NTL FOOTBALL: NEW LOOK TOWANDA TO HAVE PLENTY OF YOUTH THIS YEAR (2025-08-17)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It’ll be a new era for Towanda football this season as they welcome in a new, younger group of players after saying good-bye to last year’s deep and talented senior class.

“Every year is new, but this year is especially new,” said Towanda coach Jamie Wecker. “We graduated 14-15 seniors, and 10 starters, so this is a totally new team.”

The Knights are coming off a successful season that saw them reach the District IV, Class AA semifinals for the first time in nearly 15 years.

“One of the things I addressed out there is that ‘last year you guys had really nothing to do with last year,’” explained Wecker. “You want to hold on to that, that’s great, but you’ve got to create your own legacy this year, but it’s exciting.”

Wecker was pleased with the turnout this summer, and just because they’re young doesn’t mean they aren’t talented. Many of the players that will be taking the field Friday night had plenty of success in junior high action on Thursday nights.

“We had a lot of kids come out,” starting quarterback Reese Sluyter said about summer workouts. “Hopefully we can just pick up where we left off last year.”

Wecker knows, though, this will be a different team. Gone is much of the size up front that typically comes with having seniors in the trenches.

“We aren’t real big so we’re going to have to tailor our offense to that type of offensive attack,” remarked Wecker. “And the same thing defensively. We’re going to have to be quick, we’re going to have to be smart - the kids can’t get themselves out of position - all of those things that are just fundamental football. But that’s one thing about these years that makes it so much fun is we know the kids that we have and it’s exciting to watch them throughout the season - how much to they develop, how much do they improve, that kind of stuff.”

They do have a few offensive returnees who did see some varsity time, along with getting in the game during blowouts.

Sluyter started the first two games of the season at quarterback for Towanda, and went 27-for-44 on the year with 288 yards passing and three touchdowns against three interceptions.

He’s got big shoes to fill as outgoing starter Riley Vanderpool ran and threw for 1,000 yards, but Wecker is confident in his sophomore.

“That experience last year will pay off a lot this year,” he said. 

Sluyter was sure to take notes from Vanderpool last year, along with the other seniors.

“You’ve got to be a leader,” he said. “Last year we had a lot of them, this year we don’t have any yet, so we’ve got to get some of those kids. (Riley) was a big leader on the team last year.”

Sluyter’s been working all season with drills and videos to get ready for this season. 

“Ever since last year ended I’ve just been ready to get back on the field,” said Sluyter.

Joining him in the backfield will be fellow sophomore Gage Evans. Evans also saw some varsity time, running the ball 31 times for 185 yards with a score, while also hauling in a 58-yard touchdown pass.

“It feels good,” Evans said about having that time under his belt. “I know what I’m looking into, what going to be seeing. Junior high and then varsity football, it’s a lot different, but I’m feeling good about it.”

The one thing with this team is they have plenty of athletes to get involved, so they’re hoping there isn’t a drop off offensively from last year’s high scoring group.

“I think we can do pretty much the same thing,” Evans remarked. “We’ve got a lot of good kids, we’ve got Reese at quarterback. He’s got a little bit of varsity time in, too, so you know what he’s doing.”

Wecker, though, wants to impress upon them that they still have to prove it on the field.

“I know we have a lot of talent here, but talent doesn’t mean good football,” he said. 

There might be even more question marks on the defensive side of the ball. Vanderpool was an All-state safety, while Varrius Farrell was an All-state lineman, plus several all-stars.

Being a smaller team Wecker wants them to focus on tackling the legs and avoiding the big hits.

“I don’t care about the Sportscenter hits,” he said. “Those are awesome for the fans, but for us, we like sure tackling. We teach fundamental tackling - our guys aren’t big so they’re going to learn one way or another not to tackle high.”

Wecker does have a plethora of players that he’s looking to step up on that side of the ball - Colton McPeak, Jazick Brown, and Markell Garner.

“I hate naming names because I know I’ll forget some,” he said. “But I think Kolten McPeak is a kid who has a great opportunity to step up, he played for us last year. He’s probably going to be the leader in the linebacking group. Jazik Brown has been working hard all summer, I think he’s a kid who really needs to step up defensively. He’s going to have a great opportunity to do that.”

McPeak finished with 18 tackles last, four for a loss, and even two sacks.

“I’m ready to be a leader for my team, and help them out the best I can,” he said. “Taking over Sawyer (Robinson’s) spot is going to be hard because he’s a hard person to replace.”

Even though they’ll be smaller this year McPeak feels they can use that to their advantage.

“We’ve got to be faster,” he said. “We have to be more agile than the bigger people, and just use our brain out there.”

Typically fielding a younger team means taking some lumps but, outside of defending state champions Troy, much of the NTL is going through a youth movement.

“Looking through the league I think it’s going to be competitive,” Wecker said. “Troy is still the team to beat, obviously, they’re a little bit different animal right now, but I think the league is very competitive. I’m just looking back at my junior high years, and this group of sophomores was my last junior high group, and it was a very competitive league then. Wellsboro was competitive, Athens was competitive, so I’m looking forward to that, because I think we can be in a lot of games.”

ROSTER
Gage Evans
Markell Garner
Tristan Keyte
Owen Masteller
Curtis Maynard
Kolton McPeak
Dominik Miller
Zachary Mosier
Nick Post
Dillan Sbragia
Carter Schoonover
Brayden Spencer
Jaydon Stranger
Clinton Tuttle
Brayden Fassenden
Shane Maghamez
Colin Parker
Amir Saidkhujuer
Reese Sluyter
Jason Thetga
Derek Vanderpool
Cale Woodburn
Bentley Johnson
Scott Kjelgaard
Jackson Kreitz
Joey Montonya
Ray Vanderwal
Riot Vester
Gabe Wolf
Hunter Bartholomew
Matt Harbst
Kole Heyer
Tanner Vanderpool
Cameron Allis
Aiden Blokzyl
Tommy Bowen
Jazick Brown
Aiden Davidson

SCHEDULE
Aug. 23 at CV, 6 p.m.
Aug. 29 vs Hughesville, 7 p.m.
Sep. 5 at NPM, 7 p.m.
Sep. 12 at Wellsboro, 7 p.m.
Sep. 19 vs Troy, 7 p.m.
Sep. 26 at Canton, 7 p.m.
Oct. 3 vs Athens, 7 p.m.
Oct. 10 vs Sayre, 7 p.m.
Oct. 17 vs Tunkhannock, 7 p.m.
Oct. 24 at Wyalusing, 7 p.m.