CHEAT SHEET

Sitting in the sauna that is

Roman Catholic

's attic, a few idle thoughts came to mind.

One, is there a better high school gym in the area? The three-story trek to the top, the narrow court, the limited seating and the penetrating heat help Roman's quirky, drenched-in-ambience gym personify what's great about high school hoops. Its flaws are its redeeming traits.

I used to think the animated students' sections were what personified what is great about Catholic League basketball. But for the most part, the student rooters have been mute this season.

Which led to thought No. 2: Have the steps taken by CL brass to prevent a repeat of last season's championship-game fiasco dulled the spirit of fan participation at boys' basketball games this season?

Steve Pawlowski doesn't think so.

"I don't know that to be true," said Pawlowski, who heads education for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. "It hasn't affected attendance. And some of the games have had great fan participation."

Not any that I've been to. Sure, two of the games were the spectator-banned Neumann-Goretti vs. Roman clashes. But the others felt like I was at a 76ers game. And around the league, the birds are chirping about the dulled atmosphere.

There's no denying the CL had to do something following the incident at the title game that involved interaction between Roman fans and one Neumann-Goretti player. Banning any type of sign or banner, as the PIAA has done for years, was a good first step.

But to limit students to only "positively cheering on their teams," as Pawlowski said earlier in the week, is to dampen the imagination of sometimes-precocious teenagers.

No one is saying the students should be allowed to print up signs of a less-than-attractive rapper just because they think an opposing player bears a striking resemblance. (A diss I never understood. Wasn't Flava Flav a member of pioneering Public Enemy and the star of the greatest reality show ever, Flavor of Love?... Yeaaahhhhhh, booooyyyeeeeee!)

But shouldn't they be allowed to express sometimes-cutting-edge wit? For instance, two seasons ago, as Neumann-Goretti was putting the finishing touches on its championship win over St. Joseph's Prep, the Saints students started to chant, "Start your Beemers" to the Hawks faithful. The Prep boys countered with, "Start the subway."

That's funny stuff - Jerry Seinfeld funny and not Andrew "Dice" Clay funny, as it should be.

"Malcolm's hard to sit because he wants to play if his head's hanging off."

- Franklin Learning Center boys' basketball coach Cedric Powell on the St. Bonaventure-bound Malcolm Eleby. A 6-foot-2 senior guard, Eleby - who has been playing recently with a few nagging injuries - and the Bobcats play Mountain View from Scranton tonight at 6 p.m. at Ben Franklin.

With National Signing Day only a week and a half away, many college football programs are tidying up any recruitment loose ends.

So the mad dash to fill all available scholarships has many local seniors committing late in the process. Two more recruits from the area gave colleges their pledge this week, with both coming from Ches-Mont League schools.

Downingtown West punter Rob Long is headed to Syracuse. The 6-4, 180-pound Long handled all kicking duties for the Whippets this season. He connected on 5 of 6 field-goal attempts and 40 of 41 extra points and averaged a little more than 40 yards a punt.

West Chester East senior Jarrod Williams committed to Division I-AA Rhode Island when he returned from an official visit last weekend.

Williams, a 6-1, 190-pound utility back, will most likely play wide receiver for the Rams. At East, he ran for 881 yards and 11 TDs, averaging a whopping 10.5 yards per carry.