This column originally appeared in the Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012 print edition of The Mercury.

There isn’t a soul on the current Spring-Ford roster who was born when Lance Viola was taking snaps from center Jerry Hoff and terrorizing the opposition with his throwing arm (and that seemingly always perfectly timed quarterback draw) from 1971 through 1973.

Come to think of it, there aren’t many (if any) parents of players on the current Spring-Ford roster who were even born when Viola led the Rams to the Ches-Mont League title his senior season.

Viola was good … really, really good. And what made Viola so good was his poise, his ability to throw accurately with a defender or two hanging on him, his knack for turning a game around, if not dominating it … his confidence.

He also owned practically every Spring-Ford passing record, too, at least until Trevor Sasek broke a few before his final season in 2009, and Hank Coyne erased all of them since, or up through last Saturday afternoon’s District 1-Class AAAA semifinal win at Pennridge.

“He’s good,” the now 56-year-old Viola said shortly after being introduced to Coyne on the sidelines Saturday and wishing him luck in this week’s district final against Coatesville at Downingtown West High School.

“(Coyne) throws a nice ball. He looks good out there. Just make sure he doesn’t break my interception record.”

If there is one entry in that record book Coyne won’t break it is Viola’s interception mark, and Viola – who laughed about his remark — would prefer it that way because turnovers don’t necessarily lead to wins. And Viola wants nothing more than for Coyne to keep lighting it up and the Rams to keep winning.

If there has been one specific aspect of the 6-foot-2, 180-pound Coyne’s game that has been overshadowed by his otherwise glowing numbers it’s his maturity, his awareness, his confidence … all of which add up to fewer and fewer mistakes, fewer and fewer interceptions, and fewer and fewer losses.

Coyne threw for 1,750 yards and 21 touchdowns as a sophomore, numbers tainted somewhat by 14 interceptions. With the presence of a running game last year, he still threw for 1,840 yards and 16 touchdowns, and cut his interceptions in half — down to seven — in helping Spring-Ford to the Pioneer Athletic Conference title and the program’s very first postseason appearance.

This season, Coyne is up to 1,880 yards with 23 touchdowns ... and just five picks. He went the first four games of the season without one, and was on another four-game roll before getting intercepted during the second-round upset of Ridley.

He also threw another in last Saturday’s semifinal — on his second attempt of the afternoon — and it was returned for a touchdown.

But he responded by completing 10 of his remaining 12 attempts for 193 yards and two touchdowns — one a perfect loft-it-deep, 61-yard bomb to Gary Hopkins in the second quarter to give the Rams the lead for good, and a 25-yard strike to Zameer McDowell in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.

“Hank is very hard on himself,” said Spring-Ford head coach Chad Brubaker. “I got on his case for the interception, then went back to him and said, ‘Let’s go … forget about it.’ We also called a few plays to get him going again. His first completion after the interception he took a huge shot, but put the ball in between three defenders on a completion to McDowell. His next throw was the touchdown to Hopkins, again a perfect pitch-and-catch.”

That’s also when Brubaker, and more importantly the Rams, realized who had the upper hand.

“I forgot about it,” Coyne said. “I didn’t get down. None of us got down at all.”

“We knew Hank was back,” Brubaker said, “and the rest of the game he exuded confidence, not only in his throws but in trying to get us into better run plays.”

Coyne may actually have been at his best after teammate Travis Daywalt’s interception in the end zone with 7:38 remaining in the game. He completed a pair of third-down passes to keep the possession alive and eat up every last second on the clock.

That’s the kind of execution Coyne and the Rams will need Friday night.

“We’re very confident with Hank (at quarterback),” Brubaker said.

So much like former head coach Merle Bainbridge was with Viola a long, long time ago.

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Coyne, 26 of 48 for 477 yards and five touchdowns in the Rams’ three postseason games this month, goes into the district final within reach of two Mercury area all-time career records. He needs three completions and seven attempts to break Perkiomen Valley graduate Zach Zulli’s respective marks of 374 and 680. Coyne’s 5,470 passing yards are second only to Zulli’s 5,844, while his 60 touchdowns are fourth and total net yards (5,388) are eighth on The Mercury charts. … Coyne has won more games (31) than any other Spring-Ford quarterback, and helped the Rams set a single-season school records for wins (12)) and points scored (477).