‘Game-wrecker’ Logan Wegman put it all on the line for Exeter
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Lineman of the Year
Logan Wegman had no chance.
The 185-pound Exeter freshman regularly went against 6-6, 280-pound tackle Anthony Caccese in practice and was overwhelmed. He couldn’t slow down No. 62.
“I’d try to block him,” Wegman recalled. “He’d use a swim move over me, or he would hold me, and I couldn’t move him at all. That level (of play seemed) impossible to reach.”
Wegman did not become discouraged, only motivated to raise the level of his own game.
He knew he had to get bigger, stronger, and more agile to fulfill his dream of playing at the college level.
“He attacked it,” said Exeter offensive line coach Chris Badinger. “He committed himself to play Division I football. He lived in the gym, dedicated himself. He bought into eating right, getting good sleep, training.”
By his junior season Wegman was 245 pounds and had become a dominant lineman, good enough to earn all-league honors on both offense and defense and draw more than two dozen Division I offers.
Not satisfied with that, he tacked on another 30 pounds before his senior season, then went out and bulldozed the competition.
“He was a game-wrecker,” said Badinger.
His head coach, Matt Bauer, called him “about as sure as a thing as you can get in a young lineman.” That was before a senior season that saw him earn a 98-percent blocking grade and make nearly 50 pancake blocks as an offensive tackle and record 13 ½ tackles for loss as a defensive tackle.
For the second straight season he didn’t allow a sack; his excellence blocking at the point of attack was a key in Jayden Zandier’s record-setting 2,000-yard season.
“He outright dominated every player who lined up across from him,” said Bauer.
In a season that saw some exceptional line play across Berks County, the 6-5, 275-pound Wegman has been named the MikeDragoSports.com Lineman of the Year.
Finalists for the award were: Palmer Reber, Berks Catholic; Ashton Kiebach, Conrad Weiser; Gavin Kelly, Gov. Mifflin; Keyshawn Efese, Reading High; Carter Faubel, Twin Valley; and Max Tipton, Wyomissing.
Wegman breaks a Wyomissing stranglehold on the award. Caleb Brewer was the recipient last year, Jven Williams the two seasons before that. They’re both playing at Penn State.
Wegman, a straight-A student and a whiz at math, committed to the U.S. Naval Academy in late July.
That was just a few weeks after unleashing a personal best 58-9 ¾ on his final attempt at states to bring home a PIAA silver medal in the shot put. He’ll be aiming for 60-plus feet and a gold medal come spring.
Wegman puts his brains to work on the line of scrimmage, not just in the classroom. His high football IQ, Bauer says, allows him to use good angles to his advantage. He gets to the right place more efficiently than most others; that’s why he’s able to make so many plays.
“Logan’s strength, footwork, technique, and effort are unmatched,” Bauer said.
Good as he was as a junior, Wegman was clearly more dominant on both sides of the ball this season in leading the Eagles to 12 wins and their third District 3 Class 5A championship game in four years.
He finished with 84 tackles, third on the team, recovered three fumbles and forced one.
Exeter ranked No. 2 in the Lancaster-Lebanon League in scoring defense and No. 7 in total defense during the regular season.
The Eagles were the highest-scoring team in the league and set a program record by averaging 42.7 points per game, seventh-highest in Berks history. They were able to do that because their quarterbacks stayed upright and because Zandier was provided with running lanes that allowed him to explode into the second and third levels.
“(His) jump between junior to senior year was kind of hard to not notice,” Badinger said of Wegman. “He was a grown man.”
Wegman was named the Outstanding Lineman in Section 2, as well as Offensive Lineman of the Year and a first-team pick at interior line. Berks County coaches named him Offensive Lineman of the Year and a first-team pick at defensive tackle.
“I never really struggled with any of the D-linemen I went against (this season),” he said. “I never felt like I couldn’t compete against any of them and beat them.”
Wegman picked up a lot going against Caccese, who’s now playing at the University of Delaware. After Caccese graduated Wegman started wearing No. 62 and left a new generation of young Exeter linemen wondering: How do you even block him?
