New crop of players, same goals for Vikings
Scratch rebuilding from Perkiomen Valley’s vocabulary. There’s no rebuilding in Graterford, only reload- ing.
After the departures of the winningest senior class in school history that was highlighted by records and deep district playoff runs, there’s a new senior class that’s ready to step up to lead the Vikings even further on the path to success.
And for Alec Jackson, Jahir Holmes, Remy Sell and Nico Carfagno, their only concern is leading the charge to get there.
“We can’t fill the shoes of the seniors before us exactly, but we’re going to try and be as humble as we can and continue doing the best that we can,” Carfagno said. “We have confidence in ourselves and confidence in our program.”
“Every year we try to outwork what we did the year before,” Holmes said. “We want to put forth the effort and do more thanwe had done the season before. We’re continuing to work toward getting better each day.”
The Vikings, ranked No. 9 in Pa Prep Live’s Preseason Top 20, enter the 2017 season after having lost the PIAA’s all-time leading passer in the highest classifica- tion in Stephen Sturm (Bentley University; 3,438 yards and 42 touchdowns in 2017) and the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s alltime leading receiving leader in Justin Jaworski (Lafayette for basketball; 78 receptions for 1396 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2017). Chris Jimenez (Temple University) and Vaughn Stolzer (Millersville) depart from the line with Nick Marren (Lehigh for lacrosse), Ryan McCourt, David Williams (NE Okalahoma A&M) and Mario Scotese departing a defense that helped lead the Vikings to a 12-1 overall finish last year.
And while the list of departures is daunting, the amount of depth that Perkiomen Valley has accrued throughout its years has the Vikings sitting in position to press forward.
“There’s a lot of changeover league-wide and our team is no exception,” head coach Rob Heist said. “We only bring back two starters on our offensive backfield, Remy and Brendan Schimpf. We have kids competing. Last year our JV had a nice season so some of those kids are going to be able to compete for starting spots. We’ve been working since January 3, we’ve been chomping at the bit to play some football.”
Jackson, Holmes, Sell, Carfagno, Schimpf, guard Zach Brewer, nose guard Kevin Lovett, defensive tackle Kevin Dela Cruz and linebackers Noah Shine and Brian Fehr all return to provide some leadership for the Vikings. All played heavily in the Vikings’ run to the District 1 Class 6A semifinals a year ago and all hold incredible value toward the success of the Vikings this season.
Whether they can make it happen and push the Vikings toward a repeat title is why they play the game.
Newcomers
Perkiomen Valley’s left-handed Cole Peterlin won the quarterback battle and will start for the Vikings at home in Week 1.