These 6 high school players share a bond through championship Lenape youth football team

The 2019 Lenape Valley Unlimited Under-14 Pop Warner Football team was quite successful.

It won the Bux-Mont Youth League championship, then defeated the (North Philly) Aztecs 8-6 in the Eastern Region semifinals before falling to eventual national runner-up Brick City (from Newark, N.J.) 21-8 in the regional title game.

"After we beat the Aztecs, we were like, 'We're pretty good,'" said Matt Cleland, a Central Bucks West linebacker/punter who earned second-team All-Suburban One League National Conference honors last fall.

But perhaps more impressive than what head coach Chris Cleland's team did on the field four years ago is how well those young men are doing now at the high school level.

Team members are starring in football as seniors at five Courier Times/Intelligencer schools — Jack Donnelly and Joe Collins at Central Bucks East, CB West's Matt Cleland, Collin Goetter from Central Bucks South, La Salle's Stevie Davis, and Cole Meehan at Lansdale Catholic.

"I'm definitely not (surprised by that)," said Davis, a first-team All-Philadelphia Catholic League Red Division running back last year who'll play lacrosse at Penn. "We had a ton of talent for a team from a small area, in a little pocket (of Central Bucks)."

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"It's really great to see," said Meehan, the first-team PCL Blue quarterback in 2022 who'll play football at Merrimack. "It was so much fun to be out there with those guys."

"We were kind of loaded," said Donnelly, an all-state tight end who has committed to Penn. "We knew we had a really good team."

Half of the 2019 squad is still playing high school football. And nearly all of them are at the same positions where they competed for Chalfont-based Lenape Valley.

In addition to the aforementioned six, CB East's Dean Blackwell is a solid defensive back, Luke Wilson is a two-way starter for the Patriots, Dan Reinhardt is an East co-captain/running back and teammate Owen McCarty is in the mix on both sides of the ball. Anthony Nocito still plays at West, too.

And a number of them excel in other sports. Goetter and Collins are heavyweight wrestling rivals, Wilson is a quality wrestler, Davis is a lacrosse standout, Blackwell is very good at lacrosse and Matt Cleland will play rugby in college. CB East's Pat Coleman, who played on the LV '19 team but no longer goes out for football, is headed to the University of Denver for lacrosse.

"It's pretty awesome," Chris Cleland said. "We had a lot of good athletes."

The players understood they were part of something special, which has become even more clear to them today.

"During that time, the way we went at it at practice was so high-caliber," said Goetter, a second-team All-SOL National offensive lineman a year ago. "It was better than any middle school (I've seen). I'd compare it to a lot of high school programs."

Though they play on different teams and in two different leagues, a number of them stay in touch via text messaging. Meehan has thrown with Donnelly and plans to do more of that when they're preparing for college.

"What stands out for me was how much of a group we were and how friendly on and off the field we were," said Collins, a first-team All-SOL National lineman on both sides of the ball and regional wrestling champ.

"It's great to stay connected with everybody. They're a great group of kids."

Tom Moore: tmoore@couriertimes.com; @TomMoorePhilly

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Lenape Valley team produced football standouts playing for 5 schools