Former Wilson assistants enter PSFCA Hall of Fame side by side
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Doug Dahms and Bruce Harbach, assistant coaches together at Wilson and each with a long resume of success as a head coach, were among seven inducted into the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame Sunday.
They are part of a class that includes Max Shoemaker of Chestnut Ridge, Dave Baker of Williamsburg, Jeff Wasilchak of Lackawanna Trail, Rich Lichtel of Mechanicsburg, and Don Holl of Gateway.
They were honored during halftime of Sunday’s Big 33 Classic at Cumberland Valley.
Dahms is entering his 20th season as Wilson’s head coach and 50th on the Bulldogs’ staff. Harbach is preparing for his fifth season as Schuylkill Valley’s head coach; he previously was head coach at Lancaster Catholic for 16 seasons.
Remarkably, Dahms has never been part of a losing season at Wilson. He joined the staff in 1976 with the Bulldogs coming off a 5-5 season. They have strung together 49 consecutive winning seasons since, the longest active streak in the state.
Dahms has compiled a 196-44 record and the highest winning percentage (.817) in Berks County history. Late in the 2019 season he surpassed John Gurski’s program record of 151 wins. All told, he’s been on staff for 49 seasons and 460 victories.
Dahms’ resume as a head coach includes 14 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 titles, including last year’s and a record nine straight, from 2008-2016. That span saw the Bulldogs win 68 straight league games, setting a Lancaster-Lebanon League record for any section.
His teams have won four District 3 championships – 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016 – and recorded four unbeaten regular seasons (2008, 2010, 2013, 2014).
Dahms has been named Berks Coach of the Year twice, in 2008 and 2016, Section 1 Coach of the Year 13 times, and District 3 Coach of the Year three times.
Harbach has won 165 games over 20 seasons as a head coach. He has also served as an assistant coach for 28 seasons, with stops at West Chester University, Albright College, Reading High, Conrad Weiser, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., Indian River, Va., and his alma mater, Wilson.
Harbach went 139-55 over 16 seasons at Lancaster Catholic, with four District 3 championships, four perfect regular seasons, and eight section championships, including seven straight from 2005-11. The Crusaders went 78-9 during that stretch.
The Crusaders went 16-0 in 2011, beating Tyrone 17-7 for the state championship.
Harbach is the only football coach in Lancaster-Lebanon League history to win a pair of state championships, claiming the Class AA titles in 2009 and 2011 while at Lancaster Catholic. Manheim Central, in 2003, is the only other L-L team with a PIAA championship.
He was been named a section Coach of Year eight times in the Lancaster-Lebanon League and was twice named the state’s Class AA Coach of the Year.
Catholic ended the season ranked in the state Class AA Top 10 seven straight seasons during Harbach’s tenure.
Harbach, who left Catholic following the 2017 season, coached in each of the league’s three sections and beat every team in the league at least once save for Wilson.
Four years after retiring at Catholic Harbach took over a struggling program at Schuylkill Valley and quickly took it to the top in Section 5 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League. The Panthers shared the title in 2023 and won it outright in 2024.
The Panthers, who began playing in 1968, had never won or shared a football title of any sorts before 2023.
Over four seasons in Leesport Harbach has gone 26-20 with back-to-back 9-3 seasons, the first establishing a program record for wins in the season.
Schuylkill Valley has enjoyed three straight winning seasons under Harbach; it had only one longer streak in its first 47 seasons, finishing with winning marks four straight seasons, from 2010-13, under Jeff Chillot.
Harbach’s winning percentage (.565) is the highest ever at Schuylkill Valley; only Chillot, who won 53 times over 12 seasons, has more wins with the Panthers.
This is sixth Hall of Fame induction for each.
Dahms has been honored by his alma maters, Muhlenberg and Lebanon Valley; by the school where he taught and has coached for half a century, Wilson; by the Berks County Football Coaches Association and by the Berks Chapter of the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame.
Harbach s also a member of the Pennsylvania State Sports Hall of Fame Berks Chapter, the Wilson Hall of Fame, the Lancaster Catholic Hall of Honor, the Lancaster County Sports Hall of Fame, and the Berks County Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
