Early playoff power rankings

Can you believe this Friday marks the halfway point of the regular season for high school football? It hasn't even felt like fall yet for crying out loud. Regardless, with said midway point visible on the horizon, it's time to take a look at the District 3 power rankings, which determine the playoff pairings.

Rather than regurgitate the names and numbers, you can browse them at your own pace by clicking the link above. The rankings are courtesy of the Pennsylvania Football News.

We would, however, like to take a minute and point something out. As it stands, Camp Hill is exactly where it needs to be. Frank Kindler's Lions (3-1) are sitting in second place, 40 average points below Steelton-Highspire and a slim five over Holy Name.

Why do we bring this up? Because it's imperative for Camp Hill to avoid the same side of the bracket as the defending District 3 and PIAA Class A champion Rollers. The way the eight-team bracket is set up, Camp Hill can fall to third (or sixth or seventh) and avoid Steel-High until the final, assuming the Rollers remain at No. 1. But a finish of fourth or fifth will doom the Lions to travel to Cottage Hill in the semifinals, where they lost, 33-0, last year in that round. It should be pointed out that, after a 7-3 regular season a year ago, Steel-High was the No. 2 seed behind Millersburg and Camp Hill was No. 3.

The other positive to steering clear of the Rollers, other than the fact that the two close the season against each other Oct. 31, is that anything can happen once you get to Hersheypark Stadium. Look at last year. Lampeter-Strasburg surprised Gettysburg in Class AAA and, even more jaw-dropping, Delone Catholic hammered top-seeded, unbeaten and state-ranked Trinity in AA.

The key for Camp Hill is to get back to The Stadium, somewhere it hasn't been since 2004. Once there, who knows what can happen.