BY JEFF FALK

PALMYRA – For the Palmyra football team, the more things change, the more they stay the same. So, it is the Cougars’ desire to accentuate the familiar and manage the unknown.

And of course, worry about only the things they can control.

In a season highlighted by change, all the Cougars really want to do is ‘keep it going’. And the key to that may just be some elusive consistency.

On Friday night at Camp Hill, Palmyra will open its 2016 campaign in Week Zero, as a Class AAAAA school.  The Cougars are a season removed from a break-through year in which they qualified for the District Three postseason, in Class AAA.

Confusing? Sure. But it’s not an ambiguity a little winning can’t clear up.

“They talk about having a winning season,” said Palmyra head coach Chris Pope of his charges. “But it’s kind of like steps. If we would get to the top of the mountain, we would host a home playoff game. That’s their ultimate goal.

“It takes getting consistently better throughout the season,” continued Pope. “What that takes is an unbelievable amount of focus. You’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to pay attention to film. You’ve got to listen to your coaches. And you’ve got to apply it. It’s about everyone being focused on what they need to do to maximize individual potential, and if you do that, you’ll maximize team potential.”

The success that the Cougars enjoyed last season is the type that can carry over to this year. After starting their campaign red hot, the Cougars ended it at 7-4 and with a loss at Lampeter-Strasburg, in the opening round of the District Three tournament.

From that team, Palmyra returns seven starters on offense and six on defense.

“I thought last year was a great year because we got ourselves back on track,” said Pope, who’s in his tenth season at the Palmyra helm. “Things came around for us. We were able to get back into a playoff situation, which was certainly a positive. It was a good season.

“The more successful you can be, the more it carries over,” Pope continued. “Success makes more success come, and it sets an expectation. We’ve had two seasons where we haven’t had a losing season, so it creates an expectation. Our players want to do as well as the players did last year.”

The heart and soul of the Cougars this season will be a running attack spearheaded by the dynamic senior tandem of Alon Rhette and Carl Reigle. Not only are the two best of friends and perfect compliments, Reigle and Rhette are great changes of pace.

Look for Pope to ride whichever feature back is the hottest at the time. Both are quick, strong and athletic.

“From an Xs and Os standpoint, our strength is our running backs,” said Pope. “We have two very good running backs returning. I also like the leadership of this group. I feel like our team is connected. We have guys who are friends with everyone on the team. There are no cliques.

“In order to attain goals, what you’ve got to do is decide on areas where you need to get better,” added Pope. “We lost a couple of linemen, and we need to replace them. Petey Robertson unselfishly made the move from wide out to quarterback. We had three guys competing there, and he stood out. But we need to get better there.”

Robertson, also a senior, certainly has the smarts and athleticism to man the quarterback position. Some would argue his most important duty will be handing the ball off to Reigle and Rhette.

But Robertson will have to throw the ball at least a little bit, in order to keep opposing defenses honest.

“From an Xs and Os standpoint, Petey’s doing a great job, but he’s still playing catch up,” said Pope. “We believe running to be a major part of our game plan. We only have ten seniors, so we have around 30 younger guys.”

But the Three R’s – Robertson, Rhette and Reigle – won’t be the only skilled people featured in the Cougars’ attack. Also figuring into the scheme will be senior Mason Cooper, senior Nate Hawkins, senior Braden Vernet, sophomore Grant Haus and junior Zach Quinn.

“It’s a little different feel for us, because we only had one scrimmage,” said Pope. “I hope it helps us later in the year with the bye week. The coaching staff was debating how to handle this week. Do we push them (his players) or pull back? We really didn’t have that much time. I’m not quite sure, because it is a new situation.”

The Cougars are hoping their rebuilding project along the line of scrimmage doesn’t turn into a season-long process, and that a number of competitors will step up. When they do, they will be following the leads of veterans Shane Gregris and Tyler Ebling.

“Before, we were comfortably in the middle of AAA,” said Pope of his program’s change in classification. “Now we’re on the cusp and one of the smaller schools in AAAAA. It’s going to be really competitive for everybody. You don’t have a lot of room to mess up. You’ve got to have a pretty good record.

“We’re excited,” concluded Pope. “There’s an excitement about this first game. It almost kind of feels like when we used to play Annville-Cleona. There was a special feel for that game.”

 

 

 

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to www.http://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/gallery-11/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016 Palmyra Football Schedule

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	LOCATION
08/26 *	@Camp Hill	7:00 PM	Camp Hill High School
09/02	@West Perry	7:00 PM	West Perry High School
09/09	@Elco	7:00 PM	Elco High School
09/16	Donegal	7:00 PM	Palmyra High School
09/30 *	Boiling Springs	7:00 PM	Palmyra High School
10/07 *	@Middletown	7:00 PM	Middletown High School
10/14 *	Steel-High	7:00 PM	Palmyra High School
10/21 *	@East Pennsboro	7:00 PM	East Pennsboro High School
10/28 *	Trinity	7:00 PM	Palmyra High School
11/04 *	Milton Hershey	7:00 PM	Palmyra High School

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 Palmyra Results 

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
09/04	@East Pennsboro	7:00 PM	W 27-6
09/11	Elco	7:00 PM	W 30-22
09/18	@Donegal	7:00 PM	W 31-0
09/25 *	Trinity	7:00 PM	W 49-23
10/02 *	@Steel-High	7:00 PM	W 17-6
10/09 *	@Boiling Springs	7:00 PM	W 19-0
10/16 *	Camp Hill	7:00 PM	L 24-28
10/24 *	@Middletown	2:00 PM	L 13-49
10/30 *	Milton Hershey	7:00 PM	L 7-28
11/06 *	West Perry	7:00 PM	W 42-23
11/13 #	@Lampeter-Strasburg	7:00 PM	L 20-41

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016 Palmyra Football Roster

Name	Grade		Height		Weight		Position
Sean Carter	10		5′ 8″		135		WR/DB
Nate Hawkins	12		5′ 10″		150		WR/DB
Devon Sosnoski	11		5′ 4″		135		RB/LB
Griffin Weidler	10		5′ 7″		185		K
Peter Robertson	12		6′ 0″		170		QB/DB
Caleb Hawkins	10		5′ 4″		120		RB/DB
Hunter Dorn	10		5′ 9″		145		QB/DB
Evan Keener	11		5′ 9″		145		WR/DB
Braden Vernet	12		6′ 3″		185		WR/DB
Robert Taylor	11		6′ 0″		175		RB/LB
Kyle Wasilewski	10		5′ 10″		155		WR/DB
Alberto Perez	11		6′ 0″		160		WR/DB
Nijir Brown	10		5″ 10″		140		WR/DB
Trevor Binner	10		5′ 5″		140		RB/DB
Grant Haus	10		6′ 0″		155		QB/DB
Sean Stauffer	10		6′ 1″		160		RB/LB
Mason Cooper	12		6′ 5″		210		TE/DE
Carl Reigle	12		5′ 10″		185		RB/DB
Damien Carpenter	10		6′ 0″		155		WR/LB
Eddie Cannon	11		5′ 8″		155		RB/LB
Jared Bowman	12		5′ 10″		145		K
Matt Hines	9		5′ 10″		145		K
Dylan Templin	11		5′ 9″		200		RB/LB
Alon Rhette	12		5′ 8″		185		RB/LB
Zach Quinn	11		6′ 0″		175		RB/LB
Sean Reedy	11		6′ 0″		175		RB/LB
Derek Offei	12		5′ 10″		270		OL/DL
Logan Kaylor	11		6′ 2″		185		OL/DL
John Pallone	10		6″ 0″		235		OL/DL
Logan Cavalier	10		5″ 10″		175		OL/DL
Braden Barker	11		6′ 2″		245		OL/DL
Nick Henry	11		5″ 10″		270		OL/DL
Garrett Miller	10		6″ 0″		220		OL/DL
Brandon Blauch	12		6′ 3″		210		OL/DL
Xavier Vazquez	11		6′ 1″		215		OL/DL
Tyler Ebling	12		6′ 4″		240		OL/DL
Zach Speece	10		6′ 1″		215		OL/DL
Cory Frey	11		5′ 11″		350		OL/DL
Matt Weaver	11		6″ 0″		250		OL/DL
Gabe Leffew	10		6″ 0″		275		OL/DL
Shane Gregris	12		6′ 3″		225		OL/DL
Kris Day	11		6′ 3″		245		OL/DL
Mason Blanchard	10		6′ 0″		165		TE/DL
Peyton Stretch	11		5′ 11″		155		WR/DB
Jared Stauffer	11		6′ 5″		185		TE/DB