. No, I am not from another planet, but I am
from the Philly Chapter of PIAA basketball officials. I felt an intentional or flagrant foul
should have been called. What a Joke!
   As for the games involving the pub teams, Ted touched on all the details so there
is no use in being redundant. I will, though, mention a few things. As was mentioned
by Ted the Phoenix was unable to stop Franklin's 6' 5" Center Nate Byham. The big
guy shot 10 of 14, with most of them coming from in the low box area. I thought that
Tech should have pressured the ball more in the backcourt area, by trapping or double
teaming. CT was much quicker and faster than Franklin. They did finally press but it
was way too late. The Phoenix struggled with their 3 point shots, 4 of 15, but were
over 50% shooting, 20 of 37, on their 2's. All in all it was a great season for the boys
from the deep Southwest. Congratulations to CT coach Lou Biester for ending up the
as runner-up for the 2006 State Championship. Byham, by the way, will play football
at Pitt as a Tight End.
Speaking of football . . . the premier player for Beaver Falls was 6' 3" Senior guard
Lance Jeter. Jeter led the Tigers to the 2005 State Title. He averaged over 20 points
this year and has over 2,000 for his career. Jeter is being recruited heavily as a Wide
Receiver for football and is expected to play with the pigskin rather than the roundball.
When he took the floor and began firing away and then penetrating he reminded me of
former South Jersey football and basketball star Paul Gause of Schalick High school.
Gause was an unbelievable running back whose first step towards the hole was right up
there with former O'Hara star Kevin Jones. Gause elected to play basketball at Seton
Hall rather than play football. Boy I would loved to have seen him play football at the
next level. I hope he didn't choose the wrong sport.
   Buses, Buses and more Buses! How come they never arrive on time for many Pub
athletic events. I know that this was a major issue as far as getting people to the State
Finals. I think the District 12 people had good intentions but this was their first attempt
at trying this. Perhaps they could have had buses for the earlier round games that were played
In such places as Allentown, Reading and Coatesville. This would have generated more
excitement as the teams advanced leading up to the big game in Hershey and the
administrators would know if such a thing was capable of happening as far as the
Championship games were concerned. Now, as for who would pay for the buses, that's
another story.
Just wondering . . . When Ted covers games that go right down to the wire, he drops
his pencil and scorebook and picks up his little tape recorder. He describes what's
happening into the recorder while speaking very softly. I wonder how he sounds calling the play by
play. Should Tom McGinnis be worried? Come on Ted, give it up. Let us hear your calls.

MARCH 8
Roman Catholic/Neumann-Goretti Aftermath
   I did not really know what direction or what approach I would take concerning
Saturday's RC and NG's aftermath. However after reading Ted's story on Tuesday
that NG may have to forfeit their title, at least that gave me a place to start.
   What happened after the game was a total embarrassment to the
Philadelphia Catholic League and to the City of Philadelphia. Both sides were guilty
of improper behavior so the authorities may look at all the Video Tape they wish and
should never be able to say that one School was more guilty than the other.
   I will say right away that Neumann-Goretti should not have to
forfeit their Championship.
   I was sitting along Press Row in front of the Roman student section and many
of their followers. In fact, the table I was at got knocked over in the melee. In spite
of my age, I was able to quickly maneuver my 5' 6" body out of Harm's Way. HA HA!
   While all of this crazy activity was going on three or four Roman
students, who were not part of the Brawl, came over to me and asked; What did we shoot
at the Foul Line? When I responded 10 for 24,the knowledgeable young men nodded
their heads in agreement that that was where the game was lost. Neither
team shot very well from the Field. Roman was 14 for 50 on 2pt attempts and 1
for 8 on 3's. NG shot 15 for 43 on 2's and 1 for 7 on 3's. Neumann- Goretti was
11 for 17 at the Line. In spite of the somewhat low score the game was extremely
fast with plenty of tipped balls and deflections, thus creating a very difficult game
to officiate.
   The 3 Officials, George Geiss, Gary Duda and Clarence Armstrong, let the
players play and in my opinion did a very good job and had no influence
on the outcome of the contest. Being an Official myself, I said to Dot Com
contributor Jon "Duck" Gray that they could have used 4 Officials out there. The
Duck Man agreed.
   Now I will kind of get away from the game and give my opinion on why something
like Saturday's incident took place. Can you say OPEN ENROLLMENT??? I know
you can and you know where I an going next.
The one part of High School sports that I really despise is RECRUITING. I know
that this is the nature of the beast, but some schools do it way more than others.
Bringing in these Blue Chip Players also brings along their followers. The followers are
usually in their 20's or 30's and attend most of their favorite player or team games.
Observing the mess on Saturday, I noticed that most of the fighting participants were not the
students themselves, but friends, followers, adults and parents.
These people should be ashamed of themselves. During one portion of the
Game a call was made against Roman and the reaction from some adults that
were sitting right behind me was atrocious. These adults, some in suit coats, stood
up and shouted expletives of the XXX variety. Seated a row or two behind them
was top notch basketball official Pat Shanahan. Pat, who has officiated many
championship games in both the Catholic and Public League, was not eligible
to Ref, since he is a teacher at Roman. When the adults were doing their
screaming, I turned to look at Pat and knew that he, along with myself, would have
loved to have said something to those idiots.
       Another issue that gets me going about the Catholic League is that they
play by their own rules. They do not use PIAA or National Federation Rules,
but a variation of High School and College rules. They give the Head Coach
all the freedom he needs to patrol the sideline, unlike any other league. There
is constant yelling and screaming at the officials. This would not be tolerated in any
other league. Another point I would like to bring up is the number of people other
than the players seated on the bench. This leads me way way back to a funny story
told to me when I started officiating about 30 years ago. WOW! Has it really been
that long? Joe Carchidi was also an official back in the day. He made a statement
to myself and all fellow newcomer officials that was quite interesting and also
humorous. He said that when you ref in the Catholic League to watch out for the
SUIT AND TIE GANG . What he meant was that along with the Head Coach
there would always be about 5 or 6 other coaches in Suit and Ties. Meaning,
their attire allowed them to also scream and holler. He was and still is right with
the only difference being the way they dress now. I still laugh about it today.
   Here's some food for thought. When D.J. Rivera hit the final shot there was
1.6 seconds on the clock. I think Roman had a timeout left, but they elected not
to use it. Had they stopped the clock and Rivera continued on with his antics,
which included the lifting up of his shirt to show off his big moment towards the
Roman hecklers, a TECHNICAL FOUL could have been called against Rivera
for the lifting of his shirt; that's a new rule instituted this year in both High School
and College ball. Conceivably, 15 Techs could have been called because I believe
all the NG players raised their shirts. How would you feel about the awarding of 30
Free Throws?? OH, I forgot, once again, they play by their own rules.