Tom McCarroll was hired as Lehighton’s head football coach in 2012, and it’s safe to say the program has been in good hands ever since.

One of the first things he noticed about the Indians when taking over was that the team had a bright future with a talented crop of young players at the varsity level and a middle school group at the seventh-grade level that he was especially excited about.

Fast forward to 2017 and that seventh-grade group was the senior class responsible for helping the Indians get to the District 11 3A championship game. The Tribe, which battled throughout Saturday’s contest, came up just short against a highly-regarded Palisades team 48-42, but the real story is how the Indians got there.

“I think one of the more special things about this season is that all of our coaches and our fans over the years saw these kids develop into such great young men and football players,” said McCarroll. “This senior group has been in the program the longest, I’ve had them since my first year, which was their seventh grade year, and you could just see how they’ve grown. And look where we are. It’s been great to be their coach and to have seen them help build our program.”

In the Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association preseason media and coaches poll, the Indians were picked to finish dead last in the Schuylkill League. Those picks most likely stemmed from the 4-7 season the Indians had in 2016, but the Tribe played basically the second half of last season without all-league quarterback Cody Scherer due to a broken leg. Scherer was back fully healthy in 2017, but still nobody gave Lehighton a shot to win the league, let alone go 12-1 and push the Colonial League champion Pirates to the brink.

“This season started in the offseason and nobody coming into this season thought that we would be here, and I mean nobody, but we knew we had a special group of kids,” said McCarroll. “I could just tell this offseason this group wanted to make a statement — they wanted to make a difference and they went to work and earned every bit of what they accomplished. I’m just so proud of these kids.”

The 2017 Indians had many characteristics of a good football teams, but what made them go was the big play. Lehighton had one of the most dynamic duos in not just District 11, but all of the state this season, with quarterback Scherer and running back TaQuan Bradley-Chambers.

The two, week in and week out, broke off huge plays — highlight reel type of plays that made defenders look they were standing in cement. Their final performance on Saturday night was nothing short of a grand finale. The two combined for 342 yards rushing and five touchdowns.

“The plays they made this season and tonight, just all the big plays, if you tell me there’s a better one-two punch in District 11 ... I don’t think there is,” said McCarroll. “Every time they touch the ball there’s a chance something special can happen. Their work ethic, their attitude, and their passion for the game is what makes them great.”

This past season will go down as one of the most unforgettable years in Lehighton football history. This team’s skill, power, speed were all vital attributes that could explain the Indians success, but one characteristic may stand out above the rest and that’s resiliency.

Bouncing back from a 4-7 campaign a season ago and then on Saturday, Lehighton would not go quietly into the night. The Tribe answered the call numerous times against the Pirates. and at one point trailed 28-8 with 2:10 remaining in the second quarter.

“We just ran out of time there at the end and that’s football,” said McCarroll. “One play here or there, one turnover less or one forced turnover more and the outcome could’ve been different. But I think this team showed how much fight they have in them with their performance tonight. This is the standard we want our program to be at, and this team helped us get here.”