Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Captains of the 2009 Lake-Lehman High School football team are, from left, Chris Prater, Tom Kanios, Adam Holena and Cody Stark.
Charlotte Bartizek/ For The Dallas Post
Senior members of the 2009 Lake-Lehman varsity football squad are, from left, Chris Prater, Pat Moss, Richard Hazletine, Thomas Smith and Adam Buzunis. Second row, Bill Evans, Jeremey Balliet, Cody Stark, Adam Holena, Tom Kanios and Zack Cragle.
Charlotte Bartizek/ For The Dallas Post
Adam Weaver, left, and Jared Novitski will call plays from the quarterback slot for the Black Knights football team this year.
Charlotte Bartizek/ For The Dallas Post
LEHMAN TWP. – A year ago, the Lake-Lehman football team entered the season with a wealth of experience, confidence, and some of the best skill players in the Wyoming Valley Conference.
Although it’s only been 12 months since that time, it might seem like a lifetime ago to the Black Knights.
Lake-Lehman returns just two players on offense – both linemen – and three starters on defense from a team that finished with a 9-2 record, a District 2 Class 2A playoff berth, and a victory in the annual Old Shoe Game against rival Dallas.
“We’re young and we’re inexperienced,” said head coach Carl Kern, whose team won its first eight games last season before losing to GAR in Week 9. “It’s going to take two years to get back to where we were last season. Last year, I knew what we had going into the season. Those kids were battle-tested. They knew what it was like to play in close games.”
ON OFFENSE
The Black Knights enter the season having lost more than 90 percent of their offense from a year ago.
Quarterback Nate Volkel (1,800 passing yards, 24 total touchdowns). Graduated. Running back Cody Lamoreaux (1,100 total yards, 22 touchdowns). Graduated. Receiver T.J. Stepanski (360 receiving yards). Graduated. Running back Cody Komrowski (900 rushing yards, 22 touchdowns). Broke team rules and is no longer with the team.
“It’s hard to replace those kind of players,” said Kern. “But we have some good young kids. This group of young players is just as athletic – or maybe even more athletic – than last year’s team. But they’re not mentally ready.”
Junior quarterback Adam Weaver is expected to lead the offense and will be backed up by sophomore Jared Novitsky and senior Chris Prater. Weaver threw just one pass last season, completing it for a 14-yard touchdown.
Senior Rich Hazletine and junior Bryan Mathers will handle most of the duties at running back, with sophomore Nick Shelly also seeing playing time. Hazletine carried the ball eight times for 128 yards last year, including two rushes for 116 yards against Holy Cross.
“The strength in our backfield is speed,” said Kern. “We have kids who can run and catch. We don’t have a grind-it-out offense. We need to move it around. Our weakness is football knowledge.”
Junior receiver Brandon Roberts is the most experienced of the skill players, having caught 13 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns last season. He will play at tight end and wideout.
Junior Robbie Evans and senior Tom Smith will also play at receiver, while Mathers and junior Zach Yursha will play in the slot position. Yursha will also handle the kicking and punting duties.
The strength of the offense is on the line, said Kern, where senior tackles Cody Stark (6-foot-3, 275 pounds) and Adam Holena (6-2, 200) return to the starting lineup. Other starters include sophomore center Joe Stepanski (5-10, 235), senior guard Tom Kanios (6-0, 205) and either senior Pat Moss (6-0, 215) or sophomore Ryan Holt (6-1, 250) at the other guard. Junior tackle George Jones (6-3, 255) should also see playing time.
ON DEFENSE
Stark, Prater and Mathers are the lone returning starters for Kern’s 4-4 defense. Stark returns at tackle, while Prater and Mathers are back at inside linebacker and safety, respectively.
Jones will also start at defensive tackle and will be joined on the defensive front by Moss and freshman Tom Chipego at defensive end. Senior Zach Cragle will see time at defensive end.
Prater will be joined at linebacker by sophomore Curtis Barbacci, Evans, and either Roberts or Hazletine. Joining Mathers in the secondary will be starting cornerbacks Shelly and Yursha.
Stark, Prater and Roberts could be the only seniors to start on defense.
“We’re going to start a couple of kids who played in junior high last year,” said Kern. “We have young, young kids with dreams in their eyes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
OUTLOOK
A lot of people thought last year’s schedule – which included games against teams such as Holy Cross, Nanticoke Area, Susquehanna, Lackawanna Trail – didn’t prepare the Black Knights for the postseason.
But the same schedule this year is a much more welcome sight for the young, inexperienced Black Knights.
There are 33 players on the roster, but almost half of those didn’t attend voluntary workouts and weight training during the offseason. That has put his team behind schedule, said Kern.
“We really need another 10 days of practice before our first game, but that’s not going to happen,” he said. “Lake-Lehman is a good baseball school. You can’t take that away from them. The summer leagues hurt us. I don’t mind kids playing in a league or two, but some of our kids were playing on four or five different teams.
“But that’s water over the dam. You can’t put it back. I think after four or five games, we’ll be where we need to be.”