SportsNow Super 7 Team No. 6: Tamaqua Blue Raiders

Maybe it was the growth of a young offensive line. Quite possibly, it was the maturation of junior quarterback Luke Kane.

Was it the return of tailback Bradley Whalen and tight end Declan Coleman from injury, or was it the realization that after four straight losses to open the season, if things didn’t change fast, the season could be lost?

Whatever provided the spark, Tamaqua exploded in the second half of last season, winning five of its last six regular-season games to finish 5-5 and earn a District 11 Class 3A playoff berth.

As the Blue Raiders enter the 2024 campaign with a senior-laden squad that lost just six players from a year ago, they hope to ride that momentum into a winning season.

“I think the whole team bonded together,” Kane said. “We started playing as a team, which is something that we lacked the first four games of the season. Once we started playing together, we started winning games.”

Added fullback/linebacker Tyler Koch: “I think what clicked is that we started coming together more as a team. Arguing in the beginning of the season, that’s what we were doing. Toward the end of the season, we weren’t arguing as much, we swarmed to the ball better.

“It just clicked in our heads that we needed to be better.”

Kane, Whalen, Coleman and Koch help comprise a 12-player senior class that is looking for the program’s first winning season since Tamaqua won the 2019 District 11 Class 3A championship and reached the PIAA state semifinals. The Blue Raiders return nine starters on both sides of the ball from a club that finished 5-6 and fell to North Schuylkill in the District 11 Class 3A quarterfinals last season.

“We’ve been playing together since freshman year, some of us way longer than that,” Whalen said. “We all work really well together. We’re all like glue … we stick well together. We all play different sports together. The chemistry is there.”

Offensively, that starts with Kane, a three-year starter who threw for 910 yards and nine touchdowns a year ago after passing for 1,020 yards and 11 TDs as a sophomore. The 6-foot-2, 208-pounder also offers a physical presence in the running game, carrying the ball 57 times for 234 yards and four scores last season.

Whalen rushed for 657 yards and seven TDs last season despite suffering a concussion early in a Week 2 loss to Lehighton and missing the next two games. Keeping him healthy this season is critical to Tamaqua’s success.

“He’s going to be our workhorse,” Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner said of Whalen, a 5-10, 173-pounder. “We’re looking to be more balanced, but we’re Tamaqua, we’re going to run the football. He’s the guy that we’re expecting to carry that load.”

Koch returns at fullback, while senior wide receiver Victor Schlosser (15-172, 2 TDs), junior wideout Brady McCabe and senior tight ends Coleman and Jacob Hehn are all back. Coleman, who stands 6-5, missed the first four games last season due to injury.

Up front, junior center Luke Frohnheiser, junior guard Malachi Stewart and senior guard Declan Franz each started all 11 games last season. Bonner expects junior Logan Pribila and sophomore Damian Jazowski to complete the starting five.

Defensively, Kane (77) and Koch (61) led the team in tackles from their linebacking spots. Hehn, who had six sacks a year ago, anchors the defensive line along with Coleman, Whalen and Franz. McCabe and Frohnheiser return at linebacker, with Schlosser, senior Scott Case and junior Shawn Chen in the secondary.

Senior wide receiver/defensive back Cooper Ansbach, a basketball and baseball standout who came out for football this season, figures to play a key role on both sides of the ball. Senior defensive tackle Isaiah Davis, Jazowski and Stewart are expected to see extensive time defensively.

“I believe our defense is strong. We have some big kids on our D-line,” Koch said.

“We’re bound to break out this year and have a good season. I hope this is the season that we do. The whole defense is mainly seniors, the whole offense is mainly seniors.”

To have that breakout campaign, Bonner said, the Blue Raiders have to carry that momentum from last year into this season. Tamaqua opens its season Saturday at Pen Argyl before Schuylkill/Colonial Football Cooperative Red Division contests against North Schuylkill, Pottsville and Jim Thorpe.

“It shows the character of your team that they didn’t pack it in after going 0-4,” Bonner said, reflecting on last year. “A lot of those guys are back.

“They worked on getting better every week. Winning four in a row was big. That turned the season around, went from being maybe a disastrous season to being something that we could really build off.

“We were playing good football and we were competing against good football teams. That’s something that we have to carry over to Week 1. We don’t want to have that slow start. We don’t want to be in the situation where we have to win four or five of our last six to make the playoffs.

“Hopefully we get some early wins and build off that this year.”