Football
Favorite athlete: Cam Skattebo.
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles.
Favorite memory competing in sports: Football summer workouts with my friends.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: A water boy for our team tripped the ref and himself and spilled all the water.
Music on playlist: Zach Bryan.
Future plans: Study construction management.
Words to live by: You only live once.
One goal before turning 30: Own my own residential building company.
One thing people don’t know about me: I am pretty good at pickleball and do it as a hobby.
By GORDON GLANTZ
The docket shows that the William Tennent football team only won one game in 10 tries this past season.
But that doesn’t account for the wins the public doesn’t see.
Among those was the fact that middle linebacker and part-time running back Tre Noll (birth name Joseph Noll III) got back onto the field after missing his entire junior season with a severe injury.
He sustained an infusion fracture to his ankle that was similar, though not quite the same, as his favorite player, Cam Skattebo, who is admired for his all-out playing style.
It was more than ironic that Skattebo, who was in the midst of a standout rookie year with the New York Giants, suffered his injury against Noll’s favorite team, the Eagles.
“I was kind of sad when I saw him get hurt,” said Noll. “I felt bad, because I know what it feels like to go down for the season with an injury. It’s not fun, especially in the NFL and with the kind of season he was having.”
When the severity of Noll’s freak injury was eventually revealed, it was third-year Tennent coach Colin Leach who then felt the same level of deep empathy toward Noll.
“It was heartbreaking last year,” said Leach. “He got hurt in two-a-days, in one of the last days of camp. He hurt his ankle while just catching a pass on the sidelines. It was just a super simple play.
“He went to the doctor, and that’s when he learned that his season was over.”
The Road Back
Leach, who played at Bishop McDevitt and then at Delaware Valley University, has coached at several high schools – Cheltenham, Pennridge, Council Rock South – before coming to Tennent.
While players have bounced back from injuries before in his orbit, Leach sees Noll’s journey back to the field as a one-of-kind story of rising above adversity.
For starters, there was the initial thought that it may have been the end of Noll’s career.
“When the injury initially happened, you always have that fear,” said Leach. “You are always worried that he might not come back for his senior year. Whenever you are dealing with an injury so severe, it’s always kind of scary.”
Noll, who also wrestled the time, added that he did seriously consider hanging up his cleats and packing away the football gear for good.
“In my sophomore year, I had rolled my ankle and I was only out for 2-3 weeks,” he said. “When I did it again before my junior year, which was right before our first game, I thought it was the same thing and that everything was fine. Within a span of like a month and a half, though, I realized that I had to get surgery.
“I was down in the dumps. I’m not going to lie. I was very sad. I even had thoughts of not playing football again. I figured, there was no point.”
What hit Noll the hardest was that he couldn’t play alongside many of the seniors on that team for their final season.
“I just wanted one more game with them,” he said. “I would have given anything, just to take one more snap. I had been playing varsity since my freshman year, so I had played with all of them throughout high school.”
Staying Present
Those concerns were put to rest when Noll came back as determined as ever to be present and accounted for before it was too late for his own career.
“The biggest thing for Tre is that he didn’t stop showing up for practice all that year,” said Leach. “He was there, and he was active with his teammates. He showed that bond and that brotherhood that you really want to see in football.”
About a month or so after surgery, Noll was completely focused and determined to come back.
“I’m just not a quitter, period,” he said. “When I thought about it, I thought, you know, ‘I don’t even have to do this for the college aspect. I can just do it for fun.’ I realized that I’m just going to ball out, and just go out
there and do the best that I can. I just started doing upper body stuff and decided that I wanted to play my senior year, no matter what.”
Leach continued to be impressed with Noll’s offseason dedication.
“When it really clicked for me, in terms of how special of a kid he was, came from watching him in the offseason,” said Leach. “He dedicated himself to the weight room. I don’t think he missed a single day.”
Inspired by the motto that you only live once, it was just a matter of giving it all he had before the sands ran through the hourglass.
“I tried to be as involved as possible,” said Noll. “As weird as it sounds, I got the Team Pride award at the banquet just for being there all the time. I was still trying to be around, and to be there for my teammates. I had been playing with some of them since I was, like, five.”
Once Knoll was able to begin training, he added an estimated 45-50 pounds of muscle to his 5-8 frame, topping out around 190 pounds.
A lot of the additional weight was added when Noll decided to no longer wrestle and to just bulk up for football.
“The whole offseason, I was just grinding,” he said. “It wasn’t all muscle, obviously, but it was mostly muscle, when I went from 145 pounds to 190.”
Inspiration
The dedication was not just observed by the coaches, it also served as an inspiration to Noll’s teammates.
“He got named a captain,” said Leach. “It was incredible to watch, seeing him just transition into the kind of a person that he is.
“He really took on the role of captain, too. The language that he uses in the weight room and at practice, along with on game days, is one of the separating factors for him. He keeps people motivated, and that’s because he is always positive. He is always talking about the next play and the positives of just staying in the moment.”
For Noll, earning the captaincy validated his decision to stick with football and put in the time rehabbing and lifting in the offseason.
“I was very happy to get that team captain’s role,” he said. “I actually thought I could have gotten it in my junior year, but I watched my captains from previous years. I just wanted to be more vocal, but not just yell at the kids. I wanted to be more understanding and more of a mentor toward the younger kids. When the season ended, I had a lot of them come up and tell me that I had been a good mentor for them.”
For his teammates, especially the younger ones, Noll’s story of redemption was also a cautionary tale.
Said Leach: “You never know when your last snap is, right? I mean Tre didn’t know he was going to lose an entire season his junior year. I preach that to the team. They have to live in the moment.”
The direct result of Noll’s leadership was that the Panthers kept on battling until the end of their long season.
“Tre was such a huge part of that for us this year, with how he presented himself as a leader – on and off the field – to all of the kids,” said Leach. “We had a very young team. Our largest class was our sophomore class. They had the numbers, but I really loved our senior class this year. They were great kids, and they fought.
“We were struggling, but they were still showing up for practice. And they were out there playing, in every game, until the game ended. I give them a ton of credit for that. It takes a lot to fight through losses, week after week.”
Meanwhile, in the heat of battle, Noll was doing all he could do for the Panthers, physically and emotionally.
“It definitely wasn’t easy,” said the son of Kimberly and Joseph Noll, Jr., who wanted to thank his parents and his youth coach, John Lombardi - as well as Leach -- for their support.
“I told them to just take it as a fun season,” he said. “I told them to keep going and keep trying, especially with the younger kids. It’s all just a way to get better. I told them just to keep that frame of mind.”
As for his fellow seniors, it was a different message.
“I told them to just make the best out of it and keep coming to practice and make the most out of it,” said Noll.
Emptying the Tank
Despite some nagging injuries, Noll made his impact known in 2025. This was mostly seen at middle linebacker, a position from his youth league days that he moved back to from strong safety after bulking up to play in the front seven.
At middle linebacker, he was an All-League Honorable Mention selection after recording 43 tackles (including three for losses) and forcing a fumble.
“He’s not the tallest kid or the biggest kid, but he is always fighting out there,” said Leach.
Going the other way, Noll carried the ball 51 times for 236 yards and caught 16 passes for 173 yards.
“I think Tre had a really good year,” said Leach. “The injury bug did pop up again with him. It really affected him more on the offensive end. Defensively, he was there for us at middle linebacker all year. Even with the injuries, he was out there battling through them. He was the one calling the defense and making plays all over the place, right between the tackles.”
When the final gun sounded, and in spite of the scoreboard and standings, Noll had achieved victory.
“I left everything out there on the field,” he said.
Bright Future
Because he excels in the classroom, Noll has opened doors for himself and has a bright future as a result.
“I always try to get my work done before anything else,” said Noll, who carries a 3.59 weighted GPA and is involved in multiple extracurricular clubs (Business, Spanish and National Honor Societies, Future Business leaders of America, Student Government and Athletic Council). “I always plan ahead and really try to do my homework when I’m in school. You never see me on my phone or anything like that when I’m in school. I just do my work. I’m always ahead.”
As far as colleges are concerned, he is looking at several – Delaware, Thomas Jefferson, Millersville and Widener – but keeping his options open.
“He’s great academically,” said Leach, a guidance counselor in the Colonial School District. “The sky is the limit for him. He has so many opportunities available to him, just because of the position he has put himself in with both academics and athletics. I’m excited to see what the future has in store for him.”
All things considered – the past injuries and the time commitment – Noll is currently leaning against playing at the college level.
“I think just going to college for my degree would be the smarter thing for me and my future,” said Noll, who hopes to be the owner of a residential construction company.
While his coach gets it, he added that Noll would be a good fit in a right program.
Said Leach: “If he chooses to keep playing, I think he will do really well at the collegiate level, and that’s just because of his work ethic and his style of play.”
