JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
Central’s Justin Myer and Wilson’s Chris Hartzell will play, Catholic’s Bruce Harbach will coach in annual East-West All-Star Game on Saturday.
A pair of former Lancaster-Lebanon League football standouts and a current L-L League football coach will be in Altoona on Saturday for the 8th Annual PSFCA East-West All-Star Game.
The game is set for 6 p.m. at Altoona’s Mansion Park (and will be televised by PCN), and the East team will include two L-L League stars:
Manheim Central grad Justin Myer, who will be a preferred walk-on at Virginia Tech, will be a kicker for the East team.
And Wilson grad Chris Hartzell, a Muhlenberg recruit, will play wideout for the East team.
Lancaster Catholic coach Bruce Harbach will be an assistant coach for the East team, which will be guided by Souderton’s Ed Gallagher. Terry Smith from Gateway High School will coach the West team.
The East leads the series 5-2, although the West team won last year’s game 24-14.
Myer, who will be given every opportunity to earn the job as Virginia Tech’s main kickoff guy in camp later this summer, was a First-Team Section 2 All-Star last fall after making 24 extra points and nailing four field goals, including a school-record 47-yard boot.
Myer participated in three Kohl’s Kicking Showcases prior to his senior season at Central, and at a camp in Wisconsin, he finished second out of 160 kickers in kickoffs.
He also made unofficial visits to Temple and Lehigh before accepting Virginia Tech’s offer to be a preferred walk-on.
Meanwhile, Hartzell was a key two-way cog on a Wilson team that did not defend its Section 1 championship, but did win a pair of games in the District 3 Quad-A playoffs before bowing out to Harrisburg in the semifinals.
Hartzell finished ninth in the L-L League with 44 receptions – good for 619 yards (14.1 yards per grab) and seven touchdowns in 13 games. He was a First-Team Section 1 All-Star at wideout and a First-Team Section 1 All-Star at defensive back, and Hartzell was named the Section 1 Defensive Back of the Year.
Harbach has led Catholic to three Section 3 championships in a row, although last year’s title was a co-crown with Lampeter-Strasburg, which went on to win the District 3 Triple-A title.
Catholic, which reached the District 3 Double-A semifinals last fall, was in the District 3 championship game the three years in a row previous to that, and won the title in 2005.
Under Harbach’s watch, Catholic is 50-20 over the last six seasons.
