It started innocently enough.

Duke Helm was asked a question at work that he couldn't answer.Finding the answer to that question created a passion. Twenty years later, the line between passion and obsession has probably become a bit blurred for Helm.Helm is the unofficial statistician for District 11 football. He is unofficial only because he was never asked by the district to do it and he doesn't earn a salary doing it.But when it comes to passing, rushing and receiving records in the district, there is no one or no place more official than Helm.A 1982 Wilson High School graduate, Helm piled up receiving numbers for the Warrior football team that were ahead of their time in the single receiver, two tight end, two running back formations that were in vogue at that time.But more than a decade later, when he was asked if he holds any receiving records at Wilson, Helm didn't have an answer - and neither did anyone else."Dick Walsh, a colleague of mine at work, was a huge high school football fan and remembered me from my playing days. He asked me if I held any Wilson school records," said Helm. "I knew what my numbers were because we had a team statistician that kept them. But when I checked with the school, they had no records at all. No one had ever compiled them.Helm took it upon himself to do the job."I went to the Easton library and started checking the Easton Express' newspaper archives," said Helm. "I started in the 1920s when Wilson first began playing football. It took me over two years of research but I eventually compiled all of Wilson's passing, rushing and receiving numbers."And as they say, the rest is history.Knowing the top players in Wilson history wasn't enough, Helm, who began his research following the 1995 football season, eventually expanded his newfound passion to include the entire Lehigh Valley."While I was doing the work on Wilson's stats, I began doing Easton, Phillipsburg and Nazareth high schools as well because the Easton Express newspaper also carried all their games," said Helm. "Once I finished those schools, I decided to expand to all the teams that at the time were in the Lehigh Valley Conference, the Centennial League, and the Colonial League, as well as Pius X, which was an independent."I used the Allentown and Bethlehem libraries, the library at East Stroudsburg University and the Lehighton Times News archives to gather as much information as I could on the schools in those leagues."In 2010, Helm started to send out a weekly email of highlights from that week's games. In addition to highlighting all the big passing, rushing and receiving performances, his notes also feature players who set single-game records; those who set or came close to season and career records at their school; and those who are threatening district or state records.At that same time, Helm once again decided to expand his record keeping, adding the Anthracite Football League schools, as well as the other Schuylkill County football schools in the district."I started by asking either the coach or athletic director at those schools what kind of records they already had," said Helm. "Some schools like Tri-Valley had excellent records. Others had practically nothing. So I was starting from scratch once again with some of the schools."Helm's weekly email is basically a newsletter that now includes every school in District 11. It is packed with stats and information that he estimates takes him 12-15 hours a week to compile, update and write."I think there are 46 schools now playing football in District 11, and I send the email to almost all of the head coaches," said Helm. "In addition, it goes to a couple dozen athletic directors, writers at every newspaper that cover District 11 teams, four TV stations, a number of assistant coaches and former coaches, and a lot of former area players. I get emails from people asking me to include them on the list and I do."Helm hopes to one day turn all the information he has gathered into a book."I keep statistics in six major categories - rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, passing yards, passing touchdowns, receptions and receiving yards - and for most schools I have the top 10 career leaders in each of those categories," explained Helm. "I also have individual game and season records in those categories."What Helm doesn't have is any intention of stopping what he is doing."I'm in so deep now, I can't get out," laughed Helm when asked how long he intended to continue.Helm's passion for what he is doing is obviously still there, even though all the school records that he discovered he held aren't.Helm's original research revealed he owned Wilson High School records for both receptions and receiving yardage in a game, a season and a career. He also owned numerous other records, including average catches per game and average yards per catch.At one time I owned 16 school receiving records," said Helm. "But a lot of those were broken during Wilson's state championship season in 2006."Two years ago Zach Bogoly broke the last record I owned when he caught 13 passes in a game (Helm had 12). I guess it was nice while it lasted. But records are made to be broken."No one knows that better than Duke Helm - District 11's official unofficial stat keeper.NOTE ... Anyone wishing to be included on Duke Helm's weekly email list can contact him at 610-393-1113.**********RECEIVING MACHINE ... Northwestern's Trevor Cunningham caught six passes for 127 yards in last Friday's victory over Southern Lehigh.The week before, the junior receiver hauled in four catches for 132 yards.Cunningham became the first player in school history to have back-to-back 100-yard receiving games.The last Times News area player to have back-to-back 100-yard receiving games was Jim Thorpe's Mike Harleston during the 2012 season.Since 1988, back-to-back 100-yard receiving games have been accomplished by 20 different players, but only three of them have done it three weeks in a row. They are Panther Valley's Tom Rosahac (1989) and Jim Thorpe's Don Evans (2000) and Josh Hontz (2007).**********GRAND COMPANY ... Lehighton quarterback Tyler Cann threw for 101 yards in last Thursday's win over Panther Valley.That total pushed the senior over the 1,000-yard mark this season, as he now stands at 1,007.Cann became just the second Indian player to throw for 1,000 yards in two different seasons. He joins Terry Wogenrich, who topped 1,000 in both 1967 and 1968.Among Times News players, Cann is the 21st player to accomplish two 1,000-yard passing seasons since 1988. Six of them have done it in three seasons. They are Jim Thorpe's Matt Long (1998-2000) and Corey Cinicola (2007-2009), Marian's Brian Kennedy (1991-1993) and Brent "Chuck" Andrew (1994, 1996-1997), Northwestern's Frank Dangello (2012-2014) and Panther Valley's Cazzie Kosciolek (1990-1992).**********SIX SCORES FOR STASKO ... Palmerton's Mike Stasko set a school record last Friday, scoring six touchdowns in the Blue Bombers' win over Catasauqua.Stasko topped the old mark of five, held by both Gil Concepcion and Chris Siracuse (who did it twice).Since 1992, only four other players in the Times News area have scored six or more touchdowns in a game. They include Panther Valley's Rich Smith (7 on Sept. 14, 2012), Lehighton's Jacen Nalesnik (6 on Nov. 4, 2011) and Joe Semanoff (6 on Sept. 15, 2000) and Northern Lehigh's Ryan Hluschak (6 on Nov. 1, 2002).**********NO SHUTOUTS ... Through seven weeks of the regular season, all nine Times News area teams have scored in every game in which they participated in.However, dating back through the 1978 season, the Times News area has had at least one team get shutout every year.