ORWIGSBURG - The Schuylkill Football League held its annual preseason media day at the Schuylkill Country Club on Wednesday.

The former Anthracite Football League will now be divided into two divisions based on enrollment. Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Tamaqua, Pottsville, North Schuylkill and Blue Mountain will form Division I. Marian, Panther Valley, Schuylkill Haven, Mahanoy Area, Minersville and Shenandoah Valley make up Division II.Lehighton is fresh off of both a league championship and District 11 postseason run. The Tribe will open the 2016 season in a brand new stadium. The Indians lost some veteran firepower, but head coach Tom McCarroll is hopeful that the new faces will grow quickly into their positions."The kids who were role players last year will hopefully be our go-to guys," noted the Lehighton coach. "Now, we have to find who the next role players will be. It's a nice challenge, we lost a lot of nice players, but I think they left a legacy and a great example for these next few teams to model and move forward with."Marian won eight games and competed in a state playoff game against Bishop McDevitt last season. The Colts will be bringing back a wealth of upperclassmen."We have 18 seniors that are battle tested," said Marian head coach Stan Dakosty. "They've been in a championship environment and they know what it takes. The work ethic in the offseason has shown the underclassmen what it takes to dominate at this level. It's a senior-dominated team that has strong depth."Jim Thorpe started hot last season and won its first eight games. The Olympians will look to repeat their early-season success behind a mix of young players and veterans."We had a pretty good offseason," Jim Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger said. "We have some key components who are young, who are excited to fill those spots that we lost last year. We're pretty excited where we're at. The team that we have is a very close group. The camaraderie is always important going into the season with a mix of veterans and young kids."We want to get better each and every day. If we can take care of the fundamentals now and get better, we have a chance to be very successful."Tamaqua ended its 2015 regular season on a high note with a victory over backyard rival Marian, which brought its record to an even 5-5. The Raiders and head coach Sam Bonner will look to carry that momentum into 2016."The kids are starting to chomp at the bit and are looking forward to whacking other teams," the Tamaqua coach said. "We want to improve every week, we have a young offensive line that we want to see gel fast. We're expecting a lot out of them to start the year."Panther Valley will begin its season at home with Columbia Montour Vo-Tech before hitting the road for three straight weeks. PV head coach Matt Davis explained that his squad showed promise last year despite its 2-8 record. But it needs to close the door on opponents in the fourth quarter this season."We were in a lot of games last year and we were competitive," he said. "At the same time, we need to be able to finish. We've been stressing that all offseason. We're super excited to get started, it's a new year and it's time to turn things back around to get PV to where it belongs."The Times News football season will begin on Friday, Aug. 26 with all nine local schools in action.