Penguins look to carry momentum into busy weekend

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Temple’s Matakevich tops Penn State’s Nassib for Bednarik Award

<p>Hazleton Area football coach Mike Brennan said Thursday he didn&#8217;t apply for the coaching opening at Berwick, refuting a story published Wednesday in the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise.</p><p>&#8220;Absolutely not,&#8221; Brennan said. &#8220;And (Berwick athletic director) Frank Sheptock has the applications. Anyone with the applications will tell you that I never applied for the job. There should be a retraction in the paper (today) from the information I&#8217;m told. I never even thought about applying for the job.&#8221;</p><p>Berwick is expected to hire a new coach by the end of the month to replace George Curry, who stepped down after completing the fourth year of his second stint at the school. Interviews are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.</p><p>Brennan said he heard of the story when he arrived to teach at Hazleton Area from the school&#8217;s police officer.</p><p>&#8220;I spoke to the people in Hazleton I needed to speak to,&#8221; Brennan said. &#8220;They understand my loyalty is with the Hazleton Area program, the kids and the coaches.&#8221;</p><p>Brennan just completed his second year at Hazleton Area. A two-time state champion at Mount Carmel, Brennan took over a program which was among the best in the Wyoming Valley Conference until backsliding since the resignation of Rocco Petrone in 2009. Hazleton Area was 1-9 in 2014 and 4-6 this season.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in the situation before where I&#8217;ve been contacted for jobs throughout my career and it&#8217;s tough when you&#8217;re at a different place,&#8221; said Brennan, who coached at Blue Mountain between his stops at Mount Carmel and Hazleton Area. &#8220;I&#8217;m at the age now I don&#8217;t want to deal with that anymore. This is my last stop. We&#8217;re going to make it as good as we can. If for whatever reason it doesn&#8217;t work out, I ride off into the sunset.&#8221;</p><p>Sources have said Sheptock, Mike Bennett and Carl Majer are among the applicants for the Berwick position. Sheptock is considered the frontrunner.</p><p>Sheptock was the head coach at Wilkes University for 18 years before resigning after the 2013 season to accept the athletic director&#8217;s job at Berwick. He was hired to be Mount Carmel&#8217;s football coach and athletic director in December 2014, but resigned a month later after three days on the job and returned to Berwick.</p><p>Bennett is a Berwick graduate who went on to play at Syracuse University in the late 1990s. He is a teacher in the Berwick School District and has been an assistant coach.</p><p>Majer, also a former Berwick player, is the only of the three leading candidates with high school football head coaching experience. Majer led the Northwest program from 2008-2014, compiling a 50-29 record and winning the District 2 Class A championship in 2009. He was an Berwick assistant this season.</p><p>The Berwick athletic committee has a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning. The school board&#8217;s next meeting is Jan. 11 so if a new coach is hired prior to Christmas it will be at a special meeting.</p><p><strong>COLE AN HONORABLE MENTION</strong></p><p>Coughlin junior Jake Cole was selected as an honorable mention player on the WVC Coaches Association Big School All-Star team. Cole&#8217;s name didn&#8217;t appear in the list in Wednesday&#8217;s paper.</p><p><strong>SCHEDULE ON HOLD</strong></p><p>The WVC football schedule for the 2016 and 2017 seasons won&#8217;t be hammered out before the end of the year. The athletic directors can&#8217;t begin the process until they find out which teams will be changing classifications. The PIAA released enrollment numbers on Nov. 23. Schools have until Tuesday to decide whether to move up in classification.</p><p>Berwick is bracketed to be Class 3A in 2016 and 2017, but is expected to declare itself Class 4A in football to remain with its traditional rivals. Berwick was the only current WVC 3A school to remain at 3A after the PIAA expanded football to six classifications. All the others moved up to 4A.</p><p>The Northwest school board voted to end its cooperative agreement with neighboring Benton, dropping the school from Class 2A to Class A for the next two years.</p><p>District 2 could also be scrapping the PIAA points system to determine playoff teams. Instead, the district could be switching to the more complicated power points rankings used by District 11, where losses to quality opponents factor into the playoff picture.</p><p><strong>OLD FORGE ON TV</strong></p><p>WQMY will televise Friday night&#8217;s PIAA Class A semifinal game between Old Forge and Bishop Guilfoyle. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Shamokin High School.</p><p>All PIAA state championship games will be televised live by PCN.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Brennan </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_TTL090315HSF-HazArea-preview_spt_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Brennan </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By John Erzar</p><p>jerzar@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach John Erzar at 570-991-6394 or on Twitter @TLJohnErzar</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Hazleton Area’s Brennan says he didn’t apply for Berwick position