Mike Smoll gives the fans a early look at the SOL American, breaking down each team.
I see William Tennant (with new coach)and 3 returning starters on both sides of the ball (top player John Ryan 1st teamWR SOL Cont) and Norristown (also I believe with a new coach) returning 8 starters (off & def) (top player Khalif Sinclair also 1st team WR in the SOL Cont last year, as the two bottom teams.
Next group is Harry S Truman 12 returning starters, plus both kickers (with Mark Lopez QB honorable mention and Maurice Jackson 1st team all SOL Cont. LB) leading the charge. C B West, 11 starters back (plus new coach and renewed spirit) (Noah Hill 1st team all SOL Cont DL) and CB East 13 returning starters , 6 off, 7 def, with 4 of those receiving at least mention defensively SOL Cont. This three teams are in the next group and certainly if things go right could be contenders or at least spoilers. Truman has a nice group of Off players, West should be strong defensively and after what happened last season will expect them to rebound nicely. East is really loaded up Defensively especially at LB and DB.
The next group is Quakertown, Council Rock South and Council Rock North, one of these three teams should win the division, I’lll start with the 3rd place team, Quakertown (last years champs) Quakertown has 14 starters back with all PFN and Max Prep’s #1 ranked punter in Jake Bovard, former Archbishop Wood QB Tom Garlick will be the QB, 1st team RB Rob Burns returns (4.46 40)and have perhaps the best group of skill people in the Continental Division, however they only have 2 starting Linemen and will be the weak link in this group. 2nd, Council Rock North has 10 starters back from last year, with Brandon McIIwain (South Carolina Gamecock recruit) leading the way at QB, they have a nice mix of skill people and Linemen back, and think they are only a couple pieces away. 1st, Surprise,,,, Council Rock South, they are only 3 years removed from playing for the District One title and I think they will be back, the key to them is they return 6’3″ 285 1st team all SOL Cont John Anderson, along with a total of 4 Off Linemen and 3 Def. Linemen, the key for them is finding the skill players. I just think that their offensive line is going to be so good that whoever they put in will look good. QB and RB look good when they have holes to run through and time to throw the ball. I think Quakertown is the hunted, and if they can develop both a decent OL and DL, they could be really good, Brandon McIIwain at CRN is a game changer and perhaps the best athlete in the SOL, they were disappointed last year, they were in the game against Pennsbury until a deflected ball interception for a TD and their whole season seemed to change, call it what you want I like teams with really good lines, good things happen, CRS has by far the best OL and DL returning. Take your choice, the season I think comes down to the last three weeks when these three teams play a round robin, until we won’t really know, I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of these 3 winning the whole thing. But those are my choices and I’ll stick with them.
