Homecoming has a dual meaning this week at Southern Columbia.
Yes, girls will get gussied up and walk across the field as someone gives the high school version "This is your life" over the public address system and there will be crowns, and flowers, and tears.
But there is another noteworthy homecoming. Jay Drumheller, a 1983 Southern grad who still ranks fourth on the Tigers' all-time rushing list with just over 4,000 yards, will be coming back to Catawissa, but he won't be standing on the home sidelines.
"Jay was one of the first real successful players in the program when we started to turn things around," said Southern Columbia head coach Jim Roth, who was an assistant coach when Drumheller played. "He was a senior on the 12-1 team that won the Eastern Conference championship."
Drumheller is now the head coach at Muncy and has the Indians perfect at 4-0.
In his first season in charge of Muncy's program, Drumheller led the team to a 3-6 mark.
Because the Tigers haven't played Muncy regularly in nearly two decades, it's tough for Roth to judge the Indians' progress, but he knows the Indians present a challenge to his Tigers.
"We haven't played them consistently before," Roth said. "Occasionally in the playoffs, but not in the recent past either."
In fact the last time the two teams played in the regular season was a home-and-home series in the early 1990s, with Southern winning both games. They haven't met at all since a 56-7 Tigers' win over the Indians in the 2005 playoffs.
True to his roots, Drumheller and his Indians have a dominant running back in Troy Hembury, also a fourth-place finisher at the 2011 state wrestling tournament. Through four games, Hembury has rushed for 521 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The Indians' Anthony Barberio has also thrown for 463 yards in that span and Muncy's closest game has been a 20-7 win over Canton in Week 1.
The Indians' clearly have enough talent and variety to keep things interesting for the Tigers' defense, especially after South Williamsport had very little variety in its playcalling.
"Their offense has a lot of variety and they do a lot of different things. They have a pretty good mix now," Roth said.
"There's a lot of variety compared to what we just saw, but what makes Muncy different is that they do as much with motion and shifting as any team. That creates more of an issue than the different formations. We've seen enough variety, but we don't see a lot of shifting."
The game can also be looked at as one of the last potential hurdles for the Tigers to clear on their way to a first Heartland Conference Division III title.
The opponents in this division may not be as high profile as in Division II, but that's of little concern to Roth once the game starts.
"We have the same goal regardless of who we're playing," Roth said. "We want to take care of business and win the division. These two games (South Williamsport and Muncy) have the strongest teams they've had in a while."