John Y. Wehmueller
Sentinel Reporter

Mickey Shuler enjoys giving back to the game he made a career out of by helping out the East Pennsboro High School football team as an assistant coach. (Jason Minick/The Sentinel)

To the East Pennsboro football team, Coach Shuler looked just like any other coach when he stepped on the practice field for the first time last summer. If they knew him at all, it was probably as the father of Brooke, then a sophomore, who runs and plays basketball for the Panthers. But the rest of the Panthers' football staff knew a little something about Coach Shuler. "It was funny," says Coach Shuler. "Sometimes they'd say, 'Do you kids have any idea what Mr. Shuler has done?'" The players really didn't get it until about midway through the season, when Coach Shuler invited the offense over to his house for a little film study. After a while, some of the players asked if the coach had any films of himself. So during a break, Coach Shuler popped in a new tape. That's when the Panther football team got their first chance to watch Mickey Shuler play tight end for the New York Jets. "I think the kids were all impressed," Shuler says. "They spread the news to the rest of the team. It's been a whole lot different."