’22 Preview: Reading High Red Knights
Classification: Class 6A
League: Lancaster-Lebanon Section 1
Schedule: Click here
Last season: 0-4 Berks 1, 1-7 overall
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2014
Head coach: Troy Godinet, first season
Key losses: QB Daronel Fontanez, WR and all-League DB DeShawn Wilson, second-team all-league LB Josh Orozco.
Top offensive players: QB Amier Burdine, FB/TE Gabriel Laws, WR Kahlil Samuel, WR Ruben Rodriguez, WR Joshua Orbe, WR Jorge Rosario, WR Jahsir Drayton, TE Orlando Alvarado, C Karim Martinez, G Romello Fuentes, G Brandon Picazo, T Jose Torres.
Top defensive players: E Karim Martinez, E Michael Odeyemi, E Michael James, T Brandon Picazo, T Keyshawn Efese, LB Gabriel Laws, LB Orlando Alvarado, LB/S Joshua Orbe, S Kahlil Samuel, S Xavier Beatty, CB Amier Burdine.
Did you know? Reading High played in the Lancaster-Lebanon League from 1987-2009, sharing Section 1 titles in 1992, 1998, 2000 and 2003.
For the record: Reading High went went 88-76 in Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 play; its .536 winning percentage is fourth-highest in Section 1 history, behind only Wilson, Manheim Township and Hempfield.
On schedule: Reading plays at Muhlenberg in Week 2. The Red Knights had been playing the Muhls in the final game of the regular season, with the Battle of the Border Trophy at stake. The series is tied 9-9.
Quotable: “These kids really enjoy playing for each other, they enjoy being coached, they enjoy competing. And that’s what we’re trying to build this program upon: Competing every day. Kids are holding each other to a standard, which is good for the growth of our program.” — Red Knights coach Troy Godinet.
Outlook: The Red Knights football program Troy Godinet inherited last winter is not the one he knew as a player two decades ago. When Godinet was an All-Berks LB at Reading in 2003 the program was at the top of the heap, winning a school-record 10 game and playing for a District 3 championship.
What his coach, Al Wolski, did is now the stuff of legends, especially considering what has transpired since. He built a Hall-of-Fame resume during his nine season on the hill; months after Godinet’s senior season Wolski left for greener pastures. The program hasn’t been remotely close since.
The Red Knights have known just two winning records in the 18 seasons since Godinet last played for them. He’s hoping to restore that same pride in the program and knows the only way to do that is from the ground up. He knows he needs to build relationships with players long before they walk up the steps to Reading High and that’s what he’s gone about doing in the six months since he was hired.
He’s recruiting several players into the program; his players are doing the same, too. QB and team leader Amier Burdine coaxed basketball star Ruben Rodriguez back to the sport. That in itself won’t changed the direction of the program but adding a top athlete well versed in winning is a step in the right direction.
It’ll give Burdine, a Division I prospect and the centerpiece of the team, one more weapon at his disposal. Reading has entered the last two seasons expecting Burdine to carry them over the top after some highlight reel plays his freshman season, but it hasn’t happened.
His sophomore season, in 2020, was suspended due to COVID; when the Red Knights reconvened for a spring season he went out in the opener with a concussion. Last season he didn’t even get that close to the field; he suffered a broken collarbone before the season opener.
With Burdine back behind center the Red Knights have a chance to make some things happen. He’s a true dual threat QB and will have potential play-makers to throw to in Kahlil Samuel, Joshua Orbe and Rodriguez.
Gabriel Laws will be counted on heavily on both sides of the ball, as a FB/TE and LB. He’ll have his hands full on defense, which returns only two other starters from a unit that allowed 220 rushing yards and 36.6 points per game. New Defensive Coordinator Keith Leamer, a former head coach and recent DC at Berks Catholic, will have lots on his plate. He’ll rely heavily on Burdine, a top DB moving the CB, and Karim Martinez, a promising DE.
New OC Sean Gaul, who played for Wolski and who was head coach when Fleetwood made its first district playoff appearance in 2019, will have his work cut out for him also. The Red Knights scored just six TDs in their final six games last season. With Burdine at the switch the offense it should be far more productive.
“We’re a very young team across the board,” Godinet said. “We’re a bigger team, we’re a stronger team, we’re a faster team. They put the work in the weight room. This is the most a team’s ever been together (in the offseason) since I’ve been here (as a coach, since 2018).”
At the wire: The rebuild begins. It’ll be a while before the Red Knights are able to play with the Section 1 heavyweights such as Wilson, Manheim Township and Hempfield.
Lancaster-Lebanon League
| Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | Section 5 |
| Cedar Crest | Conestoga Valley | Daniel Boone | Berks Catholic | Annville-Cleona |
| Hempfield | Exeter | Elizabethtown | Cocalico | Columbia |
| Manheim Twp. | Gov. Mifflin | Ephrata | Conrad Weiser | Hamburg |
| McCaskey | Lebanon | Fleetwood | Donegal | Kutztown |
| Penn Manor | Manheim Central | Garden Spot | Elco | Lancaster Catholic |
| Reading High | Muhlenberg | Solanco | Lampeter-Strasburg | Northern Lebanon |
| Wilson | Warwick | Twin Valley | Octorara | Pequea Valley |
| | | | Wyomissing | Schuylkill Valley |
