The traditional football seasons might be well over two calendar months away, but there is one Pennsylvania semi-professional league which will kick off its postseason tomorrow.

The Great Eastern Football Association is in its 11th year of action. The GEFA is now composed of 18 teams and separated into two divisions. The league ranges as far south as Lancaster and even has a few teams out west surrounding the State College area. After a 10-week regular season, a team full of local players known as the Panther Valley Breaker Boys earned a 7-3 overall record.First-year Panther Valley head coach Rick Lash couldn't be more pleased with how his team has excelled in 2015 after a subpar '14 season. Lash has been playing and successfully coaching football for over 30 years around the state Pennsylvania in various leagues at different levels of play."The big thing is just having organization," explained the Panther Valley coach. "Things were a little bit 'helter skelter' when I took over. I had to get the guys to realize that they have strength in numbers and that there is no I (in team). When you go from a sub-five hundred team to a No. 2 seed in the playoffs, it's a great accomplishment."Scott Reese who now serves as the team's backup quarterback and star special team player has been managing, coaching, and playing for the Panther Valley organization for quite some time now. The team was down to a handful of guys in 2011, but Reese was one of the few who fought to keep the team afloat."Initially I was the founder and owner of the team, but I stepped down," explained Reese, a Panther Valley High School graduate. "I've played quarterback, coached, but we recruited a ton of talent. When (Lash) decided to join this year I stepped down and decided just to play because I knew we had the best, and I wanted to continue to learn from the best."Damian Lewis, the team's star receiver, is another PV graduate. Lewis totaled six touchdowns through the air during the '15 season, and was second on the team in all-purpose yards from the line of scrimmage."I got involved with the team about three years ago when our quarterback Brock Mitchell had me come out for a practice," Lewis said. "We practice once a week in the offseason, we're lucky if we get together once a week during the season too. We have a bunch of new players on the team and it took a few weeks to get the chemistry going. Our defense shows up and is unstoppable at times."After a 1-2 start, Panther Valley ripped off six wins a row. Lash, Reese, and Lewis all agree that the tenacious defense of this squad is what makes the Breaker Boys a serious title contender.Reese said, "Our defense is easily the best defense we've ever had. These are some of my best friends in the world who I know I could call up whenever I need them. We're a bunch of blue-collar people form the area and we've earned everything we get."Lash explained that this team has made significant strides since he took over prior to the 2015 season."This group is just like a family," said Lash. "We have the same dysfunctional issues that a normal family has that we work though. These guys know each other; it's like a brotherhood here. I love the heart that they havethey will not lay down and quit. They are a resilient bunch that has handled a ton of adversity this year. They've made great strides since the first day I stepped onto the field with them."I'd love to see PV win a championship because nobody gave them a chance."Panther Valley will square off with the Schuylkill County Predators Saturday at Ginter Field in Summit Hill at 1 p.m. The Breaker Boys will look for a different outcome in the first round of the playoffs, following last week's regular-season defeat to the same team."Last week we weren't really playing for anything during our loss," said Reese. "We were locked in the playoffs already. This week it's 'win or go home'."Lash expects his team to be ready."I think for anybody to beat a team twice is difficult," Lash said. "We did not play well last week against them. Our defense gets better week after week. I told our guys that offense wins ball games but defense wins championships."In our first game with them we made a few mistakes that cost us. Had we played error-free football we would have won. I predict that it will be a different outcome for us tomorrow."