Former Hamburg coach returning to the sidelines
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Matt Hoffert thought he might spend a rare season away from football after resigning as Hamburg’s head coach shortly after last season.
At best, he figured, he’d be a position coach in 2025.
“I thought I’d be taking a back seat,” said the 41-year-old Hamburg grad said. “That changed quick.”
Hoffert has accepted a job as offensive coordinator at Allentown Central Catholic, working for head coach Jake Reichard, who was hired in December.
Hoffert and Reichard coached together at ACC for one season, in 2010.
Reichard, an Allentown Central Catholic grad, was head coach at Emmaus the past six seasons. When he was putting together his new staff last month he realized he needed to revamp a sluggish offense and turned to Hoffert to run it.
“He explained what he was looking for, and he likes what I ran in the past,” Hoffert said. “He’s hoping to bring that back to Central. He wants to bring excitement back into the program.”
Hoffert has been a head coach for six seasons, three each at Kutztown and Hamburg. He’s also been offensive coordinator at Fleetwood and Chestnut Hill College.
The Hawks scored a lot of points over the last three seasons, based in large part on outstanding quarterback play from Xander Menapace and, over the last two seasons, from Tyler Shuey.
They set a program scoring record in 2022, Hoffert’s first as head coach, averaging 42.2 points per game; they scored a program-record 75 points in one game.
The Hawks set a program record with nine wins in 2022, making Hoffert the most successful first-year coach in program history.
The Hawks followed that up with playoff appearances the past two seasons and got record-setting numbers from Shuey, who threw for 2,762 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2023. Tight end Mason Semmel, in 2023, and wide receiver Ty Werley, in 2024, set program receiving records.
As Fleetwood’s offensive coordinator in 2019 Hoffert helped the Tigers set a program record for wins during an 8-3 season that saw them finish No. 1 in the Berks Football League in total offense.
At Kutztown, from 2014-2016, Hoffert pumped life into a dormant program. In his final season the Cougars went 4-6, their best record in eight years. Immediately after he left they endured three straight winless seasons.
A bonus for Hoffert will be the chance to coach his oldest son Madson, an eighth-grader in the Hamburg school district. Madson was recently accepted at Allentown Central Catholic, where he expects to play running back and linebacker.
After leaving Hamburg Matt Hoffert was disappointed that he wouldn’t get a chance to coach his son; now he’ll have that opportunity.
“Not everybody gets to coach their own kids,” he said. “To be able to do that after what happened at Hamburg . . . I never thought that was going to happen, so this is special.”
Hoffert will also have the chance to coach returning quarterback Patrick Cahill, the son of Lehigh University head football coach Kevin Cahill.
Reichard replaced Rob Melosky, who resigned in November after coaching the Vikings for two seasons. They were 4-6 last season and 13-10 overall under Melosky.
Hamburg finished the regular season 6-4 in 2024 and qualified for the Eastern Conference Class 3A championship game.
It marked the fourth straight year Hamburg finished with a winning record. That’s never happened in the 56-year history of a program that’s had more than twice as many losing seasons as winning ones.
Hoffert was a Hamburg assistant from 2005-09 and again from 2012-13, both times under Joe Sinkovich. He’s also been an assistant coach at Boyertown.
