When will Waynesboro football have a winner?
It’s been since 2021 when the Indians prospered on the gridiron. Josh Sprenkle and Company were the beneficiaries of some good old-fashioned good fortune (like the Hail Mary and two-point conversion against Mechanicsburg) and a roster of players who found a way to win.
The 2021 season marked the eighth straight year of winning or non-losing seasons. Since that season, the Indians are 10-30, having gone 2-8, 2-8, 4-6 and 2-8. The head coach for three of them, Mark Saunders, stepped down after the 2025 season. Saunders had served as an assistant coach, offensive coordinator and head coach.
I remember Aidan Mencia having a breakout performance in the first-round of the District 3-5A playoffs – the first-ever postseason game played in Waynesboro – as the Tribe pounded out a 42-20 win over Daniel Boone. Mencia rushed for 198 yards on 17 carries, highlighted by a pristine 45-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that put Waynesboro on the scoreboard.
The Indians trailed 14-0 but found a way to win and extend their record to 9-2, the first time the program attained that win total since 1992. It was also the first season Waynesboro was a member of the Mid-Penn Conference. The head coach was Darwin Seiler, who served in that capacity until 1996 and again from 2003 to 2009.
Speaking of 1992, that was the last winning season before a 21-year dry spell of winning seasons in the Boro. Waynesboro started 3-0 in 2008 but lost six in a row before finishing 4-6. The Indians also won four games in 2011. In 2024, Waynesboro was 4-1. But the Tribe laid a proverbial egg the rest of the way and again finished 4-6.
The common denominator of coaches from 1993 to 2013 was that no team had a winning season. It must have been hard to take in from the bleachers – even though the community turned out to support the teams regardless of the wins and losses. The student section showed up, too, and boisterously cheered for the home team despite (forgive the comparison) Casey striking out most of the time. The cheerleaders performed their routines and voiced their chants faithfully.
But losing isn’t fun – for spectators, cheerleaders, players, coaches and, yes, sports writers.
Try writing game stories for loss after loss after loss after loss. You have to keep in mind that the players are in high school, not college or in the pros. Stay positive. Stay true to the mission of uplifting the community by pointing out the good despite all the bad – losing isn’t fun.
So when Brennan Marion came to town from California, the former Tulsa University wide receiver whose specialty was the long pass, Waynesboro lit up with optimism that maybe, just maybe, the Indians would be winners.
Waynesboro started 1-3 before turning the season around in dramatic fashion. That included an ugly 38-6 loss to Gettysburg. Marion was forced to sit out the Cedar Cliff game, a 61-20 loss, the third of the season. But the Indians circled the wagons and won the next five, including a 54-28 triumph over East Pennsboro that all but assured the team of a tie for the Mid-Penn Colonial Division crown. Indeed, Waynesboro snapped the skid and finished 6-4.
Over the next seven seasons, Waynesboro enjoyed winning seasons, including a 7-2 regular season highlighted by a league title in 2017. The Tribe clinched the title after a win at Mifflin County on the last game of the season.
Then came 2021.
I’m not asking for another “Rip” Engle. But someone – inside or outside WASD – who can make a difference over time, and, through a consistent example for good and an ability to build a solid coaching staff, will stick around a while because he turned a losing program into a winning program.
May it happen starting in 2026.
