Football
Favorite athlete: Brian Dawkins
Favorite team: Eagles
Funniest memory competing in sports: Lafty drooling on me on the bus ride to an away game.
Music on playlist: Eminem, Lil Baby, Drake, Meek Mill, Lil TJ
Future plans: Attend Villanova and continue academic and athletic career. Major in health science, minor in business. Eventually, own my own business.
Favorite motto: “AFH” “I am my Brother’s Keeper.”
One goal before turning 30: Graduate from Villanova and own my own business
On thing people don’t know about me: I like to cook.
By Mary Jane Souder
Shane Hartzell.
The name is a familiar one to fans of high school football, and with good reason. The Pennridge senior has found himself in the spotlight since bursting onto the scene as a sophomore, but to his teammates, Hartzell is just “one of the boys.”
“I think it’s funny – you look at him as a person, and he’s just my best friend, he’s one of the boys,” senior Jack Ferguson said. “But on the football field, he’s a very good player, a different person in a way.”
A very good player might actually be an understatement. The all-state middle linebacker spent his high school career creating havoc for opposing offenses, but when the spotlight invariably finds him, Hartzell is quick to steer the conversation away from himself.
“Football is really a team game,” he said. “When people say, ‘Oh, Shane Hartzell,’ I think – ‘Well, you know we have so many guys on this team who can do good things and have done good things. Let’s talk about the team, let’s talk about the other guys.’”
And that’s not just lip service. That’s who Shane Hartzell is, and it’s just one of many reasons he was a natural fit to be a two-year captain.
“He’s probably one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever met,” Pennridge coach Cody Muller said. “His junior year, he was a true lead by example – that was his style. He was very quiet. I don’t know if he didn’t want to step on toes or whatever it might be.
“He and I had a conversation going into his senior year. I told him, ‘Hey, you lead by example, you do a tremendous job, but I need you to be more vocal, take the next step in terms of leadership,’ and he did this year. He did a great job of talking to the team, talking to the players. Shane’s voice was heard. He took the next step in the sense of being a leader, going beyond just being the example.”
Hartzell’s work ethic helped set the tone for a Rams’ squad that captured the SOL National Conference title this fall and advanced to the District One 6A title game for the first time in program history.
“I talked to Tom Nuneviller the other day, and we were talking about the season, and he made a really good statement,” Muller said. “He was talking about Shane, and he said, ‘When your hardest worker is also your best player, you know you have a good mix.’”
Muller had an idea that Hartzell might be something special when their paths crossed at South Middle School.
“I student taught at South in 2016, and Shane was in eighth grade at the time,” Muller said. “I didn’t have him in class, but I knew about him just seeing him at the gym and other things like that.
“Even then the kids were telling me how good of a kid he was, not just football and athletics but how nice, respectful, the whole nine. I got to know that pretty early.”
In eighth grade, Hartzell and Ferguson were already on a track that would lead both to standout high school careers, working out faithfully at CP’s Metal Health Gym & Fitness.
“The guy that owned the gym had us on a program,” Ferguson said. “We started doing it, and we got stronger, almost competing in a way, but we just pushed each other every set and every workout. Shane’s a hard worker in everything he does.”
Muller – who also worked out at CP’s Metal Health - had the opportunity to observe both in action.
“Watching Shane and Jack Ferguson – they were like Mutt and Jeff,” the Rams’ coach said. “They were at the gym together working out, and the amount of hard work they put in even when they were in eighth grade going into ninth grade – Shane and Jack both got pulled up to varsity in ninth grade.”
It marked the beginning of quite a journey.
******
Like many of his peers, Hartzell grew up playing baseball and soccer, but playing football was his dream.
“I’ve been going to Pennridge football games ever since I was little,” he said. “My cousin (Ben Knipe), who’s 10 years older than me – he went through middle school football, high school football. I was at every game. I just always wanted to be out there and do what he did.
“Soccer wasn’t my thing so I stopped when I was eight years old, and that’s actually when I started playing football for the Green Jackets. After those first games that first season, I instantly knew it was my favorite and I wanted to do this for high school, college and years on out. I actually played with almost all the guys that are seniors now. We grew up playing together.”
The Green Jackets advanced to the Bux-Mont Youth Football League championship when Hartzell was in seventh grade. The following year, the team won the league championship and advanced to the regional championship, falling one game shy of advancing to the Pop Warner National Championships in Florida.
Success followed Hartzell and his teammates to South Middle School where they advanced to the league championship game in seventh grade and a year later won it.
A defensive lineman as a youngster, Hartzell found a home at linebacker and – along with Ferguson - earned a spot on the varsity as a freshman. After seeing action on special teams and several defensive packages, Hartzell made his debut in the starting lineup in the Rams’ district semifinal game at Garnet Valley.
“We found out during that week I’d be starting,” he said. “I’m a freshman filling in for one of the best players in the state (Penn State linebacker
Nick Tarburton) in a game that means the most.
“In Pennridge history, that’s as far as any team made it besides this year. You get the nerves being a freshman, but you kind of forget about it once you get on the field. You just do what you’ve been coached to do, and you do it to the best of your ability.”
Pennridge fell to Garnet Valley 28-20, but Hartzell had cemented his spot in the starting lineup. A year later as a sophomore, he led the Rams in tackles and earned second team all-state honors. Pennridge – with Muller in his first year at the helm – compiled a 5-6 record.
“We had a lot of talent, we had a lot of size,” Hartzell said. “I don’t think everyone was on the same page.
“Going into junior year, we had a lot of guys that left the previous year, but we had worked out all year. We won that first game, and it gave us a little momentum, but it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”
The junior linebacker suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the Rams’ third game of the season against Perkiomen Valley.
“When I got injured, Dr. Cope was on the sidelines – he’s one of the orthopedics, and the way I was flexing my ankle – he knew what it was,” Hartzell said. “He said, ‘You’re going to have to have surgery to fix that.’
“I knew that night that my season was pretty much over. Being hurt for eight games, not being able to be out there, it’s a feeling I can’t describe. You have to be in that position because it’s just frustrating and sad to see your team struggle and know you can’t be out there to help.”
The Rams won just three games that season.
“Shane was at every practice, every game, every workout,” Muller said. “He couldn’t do anything, but he was there just helping, motivating and cheering our guys on. That again speaks a lot about the kid.”
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The promise this year’s senior class had shown in middle school and their Green Jacket playing days was realized in the abbreviated season this fall. The Rams were a perfect 5-0 in SOL National Conference play, a span of games that included three straight shutouts. They advanced to the district title game for the first time in program history where they fell to Souderton 31-17. They closed out the season with a 7-1 record, capping the 
season with a come-from-behind win over Quakertown in the annual Thanksgiving Day game.
“Going from thinking we might not have a season to doing what we accomplished, it took something special, and I think it started with us seniors,” Hartzell said. “We grew up playing together, and we just had that connection with each other that I don’t think the other classes had.
“When we first were on lockdown due to COVID, we were all organizing activities on Zoom, we were going over the playbook because coach Muller was actually offensive coordinator this year, so we were going over new plays, we were doing workouts on Zoom, we were doing stuff with each other just to try and build that relationship.”
Ask Hartzell what he will take with him from his high school playing days, and he doesn’t hesitate.
“Just the hard work and family aspect of the game you don’t really get anywhere else,” he said. “If you put in the work like we did and you really believe in each other, good things will come.
“The years previous, we weren’t really all bought in. We were a team but not really a family like we were this year, and there’s a big difference. We really had each other’s backs, and when that happens, good things will come.
“I think the seniors this year – we really changed the culture. The two years previous – we had leaders, but I think this senior class had the most leaders. Everyone was a leader, and I think that will carry on for years to come.”
One of those leaders was fellow captain Ferguson.
“All the games – we’ve been through so much together,” he said. “It’s always been me and him since the beginning, and ending on such a good season is a good feeling.
“The amount of time - we (seniors) have gone to practices together since we were in middle school, we’ve had games together, we hang out on the weekends. I’ve loved it.”
Next week, Hartzell will officially begin the next chapter in his football career when he signs a letter of intent to play the sport he loves at Villanova University.
“Even with the injury last year, I’m fortunate Villanova actually believed in me and took the chance,” he said. “Being able to get out there this year and show them what I could do, I was happy to do that.
“I know kids – some of them were banking on their senior season, and they didn’t even get it. It’s a shame for them. I feel fortunate that we had a season, and we were able to show what we could do.”
An excellent student, Hartzell is a member of the National Honor Society. Next year he plans to major in health sciences with a possible interest in becoming a physical therapist, a career choice that was influenced by both his injury and an anatomy class he took last year.
“Going to physical therapy and seeing how the doctors work with you – I think it’s really cool all the movements of the body and being able to help others,” Hartzell said. “I also thought of doing the other route – some type of personal training, physical training and eventually having my own business.”
Although they say no one is irreplaceable, Hartzell’s will be big shoes to fill next year.
“After our Quakertown game, I asked him if we could dye his hair, change his number and bring him back for another year,” Muller said. “He looked me squarely in the eyes and said, ‘Coach, I would if I could.’
“The one thing I can say about Shane and the young man he is – he’s really grown into his own. You’ll never hear anything bad about him when you talk to teachers at the school or anybody in the community.
“My head coach from UNH always had a saying that he used with us, and it holds true for me even to this day – ‘It’s not about the x’s and o’s. It’s the Jimmys and Joes.’ It’s the kids that make the program. You can have the best scheme in the world as a coach, but it’s going to come down to execution and your players and how bought in they are to it. Shane was from day one.
“This whole senior class did a lot for our program from top to bottom, so I couldn’t be more happy for them for what their future is going to bring, but it is tough to say good-bye to them.”
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