In his return to the high school coaching ranks last year, Joe Bernard, who had been a college coach for most of his career in between stints as the head coach at both Nazareth and Stroudsburg, said he learned a lot.
One was he learned how much he didn’t like riding the school bus again.
“I got used to riding on coach buses and airplanes,” he said, chuckling. “Going on a school bus on Route 22 at 35 miles an hour is not my cup of tea.”
But Bernard will happily take rides to district and state playoff games in November and December if the Golden Hawks can get there.
Bethlehem Catholic’s Carter Vassa on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, during Bethlehem Catholic high school football practice in Bethlehem (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
After winning six district championships between 2013 and 2023, the Golden Hawks have lost to Southern Lehigh in each of the last two district finals.
However, Becahi has enough skill-position talent, led by New Hampshire commit Axel Burkart at quarterback and Towson commit Carter Vassa at receiver, and experience at other spots to push deeper this season.
“I’ve been impressed with our summer workouts with everybody in attendance,” Bernard said. “They were outstanding and we had a good week of heat acclimatization and now we’ve got a few days in with full pads and things have been going really well.”
Bernard said that after a transition year in 2025, in which his team started 3-0 and 5-1 and finished 8-5, everybody knows what to expect this season.
“Everybody is all in,” he said. “Guys are now jumping in on the scout team and everybody is helping out. Everyone is trying to be a good teammate and making sure we get things done. They want to be successful and anything they can do to help us be successful they are doing whether they’re starters or on the scout team.”
Bernard, who wasn’t hired until March of last year, said having a full year being in the school and around the kids, was important.
“We’re light years ahead of where we were last year,” he said. “We were looking at film to get ready for our scrimmage and the kids are now pointing out the mistakes they made last year. It has been 100 percent effort and now they know how to practice and what we need to get done. They have been doing a good job.”
Burkart shared time with Cayden Vassa at quarterback last season and threw for 1,475 yards and 12 touchdowns. He has benefitted from working with Dan Kendra, who was a fixture at Becahi during the Bob Stem era and has helped to develop many of the area’s best quarterbacks over the years. He was on Allentown Central Catholic’s staff last year.
“Working with Coach Kendra, I feel really comfortable this year and I have lot of confidence in myself and my teammates to be able to make plays,” the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Burkart said. “It’s flowing and everything is coming together. I feel really comfortable working behind our offensive line. I worked a lot on my footwork and mechanics and on getting back to the basics. When things get tough you have to be able to lean back on the mechanics.”
He will also lean on a talented receiving corps led by Vassa, who fought through injury issues last season to catch 53 passes for 880 yards and nine TDs.
“We’ve known each other since we were kids, so I have a lot of confidence in Carter and he has a lot of confidence in me,” Burkart said.
Bethlehem Catholic’s Axel Burkart throws the ball on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, during Bethlehem Catholic high school football practice in Bethlehem (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
“When Cayden went down last year, Axel would come in and we’d connect and put up big numbers,” Vassa said.
Bernard, who has college coaching connections all over the country, is pleased that Burkart and Vassa have already made their college commitments and he hopes more are coming.
“The thing I was most excited about last year is that I saw how the high school kids are so good at aborbing stuff and they want to be coached,” Bernard said. “They want to learn and want to get ready for the level. They are a joy to be around.”
Football players run drills Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, during Bethlehem Catholic high school football practice in Bethlehem (Jonathan Broady/Special to The Morning Call)
3 tidbits on the Golden Hawks
(1) Coaching carousel
Without question, the return of Kendra to work with the quarterbacks is the headliner.
But there were more additions as Mike Kramer, who was Becahi’s placekicker and punter in the 1990s, has returned to the school as its specialists coach.
Jordan Rohner, who was at East Stroudsburg North, will help coach the lines and former Golden Hawks running back Tavion Banks, who graduated in 2019, is the new running backs coach.
Fred Rice, who had been on the staff last season, has been dealing with some health issues and moved back to the press box where he will serve as the team’s public address announcer.
(2) Numbers game
The Golden Hawks have just 44 players in the program, grades 9 to 12.
“Last year, we had about 48 or 50, so we are a little lighter than usual,” Bernard said. “It is what it is.”
According to the PIAA website, Bethlehem Catholic’s male enrollment figures which are used to calculate classification status (taken from grades 9-11 on Oct. 1 of the pre-realignment year) put the Golden Hawks at 159. That means had they so chosen, Becahi could be a 2A program since the parameters for 2A are 142 to 199. Instead, they play up at 4A, which has parameters of 282 to 412.
“We want to play at the 4A level and play the best competition we can, and the league wants us to play at a higher level because of the power points,” Bernard said. “We don’t mind playing 4A. We love the challenge and we want to get our numbers back up so we’re legitimately 4A.”
(3) Lesson learned
Bethlehem Catholic’s 2025 season ended with a 49-28 loss to Southern Lehigh in the District 4A final and Bernard wasn’t surprised that the Spartans went on to win the 4A state title. In that game, Southern Lehigh ran the ball 50 times for 282 yards.
“I give them all the credit,” Bernard said. “I walked right over to Phil [Sams, Southern Lehigh’s coach] after the game and I told them that they should be the state champs. That’s what I felt after we played them. Their offensive line was outstanding and that’s what they rode that team on all year, and they’ll probably do the same this year in 5A. They are an outstanding, well-coached up-front football team and what we took out of that game is what we have to do to win the district title at our level.”
Schedule
Scrimmage
Saturday: At Souderton with Parkland, 10 a.m.
Regular season
(All games at 7 p.m. unless noted)
Aug. 28: host Delaware Valley
Sept. 5: at Allentown CCHS 1 p.m.
Sept. 11: at Berks Catholic
Sept. 19: host Easton
Sept. 26: host Allen
Oct. 2: at East Stroudsburg South
Oct. 9: at Freedom
Oct. 17: host Nazareth
Oct. 24: host Liberty
Oct. 30: at Northampton