With the heat acclimatization week set to begin Monday, Northampton head football coach John Toman has a positive outlook ahead after a productive summer.

“Summer went well,” said the veteran coach, who will begin his second season at the helm of the Konkrete Kids’ program. “Our goal was to get better one day at a time. We feel we have accomplished that and took steps forward.

“Overall, we feel we are deeper across the board, and our roster has increased by 15 to 20 players.”

The Kids are coming off a East Penn Conference (EPC) Northern Division title and an overall 12-1 record and advanced to the second round of the District 11 Class 6A playoffs before their season ended with a 21-7 loss to Freedom.

They scored 365 points and limited their opponents to only 97 during the regular season. The Kids will lose quarterback Cooper King, who threw for more than 1,400 yards with 16 touchdowns and just one interception, but they return a number of players on both sides of the ball.

“We are excited about our offensive and defensive skills at every position,” noted Toman. “Our strength is going to be skills and their experience.”

Northampton did graduate Caden Reph and Austin Cavallo, Ethan Schweitzer and Andrew Sharga on their front lines, and the foursome’s contributions will be missed.

Seniors Luke Baker and Christian Bundra return to both sides of the line as well as junior Colby Reph.

Others in the mix on the offensive side will be seniors Anthony Gordon, Joe Doumat, and Dylan Legath, along with juniors Jacob Ladd and Jake Biery.

Toman expects the spots to be decided in the next upcoming weeks.

“We’re still developing and competing on both the offensive and defensive lines,” he added. “We won’t know where we are regarding the line play until we begin to hit.”

One of the major questions facing the team is the replacement for King. Senior Antonio Russo and juniors AJ Slivka and Jayden Huber are in the hunt.

“The quarterback battle is still ongoing, but all have taken steps forward during the summer,” said Toman. “We’ll use our scrimmage to make a decision.”

The Kids will scrimmage Allentown Central Catholic Aug. 20 before their season opener against Pocono Mountain West Aug. 26.

“We have a good feeling about the season,” said Toman. “There is a good chemistry here.”