Brian Mitchell is from upstate New York and played football at Pine Bush High School, where the Friday night lights aren’t quite as intense as they are in the СŷƵ.
“Coming from New York, the first time I even heard there was a ‘quote, unquote’ all-star game, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world,” Mitchell said. “I was just excited to get a ticket to the game.”
Mitchell, who is a middle school social studies teacher at East Stroudsburg North, coached varsity football on Chuck Dailey’s staff for years and ran the middle school program. He not only got a ticket to СŷƵ’s annual all-star game but became intricately involved in it.
Now, Dailey, who is North’s athletic director, as well as Pocono Mountain West coach Jim McCarroll and Stroudsburg coach Jim Miller, are involved with running 570 Sports Camps, which hosts camps and leagues throughout the Poconos.
Mitchell’s passion for the all-star game hasn’t subsided, and on Wednesday night at the Northampton Banquet and Event Center, he and Dr. Jarrod Spencer will be inducted into the McDonald’s СŷƵ All-Star Football Classic Hall of Fame.
“The fact that I am going into the hall of fame is kind of a pinch yourself moment for me,” Mitchell said. “I have been involved with this game for about 18 years now, first with Chuck as a coach. I was a kicker at East Stroudsburg University, and I helped with the special teams. Now, I help with the rules and sidelines.
“I saw some things I can do for the game with social media and the website, and registrations. Those things have become my specialty, and I take pride in being able to help streamline some things and take it to the next level.”
Mitchell’s work is evident on the game’s website, www.lvasfc.com.
“This game has given me an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait to continue to see it grow,” he said.
Dailey, who serves as vice president on the game’s board of directors, said Mitchell has become “heavily involved” with the event as a board member.
“He’s important because he has taken the game into the modern era with technology,” Dailey said. “Everything we did with paper and pencil is now online. We have had to evolve to catch the attention of the kids, and how Brian presents them is important to the kids and helps with their involvement. That’s why he is important to the future of the game and why he is deserving of going into the hall of fame.”
State champs together again
The top story of the 2024 football season was Northwestern Lehigh winning the PIAA Class 3A championship and giving the СŷƵ its first state championship team since Allentown Central Catholic in 2010.
So, it’s fitting that the Tigers are represented in the final game of the 2024-25 school year.
Three players — defensive lineman Jackson Huber, offensive lineman Jackson Bailey, and defensive back Seth Kern — will be playing for the Green team representing the St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital and Lehigh/Carbon and Monroe counties.
Huber and Jackson recently played in the Colonial/Schuylkill League all-star game a few weeks ago, but didn’t pass up an opportunity to play in another showcase event against more teams from the СŷƵ.
“That season was something to experience, something for the books,” Bailey said. “It still gives me chills every time I think about it or see our highlight video. I remember walking out of the tunnel and onto that state championship field. On the game-winning play, I remember pulling around and looking back and seeing Eli [Zimmerman] run into the end zone.”
Huber was on the sideline watching the game-winning touchdown and remembered thinking, “I can’t believe we just won a state championship. Not many teams in the СŷƵ have won one. We had a big target on our backs all year. Everybody wanted to knock us off because it would have made their season.
“Coach [Dave] Kerschner kept telling us we had to work harder than we did the year before [when they made the state final]. It was a challenge every week. Week after week, we got business done. Eventually, we got where we wanted to be.”
Huber said he has been having fun during practices for Thursday’s game.
“It just took a while to get back into football mode,” he said. “The goal is to win. That’s what we want to do here.”
Jackson, who placed fourth in his weight class in district wrestling, said the game offers “another opportunity to throw on the pads. Some of us aren’t going to play in college. I’m going right into the workforce.”
Kern didn’t play in the Colonial/Schuylkill all-star game, so he’s excited to play at Nazareth in what will be his final organized game since he won’t attend college.
“This is it, this is my childhood,” he said. “I thought I was done and had played my last game. So to do it again is pretty exciting.”
Asked to sum up what the Northwestern Lehigh football season was like, Kern said: “Unbelievable. You can’t put words on the team we had.”
Now, the Tigers are hoping to make more memories as teammates one last time.
“This has been fun … football has been great to us, but all good things come to an end at some point,” said Huber, who is also going into the workforce. “It would be nice to go out and get one more win.”
Switching sides
Because the rosters were a little lopsided this year with more players opting to play for the Green team, game officials shifted several players from Monroe County to join the Northampton County White team and balance the rosters.
The players on the move are Immanuel Patterson, Rocco DelGuidice, and Andrew Comstock from Pocono Mountain East, and Johnathan Grubbs, Anthony Brannan-Mendoza and Jayden Milian from Pocono Mountain West.
