Eck’s storied coaching run in area continues, as he reaches final with Montoursville
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Jeremy Eck might as well have been walking on Venus where the air pressure is so thick it feels as if a car would be resting upon one's body.
That's how it felt anyway when Eck was coaching Loyalsock last decade, helping it capture Class AA state championships in 2013 and 2014. It's a bit different these days at Montoursville.
Make no mistake, there is an extremely high standard at one of Pennsylvania's more storied programs, but nobody was saying the 2025 Montoursville team would reach a state championship. At Loyalsock in 2013 and 2014 it was state championship or bust.
Following a fabulous seven-year run at Loyalsock, highlighted by those two state titles, Eck returned to his alma mater in 2018. And now he has another state final appearance on his resume. This one is the most unexpected of the three but it sure feels just as great.
"It doesn't mean more; it's just different. Those memories and the stuff we did at Loyalsock will never go away. It's all special but it's just a little different because when I left Loyalsock I had it in the back of my mind that I would like to coach where I played," Eck said. "To be able to do it seeing guys I coached growing up and having my son here and to have Travis Wurster, who I played with, and Craig Weaver (Jr.) who's been my best friend since we were little guys and Mike (Mussina) and Matt (Francis) coaching here, it's pretty special."
Eck was in his third year at Loyalsock when a hyped class of dynamic freshmen there reached high school. Players like Kyle Datres, Jimmy Webb, Tommy Baggett and Evan Moore would start the next four years. They were as good as advertised--better, actually--but that sent expectations sky high.
The players may have been too young to grasp that but Eck certainly was not. Winning a state championship is incredibly difficult but it felt like in those years, it was 'do it or else.'
"With Loyalsock, we were supposed to be there. Those kids were decorated athletes early in their baseball careers and if we wouldn't have got it done, it would have been a letdown," Eck said. "The expectations were so high that it made it difficult but we found a way."
The Lancers did so twice, becoming one of the few PIAA teams to ever repeat as champions after ending Central's undefeated season in the 2014 final. Flash forward 11 years and, even Montoursville players themselves, will tell you that they did not expect to be playing for a state championship.
This is Montoursville where it has missed the playoffs just twice and made 35 straight playoff appearances, so it expected to be good. The main objective, however, was finding a way to reclaim district gold after falling short in the final the two past seasons. Danville walked off with a 12-11 championship win last year and returned 13 starters, so Montoursville really fixed its eyes on exacting revenge and reclaiming its district throne for the first time since 2022.
The Warriors did so in impressive fashion, defeating Danville, 7-3 at Bowman Field. With a week off before states, Montoursville, had time to understand what it achieved, how good an opponent it just beat and that a state final appearance suddenly was three wins away.
That was really the point when reaching Penn State started to feel realistic. The Warriors were on a high after districts and have just gone higher since, playing phenomenal team baseball, while outscoring Crestwood, Fleetwood and Pope John II, 30-3 in states.
"I didn't know if I'd ever get back as a coach. It's unbelievable, to be honest with you," Eck said. "We're 11 boys away from being a 3A school. We're one of smallest schools out there in 4A. We only had 28 guys try out for the team this year. Usually, we have 38-40 guys and always keep 28. This year, we kept everybody. You get the kids in the community together and do what you can and they've made it happen."
How they have done so is another difference between these Warriors and the Loyalsock teams Eck coached to Penn State. Eck loved the way Loyalsock players approached practices and games, and the laser-focused they displayed.
Now, Eck affectionately refers to his Montoursville players as goofballs. The common denominator between these teams, however, is an intense desire to win. Like Eck's experiences at both schools, they just reveal it and go about it in different fashions.
Besides winning and wanting to win, there is another key ingredient both Loyalsock and Montoursville share. It's mighty powerful, too.
"We try to get these Montoursville kids to understand the mentality and how those guys (at Loyalsock) went about their business and we're getting there," Eck said. "One thing we had at Loyalsock was that bond where we loved each other and had each other's backs and acted as a family. And we're there now. We're loose and having fun. We're saying, 'We love you, we got you.' Once you have that, it makes you a special team."
Montoursville has become that, and players will tell anyone who listens that Eck is a special coach. Obviously, two state championships, three state final appearances and eight district championships in 13 years makes for an amazing resume.
But, to the players, Eck's impact goes beyond those achievements. It's more about his ability to bring out their best on a regular basis.
"Coach Eck always gets us super-hyped every game. All of his speeches get us hyped and get us going. That's what gets me really motivated throughout a game," shortstop Royce Bowes said. "If I go up and strikeout, he will pick me back up. I'll do something in the field and he will say get the next at-bat. He's the real hype guy. He's the motivation. It's not us."
"It's like in the college football game and you're choosing a coach to be a motivator and a developer," catcher Noah Kirby said. "If there was a five-star coach, it would be Coach Eck. I don't think it's crazy to say he's the best around."
Montoursville has proven itself to be the best 4A baseball team around Pennsylvania and is now striving to become the state's best. The journeys Eck has traveled along with Loyalsock and Montoursville to Penn State have been so different and yet so similar at times.
Because, no matter how each team reached what Eck describes as, "The Promised Land," both made it. That links those teammates and coaches forever, something Eck understands well.
"I don't even know if they realize what they're truly doing, to be honest. They don't understand the magnitude of what they just accomplished and playing at Penn State on the last day you can possibly play of the high school season," Eck said. "It's not easy when you have to win five or six straight single elimination games. They're just playing and having fun and that makes them dangerous. It's something they'll always remember."