Taylor Bertolet was riding a wave of success when he was upended.

Bertolet, the former Exeter standout, accepted a scholarship to kick at Texas A&M and scored 106 points in 2012 when the Aggies finished 11-2 behind Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

After his s u c c e s s f u l freshman season, Bertolet remained the A&M kicker until he missed two extra points in a 42-13 rout of SMU early the next season and lost his job.

“It happened quickly,” Bertolet said this week. “I missed two kicks, and I got pulled. I was having success. It was a pretty big shock to me. I thought I was in a good place.

“It made me even hungrier. It made me want to get back into that role. I didn’t take the easy way out, which is put my head down and walk around campus like: ‘This is crappy. I’m far away from home. This is bad.’ I refused to do that. I wasn’t going to let one game define who I am.”

Bertolet continued to handle kickoffs the rest of that season and last season before regaining his job this year as a senior. He’s one of the reasons why the Aggies are 5-2 going into Saturday’s game against South Carolina.

He’s made 13-of-17 field goal tries, including three from 50 yards or longer, and all 22 of his extra points for 61 points. He credits his offseason work on his mental approach for his comeback this year.

“Being a placekicker and being under the pressure that we face, you have to be able to train the mental side of kicking,” Bertolet said. “That’s a huge part. You can have all the physical talent in the world, but when it comes time to perform in a high-pressure situation you have to be able to trust the work that you’ve put in.

“It’s a tough thing for younger kickers to do.”

Bertolet was rated the No. 1 high school kicker in the country by Rivals after he made 10-of-14 field goals at Exeter and was named to The Associated Press Class AAAA All-State first team.

He was redshirted in 2011 while playing behind Randy Bullock, who won the Lou Groza Award that year as the nation’s top kicker and who’s now with the Houston Texans.

Bertolet burst onto the scene the following year, making three field goals 50 yards or longer and joining Manziel as the first freshmen in school history to score at least 100 points. But even then, he had trouble with extra points.

When he missed three PATs in 2013, giving him 10 misses in his first 17 games, coach Kevin Sumlin replaced him with Josh Lambo, who held the job through last season and is now a rookie with the San Diego Chargers.

“When I was younger, I made the mistake of overthinking and overanalyzing the kick,” Bertolet said. “When you make kicking simpler, it makes things go a lot easier and smoother.

“If you stay confident when you line up for a kick, if you stay relaxed and if you’re decisive, then you’re going to be way more successful than somebody who looks more at the technical side of it.”

After Bertolet lost the job, the first person he called was his older brother, Matt, a former kicker at Exeter who he said is his hero, role model and mentor

“He taught me everything I know about kicking” Bertolet said. “I told him how I felt. He was behind me 100 percent. My brother knew what I was going through. He was there to support me and keep me motivated. He wouldn’t let me drop my head.”

Even though he wasn’t the A&M placekicker, Bertolet continued to kick off, which he said helped him a great deal. He had 65 touchbacks in 2012, which ranked third in the nation, and has had more than 55 percent of his kickoffs wind up as touchbacks.

“That was a big positive,” he said. “There was still hope. You’re still a part of the team. You’re still kicking. It’s an exciting part of the game. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but there are a lot of guys who would still wish to be in that position.”

Even though Lambo was off to the NFL, Bertolet still had to beat out heralded freshman Daniel LaCamera this year. He worked on narrow Arena Football League uprights in the offseason, which helped him win the job.

He kicked a 55-yarder against Mississippi State this month, the longest at Kyle Field since 1999. The following week, he hit from 54 and 52 yards in a 41-23 loss to Alabama. His misses this year have come from 38, 49, 52 and 55 yards.

“I felt really good going into this season,” Bertolet said. “I worked hard and stayed confident. I got my chance to kick field goals again, and I think it’s gone pretty successful.”

Bertolet also is an outstanding student. He’s been named to the Southeastern Conference academic honor roll three times and received his bachelor’s degree in psychology in May. He wants to become a sports psychologist when his football career ends.

“I wouldn’t trade my time at Texas A&M for anything,” he said. “I think it’s been the biggest growing experience of my life. I wanted to be at a big-time school. I wanted to play in a big stadium. I wanted to be on that stage.

“I knew what I was signing up for. I know what the life of a kicker entails. You have to go through tough times, and you have to be able to withstand them.”

In health care, change is the word.

“Since the Affordable Care Act, we’re facing tremendous change,” said Dr. D. Michael Baxter, chairman of the Berks County Medical Society ’s executive council.

“Look at St. Joe’s and Penn State,” he said of the former St. Joseph Medical Center in Bern Township going under the Penn State Health umbrella. “Things are changing all around us.

“The medical society has to be flexible and help doctors deal with all the changes going on.”

Fitting the theme of change, the medical society has a new executive director, T.J. Huckleberry, 33, who is settling into the post after his first few weeks on the job.

Health care is changing, and the Sinking Spring resident said he could not wait to get started in his new role. “Being able to advocate for doctors, being able to be their voice in Berks County is a great opportunity and honor,” Huckleberry said. “The medical field, both legislatively and policywise, has been constantly moving and changing in the last five to 10 years, so this is very exciting.”

Huckleberry follows Bruce R. Weidman, who served as the medical society’s executive director for more than 27 years before retiring in June 2014. Huckleberry’s background is in politics, most recently serving as a staffer for state Sen. Judy Schwank, a Ruscombmanor Township Democrat. He also sits on Sinking Spring Borough Council.

Baxter said Huckleberry’s background in politics will be a big asset for the medical society. Many of the discussions that happen among lawmakers directly affect doctors, patients in Berks and the rest of the nation.

“He brings a lot of political experience with him, which is always valuable,” Baxter said. “A lot of issues that take place in Harrisburg and (Washington) D.C. affect doctors and patients and the way health care is delivered in this state. The medical society plays a role in those conversations.”

Huckleberry said that Berks has one of the most active medical societies in the state and a strong crop of doctors providing care in the region.

“We’re lucky right now,” he said. “We have a lot of dedicated physicians, a lot of independent practices and two major hospitals.

“We do have a physician-oriented and medically minded county. We have a strong presence in the community. We’re very fortunate to have that.”

Berks County has one of the oldest medical societies in the country, dating back to 1824, Baxter said. The organization in an advocate for doctors and patients, provides programs for doctors and gives physicians a place to get together.
Huckleberry said recruiting and helping young physicians is another goal.

“It’s a matter of keeping the best and brightest here in Berks County,” he said. “A lot of young physicians have the growing pains starting their own businesses, entering their own field. We have veterans who can assist them.”

He said doctors are at the center of a lot of health and medical policy issues that are debated, and Huckleberry said it’s an exciting time to be a part of that conversation.

“For me the goal is outreach and advocacy,” he said. “I’m ecstatic to be a part of this.”

Exeter man had love affair with cycling

Born: Sept. 1, 1954.
Died: April 13. He was 60.
Residence: Born and raised in Exeter Township, where he remained throughout his life.

Family: Survived by his mother, Mildred A. Winterhalter of Exeter Township; two sisters: Ruth Ann, wife of George Von Nieda of Reading; and Jill, wife of Chris Giles of West Lawn; a brother, Jon, husband of Debra of Sinking Spring; his companion, Peggy Romanies of Leesport; and four nephews.

Interesting accomplishment: The son of a bicycle shop owner, David was heavy into cycling for much of his life. He was a member of the Berks County Bicycle Club, and during and after college, a licensed amateur bicycle racer who competed in track and road race events throughout Pennsylvania and surrounding states. He’s credited with drawing several local cyclists into the sport.

David Winterhalter was fresh out of high school, in college at Kutztown in 1973 when his father opened up a bicycle shop on their Exeter Township property.

Home for summer break, he’d work in the shop helping to put bikes together.

But riding himself?

“He kind of turned his nose up at it,” said David’s partner, Peggy Romanies. “David was at first like, ‘Why would I want to bike? I’m 19, I have a car.’ ”

In talking to those who came in and out of the shop, he decided to give it a whirl. And that’s when he fell in love. For years, David lived above the shop.

“At one time he owned 19 bikes,” said Romanies of Leesport. “He was a bachelor, and he had no furniture. Instead, he had bicycles on stands.”

David would spend the next several years immersed in the sport — competing in road and track races across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast — before chronic pain forced him to give up riding from the mid-’80s until just a few years ago.

A lifelong Exeter Township resident, David died April 13 after losing his battle with brain cancer. He was just 60.

At Exeter High School in the early ’70s, he was an accomplished athlete, playing on the football and basketball teams. “That’s probably why he got into bikes,” said his sister, Jill Giles of Spring Township. “He had that athlete in him.”

David was a member of the Berks County Bicycle Club, which his father, the late Carroll A. Winterhalter, helped to found in the fall of 1973. After giving up biking in the 1980s, he built and flew radio-controlled airplanes, in addition to sharpening his pool game. A former employee of General Battery Corp., David earned a degree from Lincoln Technical Institute after graduating with a liberal arts degree from Kutztown. He later worked as an electronics technician for Videotek/ Harris Corporation and most recently Micro-Coax in Limerick.

It had been more than 20 years since David had given up biking, when out of the blue in 2012, he decided to give it another go.

“I don’t know why, but he just decided, ‘I want to try biking again,’ ” said Romanies, his girlfriend of nearly seven years. “He thought, ‘You know what, I’m just going to take the bike around the block and see how it goes.’ ”

Despite pain — mostly in the sciatica — David kept at it, riding a little farther each day. He reconnected with an old friend from the bike shop, and together, the two began going for weekend rides, doing as much as 50 miles of strenuous hills.

“He just pushed himself,” Romanies said. “Like a jogger, you get into that zone.”

In winter, David got a special stand for his bike, which he continued to ride at home to keep his stamina up.

A quiet man, David had a dry sense of humor and was very private about his life, Giles and Romanies said.

“When he walked into a room, he would rather you not notice him,” Romanies said. “He wanted to be the wallflower.”  David’s family and friends plan to install a memorial bench along one of the trails in the area in his honor.

“He loved to be active,” Romanies said. “He just couldn’t understand, why wouldn’t you bike? He’d say to people, ‘You can cover so much ground.’ ”

Chip Lutz has a flair for accomplishing whatever he sets out to do. In 2010, the year he celebrated his 55th birthday and joined the world of senior amateur golf, he set his sights on winning the most prestigious tournaments in his age bracket.

Lutz did just that, becoming one of the most dominant senior amateurs in the world. This week, Lutz, a lifelong Berks County resident, has been honored for his long list of accomplishments in five short years.

Lutz was inducted into the National  Senior Amateur Hall of Fame Wednesday night at High Point, N.C. Lutz was this year’s only inductee. He joins a list of members that includes former USGA president Fred Ridley and Philadelphia area players O. Gordon Brewer and William Hyndman III.

The Hall holds a tournament each year in conjunction with the induction ceremony. The 54-hole event is being played at High Point Country Club and concludes Friday. Lutz won last year’s tournament. He shot 2-over 74 Wednesday and trails leader Gary Robinson of Fayetteville, N.C., by six shots.

Lutz, who also will be inducted into the Pennsylvania State Sports Hall of Fame this year, has a nearly flawless senior amateur record.

Lutz won British Senior Amateur and Canadian Senior Amateur titles in 2011 and 2012. He’s a three-time U.S. Senior Amateur semifinalist. He was the silver medal winner for lower amateur at the British Senior Open in 2012, ’13 and ’14.  Lutz also is a five-time Golf Association of Philadelphia Senior Player of the Year. His win at the Philadelphia Senior Amateur last September helped him become the first player to win Philadelphia’s Junior (1972), Amateur (1977), Mid-Amateur (1998, 2007) and Senior Amateur championships. Lutz also was the Golfweek National Senior Player of the Year in 2010 and ’11.

If you turn your television to CMT around 9:30 tonight, you might see a familiar face.

Bobby Grey, who graduated from Exeter High School in 2002, will be featured on the CMT special, “Ron White’s Comedy Salute to the Troops.”

Grey, 31, now of Thomasville, N.C., served in Iraq in the Marines. That tour left him struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD ultimately led him to attempt suicide. As an ambassador for the Armed Forces Foundation, Grey shares his story with other soldiers to dispel stigmas and encourage others to seek help.

When the terrorist attacks happened on Sept. 11, 2001, Grey was a senior in high school. He decided then that he would join the Marine Corps.Grey left for boot camp in December 2003 and was deployed to Iraq by September of the following year.

He said it was a pretty quick turnaround for a 19-year-old, going from a classroom to a combat zone.

Leaving the Marines in 2007, Grey fell deep into depression, experiencing survivor’s guilt and PTSD. This culminated on Memorial Day 2013.

Grey has no memories of that fateful day. What he knows of the day comes from his wife, Kia, and neighbors.That day Grey posted on Facebook about his buddies who had died at his feet after a truck bomb exploded in Iraq. When he arrived home from work, he fought with his wife, taking out his anger on her. Grey went to the bedroom, trying to cool his temper, so Kia gave him space.

Then Kia’s phone rang. Grey doesn’t know if he pocket-dialed his wife, but when she picked up the phone, Kia heard the sound of a struggle. She found him hanging from a tree in the backyard by an electrical cord.

Kia’s screams reached the neighbor’s ears. Together, they cut Grey down and called 9-1-1. Kia performed CPR on her husband’s limp body until the ambulance arrived.

“If she wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have Bobby here today,” said Ricky Grey, 23, of Exeter Township, Bobby’s younger brother.

When Bobby Grey woke up from a coma in the hospital two weeks later, he had no idea what had happened.

For the next year, he attended his counseling sessions and PTSD classes at the Department of Veterans Affairs facility.

“I still didn’t believe it was me,” he said. “I didn’t want to have PTSD.”

Finally, he realized he was going to fall back into deep depression if he didn’t fight back. He decided to make a video to tell his story, down to the last gritty detail.

Bobby Grey had been worried about the stigma of PTSD. But he found that by telling his story, he helped others find strength to face PTSD. Now, he has told his story to other veterans at various events, been on two television shows on Fox, and tonight he will appear on CMT. In telling his story, he has found that he is not alone.

Grey’s advice for veterans struggling with PTSD is that “not talking is your worst enemy.”

Once you start speaking up, he said, veterans will find “there are more people for you than there are against you.”

Daniel M. Simon, a 1993 graduate of Exeter High School who has served with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for 14 years, has been named commander of the NOAA Ship Hi’ialakai that’s moored just off Howland Island in the South Pacific to map and assess the reefs in the area.

The promotion for the 39-year-old son of Ronald and Lorraine Simon of Exeter Township came in October and makes him among NOAA’s youngest commanders.

“I didn’t expect to be promoted in rank or sea assignments as quickly as I have,” Simon said in an email interview.

Once stationed in cold outposts such as Greenland and the South Pole, Simon said the Hawaiian island of Oahu where the Hi’ialakai is based is better.

“Oahu really is a beautiful place,” he said. “It’s pretty far removed, although nothing like the South Pole, but the weather is always great and a beach is never far away.”

The 224-foot Hi’ialakai was built in 1984 for the Navy as the USNS Vindicator that hunted Russian submarines until the end of the Cold War. The ship then was turned over to the Coast Guard and recommissioned by NOAA as the Hi’ialakai in 2004.

With up to 50 crew and scientists, it works in the tropical areas of the Pacific Ocean.

Simon said among its main missions are conducting coral reef ecosystem mapping, and coral reef health and fish stock studies.

“Much of the data is collected by divers that we deploy on small boats,” he said, noting that by project’s end in May, the crews will have made about 2,500 dives.

The reef assessments will occur around the islands of American Samoa, Johnston Atoll, Howland Island, Baker Island, Jarvis Island, and Palmyra and Kingman Reefs.

Simon had a hands-on part in data collection during other assignments, but noted his scientific role now is smaller because he has to make sure the ship and its systems are working, allowing the crews to work safely.

“However, I was able to look off the ship and watch dolphins chase tuna this morning,” he said. “If that’s the role I have to play in the science, I’ll take it!”

In 2002, on his first sea assignment on the NOAA Ship Miller Freeman, Simon met a deck hand named Shelagh Baird from Big Sur, Cal.

He said they became friends but both traveled a lot. However, they met again in Seattle in 2006. They married in 2010, and have two boys.

Simon said he’d taken more adventurous trips when he was single.

“Getting married was definitely worth the change,” he said. “But in the end, as I look out my porthole on to the Amelia Earhart Memorial on Howland Island surrounded by endless ocean, I’m not sure this is less adventurous.”