Cody Scherer had one condition when he was moved to quarterback last season.

Not surprisingly, Lehighton’s coaches had no problem with his request.

“I told my coaches when they moved me from receiver to quarterback ... I still want to be on returns and everything else,” said Scherer. “They agreed with me, and let me do that.

“I was really glad because I like special teams as much as either side of the ball. I’ve always taken pride in being on the field.”

Simply put, Scherer on the field was much better for the Indians than him not being on the field.

The senior did it all for his team this past season, leading them to a 10-0 regular season and a berth in the District 11 Class 3A championship game. He directed a potent offense, played stellar defense, and even excelled on special teams.

For his efforts, Scherer was named the Times News Football Player of the Year.

“He really was the engine that made us go,” said head coach Tom McCarroll. “With his talent and skills, to have him take snaps on every single play was invaluable to us, especially with how he understood our offense. He was on the field almost all the time.”

But how much is too much? Many coaches try to limit extra playing time for their quarterback, hoping to prevent them from getting hurt. Not so with Scherer.

“The season takes its toll on anybody, especially on a kid that plays as hard and hits as hard as he does,” said McCarroll. “But I feel like we had a great player/coach relationship, and I knew how hard I could push him. He would always answer ‘Yes’ if I asked him if he had anything left in the tank. We kind of knew, though, when he needed to turn and hand the ball off instead of run with it. But a couple plays later, he would be breaking free for another one of his runs.”

Scherer, despite all the aches and pains that come with playing down-after-down, was at his best down the stretch. He ran for 17 of his 24 touchdowns after the midway point of the regular season. Of those 17 scores, nine were from at least 20 yards away, with six of them over 50 yards. He finished the year with 1,584 rushing yards and an area-best 9.43 yards per carry.

“I sprained my ankle in the first Jim Thorpe game,” said Scherer, who also threw for 1,445 yards and 20 scores. “I didn’t think much about it at the time, but it swelled up pretty good. The adrenaline kicks in and you don’t really feel it too much anymore. In the district championship game, I sprained the AC joint in my shoulder, but all I’m thinking about at that point is winning the game and about my teammates.

“Our coaches always tell us you don’t want to come off the field and think you could have done more. I want to play my tail off and be able to exceed at everything I can. And that’s what I want to instill in the younger kids’ minds too.”

Scherer learned that lesson when he was one of the younger kids.

“I looked up to a guy like Tyler Cann, who ran over a lot of kids as a quarterback, and he wasn’t a big guy either. I know Lehighton football is all about toughness, and whenever I got the chance to hit someone, I lowered my shoulder and hit them. My coaches joked sometimes when I did that, they’d say ‘That was Tyler Cann on the field’. I take a lot of pride in toughness and being able to run through kids.”

Coach McCarroll saw the similarities in the past two Indian quarterbacks.

“(Cody) was our backup quarterback (two years ago), and he saw the way Tyler played, and the success he had doing it, and kind of modeled his game that way,” said McCarroll. “He tried to make that part of his game, and he did a great job of that. He was a physical presence on the field, and he certainly made it tough on opposing defenders.”

Scherer wasn’t a bad defender himself, finishing as the team’s second-leading tackler from his linebacker position.

“What made him stand out defensively was he was often involved in the most impactful plays of a game,” said his head coach. “In both games against Jim Thorpe, he had key fourth-down stops. He often made very big and timely hits.”

“It’s always fun to make big plays on defense,” said Scherer. “Those are as much fun as running for an 80-yard touchdown. I really don’t have a preference playing either side of the ball. I just like running for touchdowns and making big plays on defense. They’re both a lot of fun.”

Scherer hopes to continue his fun at the next level. He’s being looked at by many Division 2 and Division 3 schools, and has even drawn interest from FCS programs.

“I’m not 100 percent sure where I’ll go,” said Scherer, who plans on majoring in business administration and finance. “I’m just keeping an open mind right now, and waiting to find a perfect fit.”