Two-time state champ Bruce Harbach tabbed for PSFCA Hall of Fame
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Bruce Harbach, who won a pair of PIAA football championships at Lancaster Catholic and more recently has taken Schuylkill Valley to new heights, is set for induction into the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Harbach is part of the Class of 2025, which will formally be inducted in May.
Harbach, 69, has won 165 games over 20 seasons as a head coach. He has also served as an assistant coach for 28 seasons, with stops at West Chester University, Albright College, Reading High, Conrad Weiser, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., Indian River, Va., and his alma mater, Wilson.
Harbach is the only football coach in Lancaster-Lebanon League history to win a pair of state championships, claiming the Class AA titles in 2009 and 2011 while at Lancaster Catholic. Manheim Central, in 2003, is the only other L-L team with a PIAA championship.
Harbach went 139-55 over 16 seasons at Lancaster Catholic, with four District 3 championships, four perfect regular seasons, and eight section championships, including seven straight from 2005-11. The Crusaders went 78-9 during that stretch.
The Crusaders went 16-0 in 2011, beating Tyrone 17-7 for the state championship.
He was been named a section Coach of Year eight times in the Lancaster-Lebanon League and was twice named the state’s Class AA Coach of the Year.
Catholic ended the season ranked in the state Class AA Top 10 seven straight seasons during Harbach’s tenure.
Harbach, who left Catholic following the 2017 season, coached in each of the league’s three sections and beat every team in the league at least once save for Wilson.
Four years after retiring at Catholic Harbach took over a struggling program at Schuylkill Valley and quickly took it to the top in Section 5 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League. The Panthers shared the title in 2023 and won it outright in 2024.
The Panthers, who began playing in 1968, had never won or shared a football title of any sorts before 2023.
Over four seasons in Leesport Harbach has gone 26-20 with back-to-back 9-3 seasons, the first establishing a program record for wins in the season.
Schuylkill Valley has enjoyed three straight winning seasons under Harbach; it had only one longer streak in its first 47 seasons, finishing with winning marks four straight seasons, from 2010-13, under Jeff Chillot.
Harbach’s winning percentage (.565) is the highest ever at Schuylkill Valley; only Chillot, who won 53 times over 12 seasons, has more wins with the Panthers.
Harbach plans to continue coaching in 2025.
He played for John Gurski at Wilson, was a two-time All-Berks pick, and went on to play at Slippery Rock and West Chester.
This will be Harbach’s sixth Hall of Fame induction. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania State Sports Hall of Fame Berks Chapter, the Wilson Hall of Fame, the Lancaster Catholic Hall of Honor, the Lancaster County Sports Hall of Fame, and the Berks County Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Dennis Iezzi, a Daniel Boone grad who had great success at Middletown, was inducted into the PSFCA Hall of Fame in 2024.
Other recent inductions with Berks connections include former Berks Catholic and Holy Name coach Rick Keeley, Class of 2023; former Gov. Mifflin coach Mick Vecchio, inducted in 2022; and former Reading High coach Al Wolski, inducted in 2020.
