Quaker Valley's Guss looking forward to repeating title effort with healthy mom watching

It was one of the more inspiring stories of last year’s high school football season: Quaker Valley losing their head coach just weeks before the season started, only to go on and win the program’s first state championship.

“Personally, I like it,” Isaac Guss said. “I like knowing that all the teams are going to bring their best against us and no one is thinking that we’re not anything special this year.”

While the Quakers have gone from the hunters to the hunted, some believe it was a fluke, but don’t tell this group.

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“We’re getting a lot of new guys coming in and stepping up,” Guss said. “We think that we have all the talent to do exactly what last year’s team did.”

Winning state was fantastic, but Isaac and his now-graduated brother, Ricky, won it with their mom in the stands watching, something that wasn’t guaranteed because she was going through cancer treatments at the time.

“My mom is doing very well,” Isaac said. “She’s getting strong and she’s doing great. She’s happy. She’s doing well.”

But all is not well on the field. The Quakers are hoping to bounce back after last week’s disappointing 59-6 loss to Aliquippa.

“We gotta come out of the gate stronger,” Guss said with confidence. “We can’t have any mistakes.”

Quaker Valley lost to Aliquippa last year in the regular season too, only to reel off seven straight victories to claim that state championship.

Cox Media Group