ORWIGSBURG - The Schuylkill County Football Coaches Association held its media day at the Schuylkill Country club in Orwigsburg on Wednesday.

"It's a great way for the coaches to get together and form a little camaraderie between the coaches and players," said SCFCA public relations director Kevin Keating. "It really gets the fans ready to go for football season."Today's event has continued to grow over the past several years. We're real excited for the 2017 football season to kick off."The Times News coverage area had all five of its representatives from the Schuylkill Football League present.Two of those programs - Marian and Panther Valley - have new head coaches. Both joined media day for the first time as the men in charge of their respective teams.Stan Dakosty's legacy at Marian came to a close last season, and now Pat Morgans will step in to take over a Colts program that went 6-6 last season. A late surge helped propel them to the District 11 Class A title game against Williams Valley."I'm excited, and I'm very pleased with the way things are progressing," Morgans said. "(The players) worked hard in the weight room. They got stronger and faster. We did well at passing scrims over the summer."The staff is coming together, and I'm excited to get going and get on the field."Scott Price was introduced as the new Panther Valley head coach a few months ago. The Schuylkill Haven grad will aim to turn around a Panther team that finished 2-8 last year, beating only Columbia Montour Vo-Tech and Shenandoah Valley."We're definitely excited to get the ball rolling," Price said. "We had a great offseason. It's been a long spring and summer."We're excited to get moving here in the season and show everyone what we're about. There's a lot of anticipation out our way and a lot of buzz in the Valley. We're ready to back that hype up."Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, and Tamaqua all reached the District 11 playoffs last season.Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger, now the longest-tenured coach in the coverage area, was present with his three senior captains; Justin St. Hill, Lucas Boyle, and Nick Rosahac. The Olympians were 6-5 last year."Our coaches association does a great job of putting this together," said the Jim Thorpe coach. "There's definitely excitement in Jim Thorpe about football. We always discuss the character that's needed of our leadership."Our three captains bring some different things to the table. They're all leaders by example. Leadership comes in many forms, and all three guys provide that for us."After an 11-1 campaign in 2015, Lehighton battled the injury bug last season and finished 4-7. The Tribe look to bounce back, but will be tested early with back-to-back road games across the first two weeks against Fleetwood and Schuylkill Haven."We're real excited about this season," said Lehighton head coach Tom McCarroll. "We took a little bit of a step back last season record-wise. But we have a great core coming back, (including) our entire offensive line and some real nice skill players."We think that if we come together, we can really put ourselves in position to contend for a Division 1 championship and a District 11 title."A lot of that (depends) upon us staying healthy and keeping our kids cohesive, and I think we have the right kids to do that."Tamaqua had some young athletes contribute in major roles during a 5-6 season a year ago. The Raiders were competitive in almost every game last year, and they'll hope to be on the right side of those close games this season."We have some experienced seniors with Thad Zuber and Casey Rother - two great kids who we're looking (to get) a lot from," said head coach Sam Bonner. "We're going to see a lot of improvement throughout the program this year."We have a little bit more experience going into this year than last year. I think we started about five or six freshmen that got time under their belts. We're looking forward to seeing what they bring to the table now with that experience."For full previews on all the teams in the TN area, be sure to check out the 2017 Times News Football Preview Tab in the Aug. 24 edition.