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South Williamsport coach Chris Eiswerth remembers the first time he watched his current seniors play. They were junior high students then and nothing indicated something special was brewing.
The Mounties did not win that day Eiswerth attended the junior high game. They never won … literally.
Last Friday at Muncy, those seniors formed the backbone for a district champion, doing so in dominant fashion. South defeated top-seeded Muncy, 57-20 and captured the program’s District 4 Class A championship since 2014. This is only the fourth team in a storied football history at South to win a district crown, too.
Here’s thinking there were not too many people watching that junior high team four years ago, believing that group would help secure a place in program history. What a rise it has been.
“Coach always said how we were basically coming up from nothing,” two-way starter Landyn Gephart said after running for 103 yards, intercepting a pass and scoring a touchdown at Muncy. “We barely won anything in pee wee, and nothing in junior high and now coming up here and doing this is just great.”
There is no magic potion which created this transformation either. And South is not a non-boundary school which can bring in players from anywhere each year. This ascension is the old-fashioned hard work story. It is built upon countless hours of practice, weight lifting, camps, sacrifice and preparation.
This is about coaches embracing not who their players were, but who they knew they could become. Together, players and coaches came together and helped bring out each other’s best every season. Now, the seniors are carving out quite a legacy and will try enhancing that Saturday night at Williamsport when they face District 6 champion Cambria Heights in the state quarterfinals.
“I’ll never forget the day (seeing the seniors play in junior high). They were little eighth grade kids and they could hardly get the snap off,” Eiswerth said. “To see them do what they have now, that’s the kind of stuff that makes it so rewarding.”
These seniors faced unprecedented circumstances during their first high school season. The COVID pandemic wreaked havoc with the 2020 schedule and South opened its season two weeks later than most other District 4 teams. That team, however, overcame a lot of obstacles, went 5-2 and reached the District 4 Class AA championship, winning at Troy in the semifinals before losing at Southern Columbia.
Ryan Casella started on that team at linebacker as a freshman and several others received playing time. More important than the experienced gained was tasting victory. That season was the first time these players were part of a winner while representing their school. They saw the results, but also what it took to generate those results.
It was a huge step forward and South continued to climb the ladder the next two years. This group which never won before, in fact, will close their high school careers having never endured a losing season.
“When we were freshman and watched (all-state running back) Zack Miller and the boys lead us to the championship game we realized that we can do the same thing if we work hard enough,” center Owen Bird said. “That opened our eyes.”
As their roles grew bigger the next two seasons, so did their eyes. South produced consecutive winning seasons, avenged a regular season loss against Wellsboro in the 2019 quarterfinals before reaching last year’s Class A semifinals. Each of those first three years ended with losses against the eventual district champions, Southern twice and Canton a year ago.
But with so many seniors being joined by a quality crop of underclassmen, South had big expectations entering the 2023 season. Canton and Muncy, however, won thrillers against the Mounties by seven combined points and the team was hit hard by injuries and illness. To get that championship, South would have to dig deep.
For a team which came so far, so fast, that was no problem. South kept moving forward despite the setbacks. It first avenged the Canton loss, going to Miller A. Moyer Field, winning a 24-18 thriller and dethroning the two-time defending champions. Next up was another shot at Muncy and South cashed in, playing its best game this season and completing both an improbable championship run and a district revenge tour.
The journey continues and South wants more. Still, look at the heights this group has climbed.
“It shows we persevere and believe in each other. We play as a team. We’re out for each other and it’s all about the team,” two-way starter Kaiser Kistner said after running for 134 yards and two touchdowns at Muncy. “It feels good to do that. It’s a big accomplishment.”
Eiswerth has long said that winning is a happy bonus. Make no mistake, he and all the coaches want to win bad, but they also know that high school sports often are about the lessons learned on and off the field. One can go winless and still achieve greatness, whether the scoreboard shows it or not.
The thing about this current senior class is that they have experienced both victories. They never stopped competing despite not winning in junior high. They embraced all the lessons sports teach, kept improving, kept believing and authored a remarkable comeback story. That is why Eiswerth knows that championship banner which soon will look over Rodney K. Morgans Stadium means so much.
Any championship is significant. But to go from winning nothing, to winning a district championship and now having a shot at winning everything? That feels like stuff ripped from a Hollywood script.
“I’ve probably cried more on my way to Troy (where he teaches) and back than I ever have with any team. You invest yourself emotionally and it’s been remarkable,” Eiswerth said. “They came to the weight room, we run them hard and they come out in good shape. They’ve worked through injuries, they’ve worked through things in the class room and on the field and they’ve held it together. It’s a really special group.”