HS FOOTBALL: Specialists to be honored
Oct. 13—They're often the unsung heroes of football games.
The specialists. That's right, the kickers and punters.
In the newspaper business, our football game stories often focus on the players who rack up the stats: the quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers on offense, the sack-happy defensive linemen, tackle-machine linebackers or ball-hawking defensive backs on defense.
And deservedly so.
When a player rushes for 200-plus yards or throws for 4-5 touchdowns or hauls in a bevy of passes for big yards or scores 4-5-6 touchdowns, that's a monster performance worthy of headlines and accolades.
But in just about every game I've covered this season, one of the following has played a major role in the outcome: a shanked punt, a bad punt snap, a punt that's pinned an offense inside its 5-yard line, a long punt that's changed the battle of field position, a blocked punt, a field goal and a missed extra point.
Having a good kicker who consistently puts the seventh point on the board after a touchdown or can hit a field goal after a drive stalls takes pressure off the offense. Having a good punter who can flip the battle of field position and pin an opposing offense deep in its own territory boosts the defense.
More often than not, those specialists go unnoticed.
Not any longer.
The Republican Herald has teamed with KickIt Football Kicking and Punting Coach John Zima to create the Schuylkill League Specialist of the Year Awards. The awards will acknowledge the best punter, kicker and overall specialist among Schuylkill League football teams. It's modeled after the awards Zima compiles each season for Berks County teams.
There are certain criteria for each award:
— A player must play in at least 50% of the regular-season games.
— Only regular-season stats are included in the assessment.
— Player must have HUDL highlights.
Moving forward, Zima will compile statistics from each of the league's teams, collecting each kicker's PAT numbers, longest field goal, field-goal percentage, touchbacks and points scored; and punters' average per punt and longest punt. He puts those numbers into a formula that produces a score for each specialist.
The top three punters, kickers and overall specialists at the end of the season will receive awards and be featured in a story that appears in the Republican Herald. Weekly standings will appear with my high school football notebook.
Putting together numbers for this year's specialist awards has gotten off to a slow start. If you're a coach or team scorekeeper that has not yet received information from Zima about this competition, email him at kickit.jz@gmail.com.
Milestone makers
North Schuylkill's Joey Flail had six receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown in Friday's 31-14 win over Jim Thorpe, making him the Spartans' all-time career receptions leader with 102. The first NS player to have 100 career receptions, Flail has 30 grabs for 333 yards and six TDs on the season.
Last season as a sophomore, Flail set a North Schuylkill single-season record with 61 receptions for an area- and District 11-best 1,006 yards and 13 TDs. The 6-foot, 190-pound junior earned Pennsylvania Football Writers' and Pennsylvania Football News Class 3A All-State and Republican Herald All-Area first-team honors.
You can read more about Flail in this week's Football Friday.
Also Friday, Williams Valley's Tim Savage looks to notch his 100th career coaching victory when the Vikings host Marian in a Schuylkill/Colonial Blue Division clash between the pines in Williamstown.
A former lineman for the Vikings, Savage has a 99-29 (.773 winning percentage) overall record since taking over at Williams Valley in 2012, with six District 11 Class A titles and two district runner-up finishes in 10 seasons. He's guided the Vikings to the District 11 playoffs in every one of those 10 campaigns, producing 18 All-State players over the past six years.
You can read more about Savage in next week's Football Friday.
Playoff races
Heading into this weekend's games, 13 of our 20 local teams would qualify for their respective district playoffs:
Tri-Valley, Minersville, Mahanoy Area in District 11 Class A; Williams Valley in 11-AA; North Schuylkill, Jim Thorpe, Tamaqua and Pine Grove in 11-3A; Blue Mountain in 11-4A; Mount Carmel (AA) and Shamokin (4A) in District 4; and Hamburg and Upper Dauphin in District 3 Class 3A.
Marian (A) and Pottsville (4A) are ranked fifth in their classes and are still in the hunt for playoff berths. Lehighton could jump Pine Grove for the eighth spot in Class 3A if the Indians win another game.
Tri-Valley (1 seed), Williams Valley (2 seed), North Schuylkill (2 seed) and Mount Carmel (1 seed) would have opening-round home games in their respective classes, while the rest of the qualifiers would be on the road. The Dawgs are one of only three unbeaten teams in District 11, with Emmaus and Northampton the others.
Hamburg is fourth in District 3's Class 3A standings, ahead of Schuylkill Valley. The Hawks host the Panthers on Friday night. Upper Dauphin is sixth; only six teams qualify.
Tamaqua athletic director Mike Hromyak, the president of the Eastern Football Conference, confirmed Wednesday that there will be EC playoffs this season. Those rankings will be released this weekend.
Contact the writer: Lboyer@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6026; @pubsportsboss on Twitter