SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - As he so often does, Mike Farr beamed with pride.

The Schuylkill Haven head coach champions football in Schuylkill County. Farr’s annual address at the Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association media day event often unofficially ushers in each new season.

Farr, the president of the SCFCA, took to the podium once again Wednesday at Schuylkill Haven’s sterling Sports Performance Center to deliver a message that never gets old.

“I think our coaches do a remarkable job with developing you as football players and future leaders, and I think we do a great job of competing on the field,” Farr said to the 14 schools and 55 student-athletes in attendance. “And that’s all you can ever ask for. I have a feeling this year is going to be really exciting. I expect a lot of good things out of Schuylkill County football teams.”

Taking over

Among those experiencing the 21st annual kick-off event for the first time as a head coach was Marian’s Billy O’Gurek, who is taking over for Stan Dakosty this season.

“I’m real excited,” said O’Gurek. “You spend the whole winter and spring months in the weight room (with assistant JD Hackenberg). You get to do the Football Challenge (at North Schuylkill in June) and passing scrimmages, but now you get to this point and it’s so close, it’s really exciting. The guys on the team are looking forward to it and that kind of feeds you, and drives you, and gives you a little motivation. Not that you need more, but just knowing that it’s so close.”

O’Gurek, who was on Dakosty’s coaching staff and was a member of the team’s 2000 District 11 title-winning squad, understands the importance of culture and continuity.

“It’s been a learning experience for me. I was fortunate enough, and still am, to have Coach Dakosty,” said O’Gurek. “He exposed me to a lot of things in the last four years of what a head coach needed to do and the responsibilities. I had some idea, but until you’re in that position you don’t know exactly. It’s been a learning experience, but I think it’s been pretty smooth, and mostly because of the relationship I had with the kids already, being there as an assistant, and I’m fortunate that the whole coaching staff returns. That has helped a lot, because there was no transition, there was no learning curve. The kids knew who was going to be their coaches, how they were going to coach; they know what our standard is in the workouts and they know what our standard is during the season. It’s not without it’s challenges, but I think it’s gone pretty well.”

After reaching the District Class 1A championship game last season, the Colts are eager to take another step forward this fall.

“It’s been a great winter,” said senior and University of Buffalo commit Michael Gelatko. “We’ve gotten so much better as a team. We’re looking to build upon what we did last year. Now it’s just excitement for Monday. Finally being able to go out there, and show what we’ve done and practice and play football.

“Personally, I’m just ready to have that one last go-around with my friends, compete for a district title. And for the team, I just want to be the best mentor I can be for the younger kids and leave them with a pathway for future success.”

Another step forward

That positive outlook exists at Panther Valley as well. The Panthers enter Year 3 under head coach Mark Lavine looking to continue to build on the competitiveness and commitment the program has continued to improve in each of the last two years.

For Lavine, just being close to victories isn’t going to be good enough.

“In the first year, you’re just trying to get your terminology in. In the second year, we were still young and we weren’t there yet. Now, we feel like we have everything in place,” said Lavine. “We have kids that have played, we have experience, we have depth. We had a great offseason in the weight room; we’re stronger than we have been. This is the year where there’s no more excuses. There’s no more transition. Now we have to start winning some games. We’re not going to settle for the 2-8 anymore. That’s a mentality and the mentality is gone in our program.”

More than what the Panthers have shown with their skill, Lavine and his staff have worked to make them stronger above the shoulders.

“And they’ve won in other sports,” Lavine said of his players. “That was something we talked about coming in. That’s going to come with more confidence, getting a couple wins, beating someone we haven’t in a couple years. Those are the hurdles we have to get over right now. And it’s got to happen now. We can say anything we want, but they have to start believing, and that’s going to come with being strong, being comfortable with what you’re doing and trusting the guy next to you. That’s what has to happen this year. We have to believe we can do it.”

The Panthers have the buy-in and belief from both upperclassmen and newcomers that has helped create a foundation for future success.

“You want to inspire the younger generation to keep it going,” said senior Brennan Kunkel. “You want to inspire as many people and get as many younger kids out so we can keep on going with what we have.

“I think we just have to trust ourselves and our coaches, play as a team, don’t make mental mistakes and just play football. We need to have fun with it and not get too hard on ourselves and do what we know how to do.”

All in

Tamaqua is another team excited about its prospects this season after starting 0-4 a year ago before ripping off four-straight wins, and claiming victories in five of the final six regular season games to qualify for districts.

The buzz for the Blue Raiders comes not just from a strong finish a year ago, but also a strong offseason that has continued the momentum that run created.

“We have good core guys back, probably eight or nine on both sides of the ball,” said Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner. “They’ve been working hard. We do a 90 percent club, and we have a solid 20 kids that are returning that have made 90 percent of the summer workouts. That always bodes well. We’re looking for a lot from those guys that have put the work in.”

The turnout has been solid for Bonner’s squad, with the coach estimating that the roster will haven in the high 40s to low 50s to begin the season. The group is also determined.

“It’s not that easy to get kids to commit, especially with the amount of commitment that we ask of them,” said Bonner. “It’s easy to show up for a sport the first day of practice. We don’t expect kids to do that. We expect kids to be there at least 50-60 times before you show up for the first day of practice.

“We’ve had kids coming in, some kids who don’t play other sports have been coming in since November. A kid like Luke Kane, who plays three sports, but he’s 100 percent. He hasn’t missed one workout since he finished baseball season. It’s not always easy to get that anymore. We have kids that are doing it, so I hope they have a lot of success this year.”

Kane is one of the talented returnees who has been a key cog in all three phases of the game as the team’s quarterback on offense, linebacker on defense and long-snapper on punts.

The senior’s experience with and dedication to the program is one of many reasons Tamaqua should continue to trend in the right direction.

“We’ve kind of expanded our playbook this year,” said Kane. “We can go in the air, we can go on the ground. It doesn’t matter. And I think on both sides of the ball we’ll have success.

“If we start out how we finished last season, we’ll have a really good year. We’ll be able to compete as a team, and I think we all have that mentality to come out and win, and it’s going to be a great season for us.”