Daniel Boone grad ready to tackle major rebuild at Northeastern York
2024 Berks football coverage presented by
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As he goes about putting the pieces together for Northeastern York’s tattered football program, Ryan Bologa will use the values he learned playing at Daniel Boone as building blocks.
“We didn’t necessarily have a ton of Division I athletes there,” the 29-year-old Bologa said of Daniel Boone, where he played from 2009-12. “(Our success) was a testament to how hard we worked as a team.”
The Blazers enjoyed unprecedented success during Bologa’s sophomore and junior seasons, 2010 and 2011, when they won 21 games and shared a Berks League football championship.
Blazers coach Dave Bodolus implemented a blue collar work ethic, his players bought in and the Blazers competed with the best teams in Berks.
“The work that I put in and my teammates put in in the weight room allowed us to have a good team,” Bologa said.
“We always were going to be the toughest and most prepared team on the field and we wanted to make sure (our opponents) were gonna feel us at the end of the game. It ended up working out for us more times than not.”
Bologa was officially approved as Northeastern’s head coach Monday night. He has a major task in front of him, inheriting a program that ended the 2024 season with a 28-game losing streak.
He’ll meet with his players Thursday for the first time. His message?
“Hard work pays the greatest dividends, and its free on every shelf,” he said. “If we can get them to buy into that mentality we’re really going to have some success.”
Bologa moves to Northeastern from West York, where he was an assistant coach for a team that experienced an incredible turnaround. The Bulldogs went from 0-10 in 2023 to the nine wins and a spot in the District 3 Class 4A semifinals. They weren’t stopped until they ran into state-ranked Wyomissing in the semifinals.
An immediate turnaround like that is a lot to ask for at Northeastern but Bologa knows there’s only one way to make it happen: Spend the offseason working to get stronger and faster.
“It’s gonna be work,” Bologa said. “Nothing that’s worthwhile in life isn’t. I always think the kids are hungry to win. Once they get that taste of success, it’s going to be addicting. We just have to learn how to win every day (of the offseason).
“If we can win every day, the kids are gonna get addicted to that taste. If we can get the kids hooked, a turnaround will hopefully come quicker than a lot of people think.”
Bologa played linebacker on a Boone team that set a program record with 11 wins in 2010. He went on to play at Juniata, where he was a three-year starter and team captain as a senior.
It was there that he decided he wanted to be a football coach. The education major found he enjoyed working with students and helping them grow. He realized he could do that on the football field as well as the classroom.
“I love seeing the growth in the students,” he said. “(I realized) my love for football could really help student-athletes grow, as well. In the classroom, if you have passion for the subject kids are gonna be hooked a little more. There’s not much I’m more passionate about than football.”
Bologa has taught social studies at York Suburban for eight years. He was an assistant coach there for six seasons before spending the 2023 season at Northeastern.
He counts former Suburban coach Josy Fry and West York coach Ron Miller as mentors and has leaned on them during the past several months as he considered applying for the job at Northeastern.
He has also leaned on former Boone teammate J.D. Okuniewski, the Blazers’ head coach.
Bologa lives in the Northeastern school district and said it reminds him of the area he grew up in. That’s why he believes a lunch pail approach toward football can succeed there.
‘Athletes come and go, but if you have that kind of (blue collar) approach you’ll end up on the winning side more times than not. That blue collar approach stands the test of time.
“That was something we took a lot of pride in (at Boone): being a tough, physical football team. That’s something that I want to bring to this community, and (it’s something) the kids can take pride in, being a tough team that you know you’re in a dogfight with.”
