Aug. 17—Amier Burdine fondly remembers going to Reading High football practices and games with his stepfather, former Red Knights star Sam Bryant, when Bryant was an assistant coach.
As a student in elementary school, Burdine watched the Red Knights, looked up to them and dreamed of playing at Shirk Stadium.
“Football is first, for sure,” he said. “I love it. I always wanted to be one of them when I got older.”
Burdine also plays basketball at Reading and was a key reserve on its PIAA Class 6A championship team earlier this year. He comes from a family whose name is synonymous with Red Knights hoops.
Football, though, is his passion. He’s a junior quarterback and entering an important season from a recruiting standpoint. He wants to make up for the time he lost in the spring when he suffered a season-ending concussion.
“This is his third year,” Knights coach Andre Doyle said. “I expect him to take major leaps and bounds. I expect him to have pocket presence and understand when it’s time to pull the ball down and run and when it’s not to.”
Burdine enjoyed some bright moments as a freshman in 2019. He returned a kickoff for a touchdown and threw for a score against Kutztown in his first game. He ran for 116 yards against Oxford and passed for 154 yards against Daniel Boone.
And, he threw the game-winning 22-yard touchdown pass against Twin Valley.
“He’s the best quarterback I ever played with,” senior wide receiver Deshawn Wilson said. “He’s a dual threat. He can scramble. He can throw on the run. He’s a really good passer. He throws excellent balls.
“If it’s tight coverage, he can get the ball to you. If it’s loose coverage, he’s going to throw it on the dot.”
The Red Knights went 0-5 in the spring against District 1 teams in the United X League after their season was canceled last fall because of the pandemic. They played almost the entire season without Burdine, who suffered a concussion in the first half against Father Judge in the opener, and Wilson, who moved to Florida with his family in order to receive in-person teaching.
Wilson, who’s also a reserve on the basketball team, carries a 3.75 grade-point average and has been contacted by Penn, Princeton and Columbia. He caught 22 passes for 325 yards two years ago.
“Academics is the most important piece for him,” Doyle said. “When he found out we were going back into the classroom at Reading, he decided to come back to spend his senior year with us. We couldn’t be happier.”
Burdine’s other favorite target probably will be senior Jayse Ganns, who didn’t play organized football until the spring. He caught one pass for 2 yards and made two interceptions.
“Everything was new to him,” Doyle said, “but he learned quickly to the point where we could not help but make him a starter. He’s not only made the push to win the starting position, but he also stepped up as a team leader. It’s quite awesome.
“When you get to know Jayse, the type of person he is and the type of family he comes from, it wasn’t surprising.”
As two of only five seniors on the roster, Ganns and Wilson are doing what they can to lead the Knights.
“I love them,” Burdine said. “They’re cool. Jayse is a big target who can go up and get the ball. It’s good to have Shawnie back here for his senior year. He’s explosive. He can make moves and take it to the house.”
Much of Reading’s success will depend on Burdine, who Doyle said he would like to see become a more demonstrative leader. His teammates already look up to him.
“He’s like our quiet assassin,” Doyle said. “He doesn’t say much. I expect to see him grow not just on the field, but as a young man as a whole. That means knowing when to speak up. For him and his role on the team, we’re going to need some leadership characteristics from him that are more outgoing.”
Burdine’s father, Dennis, better known as “Fatz”, was a teammate of Donyell Marshall in the early 1990s. His brother, Zhykier, led the Knights in scoring in 2012-13 and 2013-14. His cousins, Jordan and Trenity, each topped 1,000 career points.
Amier is a terrific defensive player in basketball who forced two turnovers in the Knights’ one-point win over Archbishop Wood in the state final less than two weeks after he suffered his concussion.
He hopes he can teach his football teammates some of the lessons he’s learned from basketball.
“I can show the team how important chemistry is,” Burdine said. “We’re from Reading. We can actually do this.”