Pocono high school football teams aim to rewrite history vs. Lehigh Valley

EAST STROUDSBURG – Week 6 of the high school football season brings a set of challenges that run deeper than the games themselves for the Poconos’ six football programs.

>All six schools play an opponent from the Lehigh Valley, and if you ask anyone who’s followed football in the area, many will show a look of dread, followed by a lot of the repeated jargon: the schools in the Valley are bigger, they have more kids, more resources, more talent.

>It’s a mentality, whether consciously or subconsciously, of accepting defeat before either team steps onto the field.

>It was something Pocono Mountain East head coach Dustin Thomas experienced the day he was hired for the job.

>“When I got the job, a reporter called me and told me, ‘Football in the Poconos is just something to do, but down here in the Valley, it’s life.’ I’ve always taken that to heart, and it’s sat with me for a very long time,” Thomas said. “And I’m hoping this week, we get the opportunity to make it right.”

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class="exclude-from-newsgate">East is hosting Easton Thursday night, and Thomas said a big crowd is expected with the Red Rover fans making the trip to Swiftwater. It’s no secret that Easton (2-3, 1-1 EPC) will be favored against the Cardinals (4-1, 1-1 EPC), as will every Lehigh Valley team against the Pocono schools. But the numbers tell the story as to why that is.

>Over the last five years coming into this season, the combined record of the six Pocono football programs vs. Lehigh Valley teams is 36-102, according to MaxPreps. If you remove any games against William Allen or Dieruff, the record drops to 4-90.

>For the Pocono programs, beating a Valley opponent isn’t just pulling an upset, it’s also defying historical odds.

>But the record also shows that it isn’t impossible. One of those wins was Stroudsburg defeating Liberty in 2021. The other three? East Stroudsburg South defeating Whitehall in 2021, then twice in 2024, with one of those coming in the district championship game.

>South head coach Matt Walters, who’s also played Valley schools as a South football alum, was there for all three victories. He’ll now try to make it four Friday night against Bethlehem Catholic.

>“Teaching in Northampton and being in the Lehigh Valley every day, and coaching up here for 15 years, I get asked that question a lot: ‘What’s the difference? How can you bridge the gap?’ It’s a very deep answer, but I enjoy every time there’s a Lehigh Valley school on our schedule,” Walters said. “To have an opportunity to win a football game against those schools, it’s going to take a lot. Not just game planning – it’s going to take emotional maturity. It’s going to test their physicality and mental toughness.”

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>Walters said one of the mistakes he made early in his head coaching career was relying on “inspiration” too heavily: telling stories of upsets and painting the image of David defeating Goliath. What he learned was that brief feeling of invincibility only lasts for so long, and the lifespan is even shorter when Goliath delivers a few early blows the underdog wasn’t ready for.

>Instead, he aims to help his players mentally embrace the uncomfortable situation that is going against a heavily favored opponent, so if or when that opponent delivers the first punch, they’re mentally strong enough to not be rattled.

>Tangibly, Walters tries to make football a numbers game, finding the avenues in which his team can close the distance.

>“Let's say you plug in all the information and analytics throws out the number that this team has an 85% chance to beat you and you have a 15% chance to win. How do we steal 70 percentage points of analytic data during a 48-minute football game?” Walters asked. “We found that it comes down to turnovers, big play ability, plays over 15 yards, tackles for loss, and extra possessions like an onside kick, maybe a fake punt here, maybe we steal a possession somewhere.”

>For Walters, each minor action that goes in South’s favor increases the odds of victory, in hopes of making the odds as even as possible when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter.

>Thomas will have a plan for Easton as well – he’d make a new playbook if he felt it would help his team win – but like Walters, the right mentality is just as important, if not more, than any tangible plan.

>“You can look at it from that perspective and say, ‘we're already at a disadvantage from the get-go,’ or you can buck up, shut up, and just be a competitor and play football, which is what I want our kids to do,” Thomas said. “Everybody's beatable on any given day. I'm not going to disagree and say the teams down there traditionally aren't better. However, I do think that if we do play solid football, we play all three phases the way we played against Stroudsburg, I think we give ourselves a puncher's chance.”

>The Cardinals have the wind at their backs after defeating the Mounties for the first time in 15 years. This will be the biggest test of the year for the district runners-up, but Thomas isn’t subscribing to the idea of only being competitive and hoping to get out healthy.

>“I wouldn’t put the headset on if that’s what I thought about. I’m never going to think, whether it's a Lehigh Valley school or Pocono school, that we’re going just to keep it close and don’t make it embarrassing,” Thomas said. “That’s not the way I coach. That’s not the way I want the kids to think.”

>Besides Thomas and North head coach Todd Moody, every other Pocono coach has coached up here for a decade or more – all of them are familiar with the odds this week. But it’s also a week where they support each other, whether loudly or quietly.

>Thomas said he and his staff watched Pleasant Valley nearly upset Whitehall in Week 5, hoping the Bears could get it done. There will likely be a lot of that this week, and Walters is hoping for the best for all his Pocono coaching brethren.

>“It doesn't need to be a secret to any: I want Monroe County to win football games this week,” Walters said. “I hear it all the time down teaching down in the Lehigh Valley, ‘Well, here it is again, another blowout week, another mercy rule win.’ I'm just as tired as anybody else hearing that conversation. Am I rooting for Pleasant Valley to beat Northampton? Do I hope East can pull the upset and beat Easton? Do I hope Stroudsburg can make some noise and stun Nazareth? One hundred percent.

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>“Yes, we're rivals and we're competing, but I think we're all on the same mindset that we're trying to make this county as good as we possibly can, and if I take a look at the scores, and I see that a couple of these schools knocked off a Lehigh Valley school, that's going to put a big smile on my face.”

>To combat history, one must first believe. And it might be time for Pocono high school football to believe in itself a little bit more.

>Mason Smith covers high school sports and more for the Pocono Record. Reach him at mtsmith@usatodayco.com.

>This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Pocono high school football teams aim to rewrite history vs. Lehigh Valley