Salisbury Press

Last week was the opening week of high school football practice in the Lehigh Valley, which is used as a heat acclimatization period.

But Thursday night had a different feel for the Salisbury High School football team.

The entire Salisbury football community, from the youth through the high school team, came together and practiced on the high school’s field. It was a special evening for kids of all ages to come together and practice for a sport they all are passionate about.

Northampton pitcher Justin Aungst took a few steps off the mound towards the Giants dugout in the fourth inning, having thought a called third strike was coming from the home plate umpire. Instead, the former Salisbury ace had to walk back up the dirt after a called ball.

Limeport’s Damin Muth singled on the next pitch to bring home the Bulls’ first run of the game, leaving Aungst visibly upset.

There were plenty of teams from outside the Lehigh Valley area that competed in the A-Town Throwdown basketball tournament. Out of the 44-team varsity pool, more than half of the squads were not from District 11.

Salisbury was in a pool with three of those out-of-area teams, and despite going 0-3, the Falcons’ coaching staff saw a number of positives at Cedar Beach Park two weeks ago.

The Salisbury boys basketball team played 22 games last winter season as it fell short of qualifying for any postseason tournaments. This summer, it has played over 30 games since May.

The Falcons’ run came to an end last week in the Cedar Beach Summer League playoffs. Lincoln Leadership, the No. 6 seed in the small school division playoffs, defeated the No. 3 seeded Falcons, 45-37.

Salisbury won over 20 of those games this summer and enters the high school season on a confident note after winning the Bash at the Beach tournament as well in July.

With many high school sports requiring 12 months of the year of dedication and training, a number of athletes have devoted their careers to a single sport. The days of athletes competing in all three high school sports seasons seems to be dwindling.

But 2019 Salisbury graduate Erica Holben may be one of the few left of a dying breed.

It may sound a bit cliche, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a student with as much courage and willpower than recent Salisbury High School graduate Delano McKenzie.

And you can say that about both his athletic career and life outside of school.

When McKenzie was just 17 years old, he welcomed a beautiful daughter into his world named Isabelle. He wasn’t even legally labeled an adult yet.

With the upcoming A-Town Throwdown basketball tournament set for this week, the Salisbury boys’ basketball team will get a bit of a break from summer league play at Cedar Beach Park.

But when the Falcons do return to the court, they will be the No. 3 seed in the Small School Division playoffs in the Cedar Beach Summer League that begin on July 30. It’s easy to say that Salisbury might be playing its best basketball of the summer right now.

A 2017 graduate of Salisbury High School, and an incoming junior at Harvard University, freestyle swimmer Mahlon Reihman recently qualified for the Olympic Trials that will be held in June of 2020. The former Falcon swam the 100-meter freestyle in 50.49 seconds to qualify.

Salisbury head coach Scott Heppenheimer has seen his team struggle hitting the ball all summer. And that issue was evident once again over the weekend during the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs.

The Falcons mustered just four hits and struck out 11 times in a 7-3 loss to Northern Valley on Saturday evening at Church Lane Park. The loss ended Salisbury’s run in the LVL playoffs.

Salisbury girls soccer goalie Lily Schimeneck recently suffered an injury in the summer that put a kink in the Falcons’ lineup. Head coach Rick Babyak had been using four different goalies over the past couple of weeks as Schimeneck recovered from a shoulder injury.

In the second round of the Lehigh Valley Summer Soccer League playoffs on Monday, Quinn Wittman, the Falcons’ top goal scorer, was used in goal in the first half. Unfortunately, the Falcons seemed to miss her scoring at her normal forward position.