BARNESVILLE - The Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association knows how to throw a party.

What was its 11th annual media day prior to the start of pre-season practice this Monday, the big draw was the 11-member Anthracite Football League, with newcomers Lehighton and Blue Mountain welcomed with open arms.The Indians, members of the Centennial League and then Mountain Valley Conference for the past 40 years, were always considered a Lehigh Valley team prior to that.It all changes this season and not only Lehighton head coach Tom McCarroll is happy, but so is the entire league and SCFCA president Mike Farr, Schuylkill Haven head coach let that be known."I'm really excited," Farr said at yesterday's affair. "This league is building a lot of momentum and the exciting part about it is we have a lot of young coaches coming in. We have Coach McCarroll and Lehighton coming in and they have an extremely impressive program. They're very consistent every year."We're just attracting more and more teams (Pottsville will be a member in 2016). More and more teams that really see our brand of football and see our community style of atmosphere, they fall in love with it. I'm personally extremely excited Lehighton is in."Besides Lehighton, the league is made up of Jim Thorpe, Panther Valley, Tamaqua and Marian as far as Times News area schools are concerned. Others are North Schuylkill, Schuylkill Haven, Blue Mountain, Mahanoy Area, Minersville and Shenandoah Valley. Even though Lehighton played the four local teams in the past, they weren't league games and still drew a lot of interest. Don't be surprised to see even more packed stadiums when the rivalries continue no matter what kind of records they have."The feedback I'm getting out of the communities is very positive," said Farr. "I think with the new faces like Lehighton and Blue Mountain, it's going to rekindle the rivalries that both teams had and we're going to make new ones. They're all great football towns and the sky is the limit for the Anthracite Football League."McCarroll is no stranger to Coal Region Football since he played under Stan Dakosty at Marian."We're very excited," McCarroll said. "Any time you start a new season you always excited, but to come in to a new league, our kids are very excited about it, our school's very excited about it. We're just looking to be competitive because we know it's hard nose football up here. Coal Region football has a reputation and we're going to try and live up to it the best we can."Apparently the coaches in the league are well aware of Lehighton's success since the Indians were voted No. 2 in the pre-season poll just behind No. 1 North Schuylkill. The Indians also received two first place votes."Overall, the biggest benefit for us coming into a league like this is that our Friday night experience for the kids is going to be great. The unfortunate part previously was that crowds were a little bit sparse, especially from some of the visiting schools because they were coming from so far. There is such a passion coming from the communities in this league and we travel well with a great following and we know the kids we will be playing will have the same."I think the playing field across the board is going to be more level and I think we're going to have the same type of kids that we play. We hung our hat as being that small, more physical team in the Mountain Valley Conference. Now we're going to face more teams our size like Mahanoy Area, Shenandoah Valley, Minersville. You know every single night you're going to get their best shot and they're going to punch you in the mouth a little bit. We know what that's like because that's what we took in our previous league so we'll be ready for that."The Indians open the season at Mahanoy Area on August 29 before hosting Minersville in their home opener on September 5."I'm excited for this year and the next four and five years to see how this league continues to grow and our brand of football continues to improve. We're going to start attracting the big schools. Everyone knows that the big colleges drive right through Schuylkill County. We're getting some looks, but we're not getting the looks that we deserve. We have to start doing more to attract the big schools so they understand we have good football in this area. This is what we need to reinforce and the new additions to this league help us do that."The first official day of football starts on Monday when all of our area teams will start camp.Pick up a Times News on Saturday to find out your favorite team's practice and scrimmage schedule.