NEW PHILADELPHIA - The Educational and Scientific Trust of The Simon Kramer Institute announced a new partnership Friday that will bring football back to the borough.
Robert Beauvais, director of operations at Simon Kramer, said the Schuylkill County Coal Crackers football team is coming back and playing on the field at the institute again this year.
"This is their home field," Beauvais said. "We're going to be working pretty closely with the Coal Crackers throughout the year to do some fundraising programs and really work with them to raise the awareness of some of the cancer needs here in this community."
The Educational and Scientific Trust of The Simon Kramer Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer awareness, screening, promoting early detection and professional education in Schuylkill and Carbon counties and surrounding areas.
"We're pretty actively involved in the community to raise money and to raise the awareness of cancer early detection screening programs," Beauvais said. "We also provide for transportation of cancer patients in the region to get back and forth to their treatments and also to the extent that someone may be under-insured or lack health insurance, we try to help with some of their medical expenses as well."
Joe Zalonis, owner of the Coal Crackers, said it is an exciting year for the team as he has a new partner, Don Snyder, a new logo and a new head coach who recently signed.
The new head coach is Chris Drayton, who, according to the Coal Crackers website, has a long record of winning football games, including three consecutive Colonial Football Alliance championships while coaching the Lehigh Valley Steelers.
Zalonis also said that on April 21, Drayton was inducted into the Lehigh Valley Sports Hall of Fame.
"He'll be bringing some guys that he was actually able to coach before as well as some of the guys that we had before," Zalonis said. "I think this year is going to be the year that we're going to get over that playoff drought."
Michael Ward, a player on the team who said he scored the first-ever touchdown for the Coal Crackers, also said he's glad to be playing at Simon Kramer again.
"Originally from Santa Barbara, Calif., when I first came in '04 and started playing with the Coal Crackers, what I love about this area is that this area thrives on football and when you pull up into New Philly and you see that picture of the Pottsville Maroons, it just has a football feel to it," Ward said.
The Coal Crackers didn't play last year because no one signed up, with most playing on another team in a spring football league, but this year, the team will be playing in a fall football league.
Preseason games are expected to start in July with the eight-week regular season starting in September.
Games will be held mostly on Saturdays, with the proceeds split between The Educational and Scientific Trust and the Coal Crackers.
The team started playing in New Philadelphia in 2004, then played in Saint Clair and eventually at Simon Kramer again.
"The other thing we're doing is (we're) in the process of opening a fitness center on the second floor of the Simon Kramer Institute," Beauvais said. "In addition to that being a community fitness center where people will be able to purchase memberships, it will be the official training center for the Schuylkill County Coal Crackers as well."
Snyder said that this year, they hope to have a lot of support from the community and get hope to get involved, especially with fundraisers.
There will be a 5K run held at Simon Kramer Institute on June 2 to help support the health costs of a student at Gillingham Charter School, Pottsville, who is struggling with leukemia.
Beauvais said more fundraising opportunities will be announced in the coming weeks.