Press Pass

BY SHAWN MCFARLAND

Over the last couple of years, concussions have been pushed to the front of the sports world. Concussion awareness has risen dramatically mainly due to the rapid growth of head injuries in football and hockey. Whereas years ago players would be able to talk themselves back into the game just minutes after taking a serious blow, now a plethora of tests must be done by a team's training staff before the player can even think about going back out and competing.

BY EMMETT MCCALL

With the PIAA basketball championships taking place today and tomorrow at Penn State University's Bryce Jordan Center, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at a few faults that I have with the way the state tournament is run.

I'd love to see a return to the days of separate Eastern and Western playoffs in the state.

Several years ago when Philadelphia teams joined the PIAA, the 32-team state tournament brackets in each of the classes were altered to reflect where the majority of the teams in each class were located.

Apparently, it still pays off to cheat in Major League Baseball.

The ritual of pitchers and catchers reporting signals the coming of spring, warm weather, leaves on the trees, and a new season of baseball. For the past few seasons, there was an excitement about the game as the shroud of the 2004 PED debacle and the Barry Bonds steroids case faded.

That cloud has returned. Despite the increased testing and awareness of the performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), the game is still dealing with the issue in light of the recent events surrounding the games better known names.

Penn State's new head man in charge Bill O'brien has put together his coaching staff for the hopefully new look Nittany Lions. The present New England Patriots offensive coordinator promised he would put together the best staff for Penn State and that he would do it swiftly. He wasn't lying about the time frame, but as far as the best staff for Penn State is concerned, only time will tell on that subject. Until then, there's only one thing left to do, which is to analyze O'brien's hirings.