After big Middletown run, hopes are high at Twin Valley with hiring of Brett Myers

Brett Myers learned a lot during his season away from football, about the game about himself.

He visited practices at Manheim Central, Spring-Ford, Central Dauphin and Exeter to see how top programs are run and to exchange notes with the coaches there.

“Last year was probably the first year I was out of football since I was 7 years old,” said the 47-year-old Middletown native. “It was a reminder of how much I missed it. You realize (once you’re out) how much you love working with kids. (Watching) the growth, from the beginning to the end, is something I missed.”

Myers’ self-imposed football hiatus is over. He officially accepted the job as head coach at Twin Valley on July 18, roughly 18 months after resigning at Middletown, where he created a mini-dynasty.

Over one incredible three-year stretch, from 2016-18, his Blue Raiders went 41-4, won three District 3 Class 3A championships and reached three straight PIAA championship games.

Myers being named head coach is probably the biggest thing ever to happen to the fledgling Raiders program, which has enjoyed just three winning records in its 26 seasons.

One of those just happened to come last year when the Raiders went 6-4 in the regular season and qualified for the District 3 Tournament for the first time. Seven months later Kris Olsen was notified that his first season as Raiders head coach would be his last.

Myers’ position was made official just three weeks before the start of preseason camp and six weeks ahead of the season opener Aug. 26 at Schuylkill Valley. That would put most coaches behind the eight ball but Myers, an experienced hand, didn’t seem too concerned.

He’s confident his relatively young team — there were just eight juniors on last year’s roster — will pick things up in due time even with him switching to the Spread offense that was so successful at his last stop.

“We’ve got a great group of senior leaders,” Myers said. “They’ve been working out and doing their part. Offensively, if you block the other team usually you’re pretty productive. Defensively, if you out-tackle the other team you’re usually pretty productive. While we all like to draw X’s and O’s up it’s not even close to the most important thing on the field.”

Adding a known quantity such as Myers — he went 72-22 in eight seasons at Middletown — elevates the program and raises the ceiling as the Raiders head into Section 3 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League this season.

It might not happen overnight, especially considering the late start, but it figures Myers will see that the Raiders become annual player in the Section 3 mix.

“If he gets the talent, they’re gonna go places,” said Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum, whose teams ran into Middletown five straight years in the district playoffs, including four championship games. “He’s innovative. He was running stuff for a few years there that people hadn’t been playing against for a while. It took a little while to catch up on how to defend it.

“You have to have great kids to have great teams,” Wolfrum said, “but if you’ve got real good X’s and O’s along with that talent it makes you tough to beat.”

“We don’t really worry about wins and losses,” Myers said, “that’ll take care of itself. I’ve realized if you just focus on the process of helping kids become better men that they usually take care of all the other stuff for you. We have a lot of great families and we have a lot of people that want Twin Valley football to be relevant.”

Myers knows the Twin Valley district well. He has lived there for 18 years, since taking an assistant coaching job at Exeter when his high school coach, Denny Iezzi, was running the Eagles’ program from 2002-06.

Myers moved on to become head coach at Pottstown in 2007 and stayed for six seasons. The Trojans went 6-6 in his final year, 2012, their first non-losing season in nine years.

At Middletown he took over a team that went 2-8 in 2012 and finished 6-4 his first season. In his fourth season the Blue Raiders were district champs and finished 14-1. They went 14-1 the next season and 13-2 the season after.

Myers has two sons in the program. Evan won the starting quarterback job last season as a freshman and threw for nearly 1,500 yards. Lucas is a rising eighth-grader who plays quarterback and linebacker.

“Whether my sons were here or not, when the opening came up I would’ve been going after it,” Myers said of the job. “It’s just the right opportunity.”

Despite the late hiring Myers was able to fill his coaching staff, with just one holdover from Olsen’s staff. That tells you a little bit about his coaching connections and clout. The new staff includes former Twin Valley head coach Jerry Wilcznyski and Greg Saylor, the former head coach at Central Catholic who has been an assistant at half-a-dozen Berks schools.

A day after being named head coach Myers addressed his new players.

“We didn’t talk about winning games, we just talked about improving ourselves,” he said. “We want to run a year-round comprehensive program that concentrates on our young men becoming better young men.

“If we focus on work ethic, commitment and giving maximum effort on everything you do — in the classroom, community or the weight room — those things pay off and kids get better, and they start wanting to be around each other more and they start doing things that people didn’t believe could happen.”