Guido: Highlands boys basketball team staying closer to home for holiday tournament

By: George Guido
Saturday, December 25, 2021 | 5:27 PM

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Highlands boys basketball players and fans can unpack their bags: The Golden Rams will not be heading East for holiday tournament week.

Instead, Highlands, No. 5 in the Trib HSSN Class 5A rankings, will be playing in the Montour Tournament.

The Golden Rams were set to go to Trinity High School in Camp Hill, across the river from Harrisburg, for games against the Shamrocks and Steelton-Highspire.

But that tournament was called off because of covid-related concerns. Highlands athletic director Drew Karpen discovered an opening at Montour, so the Golden Rams will be headed to Robinson Township.

Highlands (5-0) will play West Allegheny at 6 p.m. Tuesday and Sto-Rox at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

If you can’t get out to Montour for the action, Mike Pavlik and Mike Choma will broadcast the games on a delayed basis. Games can be seen the following day on YouTube. Just punch in HighlandsHighSports.

Choma notes that those two games will not be carried on Comcast Channel 190.

Sapotichne to be honored

Another notable tournament-week event will take place at Greensburg Salem High School where Springdale graduate and retired Riverview basketball coach Paul Sapotichne will be honored Wednesday as the Golden Lions take on Riverview in an 8:15 p.m. game.

Sapotichne stepped down during the offseason after 41 years on the bench: 29 at Greensburg Salem and the last six at Riverview.

During his run at Greensburg Salem, he won 399 games in his 29 seasons, guiding the Golden Lions to the 2009 PIAA Class 3A finals at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. He was named that classification’s coach of the year for that season.

Just as he was moving his real estate appraisal service to Oakmont seven years ago, the Riverview job opened up.

Sapotichne graduated from Springdale in 1971.

Big 33 on the move

Following a successful run at Central Dauphin High School’s Landis Field, the Big 33 Football Classic will have a new home in 2022.

Officials announced recently that next year’s Classic, and the attached pair of East/West All-Star games, will move to Bishop McDevitt’s Rocco Ortenzio Stadium in Harrisburg.

“A huge asset to this new venue will be that all of our practices and special events will all take place at one central location,” said Big 33 executive director Garry Cathell, former coach at Butler, Peters Township and Elizabeth-Forward.

Cathell heads the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association, sponsor of the games.

The 65th Big 33 Classic will take place on Memorial Day (May 30) as a team of Pennsylvania seniors from 2021 will take on a Maryland all-star team.

Both East-West all-star games involving small and big schools will take place at McDevitt a day earlier, on May 29.

“Logistically, this will make planning all our events easier, and it will make the Big 33 a more visible presence in the community. We are very excited about this new partnership,” Cathell said in a release.

The Big 33 was founded in 1957, and games were held at Hersheypark Stadium until 2017 when the sponsor, the Big 33 Foundation, folded. The PSFCA took over sponsorship from there.

Tags: Highlands, Riverview