It took extraordinary vision to see Twin Valley playing for a state title
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Jerry Wilczynski saw Twin Valley football during its infancy, during its days struggling to gain a foothold on the established programs around it.
He was the Raiders’ co-head coach during their “glory days,” a short stretch in the early 2000’s that saw them experience their first winning season and then, a few years later, their first championship.
They had to beat standard-bearer Wyomissing, of all teams, to win an Inter-County League Section 2 title in 2007.
That brief success was not sustained. A few years later, when the Spartans were on their way to a state football, the Raiders went winless.
That seems like a lifetime ago.
These days Twin Valley is ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 4A. It is one of just three unbeaten teams remaining. Thursday it plays for a PIAA championship against Southern Lehigh.
Wilczynski did not see this coming. Any of it.
He never envisioned the joy of winning a District 3 championship, of competing with storied programs such as Aliquippa’s, of preparing for a Week 16 game.
Even when Brett Myers, a proven winner at this level, took over the program a few summers ago and immediately started pressing his thumbprint on it, Wilczynski didn’t expect this kind of mindblowing turnaround.
“I would not lie to you and tell you I saw Twin Valley playing in a state championship game,” said the Raiders assistant coach. “I didn’t see that after Year 2 . . . Year 3 . . . or coming into this year.”
Myers did. He grew up in a championship program at Middletown, playing for Hall of Fame coach Denny Iezzi. He later coached his alma mater to three straight district championships and to a like number of appearances in PIAA title games.
He knows what a championship team looks like, and how to build one from the ground up.
Twin Valley finished with a winning record three times in its first 25 seasons. It was a bottom-feeder for much of its historic. Football was far from the No. 1 sport at the school.
Myers saw past all of that. He’s lived in the school district for years, raising his boys Evan and Lucas there. He knows the community; he saw the possibilities.
“Brett believed it all along,” Wilczynski said.
Despite not officially taking over the program until early in the summer of 2022 Myers’ first Twin Valley team matched the program record by winning seven games. It won a district playoff game for the first time.
A year later the Raiders won a program-record 10 times and shared the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 title.
They were even better last year, an unbeaten start propelling them to the No. 1 ranking in the state for the first time. Their postseason path was cut short by two outstanding teams, both in their own back yard: Wyomissing and Lampeter-Strasburg. Lampeter won its first 15 games and played for the PIAA Class 5A championship; Wyomissing lost to the Pioneers in the district championship game, in overtime.
This year the Section 4 super-power has been the Raiders. Few came close against them during a historic regular season. They’ve displayed another layer of mental toughness in the postseason, twice overcoming halftime deficits, then turning back a potential game-winning drive in the final seconds.
How did all of this unfold, and so quickly?
It started with Brett Myers, who could see it all happening.
“His vision and the way he leads kids is pretty special,” Wilczynski said. “That was apparent from the beginning.”
Myers raised the bar for all around him. He expected his players to play better and his coaches to coach better.
He established a championship-level weight program that has Twin Valley on equal footing when it faces the best and biggest teams across the state.
He relentlessly recruited the hallways of his own school, convincing athletes from other sports to give football a try or by coaxing former football players who might’ve drifted away from the sport to return.
He developed a mindset within the program that hard work, discipline, and commitment are the most direct path to success. Most importantly, he’s gotten his players to buy in wholeheartedly to that philosophy.
“It takes a leader who’s gonna be relentless,” Wilczynski said. “Brett conveys the same consistent message over and over again, and that wins people over. They realize it’s not coach-speak, it’s what he believes.”
You’ll never hear a Brett Myers player speak about a big win, about expectations, about scoring touchdowns or making game-saving plays. They don’t think like that.
They have been trained to focus only about executing the next play and how that will help advance the team’s success. Period.
“I don’t want to hear about stats, I don’t want to hear about records, and I don’t want to hear about wins,” Myers tells his players each summer as they set their preseason goals. “We don’t talk about it.”
Myers invited Iezzi to an offseason weight-lifting session last year in hopes of luring his old coach out of retirement and onto his sideline.
“I was so impressed with all of these young men and how they respond in the structure that he’s developed,” said Iezzi, who’s now 75 and coaches defensive backs. “It’s really special here. Everybody’s zoned in, focused, and doing what they’re supposed to do. That’s everything that Brett has created.”
Myers never speaks of anything beyond the next game, but he thinks about it. He sees the big picture and where he and his team fit into it.
When Twin Valley dominated a strong Berks Catholic team in the season-opener – the Raiders led 39-3 at the half against a team that would reach the district 3A championship game – Myers felt his team could be good enough to make it to December.
“We’re gonna be OK,” he thought. “This is gonna go for a while.”
