(EDITOR’S NOTE: Since May of 1999, the Times News Sports Department has featured an On This Date practically every day, highlighting an event that happened in the past. With the coronavirus putting a halt to most sports locally and nationally, the On This Dates have been expanded to the stories that actually ran in the next edition’s newspaper. Today’s On This Date story is from July 22, 2000).

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS

HERSHEY - As high school football games go, it is usually the skill players who get the headlines. Saturday’s 43rd annual Big 33 Football Classic was no different.

Michigan State-bound quarterback Jeff Smoker hurled three touchdown passes to pick up the MVP trophy, beating out flashy wideout Tony Johnson in the media balloting.

But the real MVPs in Team Pennsylvania’s 31-14 pounding of the Ohio All-Stars were the guys in the trenches. Their dominating performance along the offensive line was the key to victory, and part of that credit falls on none other than Northern Lehigh head coach Jim Tkach.

The longtime Bulldog mentor was placed in charge of the offensive line upon his arrival in Hershey eight days prior. Along the way Tkach molded a large and talented group of linemen into a blue and white machine which bulldozed any red jersey in its path.

With the line leading the way, Pennsylvania runners picked up 104 yards on the ground, and Smoker and Jared Hostetler threw for 240 more. The most telling sign of their domination was in time of possession, where the Pennsylvania stars held a 3-1 advantage in building a commanding 21-0 halftime lead.

“The linemen said they were never MVPs, and I said ‘You knock the tar out of them and you will be MVPs,’ and they are. They were phenomenal,” said Tkach, who admitted to feeling some pressure coming into the game. Especially since the Pa. Stars were trying to end a two-game losing skid on their own Hersheypark turf.

“I worked on the offense with coach (Mike) Pettine. It’s his offense, but I knew the pressure was on me to coach the offensive line,” Tkach said. “The last two to three years we’ve gotten whipped up front.

“Everywhere we went, we heard it,” he continued. “Then of all things, you opened up the newspaper (Saturday) morning and they say in the Harrisburg Patriot they key is the line. I went nuts. I threw the paper down. My wife says ‘What’s the matter?’ I said ‘Read the paper, you’ll see.’

“I told the linemen this is it, they were going to be the focal point. These kids just responded and played real hard.”

The big victory capped an exciting week for Tkach, his family and the entire Slatington community.

“Other than winning a championship with your own team, I think it’s the highest compliment that you can be paid. You’re chosen to coach this game by your peers,” noted Tkach. “It’s a great honor. I’m thrilled for the Northern Lehigh School District and our town that I was able to come out and represent them.

“And then you get eight offensive linemen who come together and play like they’ve been together for 10 weeks, it means that they’ve responded to the coaching. It was just awesome. It felt like we had been together for so long.”

One of the biggest thrills for Tkach was having his 12-year-old son Tyler by his side throughout the weeklong stay in Hershey.

“Tyler, my little guy, he was our ball boy. He lived with us for the eight days, lived with the coaches in the hotel, went to all the staff meetings. He was the ball boy, the gopher for anything the coaches needed. It was just awesome,” Tkach explained. “He got to run out with me tonight when I was introduced. Being with my son for that amount of time, it was really exciting.”

After the game, Tkach and his linemen - Chris McKelvy, Nick Marmo, Mike Van Aken, Kyle Schmitt, Justin Geisinger, Dave Williams, Robert Ramsey and Chris Snee - said their goodbyes.

“They’re such gentlemen. They came over and said ‘Thanks coach,’” Tkach said. “You’re only with them six days. These kids were good before they got here. We didn’t do anything but put them in the right place.”

The game capped a week jammed full of practices, meetings, special functions and most of all, plenty of fun. During that time the coaches and players came together as if they had been teammates for six months rather than six days.

“it was very intense, very long days,” noted Tkach. “Our practices were high-spirited. We didn’t coach like it was an all-star game. We all coached like it was our team.

“When the coaches were together the night before we were pacing in the hallway, like I’m back at Northern Lehigh, ready to go,” he continued. “That’s how much we came together. Not only hours, but we spent a lot of time with our kids. In the park we made sure we were with them. We went to the Veterans Hospital with them. We did all those things with them.

“I think if you’re going to ask someone to put it on the line for you, there’s got to be some kind of relationship. I think that’s something we really tried to establish with the kids.”

Tkach takes back to Northern Lehigh an even greater love and appreciation for the game.

“It’s a pleasure just working with the other coaches. You learn so much. I also learned a couple things, a couple tricks from coach Pettine,” said Tkach.

“I think this week reinforces the need for fundamentals, hard-hitting football, to be organized and to work hard. It also reinforces the fact that football’s the greatest game in the world, but it’s also the hardest game to play. It’s just fundamentals and a lot of hard work.

“It gets me going. I’m ready to go into the season now.”