DALLASTOWN, Pa. — If you look at the standings, it's easy to see that the 2024 Dallastown Wildcats are a special team.
And while it's said that success begins in the offseason, for many student-athletes, it really starts with that first coach that opens their eyes to the game.
"These coaches, especially at the youth level, have this important purpose of showing kids how much fun athletics can be, and what a great thing being around your friends is with a purpose," said Dallastown Head Coach Levi Murphy.
For many on this year's Dallastown varsity team, Joseph Muniz was one of those coaches with the Dallastown Cougars and then the junior high team.
"When we're looking for coaches, we're looking for great people first and foremost," claimed Murphy. "And when I got his name as a recommendation for somebody we should have on staff, that was that was an easy one."
Muniz, an Army veteran, had a life-long passion for the game of football.
"He was working in Washington, D.C., but he'd find a way to get to a clinic on a weekend," recalled Murphy. "He was coaching junior high football, but he'd always find a way to get to our practices and be around our kids."
And while making one of those drives in February of this year, Coach Muniz died in a car accident. He was just 38 years old.
While the program lost a coach, friend, and mentor, one Wildcat lost so much more.
"Just before I turned five when we first got onto the field, he told me, 'I'm your dad at home, but I'm your coach here,'" remembered junior lineman Matthew Muniz.
Matthew- or Matt- is not a name you'll hear at Dallastown's practices or games. But you will hear 'Chewy.' When he was younger, he pronounced his name Matt-chew, so the Chewy name has followed him ever since, as has the game of football.
"Waking up and watching football with my dad and my brother. They made the love for football for me," said Matthew. "I watched my brother play football since I can remember and I always would get out and practice with them and they both got me into this sport."
With his dad as his offensive line coach, the work created a strong bond between the game and each other.
"I realized once I put a lot of work into it and had my constant supporters at home tell me that I'm doing great, I realized I can push for something harder and play at a better and higher level," said Matthew.
Competing in the trenches every Friday night takes a strong effort, but Matthew's biggest show of strength has been returning to the gridiron, where he still feels his dad and coach.
"I wasn't sure if I wanted to come back to it, but I knew that's what he would want. He would want me to keep playing," claimed Matthew. "If I'd make a play, I'd always hear his voice come through, and I would always hear, ‘Thank you, line’ after every touchdown we score."
"They use the expression that tough times make tough people. The persistence that Chewy has shown, I don't know anybody else, I definitely couldn't," Murphy said. "But the fact that he's been able to strap it up this fall, knowing the absence that is in our program, has been a special thing."
At the toughest time in his life, the players that his father helped grow into young men, were there and continue to be there for his son and their teammate.
"I remember my first call after I got the news. I threw my phone away and I didn't want anything to do with it," recalled Matthew. "But once I was settled enough to speak to anybody, I called Coach Murphy and I came and sat in his classroom. They're always there to catch me when I'm falling," said Matthew of his teammates. "Every game I have my teammates right next to me, especially Colby Laughman. He's right there next to me every day. Before every game, his locker is right next to me."
Coach Muniz continues to be on the minds, hearts, and helmets for every snap of the season.
"It showed that he had more than an impact on just me," said Matthew. "I saw the impact that he had on my teammates and people around me."
"Coach Muniz was a coach on those staffs and he's been around them," added Coach Murphy. "He was around them for so, so long and we see that in these kids with their leadership, with how they act with one another."