Schuylkill Haven head coach and Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association president Mike Farr makes opening remarks at 23rd annual SCFCA Media Day on Aug. 5, 2026, at Schuylkill Haven Area High School's Sports Performance Center. (Photo by Bob Lipsky)

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — New players. New coaches. New league setup. New divisions. And a new two-year PIAA classification cycle.

That’s a lot of change, and discussing all of that and the season to come created a buzz that filled Schuylkill Haven Area High School’s Sports Performance Center. More on the changes later.

Marking the unofficial end of summer, high school football coaches, seniors, captains, top players and a throng of media gathered Wednesday for the 23rd annual Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association Media Day. Staff of, and contributors to, t102sportsnow.com, WPPA and T-102 made up much of a large media contingent.

The event, which started in 2004, serves as a preseason kickoff for the high school football season. A week of heat acclimatization practices will begin Aug. 10, with full-pad drills getting under way the following Monday, Aug. 17. Scrimmage Saturday will be Aug. 22, with Week 1 of the regular season set for Friday-Saturday, Aug. 28-29. With the way the calendar fell, the high school football season will begin one week later than in 2025.

As players and coaches entered the SPC prior to the 11 a.m. start, photographers and reporters greeted them to snap various types of photos and videos and conduct interviews. The event setup on the second floor featured a table for each team in attendance: Blue Mountain, Mahanoy Area, Marian, Minersville, Nativity, North Schuylkill, Panther Valley, Pine Grove, Pottsville, Schuylkill Haven, Shenandoah Valley, Tamaqua, Tri-Valley and Williams Valley. Every team carried in a school helmet, while head coaches arrived with rosters and 4-5 of their best players.

In all, 14 schools, 58 student-athletes and 26 media members attended.

To kick off the event, SCFCA president and Schuylkill Haven head coach Mike Farr welcomed everyone to media day, talking about how gatherings like this get the word out about the talented young people the Coal Region produces year after year. After that, the coaches and players at each table stood, took the microphone and introduced themselves and the positions they play. A luncheon followed with coaches and players posing for photos and participating in interviews into the early afternoon.

The event benefits teams, coaches and the media alike. Instead of contacting each coach individually or having a coach contacted by a dozen separate media outlets, media can compile information in one location at the same time.

Voluntary weightlifting, speed training and passing camps have been going on for months. Now it’s time to find out who has put in the work when nobody was watching when the stadiums fill up for Friday night lights.

“I think it’s great to get everyone here together,” Minersville senior Justin Cutler said. “It’s great to see what other teams have. It’s a very well-run event, and I’m grateful for our community to do something like this. … It’s something I’ll definitely remember, and I just hope that everyone else is having this great experience, too.”

A look at some of the major changes this season in local high school football:

New league setup

The Schuylkill-Colonial Football Cooperative is no more. The leagues have gone their separate ways, and the Schuylkill League has realigned into two divisions based on enrollment.

New divisions

In the Schuylkill League, Blue Mountain, North Schuylkill, Panther Valley, Pine Grove Area, Pottsville and Tamaqua make up a six-team Division I. Mahanoy Area, Marian, Minersville, Nativity, Schuylkill Haven, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley and Williams Valley comprise the eight-team Division II.

Playing fewer league games enabled programs to revive many old-school and territorial rivalries for their non-league schedules. For example, the Crimson Tide will meet Shamokin Area, Mount Carmel Area, Berwick and Hazleton Area in non-league contests. Schuylkill Haven will open against Mount Carmel Area, and Williams Valley will host Southern Columbia on Sept. 5.

Williams Valley’s Trevon Bair and Fletcher Thompson talk about the upcoming season:

New PIAA classes

Every two years, the PIAA realigns its district breakdowns based on changes in enrollment.

Several Schuylkill League teams will be affected by the new two-year cycle. Perhaps the biggest change impacts the small schools as three-time defending District 11 Class AA champion Williams Valley drops to Class A with Marian, Nativity and Tri-Valley, along with District 2 entrants Holy Cross, Lackawanna Trail and Old Forge. Meanwhile, Pen Argyl and Executive Education shift from Class AA to 3A.

Other major changes include North Schuylkill and Pine Grove Area bumping up to Class 4A with Blue Mountain and Pottsville. Defending District 11 and PIAA Class 4A state champion Southern Lehigh will play in Class 5A, while Whitehall jumps from Class 5A to 6A.

New coaches

Joe Tomtishen takes over for the retired Wally Hall at North Schuylkill, and Frank Gaffney replaces interim head coach Ben Ancheff at Williams Valley.

Tomtishen is a life-long Spartan. A high school guidance counselor in the district since 2009, Tomtishen was an assistant coach under Hall for 12 seasons, serving as defensive coordinator from 2015-22. Tomtishen also graduated from North Schuylkill in 2003. A four-year member of the football team, he played tight end, defensive end and linebacker for the Spartans before going on to play for four years at Lebanon Valley College.

During the offseason, Williams Valley hired Gaffney as the program’s head coach. Gaffney, a 2010 Blue Mountain graduate and college standout at Stevens Tech and Lebanon Valley, served as Pine Grove Area’s head coach for four seasons and as Schuylkill Haven’s defensive coordinator for the past four seasons.

“It’s exciting for these kids,” Gaffney said. “Looking back now, I graduated in 2010. The game has changed, but in this area it’s still a big, tight rivalry of players and coaches. … They’ve protected their culture of football in Schuylkill County. And I can remember going there and seeing the other kids. The difference is that we didn’t have social media then so you really didn’t know kids from other schools as much as the kids do now. Half of the kids they play against on Friday night, they hang out with them now. When I was in high school, Haven was our rival and Evan Fink was their main player and I was one of Blue Mountain’s, and we wouldn’t speak to each other. Now, he’s at my house once a week and we raise our kids together.

“A lot of these kids at Williams Valley remind me of myself in high school,” Gaffney added. “The way they grew up, parents, demographic area, blue-collar families, mom and dad both working, work for everything they have. So it’s a cool relationship with these kids here.”

Gaffney joked that he’s been to media day in three different school colors: the dark blue and white of Blue Mountain, the Cardinal red and gray of Pine Grove Area and now the red, royal blue and white of Williams Valley.

“I love it. I love what it does for the players,” Gaffney said. “I wouldn’t coach if I didn’t believe in the player development and what it can do for kids in Schuylkill County. Myself, I wouldn’t have gone to college if it wasn’t for this game. … This sport gave me the opportunity to go to school like it does for a lot of these kids.”