Success in Eastern Conference playoffs can add up to more than one win
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
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Ask Mick Vecchio what sparked a turnaround in Gov. Mifflin’s football program and led to a record 18 straight winning seasons and he’ll always point back to 2004 and a pair of Eastern Conference playoff victories.
The Eastern Conference was new to Berks football at that time; Vecchio, the Mustangs long-time head coach, had to explain to his players exactly what it was all about.
The unexpected trophy the Mustangs hoisted after winning at Northampton a few days before Thanksgiving that year turned out to carry much more weight than anyone could have imagined.
“That basically catapulted us into our string of successful runs in districts,” said Jeff Lang, the Mustangs offensive line coach at the time of the turnaround and the head coach for Mifflin’s first District 3 championship, in 2020.
The Mustangs were 5-5 heading into the 2004 EC semifinals. A pair of wins allowed them to take a winning record into the offseason. They used that momentum to go 8-4 the following season. They won 10 or more games and league titles in each of the three seasons after that and established Mifflin as one of the top programs in the district.
Who knows what effect the Mustangs’ Eastern Conference Class 5A/6A championship against Pleasant Valley Friday at Mifflin Stadium will have on the program?
Lang hopes a win proves to be a jumping off point into a successful offseason and to more success next season.
Rick Keeley at Berks Catholic and Matt Hoffert at Hamburg are hoping for the same when their teams meet Friday in the Class 3A championship.
Same goes for Fleetwood coach Steve Pangburn, whose team plays in the Class 4A title game at Shamokin.
All came up a win or so short of making the district playoffs. That’s what led them to the Eastern Conference, the equivalent of the NIT in college basketball. Teams that don’t make the cut for the big tournament take a swing at this and try to pull out some positives.
The extra game means extending the season and getting an extra week of practice, something all coaches love. They’re able to work with their younger players more and expose them to a playoff atmosphere.
Next to the money, that’s the No. 1 reason college football coaches love a bowl game invite: Extra weeks of practice.
“This group has been a lot of fun,” Lang said of a Mifflin team that, like that 2004 squad, finished the regular season 5-5. “We all look forward to having another week together. It’s not districts but we’ll take this.
(Jeremy Drey photo)
“We didn’t (get the chance to) do it last year. We’ve got the opportunity to do it this year and we’re gonna take advantage of it and see what we can do.”
Gov. Mifflin hasn’t played in an Eastern Conference game since 2005. Since then seven Berks program have won EC championships: Wyomissing (2005), Conrad Weiser (2016), Muhlenberg (2017), Daniel Boone (2018), Hamburg (2019), Fleetwood (2021) and Berks Catholic (2022).
Seeing Wyomissing on that list seems strange. The Spartans have been District 3 kingpins for decades, it seems; they’re working on a string of four straight titles.
They didn’t make the Class AA field in 2005 despite a 9-1 finish. Class AA was loaded that season and the Spartans got squeezed out in the power rating game.
No matter. Bob Wolfrum made those games important to his players and they went out and clobbered Warrior Run and Palisades to finish 11-1. It was one of Wolfrum’s best teams and remains one of his fondest memories.
There won’t be nearly as much attention placed on the Eastern Conference games Friday as those in district playoff games across the state but to Lang and the Mustangs this is just as big.
They finished 3-7 last season – their first losing record since 2003. The last thing they need is back-to-back losing seasons. One poor season is just that; one season. Two in a row? That can become a trend, especially at the high school level where there’s a short life cycle for the players.
“We’re sitting at 5-5,” Lang said. “Obviously, a win can give us a winning season with these guys and help springboard us into offseason workouts and being excited about getting successful again.
“The team we’re playing, they’re sitting in the same boat. Somebody’s gonna go home happy with a winning record and an Eastern Conference trophy and the other team’s gonna go home with a losing record. There’s a lot at stake for us.”
