Starting Lineup: This Schuylkill Valley defender not sheepish when it comes to tackling
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 second installment of the series.
Logan Cammauf, Schuylkill Valley
| 6-1 | 180 | Senior | RB/LB |
It’s cliché to say that a football player has a “killer instinct” but for Schuylkill Valley linebacker Logan Cammauf it rings true. It’s second nature to him.
He buys and raises sheep on the family farm. When it’s time to take them to market, it’s his job to process the animals. He takes a knife and slits their throats, then skins them to produce mutton and lamb chops for his customers.
“It’s (a) quicker (death) than shooting them,” he says cooly about a task he’s done countless times.
Cammauf takes care of opposing quarterbacks and running backs in a similarly routine fashion each Friday night during the Fall. Run with the football against the Panthers and there’s a pretty good chance No. 34 is going to wrap his arms around you and take you down.
He did it 193 times a season ago to smash his own program record (of 122) and lead the county in tackles. Mix in his four sacks, three blocked kicks, two interceptions, and various other defensive accomplishments and you’ve got the makings of an All-State season.
“I just have a knack for (getting to) the ball,” Cammauf said. “I don’t know how to explain. I can just get there.”
“He’s tough as nails,” explains Schuylkill Valley coach Bruce Harbach. “I noticed him in junior high, how aggressive he was leading our junior high team.”
That all-out play has continued in high school. As a sophomore he was once named Defensive Player of the Week after making 22 tackles in a key late-season win at Annville-Cleona; he finished the season with a team-leading 94 tackles.
He doubled that total last year and now holds the school career record, one he’ll put out of reach with another 10 or 12 games this season. (His 342 tackles are 74 more than anyone else.)
He was named Linebacker of the Year in Section 5 of Lancaster-Lebanon League last year, then realized a lifelong dream when he was named All-State.
“As a kid, that’s all I ever wanted in football,” he said.
Cammauf’s success comes because of his all-around athleticism, his aggressiveness, and his relentlessness. Harbach says his motor never stops running.
“He never asks to come out,” the Panthers coach said. “That’s the type of player he is; that’s the type of player you love.”
No one is going to outwork Cammauf. That’s second nature to him, too.
“Living on a farm, it’s always been about hard work,” he said. “My dad’s always been about that. You’ve got to work hard to be good.”
Even with all of his chores at the family’s Mohrsville farm Cammauf finds the time to play three sports and excel in the classroom. His parents Trevor and Susann, both former athletes, understand the importance of athletics and make allowances so that Logan can compete year-round.
He’s a three-year starter in basketball and a multiple threat during track season, where he’s earned District 3 medals in three different jumps.
With All-State picks Logan Nawrocki and Luke Spotts now gone, Cammauf’s role with the Panthers will expand this season. He’ll be the unquestioned leader of a Schuylkill Valley team seeking a third straight section title.
He’ll be just as important on offense, where he’ll be the lead back in an offense that could rely more on the running game than in years past. With an experienced and more athletic line coming back, Harbach figures the Panthers’ bread and butter could be the ground game and he’s more than happy to have the ball in Cammauf’s hands.
“He’s a hard-nosed football player,” Harbach said. “When we need 2 yards, he’s gonna get it for us.”
That’s what the Panthers needed a year ago to seal their season-ending win against Lancaster Catholic for the section title. Cammauf got the rock.
When he burst through the line and past the first-down sticks, coaches and teammates on the sideline urged him to fall to the ground, what with the game now in hand. Cammauf says he didn’t hear any of that. He was just focused on plowing straight ahead.
“I saw an open hole and figured I might as well go for it,” he explains.
He stiff-armed a defender at the 5 to complete an electrifying 64-yard scoring run and put an exclamation point on the 40-29 victory.
People know Cammauf mostly as a linebacker but his favorite football player is Jerome Bettis, the oversized fullback known affectionately as “the Bus.” He models his game after the former Pittsburgh Steeler.
“I like running people over,” Cammauf says. “I like contact.”
