Football Notebook: Classification changes, HOF meeting, hot take and more (updated)
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
(Corrected to show Exeter moving up to 6A and Fleetwood to Class 5A.)
Football is known as a game of inches. For Exeter, it has become a game of fractions.
It appears the Eagles will be moving up to Class 6A for the PIAA’s next two-year cycle because of half a student.
Exeter’s reported male enrollment is 619.5, the half a result of a co-sponsorship with Antietam. The PIAA counts 50 percent of Antietam’s male enrollment of 171, or 85.5.
The PIAA’s new parameters for the upcoming 2023-24/2024-25 cycle has all schools with an enrollment of 620 or greater classified as 6A.
According to Melissa Mertz, Associate Executive Director of the PIAA, the state’s governing body rounds up, which pushes Exeter to 620 and into the largest of the six classifications.
The Eagles are among eight L-L teams changing PIAA classifications for the next two-year cycle, along with Daniel Boone, Fleetwood and Gov. Mifflin. The Blazers and Tigers move up to 5A, the Mustangs up to 6A.
Manheim Central is headed in opposite directions: In league play the Barons will move from Section 2 to Section 3. When it comes to the playoffs the 18-time District 3 champion Barons will move up one class, to 5A.
Annville-Cleona, which reached the district Class 2A championship game last season and the semifinals this season, is moving up to Class 3A where it will join Section 5 rivals Schuylkill Valley, Berks Catholic and Kutztown.
Lancaster Catholic, a Section 5 champ the past two seasons, will move down in district play, to 2A. So does Pequea Valley.
Reading High remains the largest school in the league, and in Section 1, with a reported enrollment of 2,067; McCaskey is next at 1,359.5, followed by Hempfield (910), Wilson (894), Manheim Township (766), Penn Manor (731.5) and Cedar Crest (706).
Lebanon, which went winless in league play again this season, will be the largest school in Section 2 next season with an enrollment of 683. Gov. Mifflin is next at 643, followed by Exeter (619.5), Ephrata (593), Muhlenberg (592), Elizabethtown (592) and Conestoga Valley (561).
Warwick (557) will be the largest school in Section 3, followed by: Conrad Weiser (497), Solanco (466), Cocalico (459), Fleetwood (456), Garden Spott (455) and Manheim Central (428).
Daniel Boone (448) will have the largest enrollment among Section 4 schools next year, followed by: Twin Valley (419), Lampeter-Strasburg (413), Donegal (402), Elco (381), Octorara (335), Northern Lebanon (304) and Wyomissing (243).
Hamburg (298) will be the largest school in Section 5 next year, followed by: Kutztown (276.5), Schuylkill Valley (261), Annville-Cleona (253.5), Berks Catholic (246), Pequea Valley (218.5), Lancaster Catholic (191), and Columbia (161).
Enrollments for Conrad Weiser, Fleetwood, Kutztown, Exeter and others are inflated due to joint sponsorship agreements.
Weiser, for example, adds 50 percent of Tulpehocken’s total (131 of 262) to its enrollment; Kutztown adds 50 percent of Brandywine Height’s total (91.5 of 183). Fleetwood has an agreement with Oley Valley which adds 126 to its total. Exeter has a co-op with Antietam which adds 85.5.
Co-ops elsewhere in the league include McCaskey and Lancaster Country Day, Elizabethtown and Mount Calvary and Annville-Cleona with New Covenant.
Hall of Fame match-up
(Tim Macrina photo)
The District 3 Class 3A semifinal between Wyomissing and Schuylkill Valley stirs up some strong memories, not so much because of the teams but because of their Hall of Fame coaches.
Panthers coach Bruce Harbach was at Lancaster Catholic in the early 2000’s when his team waged a series of fascinating playoff games against Spartans coach Bob Wolfrum and Wyomissing.
They met four times between 2006 and 2011, twice in championship games. The teams split the four games, as well as the two championship games.
“He had his share of wins, and we had our share of wins,” Harbach said of Wolfrum.
Wyomissing’s two wins were among the biggest in program history.
In 2010 the Spartans took out an unbeaten Crusaders team that was ranked No. 1 in the state in Class AA a year after winning a PIAA title.
“We realize we could get crushed if we don’t play our best,” Wolfrum said before that game.
Even bigger was the 2006 championship when the Spartans got a last-minute touchdown bomb from Mike Mancias to Gregory Lord. No one around Wyomissing will ever forget the “Lord’s Prayer” or the 28-24 win.
Catholic won the 2011 championship game, which pitted a pair of unbeaten teams.
Between them, Wolfrum and Harbach have won 515 games, 15 district titles and three PIAA championships.
Hot take
(Joe Mays photo)
Did a late-summer heat wave cost the Wilson Bulldogs home-field advantage in the opening round of the District 3 Tournament?
Maybe.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs open the Class 6A Tournament Friday at No. 4 Cumberland Valley.
Had they beaten Martin Luther King in Week 3 it’s conceivable they would have been the No. 4 seed and playing at Gurski Stadium.
Wilson never had that chance. A few days before the Week 3 game, scheduled to be played at the so-called Germantown Supersite, the Philadelphia School District suspended all athletic activities and closed schools due to extreme heat.
Wilson scrambled to find an opponent and eventually beat Cheltenham, 40-26. The Bulldogs went on to finish 7-3 in the regular season and with a .711 power rating, 13 points behind Cumberland Valley.
Cheltenham finished 4-5. MLK, surprisingly, raced through a relatively week schedule and finished 7-1.
Had Wilson played and beaten King, those three addition wins likely would have increased the Bulldogs’ power rating enough for them to finish ahead of Cumberland Valley.
Soaring Hawks
Hamburg’s Tyler Shuey and his receivers set all kinds of records this season.
(PhilMarPhoto)
Shuey, a junior and first-year starter, passed for 2,762 yards, second-highest in Berks history. That was 207 yards shy of the record, accomplished by Daniel Boone’s Jon Monteiro in 12 games; Hamburg played 11 games.
Shuey also set program records for TD passes (25) and completions (170) in a season.
Senior tight end Mason Semmel set program records for receptions in a season (43), receiving yards in a season (884) and career (1,130), and touchdown receptions in a season (12) and career (17).
Junior Ty Werley set the program record with 253 receiving yards in a game and is second in career receiving yards (1,086).
Senior Cohen Correll set the program record for receptions in a career (81) and came within 9 yards of giving the Hawks three 1,000-yard career receivers on the field at the same time. That’s never been done in Berks history.
Berks’ 2000-yard passers
| Player | Team | Games | Yards | Season |
| Jon Monteiro | Daniel Boone | 12 | 2,969 | 2008 |
| Tyler Shuey | Hamburg | 11 | 2,762 | 2023 |
| Logan Klitsch | Conrad Weiser | 11 | 2,472 | 2021 |
| Colin Payne | Exeter | 14 | 2,381 | 2021 |
| Kyle Beissel | Schuylkill Valley | 12 | 2,372 | 2012 |
| Zach Koenig | Fleetwood | 12 | 2,368 | 2014 |
| Nate Daniels | Muhlenberg | 12 | 2,347 | 2008 |
| Zach Zweizig | Wilson | 13 | 2,326 | 2009 |
| Nate Daniels | Muhlenberg | 12 | 2,285 | 2007 |
| Seth Klein | Wilson | 14 | 2,128 | 2011 |
| Jeff Harner | Schuylkill Valley | 11 | 2,111 | 2000 |
| Mike Oliveto | Conrad Weiser | 13 | 2,109 | 2010 |
| Chad Henne | Wilson | 12 | 2,088 | 2002 |
| Jon Monteiro | Daniel Boone | 12 | 2,061 | 2009 |
| Connor Uhrig | Wilson | 14 | 2,050 | 2016 |
| Kerry Collins | Wilson | 15 | 2,043 | 1989 |
| Gavin McCusker | Exeter | 13 | 2,035 | 2019 |
| Luke Emge | Fleetwood | 10 | 2,032 | 2015 |
| Tommy Hunsicker | Wilson | 10 | 2,024 | 2023 |
