Lehighton kicks off football season with an early start to heat acclimation

Tom McCarroll asked for the time.

“11:51.”

McCarroll turned back toward the fieldhouse at Lehighton’s Multi-Purpose Stadium, ready to gather his team.

The wait was almost over.

A sense that the Indian Pride Band was about to carry the squad out of the locker room and onto the field felt imminent.

But it was the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” that rung out across the stadium, ushering in Lehighton’s Midnight Madness and the official start of the high school football season in Pennsylvania.

“I know Williamsport, maybe a couple teams out in the Pittsburgh area where they did kind of a Midnight Madness to start their season off,” McCarroll said of the concept. “So certainly not an original idea. And if anybody follows basketball and wrestling at the college level, they kind of kick off their season with a Midnight Madness, too.”

McCarroll noted that his team has utilized unconventional methods throughout the offseason, a practice he was eager to apply to the beginning of the heat acclimatization period that begins today for teams across Pennsylvania.

“So it was just something to try to spark a little bit of interest – a little extra interest – something different for the kids,” he said. “We’ve been doing things all offseason that have been a little bit out of the ordinary for us, so we’re just trying to change things. Our message has been to the kids, we weren’t real pleased with the way things worked out last season, so the only way you change that is to do things differently.

“We’ve tried to orchestrate some of those things in the offseason, and what better way than to start off your actual practices a little bit differently than they’ve done it for the last however many years. We’re just trying to be creative as coaches, and keep the energy going and (keep the enthusiasm) up.”

Excitement was high as players ran through drills and put in work under the lights in the early morning hours Monday.

There was just a small group standing along the fence inside the stadium’s entrance and a few people occupying spots in the bleachers. But it was an audience McCarroll and the program are always appreciative of – and one that will be much larger once the season gets underway.

“From the time we’ve started here as a staff, the one thing that’s never been questioned is the support from the community. Even in down years – last year we were 4-7, not the way we wanted it to be – but our stands were packed almost every single home game. And that’s something we always rely on. We never question whether or not we’re going to have great support, great fans.

“It comes from the teachers in the school buildings, it comes from the administration and everywhere in between … there’s never ever a lack of support from this community, and that’s why I love being here. That’s why these kids I think have to understand – I think as kids sometimes they get caught up in, ‘I’m just playing football to play football’ – but it’s bigger than that. It’s bigger than them, and the community really rallies around these guys on a Friday night in the fall.”

After guiding Lehighton to an undefeated regular season, an Anthracite Football League title and a spot in the District 11 Class 3A title game in 2017, the 2018 campaign left McCarroll and his staff eager to turn over a new leaf and reinvigorate the program.

Midnight Madness was a perfect place to start.

“This came up pretty much in our wrapup meeting last year,” said McCarroll. “We always try to meet right before Christmas, talk about our season, what we liked, what we didn’t like; what we want to change, what we need to change. We were just trying to brainstorm, and we said, if we want to preach doing things different, than let’s do it as much as we can. We talked about a couple different ideas, and this was just something that kind of came up.”

With administrators, parents and players behind them, the path was cleared for an event that’s the first of its kind for an area team, one that was met with nearly universal approval.

It’s the type of positive response McCarroll has gotten from the Tribe as they have gone through a bit of a revamped offseason slate.

And it’s one that has McCarroll optimistic for the team’s season opener Aug. 23 at Fleetwood.

“If it gets some attention around the program, I’m OK with it, for these kids, for the time that they put in, the work that they put in, it’s all worth it,” he said. “I think, hopefully, it’s going to pay dividends when the season actually starts.”