Season Preview: Berks Catholic
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Classification: Class 3A.
League: Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4.
Schedule: Click here.
Last season: 4-3 league, 5-6 overall
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2021
Head coach: Rick Keeley, 12th season, 113-35 (275-154-3 overall, in 37 seasons).
Key losses: Defensive Back of the Year and 1,000-yard rusher Josiah Jordan, all-league DE Jackson Haas, all-league C Ty Barreto, all-league T Luke Bennethum, all-league WR Jaxson Geddio, all-league DE Nafis Blythe (transferred to Upper Dublin), RB Marvin Armstead (transferred to Wyomissing), G Ayden Jimenez (transferred to Wyomissing).
Top offensive players: QB Will Hess, FB Devin Garcia, RB Connor Pennington, RB Michael Bradley, SE Maxx Mace, SE Scott Duffy, second-team all-league G Owen Reber (moving to C), G Luke Impellizzeri, G Eric Bennethum, T Joey Polinsky, T Palmer Reber, T Cole Baker.
Top defensive players: E Jake Linderman, T Joey Polinsky, T Owen Reber, LB Luke Impellizeri, LB Connor Pennington, LB Devin Garcia, LB Aidan Curley, S CB Scott Duffy, CB Michael Bradley, CB Maxx Mace.
Did you know? The Saints have a .764 winning percentage in their 12-year history, third-highest in the state. Only Central Valley (.814) and Ridley (.776) have a higher winning percentage.
For the record: Berks Catholic has had a pair of 100-yard interception returns in its 12-year history: By Tre Dabney in a 2016 playoff game vs. Lampeter-Strasburg and by Issac Lutz vs. Kutztown in 2013.
On schedule: The first four teams on the Saints’ schedule – Loyalsock, Executive Education, Pope John Paul II and Wyomissing – went a combined 42-9 last season. The Saints played the same schedule last season and opened 0-4.
Quotable: “We don’t have a JayJay (Jordan) who can score any time he touches the ball but we have a very solid backfield and we have a lot of depth at all of our skill positions.” – Saints coach Rick Keeley.
Outlook: No one in Section 4 took a bigger hit in the offseason than the Saints, who lost 17 starters, including five first-team, all-league picks.
The biggest loss, of course, was Josiah Jordan, who scored 23 touchdowns last season and stamped his name all over the Berks Catholic record book. It’ll take three guys to replace the things he did on offense, defense, and special teams – maybe more.
Two of the underclassmen who saw time in the backfield last year with him, Nafis Blythe and Marvin Armistead, transferred to other schools since the end of last year.
Back to carry the load will be FB Devin Garcia and several other ballcarriers with potential, but they won’t go anywhere unless the Saints’ rebuilt O-line comes together.
Only two of six players return to the offensive line and both, second-team all-league G Owen Reber and TE Joey Polinsky, have switched positions. Reber’s now at center, Polinsky’s now at tackle. They each go 270, and each has college potential. The Saints won’t be hurting for size up front but the guards – vital to the Wing-T blocking scheme – are untested.
Joey Polinsky
A lack of depth on the line will affect things on defense, too, because most of the top linemen will have to go both ways.
One thing Saints coach Rick Keeley said he likes about this team is it’s commitment to the weight room in the offseason.
That was always a strength during BC’s glory days of the not-so-distant past but recent teams have drifted from that culture. It showed last season when the Saints experienced their first losing season.
“This group of seniors know that was the missing link, and (that) we have to get stronger,” Keeley said. “And they worked.
“The weight room attendance was very good. That’s the biggest improvement (over last year), is how dedicated they’ve been in the weight room, and how strong they’re gonna be.”
Just three starters return on defense but the linebacker corps of Luke Impellizzeri, Garcia and Connor Pennington should be solid.
At the wire: Too many moving parts and first-time starters for the Saints to overtake any of the top Section 4 contenders: Wyomissing, Cocalico or Lampeter-Strasburg.
