Lancaster-Lebanon realignment figures to spark rivaly between Twin Valley, Wyo
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
No one around Berks football thinks of Twin Valley and Wyomissing as big rivals; that is sure to change by next season.
Realignment in the Lancaster-Lancaster League will bring those two programs together for the next two seasons in Section 4 and figures to re-ignite some old rivalries.
The Raiders and Spartans battled for the section title when they were paired together in the Berks Football League years ago.
More recently, Wyomissing had a fierce rivalry with Middletown while Brett Myers was the Blue Raiders head coach. He’s now at Twin Valley, where he has quickly turned around the fates of that program; the Raiders will earn at least a share of the Section 3 title this year.
“His teams are always a handful,” said Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum of Myers, whose Middletown teams eliminated the Spartans three straight years in the District 3 playoffs, from 2016-18. “He’s very innovative on offense. It took us a couple of years to get up to speed with that.”
Wyomissing beat Myers’ Middletown teams three straight years, from 2019-21, twice in championship games.
Twin Valley is among 10 programs with new homes following realignment, which was approved by league directors today.
Twin Valley is moving to Section 4, along with Daniel Boone; each is currently in Section 3.
Berks Catholic is moving from Section 4 to Section 5, the smallest of the league’s five sections.
Conrad Weiser is moving to Section 3, from Section 4.
Cocalico Ephrata, Elizabethtown, Manheim Central, Northern Lebanon and Warwick will also have new homes.
The league realigns sections in all sports every two years, based on enrollment. The 2024-25 scholastic season is the first of the PIAA’s next two-year enrollment cycle.
Many schools will have new classifications for the next cycle; the PIAA has not announced those yet.
Three Berks schools were involved in “flips.” Wyomissing and Hamburg traded spots so that each could remain in its current section. Based on enrollment Hamburg would be in Section 4 and Wyomissing in Section 5. By mutual agreement they swapped spots.
Daniel Boone traded spot with Manheim Central, which by enrollment would have dropped to Section 4. Boone, which by enrollment falls into Section 3, will instead move to Section 4 for the next two years.
Berks Catholic traded up for the last cycle and played in Section 4 but opted not to do that for the next two seasons and will play in Section 5. Northern Lebanon moves up to Section 4.
Section 3 is the most affected by realignment with four new schools: Manheim Central and Warwick drop from Section 2; Cocalico and Conrad Weiser move up from Section 4.
Section 1 is unaffected by the changes.
Berks Catholic’s move to Section 5 brings in question the fate of the “Backyard Brawl” against Wyomissing, once the hottest rivalry in Berks football. When the Saints moved to Section 1 of the Berks Football League the teams did not play for two years before being paired together in Section 4 the past two seasons.
Thirteen Berks teams joined the league as associate members for the 2022 season when the league expanded to 37 teams and from three to five sections. Wilson has been an associate member of the league since 1975.
The changes seem to be popular across the league, especially among Berks schools. The Berks League had just 13 teams and struggled with scheduling and competitive balance in recent years.
2024/2025 section alignment
| Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | Section 5 |
| Reading High | Lebanon | Warwick | Daniel Boone | Hamburg |
| McCaskey | Gov. Mifflin | Conrad Weiser | Twin Valley | Kutztown |
| Hempfield | Exeter | Solanco | Lampeter-Strasburg | Schuylkill Valley |
| Wilson | Ephrata | Cocalico | Donegal | Annville-Cleona |
| Manheim Township | Elizabethtown | Fleetwood | Elco | Berks Catholic |
| Penn Manor | Muhlenberg | Garden Spot | Octorara | Pequea Valley |
| Cedar Crest | Conestoga Valley | Manheim Central | Northern Lebanon | Lancaster Catholic |
| Wyomissing | Columbia |
The league formerly was divided into three sections and there were competitive balance issues as well, especially with the smaller schools.
“The Berks schools gave us that additional balance to provide schools with sections that are competitive across the board,” said league football chairman Tommy Long, the athletic director at Annville-Cleona.
Though there was initially some apprehension about bringing the Berks teams into the league Long said he no longer hears complaints.
“Every school – even the schools in a rebuilding state – has a game or two that they can be competitive in,” Long said. “No one’s walking away with any titles. You’re gonna have two or three games in (your) section where you’re gonna have to earn that section title. That’s what we’re looking for.
“Berks (schools) provided that balance that we didn’t have that now makes those sections more competitive.”
Berks Catholic will be one of the smallest schools, by enrollement, in Section 5; only Pequea Valley, Lancaster Catholic and Columbia are smaller.
Twin Valley and Wyomissing were rivals in Section 2 of the Berks Football League during the early 2000’s and as late as 2019. The Raiders beat the Spartans 34-14 in 2007 and shared the title with them that season. That was Twin Valley’s only football championship before this season.
Twin Valley also beat Wyomissing in league play in 2009. Wyomissing holds a 12-3 series lead.
The new alignment will bring together again long-time rivals Cocalico and Manheim Central in Section 3; those programs had a hotly contested rivalry for years in the former Section 2 of the three-section setup.