The 10 worst things about this football season
2023 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
It’s been another great season of Berks football . . .
Schuylkill Valley won a share of a league title for the first time in its 51 seasons . . .
Twin Valley emerged as a program to watch in setting a school record with 10 wins . . .
Hamburg quarterback Tyler Shuey lit up defensive secondaries around the league, throwing for over 2,700 yards in 11 games . . .
And Wyomissing extended its remarkable run with a fifth straight district championship.
It wasn’t all great, though. Nothing ever is.
To that end, here are the 10 Worst Things about this football season. As usual, we’ll go in Letterman order, saving No. 1 for last. (No cheating and skipping ahead to the top, er, bottom of the list.)
10
Dominic Giuffre had all kinds of Schuylkill Valley rushing records in sight when the season started but a broken arm in Week 4 sent him to the sidelines for four weeks.
He returned in time for the Panthers’ biggest games and helped them earn a program-record nine wins.
Giuffre earned All-State honors after rushing for 1,548 yards and scoring a program-record 30 TDs as a junior but collected half as many yards this season.
9
Proposed realignment in the Mid-Penn Conference could bring an end to Wilson’s always anticipated non-league match-up against Central Dauphin.
Commonwealth teams such as Central Dauphin, Harrisburg and Cumberland Valley will have just one non-league game.
That could affect Wilson, Gov. Mifflin, Reading High and several other Lancaster-Lebanon League teams, especially Manheim Township, which played both Cumberland Valley and Harrisburg in the opening weeks.
8
Wilson was one overtime defensive stop away from beating Central Dauphin in its Week 2 battle at Gurski Stadium. Actually, the Bulldogs had two chances to stop the Rams and avoid defeat but couldn’t get it done either time and lost 36-35.
The Rams, who had the ball second in OT, got a fourth-down touchdown, then came back with the same play for the two-pointer and the win.
If the Bulldogs stop either play they’re the No. 4 seed for the District 3 Class 6A playoffs and open at home, not on the road, where they lost to Cumberland Valley.
7
Wilson didn’t get its first win until Week 3 – Week 4, actually.
The Bulldogs saw their scheduled game against Martin Luther King canceled at midweek when the Philadelphia School District suspended all athletic activities because of a brutal heat wave.
Wilson scrambled to fill the open date; Cheltenham agreed to come to Gurski Stadium for a Saturday night kickoff.
The Bulldogs and Panthers didn’t make it through the first half before a lightning storm stopped play and forced suspension until Monday – technically the start of Week 4. Wilson ended up with a 40-26 win.
That was a rough weather weekend all around with several games suspended on Friday night and completed Saturday.
6
Gov. Mifflin had a 19-point lead against Pleasant Valley in its final game but couldn’t hold on, surrendering four unanswered scores to finish the season with a losing record.
That turned out to be final game for Jeff Lang as Mustangs coach; he deserved to go out on a better note.
Lang was part of the Mifflin program for 33 seasons and was instrumental in seeing the Mustangs go from bottom-feeders to one of the most dominant teams in Berks Football League history.
He was Mick Vecchio’s right-hand man for decades and was such a respected offensive line coach that he was selected by his peers for induction into the Berks County Football Coaches Hall of Fame while still an asssistant coach.
5
There were winners and losers in the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s biennial realignment. The reshuffling will help some programs and hurt others.
There’s no way around that when you’re dealing with 37 schools, each with its own set of unique challenges.
The biggest downside from the restructuring appears to be the loss of the “Backyard Brawl” between Berks Catholic and Wyomissing.
The teams were paired in Section 4 the last two seasons. Now that Berks Catholic is moving to Section 5 it appears it won’t schedule Wyomissing as a non-league game.
The same thing happened several years ago when Berks Catholic moved from Section 2 of the Berks Football League to Section 1. Wyomissing didn’t schedule BC.
For years the “Backyard Brawl” was the biggest thing going in Berks football. If those two don’t get together, it’s a shame and a loss for Berks football.
4
Twin Valley was 7-0 for the first time and had a chance to lock down the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 title when it went to Ephrata in Week 8.
The Raiders played short-handed that night: Neither of their 1,000-yard backs, Drew Engle or Evan Johnson, were able to go more than a few plays because of injuries and Twin Valley lost 52-33. Without those two they just didn’t have the firepower to stay with a very good Ephrata team (which has reached the Class 5A district final).
It would’ve been great to see those teams both at full strength going at each other.
3
Weather is part of the game; you deal with it. That being said:
Did it really have to rain – constantly, and with no letup – the afternoon Wyomissing dedicated its home field to longtime coach Bob Wolfrum?
What would have been a huge crowd to celebrate the renaming of the field – along with Homecoming and Hall of Fame ceremonies – never materialized. Wolfrum even told some family members to stay home because of such a lousy forecast.
That day deserved a bright sun and cloudless blue skies.
2
Rick Keeley has coached his last game with Berks Catholic.
After 60 seasons as a player, assistant coach, and head coach at three schools – Holy Name, Hamburg, and BC – he put an end to a remarkable career that positively impacted thousands of lives.
He won a lot of games and a lot of championships but there is so much more to Rick Keeley than that.
He always handled the most difficult situations with grace and a smile on his face. Jason Guarente, who overed Keeley’s teams for this website and later with lancasteronline.com, put it the best in a tweet: Rick always made those around him feel better.
Keeley went out with a win and with his team celebrating a championship, as it should be.
His pending retirement was hardly a state secret; we spoke about it months ago. Unfortunately his announcement plans were muddied when a local newspaper inadvertently published a dummy story on-line days before his team’s final game.
1
There’s no better place to spend a Saturday afternoon in the fall than at what’s now known as Bob Wolfrum Field.
It’s a serene setting in the Fall and the Spartans play football the way it’s supposed to be played, with discipline, poise, and respect.
They’re practically unbeatable at home, too: They’ve now won 33 straight games there and are 17-0 all-time in the postseason.
They’re at the top of the PIAA’s playoff bracket for the current two-year cycle which mean they should be playing their state quarterfinal against Danville on their home field.
The PIAA says no. The state’s high school athletics governing body has determined that all games in the quarterfinal round will be played on a Friday and on a turf field (in case of inclement weather).
District 3 took that hard-line position for years but finally came to an agreement that would allow Wyomissing to play on Saturday at home provided it had local alternative site, such as Gov. Mifflin or Albright’s Shirk Stadium, available in case of bad weather.
The PIAA hasn’t come to such an understanding yet.
Rules are rules, and a governing body has to set standards; understood. But this is the same PIAA which sent Wyomissing to play last year at Philadelphia’s so-called “Super Site,” a venue with thread-bare artificial turf, lopsided goal posts, no concession stand, no 30-second clock, inadequate locker room facilities, a malfunctioning scoreboard, outdated lighting and limited on-street parking.
Wolfrum Field is Wembley Stadium compared to that.
