Skip to main content

Biglerville QB Tanner Cool now seeing clear


Besides being great fun for us and informative for our readers (we hope), our live chats also occasionally serve as a source for story ideas. In this case, I'll give a shout out to "Ed from EB" for this tip, which came during our chat on Thursday night. (Check out a replay of it here.)

Biglerville quarterback Tanner Cool has been one of the maestros behind the Canners' torrid start to the season. Cool has thrown just 15 times this season, but he has completed 12 of those passes for 400 yards and five touchdowns.

There's a good reason Cool has been so accurate in the early going. He can finally see clearly.

Before the season started, the senior began wearing contact lenses. Canners coach Alex Ramos recalled on Thursday night a conversation he had with Cool during the offseason.

"I found this out in the winter," Ramos said. "He squinted at me, and he said 'Yeah coach, I’m getting contacts.'

"I said 'What? You haven’t been able to see?' 'No, not great.'

"He can see his targets, he can read his defenses much better," Ramos continued. "It’s funny how a little bit of vision can help. Along with that, the kid has worked his tail off. He’s been very coachable. You put all those things together, you're going to have success."

Not that Cool has had to throw much so far. Biglerville's Wing-T style attack boasts three rushers with at least 231 yards and three touchdowns.

But when defenses cheat forward, the Canners aren't afraid to go to the air. Cool hasn't passed more than seven times in Biglerville's first three games, but he's racked up at least 128 passing yards in each.

"When you run the ball as much as they do, you tend to get caught sleeping defensively every once in a while and they hit you with the pass," said Littlestown coach Mike Lippy, whose team will travel to Biglerville on Friday night.

"The big thing that I like the most is there’s zero turnovers," Ramos added. "He’s really being smart with the football. He’s taking care of the football. That’s the one thing we stress, we’ll take what they give to us.

"So far he’s been an outstanding senior leader."