’22 Season Preview: Fleetwood Tigers
Classification: Class 4A
League: Lancaster-Lebanon Section 3
Schedule: Click here
Last season: 4-2 league, 7-4 overall
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2019
Head coach: Steve Pangburn, first season.
Key losses: All-league DB & second-team all-league QB Tanner Maddocks, all-league RB and second-team LB Gavin Morris, all-league second-team RB Gage Moyer, TE/DE Will Ryan, T/DT Joey Svoboda.
| LL3 | Projected finish |
| 1 | Ephrata |
| 2 | Daniel Boone |
| 3 | Twin Valley |
| 4 | Elizabethtown |
| 5 | Garden Spot |
| 6 | Fleetwood |
| 7 | Solanco |
Top offensive players: QB Jack Riffle, RB David Ramsey, RB Czion Brickle, RB Trey Killian, second-team all-league WR Mason Musitano, WR Tristin McFarland, WR Ty Wamsher, WR Landon Tomes, C Noah Yourkawitch, second-team all-league G Hunter Leister, T Hunter Svoboda, T Landon Hare.
Top defensive players: E Hunter Svoboda, E Owen Kotsch, E Ryan Saupee, T Doug Jones, T Ben Miller, T Jacob Sanabria, LB David Ramsey, LB/SS Ty Wamsher, LB Trey Killian, S Tristin McFarland, CB Landon Tomes, CB Mason Musitano, CB Jason Petion.
Did you know? The Tigers, with current head coach Steve Pangburn serving as Offensive Coordinator, averaged 32.7 points last season, second-highest in program history. They averaged is 41.8 points in 2014 when Tyler Emge ran for over 2,000 yards and Zach Koenig threw for over 2,300.
For the record: All-League CB Tanner Maddocks set a program record last season with seven interceptions, tops in Berks. He had three in one game, against Upper Perkiomen, taking two back for scores. He’s the only player in program history with a pair of Pick-Sixes in a game.
On schedule: The Tigers make their Lancaster-Lebanon League debut in Week 4 against a familiar foe: Twin Valley. They’ll close out their six-game league schedule against Daniel Boone.
Quotable: “We’ve got a great group. Team morale is super-high. These guys are just excited (to play). They put in a ton of work since January. With me being here (the last two years as Offensive Coordinator), we’ve been able to build on the offense. The foundation was already there; now we’re adding layers.” — Tigers coach Steve Pangburn.
Outlook: The first thing everyone asks first-year coach Steve Pangburn is how they’ll replace do-it-all quarterback/defensive back Tanner Maddocks, a Villanova recruit who set the tone and carried the Tigers to the postseason.
“We’re not,” Pangburn said.
The Tigers lost a lot of talent, not just Maddocks, but they’ve got a younger group ready to come in and establish a new identity.
That’ll start with QB Jack Riffle, a junior poised for a breakout season. He saw the field very little last season — Maddocks just about never came off — but he’s worked hard in the offseason to develop his game and is ready to take over the team. He’s bright, brings leadership and could be part of an improved passing game.
Other than sophomore Mason Musitano, Maddocks didn’t have many downfield options last season. Riffle will. Musitano, who averaged 16.9 yards on his team-leading 29 catches last season, is back at WR. Tristin McFarland is 6-3, athletic and can go up and get the ball; he has breakout potential. Landon Tomes is another fast target at WR.
The Tigers were so deep at RB last season that David Ramsey didn’t get many touches, but he will this season. He has vision and deceiving speed. Junior Czion Brickle is a speed option out of the backfield; sophomore Trey Killian could be used in the power game.
They should have room to run with four full- or part-time starters back on the O-line, including sturdy C Noah Yourkawitch and 6-7 junior T Hunter Svoboda, who could become a force on both sides of the line.
Seven starters return on defense, long a sore spot for the Tigers. They gave up more rushing yards than any team in the league a year ago. Pangburn hopes to address that by adding several defensive specialists, guys who will go only one way and focus strictly on that side of the ball. The roster’s a little deeper now — 13 seniors, 40 in the top three classes — so he’ll have the luxury to attempt that.
The secondary figures to be a strength, with three-year starter Musitano and Tome at CB and the hard-hitting McFarland — “he is a thumper back there” — at FS.
Pangburn also wants to get away from the vanilla defensive looks of the past, employing more stunts, shifts and blitzes.
If it all works out the Tigers could surprise and return to the postseason. They’ve recorded back-to-back winning seasons just once, in 2013-14, and have just one District 3 appearance in 21 seasons.
At the wire: Tigers could be a darkhorse in a wide-open Section 4 and could again make a bid for a District 3 playoff spot.
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 |
