Golden Tigers On Road to Redemption

The 2022 Hollidaysburg Area High School football team paid out the nose for entering the year with few proven players, losing eight of its first nine games before ending the campaign by beating DuBois. Seven of those setbacks were by double digits.

Most of the Golden Tigers who lived through that are back.

And they’ve brought receipts.

“This year, we have a lot more experience,” senior Drew Wyland said. “After how bad last year went for us and how demotivated we were getting, we’re a lot more pumped up this year. Everyone’s a lot more fired up. It’s going to be a lot better.

“We all suffered and we know how bad last year felt. We can’t accept that again.”

Wyland, who scored three touchdowns in last Friday’s season-opening 21-13 win over Altoona is just one of the reasons Tiger coach Homer DeLattre is optimistic his team will bounce back strong from its first sub-.500 season in eight years.

“With 11 seniors returning and 28 lettermen, we had a great focus in the offseason. We got bigger, faster and stronger all around. I think we’re already a lot better, DeLattre said. “I think it’s a standard. It’s what’s expected. As sophomores, this senior class won a district title. I think they were embarrassed about last year. That’s been the rallying cry all offseason.”

“We’re looking forward to proving a lot of people wrong and having a much-better season than we had last year,” said 6-foot-3, 276-pound senior tackle-defensive end Colin Padamonsky, the son of former Tiger standout tight end-defensive lineman Bill Padamonsky.

Lining up with Wyland (6-3, 161) in the Tiger backfield this season are senior Jake Steiner (6-0, 183), junior Maddox Bainey (5-11, 166) and senior Blaise Wills (6-1, 172). Juniors Mitchell Baronner (5-10, 172), Cristian White (6-1, 205), Guillermo Gaffney (5-11, 197), Devin Jenkins (6-0, 197), Jay Albarano (6-0, 177) and Brayden Berkheimer (5-10, 193) along with seniors Nic Chism (5-7, 182) and Cooper Tewell (6-1, 173), were looking for playing time at the running back and halfback positions in camp and will provide depth.

Wyland, who started at running back and also played wide receiver last season when Tucker Rossman called the signals, also could line up at other positions, with primarily Bainey or sometimes Cole DeLattre spelling him, but Wyland’s primary position coming up through the feeder ranks was as a quarterback.

“It’s a lot more stressful than any position on the field,” Wyland said. “Once you learn to do all of that, it’s nice.”

Senior Caden DeLattre (6-2, 164) is coming off a 48-catch season. He leads an experienced, deep corps of Tiger receivers. The group also features proven commodities in Albarano, and juniors Gavin Bell (6-1, 187) and Brady Steiner (5-11, 165). Bell had 17 catches last season, Albarano 14 and Steiner six.

Juniors Ty Szynal (5-8, 140) and Robbie Mullin (5-10, 141) and seniors Nate Grabill (6-0, 160), and Drew Banks (6-1, 176) were trying to carve out a place in the wideout rotation.

“We have a lot more depth this year because so many guys got to play last year,” Caden DeLattre said. “We have a lot of really good receivers, a lot of guys who can catch the ball, run the routes and get open.

“We’re all really excited to get after it. I had right around 800 yards last year, so my goal is to hit a thousand yards this year receiving and hopefully 15 touchdowns.”

Coach DeLattre welcomed back seven offensive linemen who started at one point or another last year. Returning with Padamonsky are seniors Jacob Ott (6-0, 191) and Ryan Priel (5-10, 216) and juniors Aiden Bilek (6-0, 240), Jeff McCoy (5-10, 249), Hunter Albright (6-5, 318) and Wyatt Maines (6-5, 262).

Joining the competition for plays on the offensive front this fall are sophomores Jackson York (6-2, 229) and Bravin Matthews (5-11, 283).

A point of emphasis in the offseason was to develop a run game that could complement what the Tigers have at wideout. Last year, Hollidaysburg averaged just 75.4 yards per game on the ground.

Wyland’s 234 rushing yards led the team in 2022. Against Altoona last week, he accounted for 179 of Hollidaysburg’s 212 rushing yards, scoring on an 81-yard gallop in the last two minutes to put the game away.

“If we can be strong and control the trenches, I think that’s going to be the biggest factor for our team,” Padamonsky said.

Wyland, Tewell, White, Bilek and Bainey were Hollidaysburg’s top five tacklers last year, while Bainey, Berkheimer, Albright, Grabill, Padamonsky, Ott, Albarano, Jake Steiner, McCoy, Mullen, Jenkins and Caden DeLattre all made at least 10 stops and cracked the Tigers’ top 21.

Bainey also came up with three takeaways, while Bilek recovered a trio of fumbles.

Padamonsky, Ott, Bilek, McCoy, Albright, Priel, Maines and Matthews all figure to see time on the line this fall, with Tewell, White, Albarano, Bainey, Berkheimer, Gaffney, Wills, Chism and sophomore Timmy Snyder (5-9, 190) playing linebacker or a hybrid linebacker/strong safety role.

Wyland, Grabill, Jake Steiner, Mullin, Caden DeLattre, Baronner and Drew Banks along with sophomore Josh Banks (5-11, 160), junior Will Kordish (5-10, 176) and senior Josh Bueno (5-9, 159) were in the mix as corners and free safeties.

Jake Steiner, Bell, Albarano, Wyland, Grabill and Wills were getting looks in camp to be kick returners.

The Tigers graduated all-state kicking specialist Ben Sosnowski; that role now falls to junior Paul Wedel (6-2, 176). Caden DeLattre’s the long snapper, and Ty Szynal does the short snaps.

As usual, DeLattre the Hollidaysburg athletic director did DeLattre the football coach few favors in designing the schedule. Still an independent, the Tigers travel to Allegany in Cumberland, Maryland on Friday, before coming back to Tiger Stadium to face 2022 PIAA Class 6A semifinalist State College.

The rest of the home slate includes traditional Maryland power Fort Hill, reigning state Class 2A runner-up Westinghouse, Danville and DuBois at home, with trips mixed in to Butler, Oil City and Selinsgrove.

This year’s 10 opponents were a combined 90-33 last year.

“We’re looking at playing eight or nine potential district championship game-caliber teams,” DeLattre said.

DeLattre’s being assisted this season by R.J. Albarano, Todd Consiglio, Bryce Martellacci, Adam Walstrom, Gary Walstrom, Dave Wyland, Phil Weichel, Dick Baronner, Rodney Chism, Ben Kahn and Joe Montrella. Steve Kirsch, Tim Keech, Paul Yakymac, Brock Porter, Kyle Brown and Jimmy Patterson guide the junior high Golden Tigers.

“Our determination is everything for us,” Drew Wyland said. “We’re not going to slow down at all for anybody. We’re going to keep going until the end.”