Season Preview: Kutztown Cougars
Classification: Class 4A
League: Berks Section 2
Last season: 0-4 league, 1-5 overall
Schedule: Click here
Head coach: Larry Chester, eighth season, 21-46 (.313)
Key losses: WR/S Matt Buck, C/DT Anthony Johnson, G/DT Austin Schlegel.
Top offensive players: QB Jake Lafferty, second-team all-league RB Lennon Neiman, FB Isaac Schneider, RB Dakota Thomas, WR Timmy Refinger, WR David Ruhf, WR Ethan Lafferty, C Ryan Cardinale, G Noah Leitgeb, G Tyler Hallock, second-team all-league G (moving to T) Gunnar Wetzel.
Top defensive players: E Gunnar Wetzel, T Ryan Cardiale, T Noah Leitgeb, T Tyler Hallock, second-team all-league LB Lennon Neiman, LB Isaac Schneider, LB Dakota Thomas, S Timmy Reifinger.
Notable: The Cougars snapped a 35-game losing streak with year-ending 36-0 win over Shenandoah Valley.
For the record: Calvin Laing owns the two longest scoring plays in program history: He had a 99-yard TD reception in 2004 vs. Bristol and a 99-yard TD run vs. Lower Moreland in 2005.
Quotable: “All the guys that are returning — and we don’t have many of them — understand the system, understand what’s needed from them in order for us to be successful. We needed to get faster and stronger, so we got as many guys as we could to run track, to sprint, to throw, so that we could continue to lift (in the offseason). Sometimes its tough to get them into the weight room if they’re not playing a sport.” — Cougars coach Larry Chester.
Outlook: Progress is a relative term. For the Cougars, making it through the entire schedule without having to forfeit a game due to not having enough players was progress. Winning a game for the first time in four seasons was progress.
More has been seen already this season. The Cougars will open the season Friday at Shenandoah Valley with nearly 30 players on their roster, almost double the number they had at times in 2018 and 2019. They went into last week’s scrimmage with their full play book installed; last year that didn’t happen until almost midseason.
Baby steps, for sure, but second-year head coach Larry Chester is taking a measured approach with a program that went winless six times in a seven-year span from 2013-19.
The next big hurdle is winning a league game. They haven’t done that since 2009; they’ll take a 61-game league losing streak into their Week 4 game against Twin Valley. There’s still a lot of ground to be made to catch up with the middle-of-pack programs in Section 2 — Fleetwood, Hamburg, Schuylkill Valley and Twin Valley — but the Cougars are making strides.
They’ll have an experienced QB in Jacob Lafferty, a junior who started late in his freshman season and took every snap a season ago. He picked up a step running track and should be more effective running the Flexbone offense.
Senior RB Lennon Neiman is one of the best-kept secrets in the league — and one of the fastest backs. He runs a sub 4.6 40 and averaged 9.1 yards per carry last season, when he accounted for eight of the team’s 15 TDs. He’s also a dangerous kick returner.
Senior Isaac Schneider has moved from WR and will play a key role at FB. Freshman RB Dakota Thomas will add some pop to the backfield, and at LB. He’s a name to watch.
Line depth was an issue last season, but that’s been sured up. Look for OT/DE Gunnar Wetzel and C/DT Ryan Cardinale to anchor the lines.
At the wire: Rebuilding.
