A majority of the people who read this column on a consistent basis never heard of Willis Reed. If they have, they probably weren’t old enough to see him play.
A professional basketball Hall of Famer, Reed was the center and captain of the New York Knicks when they played the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1970 NBA Finals.
Reed had suffered a torn muscle in his right thigh in Game 5 and didn’t play in Game 6. With the series tied 3-3, Reed didn’t come out for warm-ups for Game 7 at Madison Square Garden.
Just moments before tip-off, however, Reed limped out of the locker room and onto the court, then helped Walt Frazier and the Knicks beat Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers for the Knicks’ first NBA championship.
Moments in sports where injured players seem to climb out of the ambulance or off the hospital bed and give great performances in key situations always evoke images of Reed.
Bobby Grigas had one of those Reed-type performances Friday in an Anthracite Football League clash against Tamaqua.
The North Schuylkill senior quarterback and 2014 Republican-Herald Offensive Player of the Year suffered a high ankle sprain in the first quarter and was taken off the field on a cart. News of the injury flowed to every game in Schuylkill County, with initial reports saying Grigas had a broken ankle.
With the score tied at 14 in the fourth quarter, however, Grigas was back. Limping back onto the field in a Reed-like fashion, Grigas guided the Spartans to a game-winning drive, plunging in from 1 yard out for the winning TD.
In the end, North Schuylkill captured a 20-14 victory. In the big picture of things, it also pointed out how injuries to key players can change the entire scope of a season.
The Spartans are a much different team without Grigas leading the way, which was obvious when he wasn’t in the game.
Grigas’ injury reminds us that for teams to bring home championships, they’re going to have to stay healthy.
Here’s some other things we learned from Week 1:
THE GREAT DIVIDE — In the now 14-year history of the Anthracite Football League, there has never been such a disparity between the big schools and small schools as there is this year.
Lehighton, Blue Mountain and Jim Thorpe rolled to Week 1 victories over three clubs — Mahanoy Area, Shenandoah Valley and Minersville — that should be improved for 2015.
As the season progresses, Marian might be the only Class A team in the AFL capable of hanging with the Class AA and AAA schools.
That means a couple of things.
First, it means that every game involving two Class A schools has major District 11 playoff implications. This week’s Haven at Mahanoy game is a perfect example.
Second, those games between a Class AA/AAA school and a Class A school are going to get ugly, and the Class A school has to make sure it does everything it can to come out of it healthy.
DEPTH IS KEY — Two teams that notched key victories in Week 1, Marian and Tri-Valley, showed off their depth.
Marian lost its starting left guard, Noah Heckman, on the fifth play of the game, but had the backups capable of coming in and making sure the Colts’ offense didn’t skip a beat in a win over Williams Valley.
Tri-Valley’s large numbers allowed the Dawgs to wear down a Millersburg team that had a 14-13 lead in the second quarter. In the hot days of September, that depth comes in handy in the second half when fatigue sets in.
Odds and Ends
Kudos to former Nativity, Mount Carmel and Blue Mountain coach Mike Brennan, who guided his Hazleton Area squad to a 22-20 shocker of Wilkes-Barre Coughlin in its opener.
The Cougars went just 1-9 last year in Brennan’s first season at Hazleton, while Coughlin had entered the season ranked No. 2 in WNEP’s preseason Super 16.
• On this anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our country 14 years ago, take some time today to thank our local military for keeping us free, and the firefighters, police officers, paramedics and other emergency service personnel for keeping us safe and alive every day.
Player of the Week
Dan Scheib, Tri-Valley
In his first varsity start, the sophomore fullback bulled his way for 161 yards on 16 carries in the Dawgs’ win over Millersburg, scoring three TDs. Two of those came in the second half when Tri-Valley pulled away.
Honorable Mention: Ignacio Reynoso, Hamburg; Mason Freed, Blue Mountain; Wyatt Clements, Lehighton; Nick Kerschner, Schuylkill Haven; and the Marian secondary of K.J. Snerr, Dominic Mussoline, Aaron DeAngelo and Hunter Nause.
(Boyer is sports editor and covers HS football for The Republican-Herald. Follow him on Twitter @pubsportsboss)