10 significant numbers to watch heading into the 2022 Berks football season
Here are 10 milestones and significant numbers to keep an eye on entering the Berks football season:
.905
Gov. Mifflin was a latecomer to what was once known as the Inter-County League. The Mustangs didn’t come aboard until the 2004 season — some 47 years after the league debuted.
Once there they made history, winning 14 titles in 18 years and finishing with a record .905 winning percentage in league games. No other program was close.
Berks Catholic, also a little late to the party — the Saints weren’t born until 2011 — finished with the second-best all-time winning percentage in the now defunct league at .864.
With all 13 members of the Berks Football League joining the Lancaster-Lebanon League this season all records are now sealed for the 65-year-old league, which opened for business in 1957.
Six programs finished with league winning percentages of .700 or better, including Wyomissing, at .728; the Spartans joined the league in 1968 after the merger of West Reading and Wyomissing High.
Two of the other most successful I-C affiliates were original members: Collegeville-Trappe and Lower Moreland. They left the league in 1968 and 1964, respectively.
All told the I-C roster included 29 schools, including Central Catholic and Holy Name, which merged after the 2010 school year to form BC.
The Wyomissing Spartans claimed the most championships in league history: Seven overall titles and 13 section championships. (Before 2001 all the teams played in one section, and there was one overall champion.)
Holy Name, an I-C champ in its first season — a feat not accomplished before or since — won the most overall league championships, with 11, and finished third with 15 titles. Conrad Weiser and Muhlenberg each won six overall titles, Exeter four.
Gov. Mifflin was third with 14 championships, all section titles.
And since you’re wondering, the program with the least success in league history: Kutztown. The Cougars never got it going and finished with a .149 league winning percentage.
| I-C winning percentage | Seasons | W-L* | Pct. |
| Gov. Mifflin | 18 | 95-10 | .905 |
| Berks Catholic | 11 | 51-8 | .864 |
| Wyomissing Spartans | 54 | 289-106-6 | .728 |
| Collegeville-Trappe | 10 | 59-21-8 | .716 |
| Lower Moreland | 8 | 44-18-1 | .706 |
| Lansdale Catholic | 13 | 73-29-5 | .706 |
| Holy Name | 43 | 230-101-8 | .690 |
| Upper Dublin | 8 | 398-18-3 | .675 |
| Wyomissing Warriors | 11 | 53-31-2 | .628 |
| Muhlenberg | 41 | 176-113-7 | .606 |
7
Exeter coach Matt Bauer needs seven wins to reach 100, a number that certainly seems within reach this season.
Bauer will become the 12th coach in Berks history to reach the milestone and the second at Exeter.
Bauer, entering his 13th season, is 30 wins behind Don Thomas’ program record of 123 victories, accomplished over 24 seasons from 1959-82.
The stadium at Exeter is named in honor of the Eagles’ former coach and longtime athletic director.
11
Berks Catholic’s program has opened with 11 straight winning seasons. No school in Berks history comes remotely close to that achievement. In fact, none has opened with as many as three straight winning seasons.
More often start-up programs go in the opposite direction, none more painfully so than Hamburg, which debuted in 1968 and lost its first 38 games.
The Saints have never come close to a losing season. They debuted in 2011 with a 6-4 record and have always finished at least two games above .500.
18
Gov. Mifflin qualified for the District 3 playoffs for the 18th straight season last year, the longest active streak among Berks teams.
Wyomissing is next at 16, then comes Conrad Weiser at four.
The truncated playoff fields in 2020 ended a lot of long streaks: Wilson’s at 14, Exeter’s at nine and Berks Catholic’s at eight.
20
Conrad Weiser coach Alan Moyer will become just the seventh in Berks history to reach the 20-year milestone this season. He has coached 213 games and, with a full season of games, will pass Muhlenberg’s John Yocum for fifth place in the games coached category.
The only others ahead of him: Rick Keeley, Bob Wolfrum, Mick Vecchio, Ray Linn and Don Thomas.
25
Wyomissing enters the season with a 25-game regular season winning streak, the longest active streak among Berks teams and third-longest in Berks history.
Wilson owns the record with a 30-game regular season winning streak from 2012-15. Berks Catholic put together a 29-game streak from 2013-15.
Gov. Mifflin enters the season with a 21-game regular season winning streak. The Mustangs have recorded three straight perfect regular seasons, though the last two have been truncated due to COVID-19 cancellations by opponents. They played just six regular season games in 2020 and eight last year.
46
Wilson is the Eveready battery of football programs: The Bulldogs just keep going and going and . . .
They went 9-4 last season to record their 46th consecutive winning season, longest in the state. They became the active leader in 2020 when Ridley’s 54-season streak was snapped by a 3-3 finish.
Wilson has recorded 58 consecutive non-losing seasons, a streak that began in 1964 under John Gurski.
The Bulldogs have had just one .500 season during their 46-season winning streak, in 1975.
50
Schuylkill Valley begins its 50th season Aug. 26 when it opens against against Twin Valley.
The Panthers debuted in 1968 with a 31-7 win over Schwenksville. It was their only win in what became a 1-7 season.
By their fourth season they had a winning record under Mark Snyder but they haven’t had many since: Just 10 total in 49 seasons.
The program took a five-year hiatus, from 1992-96, because of low roster numbers. In the 25 seasons since they returned to the field they have enjoyed just six winning seasons.
67
Kutztown couldn’t leave Section 2 of the Berks League fast enough. The Cougars exited with a record 67-game league losing streak. They have gone 12 straight years without a league win. Their last, as it turns out, victory in Berks 2 play came in 2009 against Fleetwood, 21-20 in overtime.
The Cougars, now playing in Section 5 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, should soon put that streak to rest.
424
Bob Wolfrum, the winningest coach in Berks history, owns all sorts of records. He added another last season after coaching his Berks-record 424th game.
He passed Berks Catholic coach Rick Keeley during the Spartans’ postgame run. Keeley and the Saints played 12 games last season; the Spartans played 16, allowing Wolfrum to move into the top spot. Keeley is now No. 2 with 421 games.
Wolfrum has won 337 games in his 35 seasons, which ranks No. 9 all-time in Pennsylvania and No. 2 among active coaches, trailing only Southern Columbia’s Jim Roth.