Mustangs will be back

While pouring over the weekly high school football stats and compiling the preview capsules, something jumped out at us Monday night.

West Perry, which has been in a four-year funk since its last trip to the playoffs in 2006, could be building toward a big season in the next year or two.

Since going 9-2 and hosting a District 3-AAA playoff game in 2006, coach Al Ream's teams have won only nine of their last 37 games and are assured of a fourth-straight losing season this fall.

Despite the lean years in Elliottsburg, the future could be looking up. Consider that West Perry's three leading rushers - Steve Reynolds, Aaron Rahn and Jake Weber - are all juniors plus the team's leading receiver, Chase May, is a freshman and the second-leading pass catcher, Dalton Smeigh, is a junior points toward sunny skies ahead.

And we can't forget that reliable quarterback Zach Smith, who hasn't thrown an interception since Sept. 24 and has passed for over 100 yards in his last two games, is only a sophomore.

With three games left on the schedule - James Buchanan, Northern and Susquenita - the Mustangs have time to build confidence in anticipation of what could be a special 2011 season.

The last couple of years have no doubt been tough on Ream, who was thrown for a loop in late July when the school board voted to not pay coaches before relenting one day into fall sports practice, but the times could be changing for a program that has become an afterthought on the District 3-AAA level.