L-L will look a little different this season, with five new head coaches
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It’s been a busy offseason in the Lancaster-Lebanon League, with the hiring of five head coaches, at Columbia, Elizabethtown, Hamburg, McCaskey, and Penn Manor.
Here’s a look at the changes:
Columbia
Nate Bagley, a Hall of Fame football, wrestling and track athlete at Conestoga Valley was hired to pick up the pieces at Columbia, which was outscored by an average of 40 points during a winless 2024 season.
Bagley, who played two seasons at Kutztown University, has experience as an assistant coach at Conestoga Valley, Lampeter-Strasburg, Ephrata, Stevens Tech, and Mountain Ridge, Md.
He briefly played pro football in the North American Football League.
Bagley replaces Brady Mathias, who stepped down in November after an 0-10 finish. In three seasons under Mathias the Crimson Tide went 5-25.
At 25 when he took the job in 2022, Mathias was by far the youngest head coach in the league.
Elizabethtown
After taking Blue Mountain to the District 11 playoffs three straight seasons, Tom Gallagher resigned to take the head coaching job at Elizabethtown.
Gallagher, 29, took Blue Mountain to a 25-18 record over four seasons, including a 7-4 finish last season and an 8-3 mark in 2023.
Gallagher played linebacker at Lebanon Valley College and North Schuylkill. He is a special education/health and physical education teacher at Blue Mountain.
Gallagher will be working as an assistant coach in the PSFCA Big School East-West game in May.
Gallagher succeeds Keith Stokes, who resigned after three seasons as Bears coach. Stokes started fast at Elizabethtown, winning his first six games en route to an 8-3 finish that included a spot in the District 3 Tournament. He couldn’t maintain that pace and leaves after consecutive 2-8 finishes.
Hamburg
(Photo courtesy of Hamburg athletics)
Less than two weeks after the surprise resignation of Matt Hoffert the Hawks had a new man in place: Former offensive coordinator Tyler Hartranft.
Hartranft served as Pottsville’s offensive coordinator in 2024 and has extensive experience coaching at the college level.
He was hired as an assistant by Hoffert in 2022, Hoffert’s first of three seasons as Hawks head coach.
Hartranft has coached at the college level for six seasons, serving as a pass game coordinator, recruiting coordinator, and interim offensive coordinator. During his four seasons as a high school assistant he has served a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator.
The Hawks finished 6-4 in the regular season and qualified for the Eastern Conference Class 3A championship game, which they lost 41-0.
It marked the fourth straight year Hamburg has 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.
Hartranft will be Hamburg’s fourth head coach in six seasons. Chuck Kutz resigned after four years following the 2020 season. Jeff Chillot replaced him, then resigned after one season. Hoffert took over in 2022 and led the Hawks to 21 wins over three seasons.
McCaskey
Todd Mealy, a three-time Lancaster-Lebanon League Coach of the Year, faces perhaps his biggest challenge after being named Red Tornado head coach in January. He inherits a program that has strung together 14 consecutive losing seasons.
He replaces Ben Thompson, who went 7-33 in four seasons with the Red Tornado, including a 2-8 finish last year.
Mealy has a personal interest in the job: He’s a former Red Tornado assistant coach and teaches social studies in the school district.
Mealy, an assistant at McCaskey for nine seasons, compiled a .673 winning percentage (76-37) in 10 years as head coach at Penn Manor and Lancaster Catholic.
His teams went 56-35 at Penn Manor, where he is the program’s all-time winningest coach; he took the Comets to their only 10-win seasons, in 2009, 2012, and 2013.
During his time at Penn Manor from 2007-14 his teams were often the biggest threat to Wilson’s league-record winning streak; they qualified for the District 3 playoffs seven straight seasons.
At Lancaster Catholic in 2018 and 2019 Mealy’s teams went a combined 20-3 and won back-to-back section championships, reaching the District 3 semifinals twice.
He was named a section Coach of the Year in 2009, 2012, and 2019.
The Red Tornado went winless in Section 1 play last season and are 1-40 in league play over the past seven seasons, the lone win coming against Reading High in overtime in 2023.
Mealy was an All-State linebacker at Bishop McDevitt and played on the Crusaders’ 1995 PIAA championship team.
Penn Manor
Jordan Clark is familiar with the program at Penn Manor and Section 1 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League after coaching at Manheim Township the past four seasons.
Prior to that he was an offensive and defensive line coach at Towanda for four years; an offensive line coach and the co-offensive coordinator at Sayre; head coach at Wyalusing; and offensive line coach at Mansfield University, his alma mater.
Wyalusing went 5-8 in his only season, 2017, when the Rams went to the District 4 Class 1A championship and the PIAA Tournament.
Clark played football and baseball at Towanda.
He replaces John Brubaker, who went 27-70 in 10 seasons as Penn Manor head coach. The Comets never reached the district playoffs under Brubaker. They went 2-7 last season.
Brubaker spent 27 seasons at Manheim Central as defensive coordinator.
