On Friday the 13th, a certain superstitious writer dared to take a photo of a broken mirror and a black cat crossing his path under this open umbrella (indoors). Such an intrepid warrior should be running our economy.

At the recent Philadelphia MATHCOUNTS competition, the Chestnut Hill Academy Middle School team of George Kunkel (Chestnut Hill), Matt Trejo (Ambler), Tim Menninger (Eagleville) and Abe Bilger (Ft. Washington) defended the school’s first place finish of last year with another first place finish. The team was coached by Middle School Math Teacher Andrew Wolf.
The MATHCOUNTS competition involves written and oral rounds, as well as individual and team components. On the individual level, George Kunkel took first place in the written part of the competition and second place in the oral; Matt Trejo, sixth place written and seventh oral; Tim Menninger, tenth place written and ninth oral; and Abe Bilger, 16th place written. Competing on the individual level only were Scott Salisbury, who placed 15th in the written portion; and Harrison Tracy, Matt Kozemchak, and Evan Fireman, who placed in the top 50 written. MATHCOUNTS is a national enrichment, coaching, and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement.

OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY: Springside School’s summer camps, collectively known as Summerside, will hold an Open House this Sunday, March 15, 12 to 3 p.m. Parents and campers — boys and girls ages 4-16 — are invited to sample the many camps which offer something for everyone! Cast members from last year’s production of Alice in Wonderland are featured in this photo; this year’s Performing Arts Camp will produce Seussical. For more information, call 215-247-7272 or visit www.springside.org.

Chestnut Hill Academy board member and beloved former soccer coach Jim Talbot was recently inducted into the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame at the annual Pennsylvania Soccer Association Banquet in Hershey, PA.
During his acceptance speech, Talbot credited his former CHA players for his honor.

“I wouldn’t be receiving this honor today if it weren’t for all the hard work and dedication of all my players at CHA. I really accept this award on their behalf.” He also recognized the contributions of his former assistant coach, Frank Steel, CHA’s Headmaster.

Talbot coached the CHA varsity for 27 seasons from 1967 through 1993. During his tenure, CHA won nine Inter-Academic League titles, the last seven consecutively, from 1987 through 1993. Talbot’s teams won over 60 of their last 70 league games and were twice rated the top team in the state for schools with an enrollment of 500 boys or less. In 1973 Talbot coached CHA’s only undefeated team, which finished 14-0-2, tri-captained by Dave Rhoda, Louis Dollarton, and Warren Beideman. All three went on to play at the collegiate level.

Many other CHA players during Talbot’s tenure went on to play college ball. Five of his players from the 2002 and 1992 teams later became college captains: Read Goodwin at Penn, Jon Freeman at Trinity, Greg Beideman at Temple, Mike Paskey at Villanova, and Scott Fedezko at Elizabethtown. Other collegiate standouts included Alan Hom, who played at Carnegie-Mellon and professionally with the Pittsburg Stingers. Talbot’s son, John, played collegiately on Princeton’s only Final Four team in the fall of 1993. Several of his former players attended Talbot’s alma mater, the University of North Carolina: Mike Disston, Joe Maher, Jim Poff, George Lyons, Pat O’Donnell and Joe DiSalvo, who was recently hired as CHA’s new varsity soccer coach. Talbot, himself, was the captain of the Tar Heel soccer team in 1964. He played high school soccer at George School where his father, Jack Talbot, coached soccer for many years in the 1950s.

Talbot has been honored previously for his coaching career at CHA. The Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame (Philadelphia Chapter) inducted him as a member in 1995. Chestnut Hill Academy inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000 and dedicated its new soccer field in his name in 2001.

Talbot retired from Chestnut Hill Academy in 2000 after 34 years to assume his present role as director of Camp Tecumseh, a resident summer camp for boys on Lake Winnipesaukee in Moultonborough, NH.