Bobcat Football Preview (08/27/14)

The Clarion Bobcat Football Team had probably the finest season in school history in 2013: KSAC Small School Championship, District Nine – Class A Championship, State Semi-Final participant, third most points ever scored by a school in Pennsylvania. The list goes on and on.

(Photos of Tuesday’s practice)

But 2014 is a different season. Losing a number of starters on both sides of the ball, to graduation including four All-State players: Damien Slike, Cody Hearst, Benton Reichart and Antonio Troese as well as the school’s all-time career passing yardage leader, John Katis, one could think that the Cats’ would have a rough season ahead.

But wait a minute. The Bobcats have three All-State performers back, Ian Corbett, Destin Strauser and Brendan Miller as well as other starters. And then there were non-starters from last season, who got a great amount of vital game experience, by virtue of many of last year’s games being decided before the second half. I’d say this should be a very promising season and hopes for another Conference and District Title are not unreasonable.

Coach Larry Wiser, whose team enters the season needing just two victories to put the football program at 475 victories, shared his thoughts on this year’s team after practice on Tuesday. He started by addressing the situation of reloading the team, “We’re not pro football. But even in pro football there seems to be such turnover, but I think high school football’s always been that way. I look at it as being an exciting challenge, taking a new group of guys and starting over again. That’s really where we’re at. We’re starting over again.

“But we have some great kids coming back who can be great examples of how to do it right. Plus I think we had a pretty good group of underclassmen who, even though they didn’t get to start, they did get quite a bit of work.

“Like every year, you hope to reload versus starting anew. I prefer the idea of reloading and coming out with a whole new team. Every year the team takes on the character of its seniors. I don’t think this year is going to be any different. We’re going to need some strong leadership.

“Good football teams are the ones that practice hard. We keep talking about getting to that wall and finding that new person and stretching yourself a little bit and finding that other player. I think we are still in the work of trying to get that accomplished here. And that’s always been the struggle, being the coach and it’s kind of the fun thing. Getting kids to do things they didn’t think they could do… they could work that hard… catch that ball that well, or run that hard or make that block that well. That’s really the art of trying to be a coach, I think.”

Coach Wiser then listed various key players on this year’s team, “Bo (Brendan Miller) is going to be the starting quarterback against A-C Valley. That’s something we are working hard on, getting the timing between the receivers and the quarterback. Bo worked with many of these kids, Adrian (Weber) and Ethan (Straffin) and so forth, in JVs last year. It’s still coming out and starting over again, developing the timing and getting a line to mesh with them.”

And what about this season’s line? Coach Wiser said, “The Line is an all junior group right now. We probably have six guys vying for five positions. We may end up playing all six. I don’t normally rotate offensive linemen. Will Staub is at center. Alexander Burkhart is at one guard. Zach Sintobin is at another guard. Zack Huet is at one tackle position. Michael Bartley is at the other tackle position.

“It’s kind of interesting because these guys have played in those positions since ninth grade and maybe even eighth grade. We have Luke Nellis. He can play anywhere up and down the line. He missed the first week and a half of practice, so were just getting him into full swing. We think he can be a real talent for us.”

Coach Wiser then took up the subject of his running backs, “At running back we’ve got Jacob Troutman and Destin Strauser. Destin is one of the more physical players in the KSAC. He worked hard in the off season, to get ready for this year. Jacob has put on some weight. He’s looking real good. And they are both real good defensive players too. Jacob was right up there in the league, in terms of sacks from his nose guard position.”

And of his feature back Coach Wiser said, “Ian Corbett is going to be a fun back to watch. I would encourage anybody to come to a game (to watch Ian). I’ve coached a lot of great running backs over the years, and this kid… he’s got that ability to hit that other speed. When I say hit that other speed you can actually see it. It’s like the old race car going down there and the driver starts to hit that passing gear… he’s flying. He’s fun to watch.”

The defensive backfield looks solid. Coach Wiser said, “We return five guys on defense. Thomas Plummer was are nickel back a lot of times and played a lot of times at corner. The other corner, Adrian Weber played a lot last year in JV and also in Varsity games. He’s looking good. And I think Taylor Smith could play either of the corner positions.

“We’re looking at Matt Wagner at strong safety. There are some young kids who are coming along. When you have a kid come up in tenth grade, you don’t get much of a chance to see them. But when you get into JV games, you can really find out a lot more about some of them.”

Then Coach Wiser moved on to the linebackers and defensive line, saying, “We moved Ian Corbett back from defensive end, to the Will Back. We’re experimenting a lot with that. Strauser is moving from the Sam to the Mike (or middle linebacker). Luke Nellis is the Sam backer. And the young freshman, who is a cousin of a linebacker we had a few years ago (Bobcat All-State linebacker, Brad Rapp) Colton Rapp. He looks real good at that linebacker and I have no problem putting him in there at any time.

“At defensive end we have Zach Sintobin. Ethan of course returns with 12 sacks at the one end and Michael Bartley. So we’ve got some ability to rotate and keep the kids fresh. I think that’s important to do, especially at the beginning of the year. And it looks like we’re going to have a hotter September than August. There were some days we had coats on for August.

“On the defensive line, Jacob Troutman returns at the nose guard position. Alexander Burkhart and Zack Huet (will be in the interior) and a young sophomore, Tyler Finefrock could see some time there also. And again we are hoping that some sophomores will push up and play well there too.”

Coach Wiser shared about the kicking and punting game: “Bo Miller returns. He was pretty good at kicking off last year, although we only had to play him one way. So it will be interesting to see him play both offense and defense, starting both. And he will be both PAT and kickoff. He’s replacing a pretty big loss, in Antonio Troese. (Bo’s) brother Spencer(Miller) is doing a pretty good job for us right now. We haven’t really gotten a chance to work on the punting game, in a scrimmage situation so it’ll be interesting.”

Coach Wiser laughed and said, “But, I hope we don’t punt. I’ll put the pressure on (Offensive Coordinator) Coach Smith.”

The Coach isn’t in to the game of predicting his team’s top opponents in the Conference and District. He said, “Anyone who knows me, and the kids know, it’s the first game. I’m not looking forward to next week. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s practice and the things we need to correct tomorrow. That’s going to be the measuring tape of how good a football team we are going to be this year. How well we come out each week and correct the mistakes we are making and grow as a team.”

Coach Wiser ended by sharing some philosophy on football and life in general, “It’s a journey. It’s not a one day happening. It’s a real journey. Last year we were kind of fortunate that it took place over several months. And that’s what you wanted. The lessons that I hope my kids always get, is that that’s life in itself. You can be satisfied, don’t get me wrong. But you are always looking at ways of bettering yourself as a person. And that’s what I think sports in general should be doing for kids…

“And playing as a group, that’s going to be the real key. There’s going to be some adversity and all of us in life face that. And how we react to that is going to tell what kind of team we are going to be.”

If this team plays as a team and as friends, like last year’s team did, some nice things will be in store for 2014.