joel shrum column
TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 15, 2012SUNDAY NEWS
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By Matt BlyMierSpecial to the Sunday News
There’s an English proverb that says, “Death always comes too early or too late.’’
For Joel Shrum, death came way too early.
Shrum’s life came to a tragic, unfair and horrifying end about a month ago when he was gunned down in Yemen. Hundreds of his friends and family gathered Sun-day to remember a man who meant so much to so many.
Joel was a teammate, a men-tor, a friend and a brother to many when he played football at Donegal High School in the late 1990s. He was a year ahead of me and already a well-established member of the football team when we became teammates my sophomore year. Over the next three years, I really got to know, respect and appreciate him. No other peer of mine had as much of an influence on me as Joel did.
And for good reason.Joel was as intense on the field
as he was gentle and kind off it.
He found the secret to turning the switch on when he stepped be-tween the lines and just as quickly shutting it off when he wasn’t. He was a multiple all-league selec-tion and one of the best two-way players in the league, but none of that went to his head. His main concerns during the season were winning and his teammates.
In the first scrimmage of my junior season, I injured my knee and missed most of the scrimmage. We weren’t sure the extent of the injury and I was told to stay home and ice my knee for the night. Two hours after the scrimmage, the doorbell rang at my parents’ house. It was Joel and few other seniors coming to check in on me. It was a gesture that he didn’t even think twice about but it meant the world to me.
Joel was a passionate, natural-born leader, and as the captain had the respect of all his teammates.
His senior season ended up be-ing something special. We finished 9-1 that season and won the Section Three title — which was a bigger deal then because only four teams made the District Three playoffs and 9-1 wasn’t quite good enough to reach the postseason that year.
What made the season so special was the adversity the team faced and conquered that season. We trailed in most games and won many by one score. We were able
Joel Shrum was a natural leaderA former Donegal football player remembers
the impact of his fallen teammate.
Lancaster Newspapers photo
Joel Shrum was an intense All-Star player at Donegal.
AppreciAtion
Please see APPRECIATION, page C7
Record day at Black Knight
Barry Decker/Sunday newS
Fifteen meet records were set in the 10th annual Black Knight Invitational Saturday at Hempfield High School. Hemp-field’s Kyle Long, left, and Cocalico’s Kyle Felpel turned in meet-record performances that ranked among the best in the nation this season. Long won the discus with a throw of 187 feet, 9 inches, ninth-best in the nation this season, according to milesplit.com, a national high school track and field authority. Felpel won the shot put in 63-3, fifth-best in the nation. For Barry Decker’s story and more pictures from the meet, see C2.
By Dan GelstonAP Sports Writer
VOORHEES, N.J. — There is no shortage of suggestions, from serious to silly, for how the Phila-delphia Flyers can stop falling behind so early in games.
Start the backup goalie for a period.
Spot teams a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard and knock 10 minutes off the clock before the opening faceoff.
Skate harder, come out more focused.
No matter the ideas batted around the locker room, the song remains the same. The Flyers have allowed the first goal in 12 of the last 14 games, and have trailed by multiple goals in nine of those games.
Normally a recipe for disaster and the draft lottery, the Flyers have turned the deficits into thrill-ing victories that have stamped them as the undisputed comeback
kings of the NHL. Just ask the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Penguins blew a 3-0 lead in Game 1 of their opening-round series, and leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in Game 2 to find themselves in a deep hole. The Flyers hold a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series as the series shifts today to Philadelphia.
This is one 2-zip lead the Flyers refuse to squander.
Win Game 3 and Game 4 on Wednesday and the Flyers won’t have to worry about a return trip to Pittsburgh, an idea that seemed inconceivable before the series started. Yet, here are the Flyers, back on home ice, with a combina-tion of slow starts and fantastic finishes on their side — for now.
“It’s not the way we plan things,” rookie center Sean Cou-turier said Saturday. “We seem to find a way to get back every night. It’s going to catch up with us some
Up 2-0, Flyers hopefor a fast start today
Please see FLYERS, page C12
Jeff Ruppenthal/Sunday newS
The frustration shows on the face of the Phillies’ Hunter Pence as he stands in the dugout after striking out in the fourth inning.
PHILADELPHIA — This Space’s usual M.O. is to stretch its limitations.
Today it could get by with just four words:
Get used to it.In six of their first seven games, the
Phillies didn’t hit enough to bruise an overripe peach. They didn’t hit Saturday in a 5-0 loss to the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park.
Those truths, by themselves, are of course no biggie, in mid-April.
The biggie is it’s hard to imagine this club, at least as currently constituted, hitting much in the future.
The Phillies are 3-5 and seem worse than that, at least when the masterful Roy Halla-day — largely respon-sible for two of the wins — isn’t working.
They managed five singles Saturday off Mets garden-variety left-hander Jon Niese.
They threatened in the first, with two men on before Hunter Pence grounded into a
double play, and in the second, when with a man on Brian Schneider drilled a drive to center, where the Mets’ Kirk Nieu-wenhuis ran it down and made a superb catch.
That was about it.What was ominous was how aggres-
sive Niese was, throwing his fastball early in counts and not nibbling with it, not even a little bit.
“He was willing to be aggressive,’’ Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “He didn’t mess around. He went right at
Will the hits ever come for Phils?
Please see PUNCHLESS, page C12
MikeGrossAssistant Sports Editor
By roB MaaDDiAP Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA — Charlie Manuel has juggled the lineup, started bench players and tried every-thing he can to get a sluggish offense going.
It hasn’t worked.Philadelphia managed just six hits in a 5-0 loss
to the New York Mets on Saturday, dropping to 3-5 on the season. The Phillies, who have won five consecu-tive NL East titles, are struggling without All-Stars Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the middle of their lineup, scor-ing two runs or less in five of their eight games.
“We’re eight games in, it doesn’t faze me at all,” Manuel said. “I hate to use the word ‘early’ because I come to the ballpark every day and I want to win, but there’s no sense in panicking. We’re going to score runs, we’re going to compete, we’re going to hold the fort until our guys get back.”
Mets starter Jonathon Niese (2-0) allowed five hits and struck out five in 6.2 innings. Bobby Parnell got four outs and Jon Rauch pitched the ninth.
David Wright was 3-for-5, including a long
Mets blankstrugglingPhils, 5-0
Please see PHILLIES, page C12
Jeff Ruppenthal/Sunday newS
Mets’ David Wright rounds the bases for his first-inning homer.