Penn Charter head coach Tom Coyle. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt)

by Jonathan Vander Lugt

Coming off of a dismal year (0-5) in the Inter-Ac in 2014, the Penn Charter football Quakers had to be pleased with how 2015 went.

PC finished 3-2 in the league, punctuated by a blowout win over longtime rival Germantown Academy in the season’s finale. Had a couple bounces gone differently in their league opener against the Haverford School (a 41-40 overtime loss), the Quakers could have found themselves in a three-way tie for a conference championship.

A far cry from the league cellar, but there’s still work to be done.

“When you look at last season, we played those first five games and we were still trying to figure out our identity,” said PC head coach Tom Coyle. “Then you look at the second half, starting with the game against Lawrenceville School, through our league play we found ourselves.”

PC lost to Lawrenceville School, but not without coming back from a multi-touchdown deficit to turn a laugher into a close game. The offense turned a corner too—only once had they scored more than 19 points prior to it, and starting with their 36-point effort against Big Red, the Quakers notched at least 28 in all but one of their following games.

“Finishing 3-2, I thought the back half of our season, our kids really grew into themselves” Coyle said. “They did an outstanding job playing on both sides of the football.”

Fast-forward to this year, where Penn Charter is through about three and a half weeks of action. They play their first game this Saturday against Lansdale Catholic, and battled with Northeast High School in a scrimmage last Friday.

The teams didn’t keep a detailed score—if they did, Coyle wasn’t willing to share it—but he was pleased with how the team played.

“I thought the scrimmage went well,” he said. “Northeast tends to be a pretty good team in the Public League. They’re very physical—they’re a team that runs the football.

“After a summer of playing just 7-or-8-man football, running around and tagging each other, we had a chance to play real, physical football. I thought we played fast. We didn’t seem unsure of ourselves at all.”

A big reason that’s the case is that the leader of the offense, Mike Hnatkowski is back for his senior year, along with speedy receiver Chris Tucker. They’ve lost tight end Evan Turner, along with powerful running back Jake McCain to graduation.

Their other running back from 2015, Marqui Johnson—the lighting to McCain’s thunder—is gone as well. The sophomore moved to Arizona with his family, leaving a hole in the Penn Charter backfield.

Filling it will be Prep Charter (located in Point Breeze) sophomore transfer Edward Saydee.

“The team’s good,” Saydee said. “At first, I didn’t know what to expect because I’m a new player.”

“There are more coaches,” he said, of the difference between playing for William Penn, and not Prep Charter. Makes sense—private schools have more resources than public ones do, and Saydee figures to benefit from the help.

“If you make a mistake, they’ll get right after you and tell you to change it up,” Saydee said. “You can’t make a mistake and expect to get away with it. You’ve got to do all you can every time.”

Saydee will join a Quaker team that will be forced to improve in pace with the rest of the conference. Springside Chestnut Hill, despite fielding a small team, will return just about every starter from 2015. Germantown Academy, the team they’ve been playing for nearly 130 years, figures to be improved as well with much of its talent returning.

There’s nothing to suggest that the Inter-Ac’s teams down the main line will be any worse, so moving beyond the 3-2 mark they finished with last year will be a test.

“There’s really good intensity,” said Terence Thompson, a junior wide receiver and strong safety. “People are excited to play. We’ve got good numbers.

“Everyone wants to be out here. Last year, it was a lot slower. Now, you can tell we’ve got a lot more football players and it’s really good to see.”