Season preview: Hamburg Hawks
Classification: Class 3A
League: Berks Section 2
Last season: 3-3 league, 3-3 overall
Last District 3 playoff appearance: 2015
Head coach: Jeff Chillot, first season
Key losses: All-league T Justice Wade, all-league DB Kyle Vernon, all-league DL Damon Alexander.
Top offensive players: QB Xander Menapace, all-league RB Diohnny Ruiz, FB Tristan Baer, FB Mitchell Watt, RB Pierce Mason, WR Cameron Harris, WR Kevin McFarland, TE Carl Eppihimer, C Daregan Motto, G Mason Semmel, G Evan Snyder, T Charles Sheppard.
Top defensive players: E Mitchell Watt, T Charles Sheppard, T/E Daregan Motto, LB Pierce Mason, LB Carl Eppihimer, LB Tristan Baer, LB Mason Semmel, LB Bradley Zettlemoyer, all-league S Diohnny Ruiz, all-league S Cameron Harris, CB Kevin McFarland, CB Derek Ruiz.
Notable: The Hawks’ 55-49 victory last season over Fleetwood went four overtimes and was the longest game in Berks football history.
Program record of note: Matt Deibler set a Berks record in 1998 with 416 passing yards in a win over Schuylkill Valley; he threw for 1,589 yards that season, still a Hawks record.
Quotable: “Xander’s going to take charge of the offense and give us a lot of leadership. He’s gonna make plays downfield, if we give him some blocking.” — Hawks coach Jeff Chillot, on junior quarterback Xander Menapace.
Outlook: The Hawks set a program record last season by averaging 34.5 per game and they’ve got eight starters back on that side of the the ball, including quarterback Xander Menapace. That’s the good news. The bad news is they’ve been hit hard with early injuries and lost a couple key returning linemen, one who moved out of state, another who opted not to play.
The offense will be triggered by Menapace, a junior and multi-sport athlete who started every game last season as a sophomore, when he completed 53.7 percent of his passes. He suffered a wrist injury in basketball and lost several valuable months of offseason development time as it mended.
Menapace has plenty of skills people around him, including flashy RB Diohnny Ruiz, one of the best-kept secrets in the league. Ruiz is fast and knows how to make people miss. He averaged 8.1 yards per game and led the team in rushing and receptions, and with 8 TDs, as a junior. He’s got a younger brother, sophomore Derek, who may be even faster.
Eight starters are back on defense, as well. Chillot is in his first season after moving over from Schuylkill Valley but he retained much of last year’s coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Aaron Menapace, who will continue to run the Wing-T. Depth is always a critical question for the Hawks and it will be again this season.
At the wire: Middle of the pack. Potential postseason chances if things break right.
