Northwestern Press

Where there's smoke, there's fire and the news of a Lehigh Valley superconference finally came to fruition last week.

After months of rumors and speculation about the future of the Lehigh Valley Conference, the Mountain Valley Conference stepped in and sent out an invitation to 12 neighboring schools to ultimately form a "big school, super conference," according to Stroudsburg Principal and MVC President Jeff Sodl.

Henry Paiste was challenged and he responded like a champion.

Make that a three-time champion!

Paiste, a home-schooled student from the Northwestern School District, won his third striaght District 11 Class AA singles tennis championship on Monday at the Westend Racquet and Fitness Center in Allentown.

But it wasn't easy.

Maybe that's why it felt so good.

By ROD HECKMAN

rheckman@tnonline.com

All Trey Shackleton and his parents wanted was something to fulfill his physical education requirement.

Little did they know that requirement would become a life-changing experience.

Shackleton, a resident of Weisenberg Township in the Northwestern Lehigh school district, first thought about participating in football or hockey to meet his homeschooling obligation. Once those were quickly dismissed (with some help from his mother), the student briefly gave tennis a try. When that failed, he turned to swimming.

TRACK and FIELD

Tuesday April 30

Northwestern-Notre Dame GP-

Palisades

The Tigers pulled off sweeps in their Colonial League tri meet with Palisades and Notre Dame of Green Pond.

The Lady Tigers downed Notre Dame 95-54 and the Lady Pirates 82.5-67.5 to clinch the Colonial League Championship. The boys defeated the Crusaders, 81-69 and Palisades 87-63.

Northwestern girls set record

Leaders ascend to their positions in different ways. Some are thrust into it. Others try to force themselves into a position of authority.

But the best leaders are those who just let it happen. Those who see a void and fill it.

That's how Sara Jones became the the leader for the Northwestern girls basketball team.

The annual District 11 tennis tournament will be starting up Thursday at the West End Racquet Club.

Northwestern area junior Henry Paiste will be looking to bring home his third consecutive AA title.

On paper, last week's matchup against Salisbury figured to be one of Northwestern Lehigh's toughest games of the season.

The Falcons entered last Wednesday's game as the only unbeaten team remaining in the Colonial, stationed at 7-0 in conference play and 10-0 overall.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Falcons didn't seem to miss a beat once again.

The Falcons (13-0 overall; 10-0 in Colonial League) scored five runs in the first inning, and Tyler Cooperman held the Tigers (9-5 overall; 5-5 in Colonial League) to just one hit in seven innings in Salisbury's 8-0 victory.

Through high school and college Kenrick Smith was one of those increasingly rare athletes that played every sport he could. From swimming to football to track, cross country and then rugby at Widener University, the Lansdale native only gave up participation in one sport when it conflicted with others.

After college graduation, his sports careers went on hold as he started his professional career and a family. But he always wanted to get back into something.

Madison Burns has accomplished a lot of great things in swimming, especially for a girl coming from a high school with no swim team. The Northwestern Lehigh grad, who holds the PIAA record in the 200 individual medley, recently competed at the Olympic Trials in Omaha, finishing 110th.

The event featured the best swimmers from around the country, all fighting for the relatively few spots available on the Olympic Swim Team that competed in London.

For Burns, being on swimming's biggest stage other than the Olympics, was quite an experience.