Brad Herrmann, Pennridge Senior
Football/Wrestling/Baseball
Favorite athlete: LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers
Favorite team: Penn State
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Archbishop Wood in triple overtime
Future plans: Play football or baseball in college
Word(s) to live by: Believe!
One goal before turning 30: Have up to three houses in three different states.
Something people don’t know about me: “I love going to the beach.”
Brad Herrmann is part of a dying breed.
The Pennridge senior not only competes in three sports – a rarity in today’s era of specialization – he excels in all three.
It’s on the football field that Herrmann is making a name for himself these days.
“He’s rare, that’s for sure,” football coach Randy Cuthbert said. “He can do so many things well, and he really progressed. Even from last year to this year – his arm is a lot stronger, and he’s more confident.
“He’s a leader on the team. He’s the guy that we look to because he’s been there. Over the course of last year, he grew up a lot.”
Last year, the Rams were 3-11 but finished the year strong. It is not a coincidence that the Rams’ level of play improved as Herrmann progressed.
“The first half of the year, he kind of took his lumps, but he learned from it,” Cuthbert said. “By the second half of the year, he was one of the top quarterbacks in the league.”
In the Rams’ 43-42 triple overtime win over Archbishop Wood to open the season, Herrmann turned in the kind of performance that all but ensures the senior QB a spot in the record books. Consider only his numbers: Herrmann rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 155 more and two touchdowns. He threw a two-point conversion and ran a two-point conversion. He also kicked three PATs.
If you’re counting, Herrmann accounted for 37 points.
“I can’t remember a kid accounting for that many points,” Cuthbert said. “It’s crazy.”
Herrmann can’t talk about that experience without tipping his hat to his offensive line - Chet Crawford, Sam Grove, Chris McCabe, Matt Pattison and Zach O’Neill.
“It was great,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without the team coming together and helping me out. It’s not about me. The offensive line really helped me out.”
On Friday night, the Rams eked out a 28-26 win over Bensalem to up their record to 2-0 on the young season, a season that already feels a whole lot different than last year.
“This year the kids are doing great,” Herrmann said. “We definitely have a better team atmosphere, and that’s definitely going to help out in the long run.”
Herrmann has been competing in three sports for as long as he can remember, and spare time is something he knows nothing about. He literally goes from one sport to the next 12 months of the year.
“I love every sport,” he said. “Once football is over, I go right to wrestling. Wrestling is a lot of conditioning – you have to run a lot.
“Baseball is the opposite of all the sports. It’s different techniques. Once that season is here I focus on that. I really don’t have time to do much with my friends because I’m going from one sport to the next. It’s kind of hard, but it’s worth it.”
Even his coach can’t quite figure out how he handles three sports that require different skill sets.
“He juggles his schedule to make it work,” Cuthbert said. “He gets to lifting, he gets to passing clinics. I’m not sure how he does it.”
Interestingly, Herrmann was not all that enamored with football when he began playing as a youngster.
“My dad was always saying I never really wanted to play when I was little,” he said. “I sat on the bench and said I didn’t want to go out there, but once I got out there, I haven’t turned back.”
Ask Herrmann what the most valuable thing he has learned from sports, and he points to leadership and respect for other people.
“Playing sports has made me a better person,” he said. “It’s helped me out a lot.”
Hermann plans to play either football or baseball at the collegiate level but has not made a final decision.
“It’s real tough, especially deciding which college to go to,” he said. “Whatever I get the better offer for I guess I’ll go for.”
No matter which sport he chooses, Cuthbert, for one, believes he will excel.
“He’s just naturally gifted,” the Rams’ coach said. “He can pick things up real quickly. His learning curve is really small.
“He has a great attitude. He wants to win, and he wants the team to do well, and that certainly helps too. He’s a kid who can do it all.”
So far, Herrmann has been doing it all for a Rams’ squad with high hopes.
