Area teams discuss season outlooks at PHAC media day
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The Friday Night Lights are almost glistening.
Ahead of what is expected to be another enticing season of High School Football scores the Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference, the PHAC held its first annual Football Media Day this past Friday in Watsontown. The scene alone could get any football fans' juices flowing, with coaches and players across the conference making time available to local media ahead of the 2026 high school football season.
DIVISION I
Once upon a time a team that hovered around the five or six win mark, Shamokin's transformation from mid-table settler to perennial champion has been one of the more intriguing storylines in the conference. A district champion in back to back years the Indians, led by fourth year head coach Marc Persing and a who's-who of future college athletes, are coming into 2026 after capturing their first PHAC title in recorded history.
With plenty of talent returning, including three star athlete and Wake Forest commit Logan Steele, the question becomes who, if any, in the area can compete with the boys in purple.
Jersey Shore is not unfamiliar to the assignment. A district runner up in three straight seasons, the Bulldogs under 15th year head coach Tom Gravish will look for their luck back after losing each of their last three against the high powered Indians.
Despite graduating two stellar skill players in Carson Watkins and Luke Ryan, the Bulldog interior remains mostly intact indicating that the conference and district runner ups could be shaping for another deep run.
"Last year we had kind of a young team, so we really like the energy (this year,) echoed Gravish. "We feel our culture is pretty much in place with what the standards are and what the expectation is for our players. Players accept those expectations."
A team that's about as easy to predict as a coin toss, Williamsport High School will be looking for more consistency under first year head coach Kevin Brown.
Brown, a graduate of Williamsport High School CU-Lock Haven football athlete, served as an assistant coach at Williamsport for nearly a decade before most recently taking the job as a running backs coach with Lycoming College.
"At times, I get tired of hearing me now," joked Brown when asked about the difference between being a position coach and head coach. "Because I got to talk to everybody on some level. But it is fun, I love the game and its totality. Running backs are my trade, but I have to oversee everything now. If the DB's are doing something I don't like, I have to speak on it."
Brown will have plenty of talent at his disposal, including do-it-all-man Tevin Williams who can turn a regular Friday Night into a game of Madden with the difficulty settings at rookie.
DIVISION II
The Millionaires aren't the only program working through a coaching change. Coming off of the most wins the program has had since the pandemic, the Montoursville Warriors introduced a new number one in head coach Reese Holmes.
Holmes did not need to travel far, cutting through the golden strip to Montoursville by way of WIlliamsport, where the local native served as an assistant coach for the Millionaires.
"There is a long history of good coaches here," echoed Brown. "When I got the call and was offered the job, it was a no brainer. I live in Montoursville, and the last five years at Williamsport taught me a lot to prepare me to be a head coach. I've always said to leave Williamsport, it was to be a head coach at Montoursville, so I was very, very excited."
Even with star tailback Christian Banks graduating to go to college with Lock Haven and a solid chunk of their lineman dressed with talons, the Warriors retain a majority of their skill position players that finished 9-3 the previous year.
A side that finished on the opposite end of the PHAC standings, Milton remained a team looking to rebuild after just seven wins in their last two seasons.
Third year head coach Matt Wilson didn't mince words regarding the school's run of form, while hinting that brighter days can be ahead for the Black Panthers.
"We want to rebound from only winning three games last year," Wilson discussed. "It is easier said than done, but it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of that hard work goes into your offseason program, so that has really propelled us in the right direction I believe.
Both local schools will have their work cut out for them. In addition to the absolute gauntlet that is District Four's 3A division that will include Jersey Shore this year, the cream of the crop in Southern Columbia come off their eighth national championship in nine years. Both area schools will host the reigning champions, with the Warriors at home against the Tigers in week three before the Black Panthers meet them in week eight.
DIVISION III
After an electrifying campaign that saw a three way share of the PHAC Division 3 title in 2025 between Warrior Run, Bloomsburg, and Loyalsock, the Lancers go into 2026 looking to have found their groove despite a 5-6 overall record.
When Howard Rainey was announced as the head coach of Hughesville in 2021, stability seemed to have been the main objective early on in his career. Now in his sixth year in charge of the Spartans, Rainey and Hughesville will look to push forward in the division that only seems to get more difficult.
"We won four games last year, and we are hoping to be in the middle of the pack," discussed lines coach Brandon Kinney, who was Hughesville's representative coach during Media Day. "Looking at our schedule we got some new competition coming up this year, and I think that will be good for us in the long run."