Eric Balcik
Cultural Analysis
7/20/14
Stroudsburg Sports: A Changing Culture
5,567 people strong in our small town, Stroudsburg is nestled in the Pocono Mountains
and is right near the New Jersey border. The Delaware water gap, which runs through the
majestic mountains of our town, is where the Delaware River runs. The Town of Stroudsburg has
a beautiful Main Street and Courthouse. The immediate surrounding area of Stroudsburg holds
about 50,000 people, and all of the kids go to the local school district.
Stroudsburg High School has been around since the early 1900’s and has competed in
athletics since the 1911 basketball team first played. There are a total of 6,000 students in the
district, with approximately 1,300 in the high school. There are around 250 boys and 200 girls
participants in high school sports (note that some athletes may play more than one sport.)
Track, Soccer, Field Hockey, and Football compete at Ross-Stulgaitis Stadium, named
after former football head coaches Fred Ross and Jeremy Stulgaitis. A few years ago artificial
turf as well as a brand new track was put into the stadium at a cost of nearly 10 million dollars.
The seating capacity on the home side is about 2,500 while the visiting side can fit about 1,000.
On game days, the hallways of Stroudsburg High school are engulfed in a sea of maroon,
black, and white jerseys.
The Mountain Valley Conference Championship has been won by Stroudsburg way more
often than anyone else. Over the past few years, Stroudsburg has won a majority of MVC
Championships. Golf has won every one for the last eight years, and the girls swim team hasn't
lost in the conference since 2003. This past year, boys cross country, girls tennis, girls and boys
soccer, field hockey, wrestling, boys swimming, girls and boys track, and boys and girls tennis
all won championships as well. That’s 12 out of the 21 total athletic MVC Championships. The
other schools in the conference are Pleasant Valley, who won 3 championships, East Stroudsburg
South, who also won 3 championships, Pocono Mountain West whose basketball teams each
won a title, and Pocono Mountain East, who won one title. Other teams also include East
Stroudsburg North and Lehighton, who haven’t won an MVC Championship in years.
Stroudsburg is clearly the kings of the conference, and our twitter hashtag, #MountieNation,
appears on twitter after every conference championship.
However, despite all of the success in our conference, districts has been a different story
for us. Going back all the way to 2000, Stroudsburg sports has only won 4 district
championships. There are 21 championships contested every year, meaning Stroudsburg holds
claim to 4 of 294, or about 1.36% of all championships. If it’s not enough that we lose every year
in districts, it’s usually by a lot. Just this past year the baseball team lost a district game 13-3
after going 18-4 in the regular season.
With all of these conference champions, we have number one and two seeds for every
district tournament (being the number one and two seeds is the prize given to each conference
champion, one from our conference, and one from the Lehigh Valley Conference). This means
that we usually will get a bye in the first round, and are just three wins away from a title.
Stroudsburg has sent on average 10 conference champions to the district tournament
every year since 2010, and yet in that time has won only one district title (Boy’s Soccer 2012).
That makes us 1-for-40. When you have those kinds of numbers to think about as you begin
district play, it can be a bit intimidating. Also, not to mention that schools like Parkland and
Emmaus have 3,100 and 2,600 students respectively. This is double and triple our total
enrollment. For every two great athletes Stroudsburg has, Emmaus has four and Parkland has six
that are just as good. This makes it nearly impossible to compete.
We have the quality of athletes to compete with these teams, though. In fact, we currently
have two NCAA Division I football players, as well as an NFL defensive lineman for the
Washington Redskins that graduated from Stroudsburg. Every year, numerous athletes sign on to
play college sports. This past year, we had athletes sign for softball, baseball, football, wrestling,
golf, and swimming.
Next season, we will begin competing in the Eastern Pennsylvania Interscholastic
Conference (EPIC). This league will be made up of members of the MVC as well as all of those
teams from the Lehigh Valley, including Emmaus and Parkland. When this new league forms,
Stroudsburg will have to play these teams during the regular season. This leaves very little time
for us to figure out how to finally get over the hump and beat these teams.
One could give a variety of reasons as to why Stroudsburg has been so successful in
conference but so unsuccessful in district play. Could it be the size of the other schools and their
better quality of athletes? Could it be our negative outlook on past results? Is it something else?
The only thing that really matters is when we line up against these teams next season, no matter
what the sport is, we commit ourselves to changing the culture of Stroudsburg sports into a
culture of winning championships at every level.