New Head Coach at Neighboring Perkiomen Valley High School in Graterford

Dan McLaughlin, who served as an assistant coach in the Phoenixville Area High School girls softball program for 10 years, has been selected as the new head coach at neighboring Perkiomen Valley High School in Graterford.
McLaughlin has already met with the Perkiomen Valley players who will be members of the team this spring. He will continue his fulltime job as a social studies teacher in the Phoenixville Area School District.
At Perkiomen Valley, McLaughlin replaces Kim Paulus, who spent four years at the helm of the Vikings but is also heavily involved with soccer and other activities in the Perkiomen Valley community. At Phoenixville, McLaughlin worked under head coach Joe Bogus with the Phantoms.
Both Phoenixville and Perkiomen Valley are members of the Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC-10). There are no divisions separating larger schools from smaller schools in softball, but Perkiomen Valley is in with the big schools in other sports in the Liberty Division while Phoenixville is in the Frontier Division with the smaller enrollments.
McLaughlin said he is anxious for the opportunity to be head coach of his own program. At the same time, he said he will miss the close working relationship he had with a nice group of girls he coached at Phoenixville for six years. He spent six seasons with this year’s PAHS seniors from the time they first started competing in softball at the middle school level.

Phoenixville Area High School Wrestling

Phoenixville’s wrestling team dropped a 55-15 verdict to Methacton in a Pioneer Athletic Conference meet in Fairview Village Saturday morning.
The Phantoms’ first-year head coach, Dave Saville, is a 1989 graduate of the Methacton wrestling program so it was a return to his roots of a storied wrestling school and program.
The Phantoms won just three out of 14 bouts. Sopohomores Matt Cermanski (130 pounds) and Dan Giannone (140) won by fall and junior Chris Onder (112) won an 8-3 decision against the Warriors.
The Phantoms have a young and inexperienced squad that has difficulty matching up against some of the other top PAC-10 teams.
Phoenixville will celebrate Senior Night Wednesday, Jan. 21, against Pottstown. The lone senior in the Phantoms’ lineup is Joe Mandrusiak, who wrestles at 160 or 171 pounds usually.

The Pioneer Athletic Conference Football Coaches Association

The Pioneer Athletic Conference Football Coaches Association held its 23rd annual all-league banquet Sunday afternoon at the Pottstown Elks Club on High Street in Pottstown.
Some 230 players, coaches, family members and friends attended the event.
The Pottsgrove Falcons and head coach Rick Pennypacker, a 1972 graduate of Spring-Ford Area High School and a Spring City resident, were honored for their league championship season. Pennypacker gave remarks and noted how tough a league the PAC-10 is with so many quality coaches and players competing.
Six special awards were presented. They included the David L. Freed Award, Trevor Sasek, Spring-Ford; Joe Edwards Scholarship, Rhashad Santiago, Perkiomen Valley; Offensive Player of the Year, Ryan Brumfield, Owen J. Roberts; Defensive Player of the Year, Sam Morgan, Owen J. Roberts; Two-Way Player of the Year, Tim Smith, Methacton; and Most Valuable Player, Terrell Chestnut, Pottsgrove.
Perkiomen Valley head coach Scott Reed told the emotional story of Santiago, a troubled youngster who has turned his life around with the help of other people. After his mother had to relinquish her four children, Santiago lost two parents while growing up and spent some time trying to fend for himself on the streets of Pottstown after being adopted and then not wanted. He spent some time at Glen Mills School before coming to Perkiomen Valley. Santiago now carries an impressive 3.3 grade point average, scored 1,180 on his college boards and is a model citizen among his peers. He received a deserved standing ovation from the crowd.
Also honored were Bill Rogers, a coach for more than 50 years at several schools in the area; and longtime PAC-10 assigner of officials Nick Pergine Sr., who is now battling cancer.
I enjoyed covering the banquet once again. Phoenix photographer Barry Taglieber was also on hand and some of his photos can be seen on a slide show on line.

Posted by
Barry Sankey

Phoenixville Wrestling

Phoenixville dropped a 58-9 wrestling meet to visiting Perkiomen Valley in Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC-10) action Wednesday night.
It was the Phantoms’ first home action of the season after seven road dates. The Phantoms now have a 1-2 PAC-10 record (8-6 overall). Perkiomen Valley is 2-1 (9-5 overall).
The Phantoms have a first-year head coach in Dave Saville. The Vikings have a second-year head coach in Tim Walsh.
Perkiomen Valley won 12 of the 14 bouts. Phoenixville’s lone victories came from senior Joe Mandrusiak (189 pounds) and sophomore Ken Cenci (215). Mandrusiak nudged Brett Petriello, 5-4, after the Vikings bolted to a 43-0 advantage. Mandrusiak is a normal 160- and 171-pounder who stepped up in weight class to wrestle Petriello. Mandrusiak now has a 12-2 record with eight falls to start the season.
Cenci won by default at 18 seconds of his match against Bobby Strickland. Cenci now owns a 17-2 mark with eight pins.
The Vikings posted five pins, two technical falls and were awarded one forfeit in the first match of the night at 119 pounds.
Perkiomen Valley registered 14 takedowns to Phoenixville’s four takedowns.
Former Perkiomen Valley coach Charlie Kramer used to call the Phoenixville-Perkiomen Valley wrestling match the “Battle of Route 29” because of the location of the two schools. The two sides used to have nip-and-tuck matches in recent years, but Wednesday night represented a different story.
Phoenixville’s other top wrestlers are sophomore Matt Cermanski (125),w ho is 13-7 with five falls; sophomore Brandon O’Hara (285), who is 12-3 with 10 falls; sophomore Dan Moore (103), who is 10-10 with three pins; junior Chris Onder (112), who is 9-5 with four pins; and sophomore Dan Giannone (130), who is 10-8 with five falls.
Phoenixville wrestles at Pottsgrove High School Friday night in another PAC-10 dual meet.

Posted by
Barry Sankey

23rd annual Pioneer Athletic Conference

The 23rd annual Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC-10) Football Coaches Association banquet will be held Sunday afternoon, Jan. 11, at the Elks Lodge on High Street in Pottstown.
All-league players on offense and defense will be recognized and receive honors from their respective head coaches.
There will also be special awards given for the Most Valuable Player, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Two-Way Player of the Year and the special David Freed Award, which is given in memory of the late Spring-Ford lineman who died in a practice incident in the 1970s. That recipient is based on a special impact story.
The special awards are kept a surprise to the recipients until the day of the banquet. The league coaches have a committee who votes on the all-league teams and the special awards winners.
I have covered these football awards dinners and many other sports banquets during my many years involved in sports journalism, and I will be in attendance on Sunday afternoon once again.
I will report on the banquet in the Monday, Jan. 12, edition of The Phoenix.