Lancaster-Lebanon League football coaches selected the following players as all-stars for the 2025 season. (Pictured is Section 2 Back of the Year Sawyer Esbenshade of Conestoga Valley.)
Outstanding Back of the Year: Orion Abrams, Hempfield
Outstanding Lineman of the Year: Michael Glover, Wilson
Offensive Back of the Year: Isaiah Zimmerman, Cedar Crest
Offensive Lineman of the Year: Michael Glover, Wilson
Mitchell Swarr (left) and Charlie Creighton, both seniors, lead a “good mix of older and younger” Lampeter-Strasburg wrestlers into the ’25-’26 season. Both agree the strength of the team will be in the mid- to heavyweight classes.
For both Mitchell and Charlie, the Elizabethtown team is the Section 2 favorite, though Conestoga Valley or Donegal may
make a surprise showing, but “Do not county out L-S!” they say. Mitchell and Charlie agree L-S is evenly matched against E-town, and the two squads are very familiar with each other.
Tyra Bookman wrestles as a junior at McCaskey. She has accumulated 17 wins through her sophomore year. Tyra wrestles
any of these weight classes 136, 142 and 148 pounds. She hopes to start off strong in McCaskey’s first match, a tournament at Boiling Springs.
Last wrestling season Tyra ranked at 18th in the state meet. She plans to improve that ranking this year.
The McCaskey wrestling team recently graduated all the seniors who started the wrestling program at McCaskey in 2023. This year’s team is mostly juniors, sophomores and freshmen with four seniors.
Warwick’s girls swim team relies on Hayden Eby to compete in a full schedule of events — 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard medley, and a relay team. Hayden sees her role this season to help in developing teamwork for a young team of just 2 seniors.
Individually, Hayden wants to make this year her best. She previously qualified for the District 3 meets as a sophomore and junior. This year she wants to make the District podium.
Ben Patterson, a senior, has high expectations for this year’s Penn Manor wrestling team. Ben says we are “really solid” in the middle weights and at heavyweight. And individually he sees a competitive battle in his 160-172 weight class.
Last year Ben wrestled to 25 wins. His personal goals for this year are to lead his team by good example. He hopes to “stand on the podium” for Leagues and qualify for Districts.
Manheim Township and Hempfield are year in and year out tough team battles, but this year Ben sees Conestoga Valley as an
exceptionally tough team.
As a junior on Lampeter-Strasburg’s girls wrestling team, Avery Planck exudes excitement for the season to begin with a tournament at Dallastown High School. She says she and her teammates individually should be very successful, but with only 7 wrestlers on the team, it might be difficult to win a team match.
This year is Avery’s fourth year of wrestling -- three at LS high school and one in middle school. Her weight class is 136, though she may go to a lower weight class. She has 27 wins in her ongoing career.
Mia Parry, a senior, competes for Garden Spot despite Garden Spot not having a girls swim team.
Mia returns as a 200-yard individual medley gold medal winner in the 2025 Lancaster-Lebanon Swim Meet. She also earned a silver medal in the 100-yard freestyle competition. Her goal this year to win a state medal. For this she hopes to lower her time in the freestyle races. Mia practices with the Reading YMCA Swim Team.
Garrett Aukamp, sophomore wrestler at Solanco, says his team’s quote is “How you do anything is how you do everything!”
This quote encourages his teammates to “push each other” to be better and to develop a good team chemistry.
Garrett sees his Solanco team as “young in age, but not in experience.” Several wrestlers return from last year's team as letter winners.
Henry Paterson competes as a senior in his first year of swimming for McCaskey. Sprints are his specialty — 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke. His goal is to break 50 seconds in the 100-yard fly and qualify for states.
In Henry’s prior years, he was home schooled while swimming for York YMCA (with 5:30 a.m. practices) and the Lancaster Aquatic Club. He concurrently swims for Lancaster Aquatic Club during the McCaskey swim team season.
Olivia Hirst contributes her “backstroke specialist” abilities to a powerhouse Elizabethtown girls swim team. She competes in the 100-yard backstroke and the backstroke portion of the medley relay. Additionally, she swims the 100-yard freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Olivia has qualified for the District 3 meet for three years as a backstroke member of the 200-yard medley relay.