BACK IN THE SADDLE: Dan Reed takes Over the Reins of Union/A-C Valley Football Program

RIMERSBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — After his 12 years that covered two stints as the head football coach at Keystone ended, Dan Reed figured he would never be in charge of a program again.

And that was just fine with him.

(Pictured above, Dan Reed)

“If I am totally honest with you,” Reed said, “I was happy just being the offensive coordinator.”

Reed served in that role at every one of his stops over 30 years of coaching football, including the last four at Union/A-C Valley under Brad Dittman.

But when Dittman had to step down because of a promotion at work, Reed decided to give head coaching another shot.

Reed was hired in early June to take over the Falcon Knights’ program.

Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.

“I definitely wanted to continue working,” Reed said. “The group of kids that we have and the group of coaches that we have were probably more of a factor for me wanting to do it instead of me necessarily wanting to be a head coach.”

Dittman led Union/A-C Valley to five consecutive playoff berths, which included a trip to the District 9 Class A championship game in 2021, during his five years at the helm.

Dittman was 30-22 over that span and was named the district’s Small School South Division Coach of the Year in 2021.

“I had a lot of respect for Brad and I really enjoyed working with him,” Reed said. “I think it was more just a situation of, with this coming along, I thought I had little more to offer than I have been the last couple of years, and I really wanted to try to keep everybody together and on the same page.”

Reed, who was 49-65 in his 12 years as the Keystone head coach up until 2017, has succeeded in that.

Defensive coordinator Chris McNany will return. So will assistant coach Ray Fox.

“He does a great job of running everything from the A-C Valley standpoint,” Reed said of Fox. “Chris being back as the defensive coordinator really helps. We lose Brad and Kline Terwilliger, so we have to replace those two. I think we may bring up some junior high coaches. We’ll definitely have a couple of new faces, but it’ll be a lot of the same. That’s really big in my opinion because the kids won’t have to relearn things. It’s the same offensive and defensive system. They’ll be some new things — you’ll do new things every year.”

That should help a team that was snakebitten at times last season.

After going 9-3 and losing to Redbank Valley by a late touchdown in the D9 title game in 2021, Union/A-C Valley slipped back to 5-6 last season. Injuries, something that the Falcon Knights were able to avoid in 2021, bit them hard in 2022.

“We lost some really good kids. There’s definitely some good kids coming back,” Reed said. “Brad really did a good job the last few years bringing everything together. We have to continue that.

“We’re obviously going to run the offense that I’ve run the last four years, so the kids won’t have to learn a new terminology or anything,” he added. “Chris McNany will be back as the defensive coordinator, so all of that will be pretty much the same that we’ve done the last five years.”

Union/A-C Valley has been able to succeed thanks to a seamless transition to the co-op seven years ago.

In many ways, the Falcon Knights are a blueprint for successful co-ops. It saved football at both schools and the players have meshed well.

Reed, who is a teacher in the Keystone school district, has seen it work first-hand and up close.

“Seeing how they’ve worked together, a lot of the credit goes out to the administration from both schools,” Reed said. “They’ve made this work so well. The ADs from each school (Scott Kindel at Union and Dave Sherman at A-C Valley) really do a great job of bringing things together. And the kids, I’ve been really amazed at how people work together. Once you get out there in the actual season, it’s not like you have some A-C Valley or Union kids. It’s just one team and that’s pretty impressive.”

Reed said the summer is already going well for his team, which will have to fill some big holes left by graduation.

Two-way star Landon Chalmers is a big loss on the offensive and defensive lines. Chalmers made 66 tackles last season and was one of the most disruptive players in the district.

Chalmers, who won the state championship in the shot put during the track and field season, will play football and throw at Edinboro University.

Also gone is Skyler Roxbury, who had 14 career interceptions and will play in college at Westminster; Bailey Crissman, a 6-foot-7 game-changer at defensive end who is heading to Grove City College; and Mikey Card and Ryan Cooper, who made huge contributions.

The roster, though, is certainly not barren and Reed has his sights on a resurgence this fall.

“Every year you have to have kids come up and take over to replace the ones who left,” Reed said. “We did lose some really good kids, but we do have some kids back. We have a lot of really young kids who got a lot of playing time last year.

“We’ve been together a lot this summer. We’ve already been to a number of seven-on-sevens and we’ve done a lot of open-field-type activities this year. Things are going very well this summer.”

Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.