As the heat acclimation period drew to a close, Minersville was deep into preparations for the 2026 season.
With the loss of some significant star power over the offseason, the early practices gave coach Justin Frantz a chance to see the players vying to fill those vacancies in action.
“We’re so big on competing, and because we’re young this year, we’ve made some great strides this week so we love the competition,” Frantz said. “We want to get our best 11 on the field and it’s not always the biggest guys on the field but it’s the toughest and the fastest and they’re going to be on the field somewhere.”
Senior Derek Derenzo moved from running back to quarterback, replacing Dante Carr, who is entering his freshman season at the University of Central Florida.
Sophomore John Lutsky is preparing to step into the running back role by working on running up-field and not east-to-west.
In addition to handling his duties as kicker, senior Jordan Bowers will line up at wide receiver for the first time in his career, and is focused on being explosive at the position.
“I think I can help the team most with my speed and kicking,” he said.
While the skills are important, Frantz’s main focus in the first week of practice was seeing who was physically and mentally the toughest with the shoulder pads on.
“It’s nice to get the shoulder pads on and get more of a football feel instead of just being in t-shirts and shorts all summer,” Frantz said. “We try to get a lot in during a short amount of time. We want to put as much pressure on them this week just to see how they react.”
The players seemed to respond well to that pressure.
“We’re starting to bring the tempo a lot more and getting a lot more physical with the pads on this week,” Lutsky said. “It gets easier every day at practice and we’ve talked about bringing 100% effort every day.”
Frantz is never surprised about how much the older kids take on leadership roles and set the standard of playing for the Battlin’ Miners.
The fact that his team gets to play against a Schuylkill County rival almost every week hypes the players up that much more.
“We set a high level last year, so we want to continue to do that, make district playoffs and overall have a winning team,” Bowers said.
Minersville will take on Nativity BVM and Shenandoah Valley for “Scrimmage Saturday” on Aug. 22, and kick off the 2026 season at home against Halifax on Aug. 28.