Starting Lineup: Raiders’ Lucas Myers ready to tackle next challenge
To recognize the top players in Berks County football MikeDragoSports.com has selected the “Starting Lineup,” a preseason All-Berks team that includes the top linemen, backs, receivers, linebackers, and specialists.
Players are selected based on past performance, expected performance this season and college potential. Two-way players were given special consideration.
One player will be introduced each day throughout the preseason, in random order (the players are not ranked). This is the ninth installment of the series.
Lucas Myers, Twin Valley
| 6-0 | 210 | Senior | RB/LB |
You see it on Friday nights no matter where you go to watch a football game: Off on a side field, maybe back behind the end zone, you’ll find a group of boys – 8, 9, 10 years old – running around with a football.
One takes the ball and his buddies chase after and tackle him, then somebody else runs with its. Each dreams of being the next Saquan Barkley, the next Nick Singleton.
Not Lucas Myers. He’s a different breed.
“I like tackling,” said the Twin Valley junior. “I like the idea of defense, of working together with another linebacker.”
After two seasons of playing mostly defense, chasing after and knocking guys down, Myers will get a chance to run with the football this season. He’ll split backfield reps with record-setting Drew Engle.
It’s an exciting proposition considering that he’ll be following a big offensive line and for a team that figures to win a lot of games. And Lucas Myers is excited for the opportunity, don’t get the wrong impression. It’s just that his passion lies on the other side of the line.
“Linebacker’s always been my favorite,” he said. “I’ve never liked offense as much.”
Myers literally grew up on a football field. He was a Pee Wee when his dad was named head coach at Middletown a decade ago. He used to wrestle older brother Evan for footballs along the sidelines. Later, when he was a ball boy and old enough to understand what was going on out there, his eyes were always drawn to the linebackers, big guys running sideline-to-sideline taking ballcarriers down.
He looked up to star ’backers such as Gage Radabaugh, Blake Jacoby, and Hunter Landis and dreamed of being big and fast like them. Now he is.
After adding another 10 pounds to his 6-foot frame he now goes 210. He’s swift – he runs sprints and with the 4×100 relay on the track team – and he’s strong and he’s instinctual.
He started the season-opener as a freshman in 2023 and ended up as Player of the Week after making a game-high 11 tackles.
Engle, who has played with him since their Mites and Midgets days, didn’t bat an eye seeing the 14-year-old out there dominating his first time under the lights.
“I was definitely impressed,” said Engle, “but I don’t think I was surprised because of the mentality he has and how hard he works. He’s one of our most competitive kids, if not the most competitive kid on the team.”
Lucas Myers is always training for something. He competes in four sports, including lacrosse — he was a second-team all-league midfielder on the Raiders’ state semifinalist in the spring — and basketball. One season spills into the next and constant training keeps him primed for all of them.
He injured his knee five minutes into the basketball season this year and didn’t play the rest of the way but was fine by the time lacrosse came around.
“He’s moving as well as any 210 pound junior right now,” said his father and Raiders head coach Brett Myers. “He’s feeling better at this time than last year (when he was coming off a shoulder injury). He’s put on 10 pounds thanks to his dedication in the weight room, and he’s also been working hard on the track team to improve his speed and explosiveness.”
Lucas will end up playing football in college, and at a high level. He doesn’t have any offers yet but showed out well in prospect camps at Maryland, West Virginia, and Rutgers during the spring and summer.
If he was blessed with his dad’s size – Brett was listed at 6-4, 240 when he played at Arkansas State – Lucas would have several offers in hand by now. He’s barely 6-foot and college coaches need to see excel on their campuses against other top prospects before they offer.
Lucas hasn’t gotten a lot of work in the backfield the past two seasons but when he did he showed the makings of an all-league back.
When the front-line guys were dinged up he got a start his freshman year against Daniel Boone and ran for four touchdowns and 102 yards – on just seven carries.
“I love his effort and I love the way he runs,” Brett Myers said after that one. “In the end, you can’t teach speed.”
He had just 14 carries last season but was fourth on team with 13 receptions.
His role won’t change on defense: “He’ll do the same thing he’s done the last two years, running sideline to sideline,” said his dad.
He has accepted more of a leadership role now that Evan, the Raiders’ starting quarterback the last four seasons, has moved on to Kutztown University.
“He’s always been a leader of the team,” Lucas said of his brother. “He did everything to make sure people were ready. I can base my leadership off of what I’ve seen from him. I got to see how it worked, what was successful and what (wasn’t).”
Evan Myers cast a big shadow but Lucas says he never felt overlooked.
“Of course, he’s always gotten the attention,” Lucas said, “but I always knew my time would come. I’ve just always worked to be the best player I could be.”
2025 Starting Lineup
| Logan Cammauf | Schuylkill Valley | RB/LB | Senior |
| Chase Eisenhower | Wyomissing | FB/ILB | Senior |
| Justice Hardy | Wyomissing | RB/WR/S/CB/KR | Junior |
| Drew Engle | Twin Valley | RB/S/KR | Senior |
| Chase Herb | Wilson | WR/S | Senior |
| Lebron Leaf | Governor Mifflin | QB/LB | Senior |
| Riley Martinez | Exeter | QB | Senior |
| Lucas Myers | Twin Valley | RB/LB | Junior |
| Cameron Small | Muhlenberg | RB/S | Senior |
