Special Announcement

Special Announcement

Greetings, I have some exciting news in regards to
some projects I will be working on for this upcoming
high school football season. First and foremost,
there will be daily features during the week on the
Trojan Nation website
(http://trojannation.tripod.com). If you scroll down
to the bottom of the home page you will see the menu
for each day’s piece. Also, I will publish a story on
Saturday on any games that I am in attendance for on
Friday nights. My first priority during high school
football season will always be to give JHS the best
coverage possible on the Trojan Nation website.

The first project I committed to this fall was a
contributor to the Texas HS football website and
message board (www.texashsfootball.com). They
maintain a list of programs in the nation that have at
least 400 wins. They got to the Trojan Nation site
and contacted me and after some brief dialogue, I
became the representative to update the site on all
the Pennsylvania schools. I thought this would be fun
since it goes along a bit with the “Countdown to 600”
piece of the Trojan Nation site. I have the
Pennsylvania list on the website now and it will be
updated weekly.

Second, I was contacted by a representative from an
Erie sports talk radio station. They are looking for
representatives from all over the state to compile
rankings based on Districts. I will be their rep for
Districts 5 & 6. The project is to compile a Top 20,
regardless of classification, per District on a weekly
basis. There is the possibility of Wednesday on-air
appearances on the radio station as well. I will do
an overall Top 20, but on my own, will also compile
rankings by classification throughout the year.

Finally, I responded to a post in a Chat Forum on
www.pennlive.com. This is the website that runs
content from the Harrisburg Patriot-News. They were
looking for people to run weblogs for different areas
of the state. I happy to announce that I have sent my
signed contract to freelance back to them today and I
will be writing the District 5 & 6 weblog this fall
for Penn Live. Look for at least 3 to 4 posts a week
throughout the season. Once I receive the link, I
will post it on Trojan Nation.

With all that being said, there will be some slight
changes to things as they exist now. The Trojan
Nation weblog (http://trojannation.blogspot.com) is
still in existence, however, posting to it will be
limited. Mainly this is because most of the types of
postings that would have showed up there will be
posted in the Penn Live weblog referenced above.

Also, those of you used to receiving the plethora of
information I normally post through the Yahoo Group
(http://groups.yahoo.com/johnstownhighfootball) will
see a slight drop off in posting. Obviously my time
will be at a premium this fall so I have to cut back
somewhere. I’ll still post links to local articles,
especially those that reference JHS, but some of the
out-of-market pieces you may have seen last year
(Philly, NJ, Ohio, etc) will most likely go away.

The scoreboard postings that appeared in the Yahoo
Group will be absorbed by the Standings/Scoreboard
page of the Trojan Nation site. We’ll do our best to
report on every score from Districts 5 through 10
(i.e. the western portion of the state).

The main thing the Yahoo Group will be used for though
will be to post updates to the Trojan Nation site as
well as postings to the Penn Live weblog. In essence,
the group will be a mailing list for new content. So,
if you wish to be e-mailed when new stuff posts, sign
up for the Yahoo Group. You can do so directly from
the link provided on the “Links” page at Trojan
Nation.

Thank you for your time. I hope you are all looking
forward to another exciting high school football
season, I know I sure am!

Sincerely,
Doug Keklak
Trojan Nation




_______________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/goldrush

test

Just testing to see if I can post to the Trojan Nation
weblog from an outside e-mail address.



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

R.I.P. Superfreak

The Pirates surely didn't enjoy their first visit to the new PETCO Park in San Diego last night for sure. This west coast trip is an absolute disaster!!! I'm looking forward to Oliver Perez' outing against his old team though.

How about Ron Pierce at age 48 winning the drivers championship at the Meadowlands this year. An amazing feat for such a competitive track. He's the oldest driver ever to win.

Well, Windsong Legacy won the $1 Million Hambletonian today. The heavy favorite Tom Ridge inexplicably broke in the first turn. Unfortunately for me, Windsong Legacy wasn't enough of an upset for me to recover my entire $20 in my "win all" bet, I did get $11 back and I picked a $9 winner earlier in the card so it wasn't a totally bad day. Unlike my brother, who boxed exactas in two races, each time his key horse broke! I felt so bad for him!

They really go out in style at the Big M, traditionally the Hambo Day is the final day of their meet. 15 races, $3.14 million in purses. Only 5 races had purses less than $100K.

Here are some pics from Steelers training camp: http://f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/kekdawg24/lst?.dir=/Mail+Attachments/Steelers+Training+Camp+(Latrobe+High)&.order=&.view=l&.src=bc&.done=http%3a//f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/

As I mentioned yesterday, starting this week, I'm going to dedicated more of my time to update the Trojan Nation website (http://trojannation.tripod.com) with the start of football season around the corner. For info on HS football around the state and country, as well as updates on the AAABA tournament check out the johnstownhighfootball group at groups.yahoo.com

c ya

Down to the Wire

One day later, and the USA needs a buzzer-beater from Iverson to sink Germany, a squad that didn’t even qualify to play in Athens! It is not looking good for USA Basketball right now.

The Pirates can’t seem to get a break on this road trip. They’ve lost two close games to the Dodgers, who have gone back-to-back-to-back in the first inning off Sean Burnett.

A couple of motorsports blurbs, first IRL is going to go to two road courses next season: Watkins Glen and Sonoma. Is this the first step in unifying the two open-wheeled circuits in the US? I hope so. The other is a story on the Busch series having the first points awarding race outside of the United States. They will run a race in Mexico next season. Also, they will return to Watkins Glen. It’s good to see the Busch Series going back to road courses as the Mexico race will be a road course as well.

According to the USA Today, Bill Clinton is passing on the chance at hosting SNL. I guess it would have been better if it would have coincided with his book release huh? You can still set your VCR though because he’ll be on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday. Stewart will be Tina Brown’s guest on Topic A Sunday night on CNBC.

Sorry for those of you that missed me yesterday, I realize that’s like nobody but sorry nonetheless!

There will be a change in this format though. I will begin to only post blogs weekly as the beginning of high school football season approaches. My time will be dedicated more to the Trojan Nation website (http://trojannation.tripod.com) . However, I’ll still make weekly posts in regards to high school, college and pro football.

Look for my Hambletonian post tomorrow and check the coverage of the crown jewel of harness racing from the Meadowlands in East Rutherford NJ on CBS tomorrow at 2:00. You can also watch the race card live at www.thebigm.com

I’ll also post some links to some pictures I took at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (Part 2), Steelers training camp and Blair County Ballpark.

Those pesky Italian hoopsters

Are you kidding me? Team USA lost to Italy yesterday! Dream Team my a$$. They better get there sh*t together before Athens because I am not settling for anything less than gold. Just another reason why USA Basketball should just go back to college players. There is not ONE NBA player on Italy’s team. What are we going to do against Germany, Canada, Russia, China, et al?

Jimmie Johnson got fined $10K for pulling an MJ ’92. You remember Jordan draping the flag over the Reebok logo? JJ did the same thing with a Powerade bottle after his win Sunday in Pocono. Powerade is a Coke product; Coke is a Nascar sponsor. Pepsi is a Hendrick Motorsports sponsor which produces a competitor you may have heard of: Gatorade! Advantage: Nascar!

I’m watching the Cubs on WGN and Nomar just doesn’t look right in the Cubs uniform yet.

The Pirates almost got to Dodgers closer extraordinaire Eric Gagne last night. They came to bat in the top of the ninth down 3-0 and lost 3-2 with the go ahead run at the plate. You know what they say, almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!

Larry’s Getting Paid!!!!

How does 6 years, $60 million sound America? $20 million in guaranteed money to boot! I hope that if Rod doesn’t catch on with the Panthers he takes care of his old buddy! Hopefully now I can get that jersey, I’ve been waiting for him to sign to get it.

Smarty we hardly knew ye! Enjoy your life at stud!

Shaq vs. Kobe on Christmas Day? You gotta love it!!! I used to love watching Jordan on Christmas, normally against the Knicks. I’m glad the NBA schedule makers have a good sense of humor on this one. ABC will be hyping this one up starting Thanksgiving!

Mike Tyson is such a non-factor in the boxing world that I didn’t even mention he got his a$$ kicked over the weekend. Scrub.

ESPN has signed Pat Summerall to do play-by-play for some preseason games while Mike Patrick has surgery. I just hope he doesn’t embarrass himself, he’s way past his prime. Those of you that are familiar with the “McNabb” call on Fox a few years ago know what I’m talking about.

How is Pittsburgh Superintendent John Thompson’s story front page news just a Sunday ago in the Post-Gazette, yet when he takes his name out of the running for the same job in D.C. it’s on the back page… …of the “Region” section?

The job is his if he wants it: Bill Clinton can host an episode of Saturday Night Live this season for NBC. That should be entertaining. I would have thought the timing would have been better around his book coming out but nevertheless, I hope this goes through.

Bloggin’ from Blair County, You Got Craig House-ed!!

I finally got to an Altoona Curve game at Blair County Ballpark and it is great! A must see ballpark. The atmosphere is great, it’s small but big enough; not a bad view in the house. And the roller coaster in the backdrop in the outfield is great. Having “GO CURVE” spelled out on the coaster cars doesn’t hurt either.

Aside from the normal in between innings antics that are most likely par for the course in AA ball, it was a great game. Curve was down 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth with two outs when the Baysox elected to have pitcher Craig House intentionally walk a batter to but Curve runners on first and second. A passed ball nullified that effort. The umpire blew what appeared to be a called third strike; the Curve batter then hit the next pitch down the left field line. House, the catcher and the Bowie manager were none too happy. Bottom line, Curve win 3-2

I thought the rule was you couldn’t argue balls and strikes and that was immediate ejection. Well the catcher did quite a job to show up the ump, as did the pitcher who was quite a hot head, glaring the ump after the inning. Then, the manager comes out of the dugout! WTF!!!

I’ll post a link to view the few pictures I took at the game, so long they come out, later this week. Stay posted.

What up with the Nomar to Cubs trade? This poor guy goes from one lovable loser to another. Let me get this straight Red Sox, you don’t get Arod, then you trade the shortstop you already have! OK, no wonder there is the curse of the bambino.

Jimmie Johnson is the modern-day Jeff Gordon. 24 times 2 is 48, JJ’s car number. He’s racing for Hendrick Motorsports and doing well. Yesterday he swept Pocono, winning the Pennsylvania 500.

The Tony Stewart spin-out wasn’t as fun for me as it should have been. I had him staring in my Nascar fantasy league this week!

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review actually has a good idea. I read where they are going to have their sports section in an easier to read tabloid format. Nice move Trib! The sports is something they do well, I hope they pack as much info in those pages as they do currently. They don’t have to “shove it” this time! I am not sure if this marks the end of the Trib P.M. publication, a Monday-Saturday afternoon paper which I also liked. It was especially nice because it had the scorecard in the sports section if the Pirates were home.

Welcome to NYC Kris Benson!

Bye Kris Benson, Nice Watching You Pitch

I’m so glad the Benson trade FINALLY took place. Here’s a guy that just flat out underachieved. So I’m sure he’ll get a Cy Young Award and a few All-Star Game starts in the Mets uniform! Looks like some of the guys we got for him can make an immediate impact, unlike the normal bag of balls and prospects garbage that we seem to get in trades.

That’s all for Saturday afternoon. You’ll hear about the Curve game Monday. I know it’s after midnight and technically Sunday, but fear not; the only reason it’s this late is because I got dragged into a game of hearts with my wife and mother-in-law.

Naturally, I lost!