Tag Archives: High School

PV Puts Up a Valiant Effort but Comes Up Just a Little Short

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FB 2014-09-06 040What was predicted to be a completely lopsided game ended up being a fantastic football game for Pleasant Valley on Saturday night. If Bethlehem Catholic was an unbeatable and untouchable team, PV did not get that memo. In fact, they made a strong statement of their own by putting such a successful game on the field this week.

Bethlehem Catholic scored first, but PV responded immediately with a well-designed and well-executed flea flicker. Then PV caught fire with their passing game. Bethlehem Catholic was shocked and entered the locker room at halftime down 35-21 only because they scored a touchdown with seconds to go in the first half.

A lightning storm rolled in and the delay resulted in a 2-hour halftime! Play resumed just after 10pm. The Golden Hawks came out running the ball and moving down the field consistently, but PV would not go away. They responded yet again in the second half.

In the end, PV came up 2 points and a few inches short from scoring a go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. It was a disappointing loss after such a successful first half. However, this should be a character builder and shows that PV can compete with the best teams this year!

The full gallery of photos from the game can be found here.

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Friday Night Football

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Friday night football is back! I had the privilege to photograph the Friday night football atmosphere at Pleasant Valley High School as they hosted Easton last night for the opening game of the season. The excitement and enthusiasm of pre-game on Friday nights is hard to beat!

PV played a hard-fought battle against Easton and showed some definite signs of promise for this season. Yes, they have a new quarterback and a new head coach, but they will be okay.

The above photo ran in today’s Pocono Record. You can see the full gallery of my photos from Friday night’s game here.

High School Golf

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Well, the fall sports season is underway. Yesterday I had the opportunity to photograph a local high school golf match featuring Notre Dame East Stroudsburg v. Stroudsburg. It was a beautiful day for golf and the teams competed well. I was amazed at the low scores and demeanor of these high school golfers who train with this state of the art simulator which looks fancy.

The photo above features Ryan Krechel, a senior at Notre Dame East Stroudsburg. I had the privilege of coaching him in Little League Baseball and its hard to believe how fast these players grow up! Krechel shot a 79 on the course yesterday! And, yet, all the while he was tearing it up out there, he remained polite and humble the whole time. Ryan kept talking about his brand in the golf franchise opportunity industry and his plans for the upcoming year. https://www.pineclubgolf.com/the-best-golf-bags/

The second shot of the day features Brian Frey of Stroudsburg exiting the bunker nicely on hole 18. Frey shot an 82 for the round! He also maintained great composure during the match. It was great fun and a complete joy to follow these guys around much of the day! With young men like this, our future looks bright!

If you are a golfer, you might want to Golf simulators are a great way to overcome the monotony of hitting balls into a net when you can’t get to the practice range. Many people can drill the ball perfectly on the range but the key to lowering scores is confidence, particularly on the greens,, if you are one of those many people then find out more about the course.

Both of these photos were published today in the Pocono Record. You can view my complete photo gallery of the golf match here: http://www.bobshankphotography.com/Gallery%20Photos/G%202014-08-26/

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Pleasant Valley Advances in PIAA District 11 Softball Playoffs

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The Pleasant Valley Bears Softball Team continued their destiny this season sparked by a dramatic grand slam by Madison Shaneberger in the bottom of the sixth inning. PV was trailing Freedom 4-1 going into their half of the sixth inning but they did not give up nor would they be denied. Shaneberger connected on the second pitch of her at-bat and drove the ball deep and over the fence in left-center field where the PV football team was cheering for the Lady Bears.

Both of these photographs were published in today’s Pocono Record and accompanied a story about the exciting game written by Joe Miegoc.

Crystal Morales slides across home plate for the first run in the game…

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Pleasant Valley Girls Advance to the MVC Championship Game!

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Kiersten Griesback took the mound for the Pleasant Valley Bears and pitched a solid game allowing only two runs. The Bear’s defense was solid, too. They did not commit an error in the game!

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Madison Shaneberger was hit by a pitch during her first at bat. Fortunately, she was not seriously injured and remained in the game. In fact, she laughed it off with Coach Beck when she reached first base.

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Jess Altemose slid across home plate to score an early run for the Bears who didn’t look back. They kept the pressure on Pocono Mountain East and scored runs in each and every inning of the game!

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The Bears now advance to the MVC Championship Game against Stroudsburg. The game will be played at Pocono Mountain East – a neutral field for both opposing teams. If they can play another solid game like this one, the Bears should be able to secure the MVC Title.

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Pleasant Valley Upsets Stroudsburg in the MVC Playoffs!

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Pleasant Valley struck first. It was the third inning and Matt Pierce reached first on a single. Then he reached second base on a wild pitch. Brendan Kearns came to the plate and laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt, which moved Pierce to third. Then, on another wild pitch, Pierce scored the first run of the game!

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Chris Burke pitched a masterful game for PV. He only gave up four intentional walks, all to Mike Nikorak, the MVC Most Valuable Player. The Bears defense was solid behind Burke and he kept recording outs in a very efficiently pitched game.

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Stroudsburg kept trying to apply pressure, but they kept hitting ground balls or flies to the outfielders. They had a few base runners but could not bring more than one around to score.

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In the bottom of the fourth inning a hard ground ball was hit to PV’s shortstop, Travis Van Houten. He fielded the ball cleanly, threw to Adam Raseley at second base, who then pivoted and threw to Ariel Mejia at first base for a beautiful double play!

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The Bears tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh inning. The last of these insurance runs came when the #4 batter, James Shank, executed a great bunt in a well-coached two-out squeeze play. There wasn’t even a play at the plate!

Congratulations to the Pleasant Valley Bears Baseball team in their MVC Playoff victory over Stroudsburg 4-1! It was a great game!

Never Give Up! (The story behind my most recently published baseball photograph)

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Today I had another sports photograph published in the Pocono Record, but the story behind this photograph is not about me.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140506/SPORTS/405060334

Dan Heckman, the batter in the photo, is an outfielder for the Pleasant Valley Bears. He hasn’t gotten much playing time this season, but Monday afternoon he did and he shined big time! Heckman hit a single in the last inning, producing 2 RBIs on the solid line drive. Earlier he hit a sacrifice fly for another RBI.

So here is a player who hasn’t seen much field time, but he did not give up! He is a team player and had the chance today to be out on the field. He definitely made it count!

Heckman’s lesson to all of us: never give up. Keep your head up, contribute to the team whenever and however you can, and be patient: your chance will come, and when it does, make the most of it. Heckman did!

Pleasant Valley Hosts East Stroudsburg South

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Pleasant Valley hosted the Cavaliers of East Stroudsburg South on a bright and warm afternoon. The sky was blue and the temperature was baseball ready!

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The Cavaliers jumped out to an early lead in the first inning. They then put some solid defense on the field for the first few innings. It looked for all intensive purposes like it was going to be a one-sided game.

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But the Bears never gave up. They battled back to bring the score to 10-5 in the fourth.

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In the end, South defeated PV by a score of 10-7, but it was an exciting game to the last out!

To see more photos of the game, click here:
http://bobshankphotography.com/Gallery%20Photos/BB%202014-04-02/

Pleasant Valley Wins Their Home Opener

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Travis Van Houten took the mound for Pleasant Valley in their home opener as they hosted East Stroudsburg North on a beautiful April Fool’s Day in Brodheadsville. The game started evenly after an inning as each team’s defense did the job. Van Houten pitched efficiently and recorded six outs without much trouble.

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Then PV put together some hits. Here in the photo above, pinch runner Jerry Peechatka, stole second base. PV went up 2-0 and never looked back. Van Houten worked out of some possible trouble several times and the PV defense assisted nicely.

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The portable home run fence was not up yet and a couple of long bombs might have cleared that fence if it was in place. But PV kept the pressure on, worked out of trouble, and looked solid in their home opener.

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Thomas Aruta had two hits to help the team work to a 5-0 advantage, which would be the final score. PV baseball is now in full swing and the team is looking good! Tomorrow they host East Stroudsburg South.

You can view more photos from today’s game here:
http://bobshankphotography.com/Gallery%20Photos/BB%202014-04-01/

Undefeated!

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East Stroudsburg South v. East Stroudsburg NorthEast Stroudsburg South is undefeated and are the Mountain Valley Conference champions for 2013! They rolled in their last game against rival East Stroudsburg North. The air was filled with anticipation well before kickoff. It was Senior Night for North, too.

East Stroudsburg South v. East Stroudsburg NorthNorth made it interesting early, responding to a 7-0 deficit by scoring a touchdown of their own. The extra point was missed, but the response was noted. Niko Petrone scored touchdown after touchdown and the undefeated season was secured.

East Stroudsburg South v. East Stroudsburg North