Evans City, Zelienople grudgingly joined forces
This is the first in a series of articles commemorating the 50th season of Seneca Valley football.The newly formed Seneca Valley High School was still a few weeks from beginning the 1964-65 school year, but on a mid-August morning, football players from two rival high schools took the first steps toward becoming teammates.Evans City and Zelienople high schools had recently consolidated to form the new district. To some people, meshing the two student bodies was like mixing oil and water.The bad blood may have been tempered a bit since the teams had not met on the gridiron since 1958, but, separated by less than five miles, some of the schools' students undoubtedly still held a grudge.“The two schools used to play each other twice every football season,” said Tom Heckendorn, who had served as Evans City's head coach for three years prior to the merger and took on that same position at Seneca Valley. “People used to say that the first meeting was a game and the second time they played was revenge for the team that lost.“Believe me, it was a heated rivalry.”Fortunately for Heckendorn and his four assistants, the players kept their minds on preparing for the 1964 season. The Raiders' strategy was a marriage of the playbooks from Evans City and Zelienople.“We took Evans City's offense, which was the Wing-T,” said Heckendorn, “and we used the 5-2 and 6-2 defense from Zelie. We had some variations on both sides, but we tried to keep things simple.”The first game in the history of Seneca Valley football was played at Evans City's field Sept. 11 against Freedom.The Raiders received the opening kickoff and, behind the passing of Butch Frederick and gains on the ground from Denny Stach, drove 64 yards to a touchdown. The final eight yards came courtesy of fullback Gregg Magness.After the initial drive, however, SV's offense sputtered and the Raiders dropped a 13-7 decision.“Our practices leading up to that first game went well,” said Heckendorn. “We were ready to play.”The third game on the schedule was a Saturday afternoon road contest against North Allegheny Sept. 26 and it was against the Tigers that Seneca met with victory for the first time.Magness returned a second-quarter punt 95 yards for a touchdown and the Raider defense, led by senior tackle Chuck Stevens, limited NA to just 128 yards of offense in a 6-0 win.The historic victory made the short drive up Route 19 an enjoyable one.“The kids were really happy with that,” said Heckendorn.Unfortunately, the highlight of the final five games of 1964 was a 6-6 tie with Knoch Oct. 23 and the Raiders finished their first campaign with a record of 1-6-1.“The kids played hard and were aggressive,” Heckendorn said, “but we didn't have much speed and hardly any size up front. Plus, we were playing a lot of schools with bigger enrollments.”Though the 1965 season yielded the same record as the year before, the Raiders were much more competitive. Two of their losses came by one point and another defeat came by six points.“We were definitely improved that second year,” Heckendorn said. “The kids knew the teams on our schedule and realized how much they had to work.”By the start of the 1966 season, Seneca Valley's offense would undergo a major change. Gone was the ground-oriented Wing-T and in its place was an offense few teams were familiar with — the spread.“I was at a coaches conference in Atlantic City and a college coach was there talking about how they used their quarterback,” said Heckendorn. “On almost every play, they would sprint him out to either side and he had the option of running or passing. Well, I picked that up and ran with it.”One of the beneficiaries of the unorthodox scheme was senior quarterback Denny Britt, who went on to lead Seneca Valley to its first winning season that fall with a 4-3-1 record.The new formation also sparked the running game as the Raiders amassed 267 yards on the ground in a 33-13 season-opening win over visiting Freedom. Halfback Bill Seibel paced the victory with 166 yards from scrimmage.Waiting in the wings that campaign was junior quarterback Van Walker, who got his shot to show his skills the following season.His 1,890 passing yards and 18 scoring tosses in 1967 stood as single-season school records until the Brown brothers, C.J. and Jordan, came along within the last six years.Both Britt and Walker received scholarships to play football at North Carolina State University, Britt as a quarterback and Walker as a cornerback and safety.“Denny was a little faster than I was, but we had similar skill sets,” said Walker. “Playing in that spread offense at Seneca was a delight for an athlete. We had fast wide receivers at the time and it was a lot of fun. I was a pitcher in baseball, so I lived to throw.Not to be outdone, Scott Brown took over as the starting signal caller in 1968-69 and ended his high school career by passing for 2,130 yards, a school standard for nearly 20 years. He had several reliable targets to throw to, as Bob Britt grabbed 39 passes in 1968 while Mike Adamczyk and Jim Burkett both caught 24 aerials in 1969.By 1970, Heckendorn had given way to SV's second head coach, Ed Cary. But the 1960s had seen the Raiders mature into a respectable program. For several players, their time donning columbia blue and black had lasting effects.“If we were still running the Wing-T by my senior year, I don't think I would have received a scholarship,” said Walker. “Playing in the spread did it for me.”
