5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT NORTHAMPTON

1. Nick Artinger, who was Bethlehem Cathlolic’s defensive coordinator in 2016 when Haas was the interim head coach, has joined the staff, along with Drew Morrissey, an Emmaus High School and Moravian College product. Also, Mark Bendekovits has been moved up to outside linebackers, and Zach Winter was brought up from the middle school to coach the tight ends. In all, Northampton has 12 coaches.

2. As the first week of practice ended, Northampton had 51 kids out for the team, grades 10 to

12. The freshman program had 24 kids, and 35 were in the middle school program. “Ideally, you’d like 20 kids in every class, but kids have to understand there’s a commitment to play football,” Haas said. “A lot of kids want to play, but they don’t want to do what it takes to play. I think we’ve got the 50 toughest kids in the school playing football and they come back every day, so I am happy.” 3. Northampton’s last regular season game is Oct. 25 at Whitehall, and the Thanksgiving Day game against Catasauqua is scheduled for 34 days later on Nov. 28. So, Haas is really hoping his team can make the playoffs and advance a round or two, because otherwise it will be an extremely long gap between games. “From a scheduling standpoint for practice, that’s a tough stretch to get through,” Haas said.

4. Haas is excited about the challenge of welcoming

Parkland in Week 1. “It lets us know realistically where we are,” he said. “When you watch the film, you find out who’s the best 11 and who isn’t. I’m excited to see how our kids respond. No matter what happens, we’ll take the positives and we’ll fix the negatives. That’s all you can do when you’re trying to build a program.”

5. Haas has been hired to work at the school in security and as assistant athletic director. “It’s really important for me to be around the kids all day and see how they’re doing, and to work with [athletic director] Shaun Murray and the rest of the all-star staff we have here will also be a positive for me,” Haas said.