Pat Mason knows that coaching at a small school requires constant reinvention.
“The thing that kind of changes a little bit, being that we’re coaching at a small school, is that you kind of have to change things up depending on the personnel that you have,” Mason said.
This year’s roster of 24 players is the smallest of his three-decade career, but Mason has a plan to get the most out of the group.
That starts with installing a new offense run by a new quarterback.
Junior Owen Holley, who sat out last season after transferring, is ready to step into the role.
“He had a really good summer,” Mason said. “He threw real well in our 7-on-7 that we had at Upper Dauphin. So I’m pretty excited about his upside there. I think he’s going to have a good year for us.”
The Green Wave’s new offense is designed around Holley.
“I thought last year we were more of a spread team, where Colt (Mason) was our quarterback,” Mason said. “He was a good athlete, so we were getting the ball in his hands. Where Owen is more of a passer, a pocket passer kind of kid, so we’ve changed up our philosophy a little bit more. I think with Owen’s ability, I think our offense should be a little bit better this year scoring points.”
Nativity struggled to find the end zone in the latter stage of the 2025 season.
After a 4-3 start, the Green Wave posted just 20 points in their final four games, finishing 4-7 with a first-round playoff exit.
“We struggled a little bit last year down the stretch, when we got to the meat of our schedule, putting points on the board,” Mason said. “I’m hoping this year — our schedule is so weird this year because we have those three oh uh non-conference games to start off the year — we can get the ball rolling right off the bat and get a little bit better offensively earlier than we were last year.”
While a lot is changing for Mason’s squad, some key factors will stay the same.
“We have a decent core of guys coming back,” he said.
Many of the players on the team in 2025 had not played consistently on the varsity level, but come into 2026 with a year of experience under their belts.
“We have Noah Bulino, one of our captains, (who) is going to take a nice leadership role for us,” Mason said. “We have the three Felty brothers — Cooper, Connor, and Cole — Connor being a senior and Cooper being a junior, those two guys are also captains for us … Sean Kramer is a senior. He’s another returning starter. He’s a pretty vocal kid. He’s a good leader. So I think we have some good leadership, which is hard to find sometimes, but I think we’re pretty set there.”
And though Nativity will deploy a new-look offense, the upperclassmen do have some familiarity with the system.
“The nice part is we ran this look two years ago, so a lot of our kids, like Jacob Williams — who is a senior for us, skill kid — ran this offense two years ago,” Mason said. “It’s just a little bit of a different look, I think, that plays into Owen’s strengths a little bit more than the spread look did, but we’ll still go out of gun once in a while to throw the ball.”
As the team worked through the summer, Mason saw the potential for a successful season, which will begin on Aug. 28 with a road game against Montrose.
“We’re pretty optimistic. We had a pretty good summer,” he said. “ We were down Schuylkill Haven for a camp, we were up at Minersville, we were out at Upper Dauphin, so I think we did pretty well this summer, so I’m pretty excited.”
Huddle Up
Head Coach: Pat Mason
League: Schuylkill, Division II
Last Season: 4-7 Overall, 3-6 League
Male Enrollment: 68, Class A
Home Field: St. Clair Veterans Memorial Stadium
2026 Schedule
Aug. 28 at Montrose
Sept. 4 Holy Redeemer
Sept. 11 at Halifax
Sept. 18 Williams Valley
Sept. 25 at Schuylkill Haven
Oct. 1 at Mahanoy Area
Oct. 9 at Marian Catholic
Oct. 16 Shenandoah Valley
Oct. 23 at Tri-Valley
Oct. 30 Minersville
2025 Results
Holy Redeemer W 36-0
Pine Grove W 12-6
Williams Valley L 49-0
Tri-Valley L 42-13
Panther Valley L 41-24
Shenandoah Valley W 14-6
Mahanoy Area W 20-6
Minersville L 34-0
Schuylkill Haven L 57-0
Marian Catholic L 41-14
Lackawanna Trail* L 50-6
(* denotes playoff game)
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