Coach Weider’s @Go_Rout Coaches Notebook: My weekly awards and a heart felt story on a father and son

Tagged under: Coaches Corner, News

Pat Weider | August 29, 2022

Visit GoRout

 get the most out of your practices!

Wow what a week 1. I enjoyed the Roman Catholic vs Wilson game greatly. It was a fun game to check out. I came away super impressed with Roman Catholic. They were really good upfront and highly skilled. Below are my weekly awards I give out:

Team of the Week: Solanco- Solanco went into Lampeter Strasburg and beat them when no one thought they do it. A super impressive win for that program. Solanco is riding their 24 Senior class and are a legit contender to win Section 3 in the LL. Great effort of beating LS by a score of 40-35. Several times they could have quit, but they continued to batter back and get the win. Nice work Solanco.

Player of the Week: Grant Hoover of Hempfield. Hoover rushed for exactly 200 yards in the victory over Dallastown on Friday. Hoover was unstoppable all night and helped Hempfield come back from a 13-0 deficit to outscore Dallastown by scoring 30 straight points in the victory. Led by Hoover Hempfield looks to start 2-0 next week when they play a talented York High team at home.

Play of the Week: Punt return. People forget punt return can be a scoring play. I know that Wilson’s Coach Dahms preaches it as a scoring play. He told me that last year after they beat Wilson and Cameron Jones scored on a punt return. Well Friday night Jones again returned a punt for a touchdown against Roman Catholic.

On a side note kickoff return can do the same as well. Jaivon Parker returned the opening kickoff on Friday night for Lancaster Catholic when they beat York Catholic.

Coaches of the Week: I remember when I was head coach at Kennard-Dale winning that 1st game was such an amazing feeling. Congratulations is in order to Brady Mathias of Columbia on his win against Eastern York and Keith Stokes of Elizabethtown and the victory over Donegal. Both wins were also extra special because they against the schools main rival.

Family of the Week: Coach Brandon Way has been an assistant at Lancaster Catholic for the last 8 years. On Friday night it was a special night because his son Brandon Way Jr. joined him on the team as a Freshman Cornerback and Running Back. The younger Way started at Cornerback and played well including breaking up the the 4th down play that decided the victory for Lancaster Catholic over York Catholic. Congrats to father and son.

Coach Way and his son Brandon Way on the sideline together

Football has 4 downs, so here are 4 thoughts from what I saw, watched, and heard this week:

1) York High lost a heart breaker 28-24 to Woodland Hills on Saturday at the Peach Classic played in Chambersburg. York High had the ball 4 times inside the 3 and couldn’t score to win the game. Jaheim White and crew came to play, but just fell short. My hunch here is York High will grow from this and get stronger the next time they are put in a situation like this.

2) J.P. McCaskey had to go to overtime, but they prevailed on Saturday with a 30-24 win over John Bartram. With McCaskey’s win and Elizabethtown’s victory over Donegal it creates an interesting week 2 match up between them.

3) Central York with a huge week 1 win when they knocked off Central Dauphin. Central York lost a ton from last year’s team, but they look like a legit team this year as well. Led by new starting QB Nasir Stills Central York did not miss a beat week 1.

4) Speaking of looking good, Manheim Central looks like they could be good again. Impressive win over West Chester East 56-7. In all three phases of the game Central showed they will be really good this year.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews