Pennsylvania
How Mizzou planted its flag in Pennsylvania recruiting
How Mizzou planted its flag in Pennsylvania recruiting
Sitting together during an official visit weekend in June, Jack Abercrombie and Tim Taggart started talking about the next wave of Pennsylvania talent.
Missouri, which anchored in its 2025 signing class with signal caller Matt Zollers, wasn’t done looking east, and Taggart had just the guy for the Tigers’ assistant offensive line coach.
Taggart recommended jumping in on Maxwell Hiller, a 6-foot-6, 300-pound sophomore offensive tackle. Taggart, the quarterbacks coach at Wyndmoor (Pa.) La Salle College High School and personal coach of Zollers, is close friends with Vinnie Williams, the offensive coordinator at Coatesville (Pa.) Coatesville Area Senior, where Hiller plays.
“You guys got to get after him now,” Taggart said then. “I remember giving three or four of their coaches all of Max’s information.”
Abercrombie offered Hiller by late October and got him on campus to Missouri for the program’s Junior Day on Jan. 18. Hiller isn’t an under-the-radar talent, ranking No. 55 nationally in the Class of 2027, but the Tigers weren’t regulars in his home state until now.
“It shows that they have good recruiting to come out all this way from Missouri all the way to PA to recruit,” Hiller said in October. “So it’s definitely great to see.”
Abercrombie rejoined the Missouri staff ahead of the 2023 season after previously serving as an offensive graduate assistant in 2020-2021. He spent the prior two seasons as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator, for only 2022, at the Virginia Military Institute.
A native of Horsham, Pennsylvania, Abercrombie played and coached collegiately in his home state, and over the past decade and a half, those connections to Pennsylvania have bled into his ability to recruit the area.
“Jack Abercrombie, he’s definitely going to be an up-and-coming coach in the near future,” Taggart said.
Abercrombie knows two staffers at La Salle College High School well in offensive line coach Mark Schmidt and defensive line coach David Sowers. Schmidt and Sowers have built success at multiple stops in Pennsylvania, leaving fingerprints across the state in coaching and recruiting.
“Jack’s a big part,” Taggart said. “Not a lot of people understand these under-the-radar coaches, younger coaches, guys that are maybe lower-end assistances. They’re the ones that have a lot of the big-time relationships and connections.
“They do a lot of the dirty work behind the scenes, where they’re studying, watching all the film of all these guys, and they’re trying to find the diamonds in the rough. They’re trying to use their connections and everything, and it’s paying off big time for programs like Mizzou.”
The eastern half of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, is where Missouri found Zollers as well as a trio of La Salle College High School players — Grayson McKeogh, Joey O’Brien and Gavin Sidwar.
Missouri offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kirby Moore traveled to La Salle College High School on Tuesday to workout Sidwar, a Class of 2026 three-star quarterback, who received an offer from the Tigers after a conversation with Moore.
Moore told Sidwar he wanted to host him for a one-on-one visit this spring, making the quarterback the focal point for the Tigers in whatever weekend they decide to schedule a trip.
Missouri made it a point of emphasis to make offers more personal with players, getting on high school campuses to talk with recruits. The Tigers did that with Sidwar and McKeogh, another player Taggart put on Abercrombie’s radar this past summer.
“The thing that I think separates Missouri, apart from a lot of other programs that would be interested in kids from Pennsylvania, is the actual town,” Taggart said. “The school is located in the middle of the town, so that was one of the things for Matt. Matt saying this, ‘It feels like I’m back in Royersford, Pennsylvania.’”
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania governor's budget is expected to seek more for schools and transit, emphasize frugality
Public transit
Shapiro has been adamant about preventing cutbacks by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the Philadelphia region’s public transit agency, which hasn’t regained ridership lost during the pandemic.
Republican lawmakers have insisted on finding a new revenue source and packaging transit aid with more cash for highway projects in their districts.
Last year, Shapiro proposed a $150 million tax on the skill games that are popular in bars, convenience stores, pizzerias and standalone parlors around the state. Lawmakers are again eyeing it as a way to raise the money.
Human services
Organizations that provide home care for the elderly and disabled are seeking increases in Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Direct care workers’ pay rates have fallen far behind, and it’s getting harder to find workers, making the services harder to get for people who need them, said Mia Haney of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association.
The association is seeking about $500 million in rate increases, around 7% more. Pennsylvania has among the lowest in reimbursement rates among its neighbors and comparable states, it says.
Separately, nursing home operators want at least $139 million more, or about 7%, to help keep beds open, and a $20 million increase, or about 10% more, for day programs that help the elderly get medical, nutrition, rehab and other needs met.
Gary Pezzano of LeadingAge PA said nursing home operators are taking beds offline because they can’t affording staffing costs, and that’s causing emergency rooms to get backed up because there’s a lack of beds to accept people in need of rehab or nursing care.
Counties are seeking another $100 million for the mental health services they administer — about a 33% increase — and say the network that serves its social services and criminal justice system is on the verge of collapse.
Shapiro, meanwhile, has said he’ll propose more money to support health care in rural Pennsylvania.
Energy
Shapiro wants to fast-track the construction of big power plants and offer hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks amid an energy crunch that threatens to raise electricity bills across Pennsylvania.
Legalizing marijuana
Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, said he believes passage of forthcoming legislation he’ll sponsor to legalize marijuana is possible by July 1, although getting enough Senate Republicans on board has been a challenge. Shapiro supports legalizing marijuana.
Violence prevention
The anti-gun violence group CeaseFirePA said it found big drops in gun violence — a 42% drop in victims and a 38% drop in deaths since 2022. It urged lawmakers to “double down” on $56.5 million it budgeted this year for violence prevention.
Pennsylvania
How 4 Pa. corporations measure up on preventing gun violence
Nationally, gun owners often support more relaxed gun laws, while non-gun owners tend to favor stricter regulations. The trend continues to demonstrate substantial momentum. That pattern persists.
According to Pew Research Center’s 2021 surveys, 37% of gun owners support banning assault-style weapons, compared with 74% of non-gun owners — a divide that has grown.
In 2023, Pennsylvania issued a total of 335,975 licenses for carrying firearms and sold 15,457 handguns. According to the Pennsylvania State Police, Philadelphia accounted for 23,634 of those carry permits.
Local gun violence trends
Between 2020 and 2022, Philadelphia saw a sizable increase in gun violence, though more recent data shows a downturn. Below is a snapshot of the last decade.
According to the Center for American Progress, Philadelphia experienced the most significant reduction in gun violence among major cities so far in 2024.
‘Businesses Must Act’ campaign
Hudson Munoz, executive director of Guns Down America, urges corporations to view gun violence as both a business concern and a moral imperative. The organization contends that consumers can wield their purchasing power to influence companies’ responses to gun violence.
“Consumers see an increasing range of options for businesses to address gun violence in communities,” Munoz said. “They’re willing to spend more on brands that are doing things to solve the problem.”
Munoz and his team developed the “Business Must Act” campaign to push corporate America toward greater responsibility in the communities where they operate — specifically by addressing gun violence. They evaluated 38 corporations based on three criteria: in-store policies, corporate actions and political and lobbying contributions.
4 Pennsylvania-Based Corporations
- Dick’s Sporting Goods (headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania) A- : Dick’s Sporting Goods has emerged as a prominent advocate for gun reform following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Since 2018, the company has decreased its gun sales, which accounted for less than 5% of total revenue in 2022.
- Sheetz (headquartered in Altoona, Pennsylvania) D- : Sheetz has not publicly addressed the issue of gun violence, and there are no available public statements or policies related to this matter.
- Rite Aid (headquartered in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania) F: Rite Aid has not made any public statements or established policies addressing the issue of gun violence. Additionally, the company has contributed to lawmakers who receive support from the gun lobby.
- Wawa (headquartered in Wawa, Pennsylvania) F: Wawa has not publicly addressed the issue of gun violence, as evidenced by the absence of any official statements or public policies on the matter. Furthermore, the company has made contributions to lawmakers who are supported by the gun lobby.
All four corporations are headquartered in regions that generally lean Republican. As part of the campaign, Guns Down America released details on political contributions in Pennsylvania related to gun legislation.
Pennsylvania
Should Pa. ‘return to tradition’ of Monday deer season opener? House panel tees up discussion.
Pennsylvania’s controversial change to when firearms season opens for white-tailed deer is going back before state lawmakers.
The state House Game & Fisheries Committee is scheduled to meet Monday for what’s labeled as an “informational meeting on the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s 2019 decision to change the opening day of the regular antlered deer hunting season,” plus other business.
That Game Commission decision moved opening day to the Saturday from the Monday after Thanksgiving. It’s divided hunters between those who welcome the additional weekend hunting opportunity and those who support the Monday start that was practice for some 60 years.
The committee meeting comes as some lawmakers continue to push legislation to establish by law the Monday opening day. State Rep. Brian Smith, R-Jefferson/Indiana, has already introduced House Bill 70 in the new 2025-26 legislative session to do just that, calling it a “Return to Tradition” in a co-sponsorship memo to House colleagues.
Smith serves on the House Game & Fisheries Committee, while the Senate counterpart has state Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, as its newly appointed minority chairwoman. She sponsored a bill of her own, Senate Bill 708, during the last legislative session that also sought to “permanently move the opening day of Pennsylvania Deer Rifle Season back to the Monday after Thanksgiving.”
Monday’s meeting starts at 9 a.m. and is scheduled to be live-streamed at pahouse.com/live.
The Game Commission argues that by moving the opener for 2019 and every year since, more hunters can take part in the start of Pennsylvania’s biggest hunting season.
The move came amid a decline in hunting license sales, though the commission last fall cited positive changes in license sales patterns since the Saturday opener, which they believe may be directly tied to the change. An independent survey conducted after the third year of the Saturday-opening season found 60% support for the change, 27% opposition, and 13% with no preference, according to the commission.
“We will be in attendance and look forward to the discussion and helping to answer any questions the committee might have,” Game Commission spokesman Travis Lau told lehighvalleylive.com on Thursday.
Monday-opener advocate Randy Santucci said he’s scheduled to present during Monday’s hearing. He points to surveys prior to the change showing two-thirds of respondents favored the Monday opener.
“There’s a lot of misinformation flying around about it that we’re going to address that hopefully will help the legislators,” said Santucci, southwest regional director for Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania.
Santucci suggested that the state could declare the Monday after Thanksgiving a “hunter’s holiday,” which would align with school calendars in four out of five Pennsylvania districts, according to a lehighvalleylive.com analysis published last Thanksgiving week as part of the Misfire special project that delved into the Monday-versus-Saturday-opener divide.
Messages seeking comment on Monday’s hearing were not immediately returned by committee Chairwoman state Rep. Anita Astorino Kulik, D-Allegheny, and the Republican chairman from Berks County, state Rep. David Maloney Sr.
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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
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