Pleasant Valley head coach Blaec Saeger will be a happy man after tonight’s football game — even if his team doesn’t win.

While a victory would obviously put a smile on his face – especially since the Bears have yet to win this season – just the fact that Week 7 will be over will be a relief to PV’s sixth-year mentor.

Seager, you see, has strong ties to his opponent. This is his 22nd year as a teacher at East Stroudsburg North.

“It’s a really strange week for me in school,” said Saeger. “I have a very good relationship with most of the football players. I coached there for a long time. I was there for 14 years, my first 14 years of teaching. So, it’s very strange. I’m a big Eastburg North football fan all weeks but one, obviously. I really pull for those guys, and I’m good friends with Coach (David) Laughlin.

“I have a very good relationship with those kids and respect what they do, and they’ve been through a lot the last couple years since I left there. So, I’m very happy that they’re doing well this year. And when it’s our week, things are a little different. I just try to stay quiet and stay to myself. It’s a very odd week, very strange week. And then that day, especially.”

Saeger is one of three area head football coaches — Lehighton’s Tom McCarroll and Palmerton’s Chris Walkowiak are the others — whose teams plays the schools where they teach.

McCarroll, who teaches at Northwestern, lost to the Tigers two weeks ago while Walkowiak, at Jim Thorpe, suffered a defeat to the Olympians to open the season.

Saeger gets his shot this evening when the Timberwolves travel to Brodheadsville.

“It’s not my favorite week of the year,” he admitted. “I’m looking forward to it being over, and hopefully it goes my way this year.”

If it does go his way, he’ll have bragging rights among his students — although that’s something both he and the North players usually refrain from doing to each other.

“In a joking manner, they might (banter),” said Saeger. “But we have a lot of respect for each other. I really don’t think, other than this week, they look at me as an opposing coach. Obviously they do this week. But it’s all in good fun, and we have a lot of respect for each other, them to me and me to those guys. So the relationship is a positive one.

“We talk football all the time, and they know this week is coming. I think it might be a little weird for them, because I talk to them all the time and see how they’re doing, check in on them. It hasn’t gotten any easier over the year. This is my (sixth) year at PV, and it’s just a strange day.”

While his feelings run deep for the players in Dingman’s Ferry, his allegiance will always be toward Pleasant Valley.

“I teach at North, and I love teaching at North,” said Saeger. “I have no plans of ever leaving there. I’d like to retire from there. It’s been great to me ... but once I walk through those doors at Pleasant Valley, I’m a PV Bear just like they are.”

As strange as coaching against the school he teaches at is, Saeger notes that he has experienced an even stranger moment during his career.

“You want to talk about strange. I coached against my son his sophomore year (at Nazareth) when we played them in the playoffs the COVID year. Coaching against Eastburg North is one thing, but to have my son on the other squad, that was an awkward night.”

McCarroll actually sees the situation as a positive one. Instead of connecting with kids from just one school about the sport they love, he’s able to do it with two.

“The nice thing is every week I’m able to ask (the Northwestern kids) about their game and talk to them,” said McCarroll, now in his 13th season guiding the Indians. “That’s why we do what we do, to make connections and relationships with the kids. I have a great relationship with the kids here (at Lehighton), there’s no substitute for that.

“(At Northwestern) we share a common thing. They play football, I coach football, on top of the fact that once a year we play each other. It’s just another commonality that you find with your students. It just so happens that I coach one of their opponents. It’s a unique situation, but I think it’s a really good situation.”

Like Saeger, McCarroll has a good relationship with the coaches at the school where he teaches. In fact, his roots with Tiger mentor Josh Snyder started well before their coaching days.

“I actually played against (Coach Snyder) in college, so our history goes back a little farther, which is pretty neat. I think I have a great relationship with Coach Snyder. We have really have had good conversations, football and non-football alike. We do what coaches do, and have those conversations about the ups and downs of the season. Anytime you have coaches that do the same thing, coach the same sport, there’s always a common bond there.”

Also common, in McCarroll’s eyes, are the kids at each school.

“They’re great kids. The one thing I’ve said since working there is I think personality-wise, the kids are so similar, they really are. Obviously, the areas are different. You don’t say this too often, but they’re actually more rural than we are. “But the personalities of the kids are very similar.”

One thing that wasn’t similar for Bomber mentor Walkowiak was facing Jim Thorpe during the school year.

Palmerton played the Olympians before the start of school on Aug. 23.

“No, thank God it wasn’t during the school year,” said Walkowiak, now in his 14th year at the helm of the Bombers. “We’ve played them in the past when school’s in. It’s a neat experience; it’s just you deal with a lot of extra comments and things like that, all in good nature, but playing them before school started was good because by the time school gets going, you’re already on to next week and next week’s opponent.”

Walkowiak acknowledged that there’s some minor ribbing — mostly from other staff — but it’s all in good fun.

“I hear different things,” said Walkowiak, who was an assistant at Thorpe prior to taking the head job at Palmerton. “Our building principal, Mr. (Tom) Lesisko, is awesome. He’s a great supporter of everything, coaching and everything else. He likes to rip me and the secretaries will say some things, all in good nature. But I have to give them credit. When we advanced in the playoffs last year, they were the first people supporting us. It’s all in good fun.”