Former ball boys are the ‘big guys’ on the sideline now for Twin Valley
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Twin Valley sophomore Drew Engle will be excited to play against Manheim Central Friday in a District 3 Class 4A semifinal.
It’ll be the biggest game in the Raiders’ relatively short history and sure to draw a large crowd at Twin Valley Stadium. Engle says he won’t be nervous.
That wasn’t always the case for him on Friday nights.
Years ago, when he got his first taste of high school football, he always had butterflies in his stomach. He was a ball boy on the sidelines at Middletown when he was 10 and 11 years old; he could feel the bigness of the games. He didn’t want to mess up his job.
“I was more nervous being the ball boy than I am now (playing),” said the Raiders rushing leader. “I hadn’t been around so many big high schoolers (before). Being on the sideline, they seemed enormous.”
Engle and Justin Pinciotti were friends and youth teammates with Evan and Lucas Myers, whose dad Brett was Middletown’s head coach at the time. Evan and Lucas served as ball boys for the Blue Raiders and they invited their friends along on Friday nights to share the experience.
“It felt like being at a college game,” said Pinciotti, now a senior wide receiver at Twin Valley. “I had never really been to many football games before, especially games like those: It was high energy, a lot of people, big dudes.”
During one three-year stretch Middletown went an incredible 41-4, won three straight District 3 Class 3A titles and reached the PIAA championship game three years in a row.
Engle, Pinciotti, and the Myers brothers – each a pivotal part of Twin Valley’s most successful team – soaked all of that in.
Middletown’s All-State players, such as running backs Brady Fox and Jose Lopez, linebackers Hunter Landis and Gage Radabaugh, and wide receiver Tyreer Mills were their heroes.
“I didn’t know much about it at the time,” Pinciotti said of the significance of Middletown’s achievement, “but I thought it was cool being there, the whole experience.”
Brett Myers, who played at Middletown, did some special things during his eight seasons as head coach of the Blue Raiders. The program had never enjoyed that kind of postseason success before and hasn’t since.
“I didn’t really appreciate it much (at the time),” said Lucas Myers. “It was pretty normal to see them have 48 points at half. I never really thought anything of it. Looking back on it now, it’s pretty crazy to think about.”
The boys were mostly running around on the sidelines, having fun. They weren’t studying the game or picking up techniques but just being exposed to that atmosphere helped them once they reached the varsity level.
Evan Myers always wanted to be a quarterback. Tony Powell, who played that position for Middletown, became one of his favorite players. He watched how Powell and the other quarterbacks would go about things during summer workouts, at practice and under the lights on Friday nights.
“It’s helped mentally the most,” Evan said. “Seeing how they carried themselves when they were up or how they’d work through things when they were at a low point.”
Now it’s the Twin Valley ball boys who look up to Evan, a junior who’s been a three-year starter at quarterback and last week became the first 4,000-yard passer in program history.
Lucas Myers, a freshman linebacker, prepped for his first varsity season by studying film of Middletown’s linebackers of that golden era.
It certainly didn’t hurt: Lucas is the leading tackler on a Twin Valley team that has won a program-record 10 games.
“It’s pretty cool to see those guys, especially now that I’m as big as some of them,” Lucas said. “It’s pretty crazy to see them playing in state championship games, just doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and doing it really well. It’s pretty neat to think I could be there one day.”
Pinciotti’s favorite Middletown player was Chris Joseph, but not because he played the same position, wide receiver.
“He laid somebody out on special teams once,” Pinciotti recalled. “I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.”
The Blue Raiders’ young ball boys didn’t pay strict attention to what was going on out on the field. Brett Myers recalls watching film and seeing his boys rolling around back behind the end zone during a play.
“I was too young (at first) to be a ball boy,” Lucas said, “so I would just run around, try to tackle Evan, mess with him.”
“We definitely got yelled at on the sidelines once or twice, messing around too much,” Evan said.
As exciting as the games were they aren’t Evan Myers’ favorite memory from those days.
“After the games we’d go to Midtown Pizza, which right next to the stadium,” he said, “and we’d do that together every week.”
Lucas Myers remembers what a thrill it was if one of the varsity players walked by and gave him high-five. He keeps that in mind now that he’s one of the ‘big guys’ out there.
“I always try to talk to (our ball boys),” he said. “I remember how it made me feel so good when the players talked to me.”