Springdale sophomore tight end poised for breakout season

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, August 24, 2022 | 6:22 PM

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Garrett Myers attended Redeemer Lutheran school in Penn Hills through eighth grade.

The school doesn’t offer a football program. Basketball was Myers’ main sport.

Football wasn’t in the picture for the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Springdale tight end and linebacker.

“We moved into the area, and I saw a photo of the football team in the paper at Dollar General,” Myers said. “It was a practice photo. Seeing the team, everyone together, it kind of gave me that spark that I wanted to be a part of it.”

Myers made contact with then-head coach Seth Napierkowski at an offseason workout in the spring prior to last season to test the waters about joining the team.

“Coach Seth was the first coach I ever talked to,” Myers said. “It was a lifting day, and we just started talking about the team. He said how much he’d love to have me. From there, I just got to work, and it’s been great.”

Myers has grown from a freshman last fall learning the ropes to now a major player with the potential to have a breakout season on a Dynamos team short on numbers, but in his eyes, long on quality talent.

“Last year, being a freshman, and with a large group of seniors, I didn’t get a whole lot of reps,” said Myers, who did find himself as a regular on the kickoff team. “But when I did get in there, I wanted to make sure I was doing my best to show the coaches that I could work hard and that the hard work was paying off. I tried to make the best of my time on the field.”

The offseason coaching change from Napierkowski to Ryan Tempalski and his new staff overall was a shock to Myers at first. But, he said, he and many of his Dynamos teammates quickly found comfort in the new staff and the new way of doing things.

“I was looking forward to continuing to grow under coach Napierkowski and his coaches, but coach Tempalski, I am loving him,” Myers said. “I love the playbook and I love the energy he brings to the team and to practices. It’s an atmosphere where everyone can really grow and get better.”

Tempalski said Myers was ready to go right from the start when he took over in March and has not let up in his desire to be at the core of the passing and running game at tight end and also on defense at inside linebacker.

“He just puts his head down and goes to work,” Tempalski said. “He embraced the workouts and practices that we implemented. I’ve never had to ask, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ He sees the workout and completes the workout. He’s become a very dependable leader for this team.

“I am so excited to see what he can do this season, especially at tight end with what we’re going to do on offense. He’s a strong in both the run and the pass game where we can line him up in multiple spots.

“Defensively, we’ve had to move him around depending on who was here and not here over the summer and also as we dealt with injuries. He’s played both middle and outside linebacker. Last year, he was a defensive end. We think he’s much stronger as a stand-up defender where he can use his quickness. He’s just a very versatile player on both sides of the ball.”

Myers said he’s come a long way since he started, and, he said, he was able to see the fruits of his labor on several plays during Saturday’s scrimmage at Chartiers-Houston.

“Looking at last year’s seniors and seeing their size and strength and the work they put in to getting to where they were, I knew I had to dedicate myself in the weight room and on the field to have that same success,” Myers said. “I grew an inch from last year and put on some nice muscle. I am still looking to get bigger and stronger and hopefully get a little taller.”

Myers said he didn’t have to look to college football or the NFL for someone to pattern his game after. All he had to do, he said, was look to teammate Ashton Krebs, a multi-year all-star performer for Springdale at linebacker and tight end who graduated in 2022.

“Ashton was a great blocker, and when he needed to, he could go out for a pass and was pretty dependable there, too,” Myers said. “He was a really strong and fast outside linebacker who got after it on every play. He was the guy I was looking at and studying most of the time.”

Myers said with the graduation losses, some might have soured on Springdale’s chances this season, but he feels there is a ton of optimism that the team can continue its playoff-qualifying ways out of the Eastern Conference.

“We are a young team without a lot of numbers,” he said. “People might see us as the underdog, but I think we have the talent to go out and get something done.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.