Bryan Strohl calls it a “next-man-up mentality.”
Strohl, Cocalico’s head coach since 2020, has won two-thirds of his games and a pair of section championships, and now he wants his new crop of seniors to carry the ball, literally, in 2025.
“We’ve had a pretty good run the last few years,” he notes. “We’ve lost some good, quality kids, but we have some good, quality kids to replace them.”
The new leaders include running back/linebacker Dane Horning (top photo) and interior linemen Nick McArdle (bottom right) and Nathan Laudenslager (bottom center). All accompanied their coach as LNP | Lancaster Online hosted Football Media Day at its downtown Lancaster office to connect local media with Lancaster-Lebanon League football players and coaches.
One goal for Cocalico in 2025, Strohl continues, is “seeing these guys take that next step with the leadership. They’ve had some good examples come before them, but now it’s a case of what they want their senior season to be, what do they want their team to do, stepping up into that leadership role that they didn’t have to do before.”
Strohl, who was named Cocalico’s coach in January 2020, is entering his sixth season as the Eagles’ head man.
He took over after 15 seasons as an assistant on the Cocalico coaching staff.
Key games this year for the Eagles, who were 8-4 last year, include a non-league battle with traditional foe Lampeter-Strasburg and a game with neighboring Ephrata.
Says Horning, a senior and last year an all-Section 3 player, “You put in a lot of work since your freshman year, you don’t really want it (leaving football) to happen, but it’s going to be a fun thing to put it all on the field one last time.
“Just keep working hard, go in that culture, and good things will happen.”
