Southern coach preparing for opener vs. Wyomissing as though it was a playoff game
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Jim Roth loves the atmosphere surrounding a state playoff game. That’s why the Southern Columbia football coach puts Wyomissing at the front of his team’s schedule.
Playing the Spartans, said the winningest football coach in Pennsylvania history, is like being in the PIAA Tournament.
“Going down there last year, playing on a Saturday afternoon, it was a really good experience for us,” said Roth. “Unfamiliar opponent, unfamiliar site, unfamiliar time (of day). It’s more like a state playoff game (than a regular season game).”
No one knows more about the state tournament than Roth, who has guided 14 teams to PIAA championships – easily more than any other coach, or program.
His Tigers had a streak of seven straight state championship before last season, which started off poorly and ended the same. The 7-5 final record was the worst at Southern Columbia in 38 years. Justice Hardy and the Spartans helped set the tone for that slide with a season-opening 35-21 defeat.
No matter, Roth signed up for more. Wyomissing and Southern Columbia will again open the season against each other Friday at 7 at Tiger Stadium in Catawissa.
That’s nearly 70 miles and more than a 90-minute trip from Wyomissing. But Roth, like his counterpart, Spartans coach Bob Wolfrum, doesn’t mind making the trip. Roth’s always looking for a quality opponent and will travel to find one.
Wyomissing/Southern preview capsule
The teams first met in 2021, with Wyomissing winning 41-21 to snap the longest winning streak in the nation at 65 and the Tigers’ 93-game regular season winning streak. They had been scheduled to meet a year earlier at Wyomissing but COVID-19 got in the way and schedules were scrambled.
Roth and Wolfrum have agreed to extend the series: They’ll play against next year at Wyomissing and in 2027 at Catawissa.
“We build our program off playing competition,” Roth said. “We’ve tried to play strong competition over the years. A lot of times teams aren’t willing to play us, especially bigger schools. There’s no (upside) for them (in beating us).”
For many years Southern Columbia was a Class A school but good enough to compete and beat 4A and 5A schools. It didn’t find many takers.
Wyomissing has been in the same situation. When it was a Class A or Class AA school Wolfrum often put out feelers to larger schools but few dared accept the challenge. With the power-rating systems used to qualify for the postseason many large schools feel they can’t afford a loss to a smaller school.
Wyomissing moved up to 4A last year; Southern Columbia is now 2A. That disparity doesn’t bother either coach.
“The thing I like about Wyomissing is, it’s a state-power type of program,” Roth said, “they’ve had a strong history. I know we’re gonna play a good game against a tough opponent. Even though it’s early in the season, it’s a good practice-game situation for what you face in the state playoffs.”
Pairing programs of this caliber makes this one of the premier games across the state in Week 1. The Spartans are ranked No. 5 in the state in Class 4A; the Tigers are No. 8 in Class 2A.
“We knew when we scheduled this one that we were always going to have an important game for the first week, and that the kids would always be ready to play for it,” Wolfrum said. “They know (Southern Columbia’s) reputation. They’ve won an amazing amount of championships. Their (players) are not ‘Supermen,’ they’re just year-in and year-out a really good football team, very well-coached. We know we’re not gonna get handed anything.”
Actually the Spartans were handed some early gifts in last year’s game. Southern quarterback Anthony Martino fumbled the first two snaps he took from center, losing the first and setting the Spartans up at the Southern 22.
Southern had even more trouble controlling the ball on punt snaps. Its first punt snap was low and Wyomissing recovered at the Southern 25, setting up a TD. The third punt snap went over Preston Shadle’s head for a 35-yard loss, giving the Spartans possession at the Southern 1.
Wyomissing led 28-0 by halftime.
“We executed poorly early in the game and got in a pretty big hole,” Roth said. “Against a team like Wyomissing, that’s going to be tough to overcome. We started a kid at quarterback who, I don’t know, he had maybe five snaps in that game, and that was the end of his career.”
Those ball-control issues were overshadowed by a breakout game from Justice Hardy, who ran for four touchdowns on 12 carries. That was the start of an All-State season.
“We didn’t do much at all,” Wolfrum said. “They just had one of those games (where everything went wrong). Justice had two or three runs where we didn’t block a soul, and he just made something happen. Actually, they defended us pretty well.”
It was Wyomissing that played great defense, holding Southern to a minus-41 rushing yards. The Tigers had trouble picking up the Spartans’ slants and blitz packages. You can bet Roth and his staff spent a lot of time this summer working on this things.
Unlike last year the Tigers figure to have the advantage up front. They were missing some key guys in last year’s opener and going up against a senior-led Wyomissing line group. Nine of the Spartans’ 10 linemen graduated from last year’s team and rebuilding the O-line has been a point of concern for Wolfrum and his staff.
Roth, meanwhile, considers line play the strength of his team.
“Both of our fronts are probably as good as we’ve had in a while,” he said. “John Quinton is probably our defensive linemen, but he couldn’t play (defense last year) because of an injury. He dominated our scrimmage and he’s back with three other starters. I would think that’s going to put us in pretty good position against good teams to have.”
