HERSHEY — Tommy Grabowski stood at midfield Saturday with tears rolling down his cheeks and a thousand thoughts rolling through his mind.
A Wyomissing senior fullback and linebacker, Grabowski tried to wrap his head around a second straight loss to Central Valley in the PIAA Class 3A title game and the idea of never playing football with his friends again.
It was almost too much for him to bear.
“Leaving this brotherhood hurts the most,” Grabowski said. “We look at each other like brothers. You’re not going to get that anywhere else.”
Disappointment also filled him and other Spartans because they lost 7-0 to the Warriors on a fourth-quarter touchdown run by Lamont Alexander.
Central Valley was the more talented team, outgaining Wyomissing 313-115. But every time it seemed like the Warriors were going to score or take command, the Spartans made a play as they usually do.
J.J. Jackson blocked a first-quarter field goal try. Grabowski made a spectacular one-handed interception at the 1-yard line. Drew Eisenhower returned a kickoff 63 yards.
They made one mistake, on Alexander’s 28-yard touchdown run, with no margin for error.
“We thought we had a better chance to beat them this year,” Grabowski said. “The defense played incredibly. We fixed things from last year and they worked. They had one good play.”
That’s all it took on a dreary afternoon at Hersheypark Stadium when Wyomissing’s high-powered Wing-T offense couldn’t generate a thing.
“It’s just tough that we couldn’t even make a showing on offense,” longtime Spartans coach Bob Wolfrum said. “We could do nothing.”
Sean FitzSimmons, a 6-3, 280-pound beast who’s headed to Pitt, made life miserable for Wyomissing for the second straight year. He and Jackson Tonya often made their way into the backfield and disrupted much of what the Spartans tried to do.
On a fourth-and-goal from the 3 in the fourth quarter, FitzSimmons knocked the ball from quarterback Ben Zechman’s hands as he tried to pass and ended the Spartans’ only threat.
“It hurts coming back here again and not finishing the job,” running back/defensive back Amory Thompson said, “not finishing what we all tried to do for the whole season.”
After the Spartans’ 35-21 loss to Central Valley last year, many doubted they would return to the state final again after losing 23 seniors. They knew better.
Wyomissing stamped itself as a state title contender with a 41-21 road victory that snapped Southern Columbia’s state-record 65-game winning streak, then the longest in the nation.
The Spartans cruised through the regular season and the District 3 playoffs and carried a 15-0 record into the PIAA final despite often being undersized. Jack Miller, their leading tackler and one of their best offensive linemen, is 5-9, 175 pounds.
“I’ll remember the fight in this group, no doubt,” Miller said. “Teams were bigger than us. Teams were stronger than us. Teams were faster than us, but we didn’t let that get to our heads.
“We came out every week knowing we could win if we just played with our heads and we were confident. We couldn’t come up with the win today.”
The 12 Wyomissing seniors left their mark on the program, just like those who came before them. They went a remarkable 36-3 with three District 3 championships in their final three seasons, each loss cutting deeper than the previous one.
“I’ll remember the effort we put in,” wide receiver/defensive back Nevin Carter said, “the effort the coaches put in, the amount everybody cares about this program. To come here in back-to-back years shows how much we love this team, the program and the community.”
The loss was especially painful to Miller, who will not play football in college. He embodies the spirit of Wyomissing’s football program, emerging as a starter his senior year.
“I’m going to miss being able to play with my guys ever again,” Miller said. “I won’t be able to be around these coaches and around my best friends. We’ve been going to football together every day since June, every single day of the week.
“It’s going to be an adjustment. It’s going to hurt.”
Thompson had a message for his younger teammates.
“Get right back in the weight room tomorrow,” he said. “Get right back to grinding because you can do the same exact thing next year. Not a lot of people thought we could make it here. I bet a lot of people don’t think they can make it next year either.
“You just have to keep pushing and keep going.”
Junior linebacker Matt Kramer, who had a team-high nine tackles Saturday, heard Thompson and the other seniors loud and clear.
“It started two years ago with Max Hurleman and those guys passing the torch,” Kramer said. “Now they’re passing the torch to us. ‘Get it done next year.’
“I’m ready. This will fire me up for next year to work that much harder.”
It’s always been the Wyomissing way.
Source: Berkshire mont
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