New Hamburg coach excited for Friday’s debut

By Mike Drago Last updated Aug 21, 2025

Hawks coach Tyler Hartranft with quarterback Isaac McFadden, left, and running back Blaise Peters.

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For a guy about to coach his first real football game, Tyler Hartranft sounds pretty calm.

He’ll make his debut as Hamburg’s head coach Friday when the Hawks play their season-opener at Octorara. If anything, the 31-year-old Hartranft sounds more excited than nervous.

“Overall, I feel pretty good,” he said. “I’m confident in our guys understanding our scheme and what we’re doing. We have a great group of kids that want to be good football players, that want to be a good team.

“There’s a lot of good energy around the program right now. Our execution still needs to get better but overall I think we’re going to be ready come Friday.”

The Hawks have 11 starters returning but there aren’t many seniors on the roster and they’ll be especially young at quarterback, either with freshman Isaac McFadden or junior Isaak Stewart, who saw some game time last year, including one start.

Hartranft is the only first-year coach in Berks but one of five new coaches across the league.

He has the distinction of being the second-youngest head coach in the league, behind 29-year-old Tom Gallagher, the new coach at Elizabethtown.

Hartranft made sure to surround himself with an experienced staff. He hired Damian Buggy, a former head coach at Hamburg, as his Defensive Coordinator and Jeff Chillot, a head coach at both Hamburg and Schuylkill Valley, to coach tight ends. He also retained three coaches from Hamburg’s staff.

“I’m very fortunate to find myself with a fantastic coaching staff,” Hartranft said. “We have two (former) head coaches, and the AD (athletic director Aaron Menapace, a former football coach) has been a big help.

“I’ve got a very experienced staff of guys I trust and football guys who are here for the right reasons. They’ve been a huge asset for me to lean on.”

Hartranft will serve as his own Offensive Coordinator, a task some head coaches find too demanding. He understood why during Saturday’s scrimmage against Tamaqua when he found he had a lot of balls in the air at the same time.

“Our scrimmage was a great test for me,” he said. “I found I had to make an adjustment; I was a little too focused on the offensive side of the ball (at times).

“What’s great, I have two guys who are strictly on the offensive side of the ball who are extremely knowledgeable: Jeff Chillot, who’s been a tremendous resource, and our offensive line coach Jude Bubeck. They have information waiting for me when I come back to ‘O.’ ”

Hartranft was hired just weeks after the end of last season. In the months that followed four other programs in the L-L made coaching changes:

Columbia hired Nate Bagley, a Hall of Fame football, wrestling and track athlete at Conestoga Valley who played two seasons at Kutztown University. He has experience as an assistant coach at Conestoga Valley, Lampeter-Strasburg, Ephrata, Stevens Tech, and Mountain Ridge, Md.
Elizabethtown hired Tom Gallagher, who took Blue Mountain to the District 11 playoffs three straight seasons. The Eagles were 7-4 last year. Gallagher played linebacker at Lebanon Valley College and North Schuylkill.
McCaskey hired Todd Mealy, a three-time Lancaster-Lebanon League Coach of the Year with Penn Manor and Lancaster Catholic. Mealy was a Red Tornado assistant coach for nine seasons and teaches social studies in the school district.
Penn Manor hired Jordan Clark, an assistant coach 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.

Hartranft didn’t need to introduce himself when he was hired in December: He was on the Hawks coaching staff just two seasons ago as Offensive Coordinator. He left for a season to be Offensive Coordinator at Pottsville.

“These kids know how I operate,” said Hartranft, who coached with the Hawks during their 2022 and 2023 playoff runs. “They know me. There was no ‘get to know you’ period. We could kind of get right to it. That’s one of the big reasons this (job) was so attractive to me. I know the kids; they know what I stand for.”

“We were sad to lose ‘Coach H’ last year,” said Hamburg running back Blaise Ernst, “and then when I heard he was coming back as our head coach and I couldn’t have been more excited. I love the assistant coaches he’s brought with him and I love the way he’s building the program.”

Hartranft steps into a program on an unprecedented run of success: The Hawks have made four straight trips to the postseason, a first at the school.

Hartranft played at neighboring Blue Mountain. He passed for over 1,400 yards and 21 touchdowns as a senior in 2010 and led the Eagles to the district playoffs. His coach was Mike Brennan, who won a pair of state titles at Mount Carmel.

When Brennan took over at Pottsville for the 2024 season Hartranft left Hamburg to become the Crimson Tide Offensive Coordinator. He expected to stay with his mentor for longer than a season but life had other plans for him.

“The opportunity to learn from a guy who’s done it at a high level for a long time, won state championships, and that I knew I had a close personal connection with, it was a no-brainer to go learn from him,” Hartranft said. “I loved my time at Pottsville. I had a great experience there; those are my guys. I learned a ton from Mike this year.”

After playing quarterback at King’s College from 2011-14 he joined the Monarchs staff for three seasons. He spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons at McDaniel College as passing game coordinator and recruiting coordinator, spent a year at Spring-Ford as quarterbacks coach, returned to King’s for a season, then was hired by Hoffert in 2022.