The 2005 Lewistown Panthers Football Team!

 I recently completed reading my story for Hometown Sports Magazine about the 2005 Lewistown Panthers football team who finally ended a thirty years of losing seasons. In this blog, I wanted to talk about why I wanted to write about this team and how I feel the lessons that were learned about them throughout the year can still be used today. 

One of the biggest reasons as to why I wanted to write about this team was because of how much of team these guys were both on and off the field. These guys have played the game of football together for a number of years and it clearly showed.

Plus being a youngster, I really didn't know the history of Lewistown Panthers football. I only remember going to games because I remember my cousins playing on the team. But talking about the football team in general, to put it nicely, there wasn't a lot of success. In fact when I started this journey of writing this story, I discovered that Lewistown didn't have a winning season for thirty years at that point, it completely blew my mind. 

Another reason as to why I wanted to write this story was that I was a freshman at Lewistown Area High School at the time, trying to find my way in life. I knew of some of the players on the roster because of my older brother Cody. Guys like Mike Baker, David Laughlin and Devan Zimmerman just to name a few.

Going through the process of looking back on this team, it did bring back some memories for me. Heck! One of the things I remember was when Chris (Tressler) said about there being some local TV networks there for the game against Indian Valley, I was like, I remember seeing Mitchell Field being jam pack, but when Chris said that I was like, oh yeah I remember that too.

As for the Iron Kettle game itself, man was it loud. I honestly do not remember seeing the stadium be as packed as it was that night. At least not from my time in high school. The game itself was intense, with it being expected considering the Panthers were not only clinch a winning season, but also it was a rivalry game against the Indian Valley Warriors for the Old Iron Kettle.

When the final horn sounded and the Panthers were victorious, I remember the craziness that ensued, fans were rushing onto the field celebrating with the team. I know this because I was one of those people who ran onto the field. But again, being so young, I didn't realize at the time how big of an impact this team just made.

Which leads me to the biggest reason why I wanted to write about these guys. The importance of friendship and teamwork. I have been covering sports now for over 10 years and I have seen some incredible things, but at the same time, I have seen some bad things too. A lot of people, not everybody, but a lot of people have made sports about themselves and I have seen some nasty stuff that people have said or done to one another. It saddens me really, because I believe it sets a bad example for the new generation. This is just my humble opinion.

Plus, I was worried that this team was going to be forgotten and I truly believed that they deserve to be remembered. Trying to find information about the 2005 season was not easy, at times it was a nightmare. But I couldn't have done anything of this without the help of people like Roger Herto, Kenny Varner, Brian Carson, Nick and wife Brooke Knable, Mike Baker, Chad and Bill Snook, Chris Tressler and his wife Madeline who was also a freshman that year like myself. Conner Muir who too was a freshman along his father Allen who was the head coach of the team. Thank you all so much! 

I got to be perfectly honest with all of you about something, I was completely scared to death when I finished writing my story because I worry with how people would react to it. I didn't want to let anyone of you guys down. When my story launched on Hometown Sports Scene, the reaction to my story was unbelievable. I was utterly shocked with all the support and excitement of it. And for that I am forever grateful.

Since I couldn't get a hold of all of the players, I thought it would be appreciate to list all of the players who were on this team.

Here are the 2005 Lewistown Panthers:

Chris Tressler, David Laughlin, Roger Kennedy, Nick Knable, Jamal Montinez, Brodie Dalton, Devan Zimmerman, Chad Snook, Dexter Hardin, Mike Baker, Ed Dean, Lance Peachey, Joe Fiore, Joey Bittle, Anthony Noland, Ryan McMahon, Alex Haines, Seth Lewis.

Until Next Time!

Go Panthers!

God Bless and Be Safe Everybody! 🙏🙏🙏



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