When Rick "Bone" Stroup moved in with the Tkach family when he was 14 years old, he was welcomed with open arms.

With Rick's love of football, it was the perfect tie that Jim Tkach new the duo would be brothers for life.Stroup had outstanding gridiron careers at Lehighton and Kutztown University and continued walking the sidelines in the fall.Stroup coached linebackers at West Chester University from 1979 to 1984. Before that, he served as an assistant for two years at Kutztown University, and he also coached the powerlifting team at Kutztown to two national titles.In 1994, Stroup was appointed head football coach at Sun Valley High School, by the Penn-Delco School Board.After a stint as defensive coordinator at Garnet Valley High School, Stroup took another crack at head coach when he was hired in 2011 at Penncrest High School in Media, PA.Now in his fifth season, Stroup not only is ready to take the Lions to the next level, his coaching staff is filled with some familiar faces.His son Jonathan, who is working on his Masters Degree, has turned over the offensive coordinator chores to Jim Tkach, a volunteer on the staff, but is still the quarterback coach.Jim has spent the last couple of seasons as a color commentator of Blue Ridge TV-13 telecasts after leading the Northern Lehigh football program to championship level, but coaching is still in his blood as was evident with the smile on his face last week.Ty Tkach, Jim's son who played for him at Northern Lehigh before going on to continue his career with the Pitt Panthers, will be the defensive coordinator and also coach the defensive ends. He currently resides in the Philadelphia area working for Sunoco.Andrew Tulio, another Northern Lehigh product who went on to further his career at Millersville University, has also hopped on board. Tulio, who boards with Ty, also has a full-time job in the area and after volunteering last year, is the line coach and also helps out with special teams this season.It is definitely a "Family Affair".""It's definitely an interesting dynamic having the five of us working together," Jonathan noted. "Coaching the quarterbacks, I work with Jim on the offense so it's kind of good working not personally with my dad, but with my uncle. It's good s0plitting up the two sons and fathers up. It's great working with all of them."Last year, Stroup had a line coach who couldn't make it all the time. So he called on Jim asking for his help. Tkach, who lives in Milford, Delaware, came up and helped during training camp. He also tried to make practice a day or two during the week, but was still announcing for TV-13. Between coaching and doing TV, Tkach wound up getting pneumonia in Week 6 of the season.Ty got involved after moving into the area, showing up to watch two games. The following year, he volunteered a little bit and it turned out to be a full-time position."I was able to work things out since I love teaching the kids about football," Ty said. "It also gives me a chance to be around family so it all worked out."Tulio joined forces last year when he got a call whenthey were looking for help with the long snappers, a position he held at Millersville. So he came down on Friday night's and also helped out with special teams."After the season, I was able to get involved more and it's great to be back on a staff with Ty and coach Tkach," he said.After the season, Stroup and Tkach sat down to discuss the future and when Jim talked it over with his wife Sandy, she said "That's who you are."Matt Millen, a good friend of Tkach's, told him when he left Northern Lehigh, he'd get back in it some day. And he was right."I'm with my brother, my son,. A former player (Tulio) and my nephew," Tkach said between practices last week. "We work together and it's just awesome."I'm running the offense and it's the system we ran at Northern Lehigh, verbatim. The god thing about that Tules and Ty both know the offense."It's a special blessing with all we've been through together to end up like this."Stroup echoed those remarks."It's great to have Jim, Ty, John and Tulio around," he said. "Sometimes it's stressful. We can get on each other during practice, but when it's over, we go out for a slice of pizza later on."We have a lot of talent this year and if we stay healthy, I think we can compete with anybody. With a little tweaking here or there, I think we can be pretty good."The Lions open up September 4 against Upper Moreland.