Bobcat Football Preview (09/01/15)

The Clarion Area High School Football Team will begin their 2015 Season, this Friday (September 4th),  as they take on the Allegheny-Clarion Valley Falcons, in Foxburg.

Coach Wiser during 2015 Pre-Season drills

The Cats who are coming off their fifth straight KSAC Small School championship, will be looking to have another successful season, as they return a number of key players from 2014 and have some younger players stepping up. Head coach Larry Wiser shared insight on his team, for the upcoming season.

Offensively, we return most of the line. That’s going to be one of the strengths of the team this year. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some of our linemen: Mike Bartley and Zack Huet, Will Staub and Alexander Burkhart (The line paved the way for 325.5 rushing yards per game). Those are four kids that played a lot of ball last year, starting for us all the time. They were together as sophomores, playing JVs.

(Burkhart and Bartley were All-Conference last year. Burkhart was All-State.)

2015 Bobcat Seniors (L-R) Alexander Burkhart, Zack Huet, Caleb Bailey, Bo Miller, Will Staub, Mike Bartley, Adrian Weber, Luke Nellis

Obviously, Brendan “Bo” Miller getting back at quarterback (after missing much of last season with an injury), once he develops some time between himself and the receivers, will be huge. That is going to be a work in progress as we go through the season.

Colton Rapp (619 yards rushing – Clarion freshman record) returns at running back along with Caleb Bailey. Kyle Patterson has also looked good at tailback. We’re hoping to get a situation, where we run tailback by committee. One of the moves we made is moving Luke Nellis to fullback, when we need a yard. Mike McCloskey is also there.

I also like some of these young guys. The success on offense is going to depend largely on how well we stay healthy, week to week and making the adjustments that are necessary, because teams are going to give us different looks defensively.

We return more people defensively than on the offensive side. Two of my linebackers are back, Luke Nellis (104 tackles) and Colton Rapp (103 tackles). Both were among the leaders in the district in tackling, last year. We have two or three other candidates for the other linebacker position. We have experience at nose and tackle. Mike Bartley played a lot of defensive end last year. We have a couple of guys vying for the other defensive end position.

Coaches, McClaine and Burkhart working with their HOGS

Everybody has experience in the secondary. Spencer Miller (42 tackles) played a lot of free safety, filling in for Bo. He’s moving to strong safety this year. Ty Burford, Josh Kreibel and Adrian Weber are three kids who played a lot of cornerback in Junior Varsity and some Varsity, last year. Bo will be the leader, getting people in the right places and things like that.

I’m excited there. That was one of the areas I thought, we had less experience last year. But I feel, we may be a little ahead, this year.

I think the key defensively is playing team defense, getting people to get to the ball and coming up with some leadership. You’re always going to face some adversity out there. I love those kids that love to be around the football, that love playing defense and that love tackling. I hope that continues to evolve.

We have seven kids from North Clarion, this year, out of our thirty-six or thirty-seven kids. Josh Vanek is a junior. The rest are sophomores. Tom Wurster, (who saw Varsity playing time last season) was from North Clarion, but his family has moved into the Clarion Area District. The North Clarion kids have really given us some depth, which I am really excited about.

Coach Weber working a drill with defensive backs

The consistency of the coaching staff is a key. I’ve got guys that are good teachers. We’re all on the same target about teaching kids to play the game and do it right. They all have high expectations, which is important to stretch these kids, to get them to believe that they can become (good football players). Everyone takes their responsibility here as a team effort.

Other individuals: Dave McClaine (video), the Slikes (equipment managers), the new athletic trainer, Jared Rich, Marianne Family Practice, Dr. Long, Doctor Kenneson. And Dr. Armstrong has been pretty instrumental in helping us over the years.

It’s a whole community thing in many ways. The community supports us by getting the team to camp (at Lycoming College), which is so important to us. It allows kids to do other things throughout the summer and they don’t have to live football year round. In a small community that’s tough, because you have to rely on baseball players, basketball players and wrestlers, track stars.

Like Clockwork: Kevin “Fonzie” Slike, Equipment Manager for well over 20 years, back for another season

So if we can get the kids away to camp, we get a week’s head start. That has been so beneficial to us over the years. That has been, by and large, because a lot of local businesses have contributed a lot of money to send kids to camp. By and large, the community supports the program.

I’m happy if we win the next game and we move on to the next one. If I emphasize one thing to these kids, it’s that. We take what we do wrong one week and work to fix it the next. Do we run the ball better, do we pass the ball better, do we play special teams better? It’s week to week. It’s that preparation. It’s becoming a better football team the next week. It’s not so much looking at wins and losses. Those take care of themselves.

We’ve won a lot of games over the years that we were supposed to win. I don’t think we were upset that much. So week to week, our kids don’t look past anybody. Don’t look behind. Don’t look forward. Look at what is right in front of you.

(And continuing with that philosophy should lead to a successful 2015 season and many more to come. LET’S GO CATS!!!!)

2015 BOBCATS FOOTBALL ROSTER

NO. PLAYER YR. HT. WT. POS.

1 Adrian Weber Sr. 5’10” 151 WR/DB
2 Caleb Bailey Sr. 5’10” 160 RB/DB
3 Brendan Miller Sr. 6’2″ 182 QB/DB
5 Traeson Douglas So. 5’8″ 147 QB/DB
7 Josh Vanek Jr. 5’11” 172 TE/DE
8 Spencer Miller So. 5’11” 152 QB/DB
10 Keeven Weaver So. 6’0″ 159 WR/DB
11 Cameron Hearst So. 5’11” 146 WR/DB
14 Ryley McMaster So. 5’9″ 142 WR/DB
17 Ty Burford Jr. 6’3″ 176 WR/DB
21 Kyle Patterson Jr. 5’10” 155 RB/LB
22 Micah Custer Jr. 5’11” 163 RB/DE
24 Cameron Craig So. 5’10” 160 K
27 John McSwain So. 5’7″ 151 RB/DT
28 Korbin Schill So. 5’9″ 188 RB/DT
31 Jacob Selker So. 5’10” 156 TE/DE
33 Michael McCloskey Jr. 5’10” 175 RB/LB
40 Colton Rapp So. 5’8″ 154 RB/LB
42 Colt Stimmell So. 5’10” 171 RB/DE
44 Luke Nellis Sr. 6’1″ 218 RB/LB
50 Cole Boyer Jr. 5’8″ 193 OL/LB
52 Noah Meyers So. 5’11” 233 OL/DT
53 Zak Bauer So. 5’11” 215 OL/LB
54 Will Staub Sr. 5’8″ 236 OL/DT
56 Alexander Burkhart Sr. 5’10” 217 OL/DT
58 Nick Cherico So. 6’2″ 221 OL/DT
60 Karlin Hiles Jr. 5’6″ 191 OL/DT
62 Jay Remmick Jr. 5’10” 175 OL/LB
64 Michael Bartley Sr. 6’3″ 218 OL/DE
66 Carter Shipley Jr. 6’3″ 224 OL/DE
75 Seth Nellis So. 5’10” 189 OL/LB
76 Tyler Finefrock Jr. 6’0″ 268 OL/DT
77 Zack Huet Sr. 6’1″ 236 OL/DT
79 Trevor Crownover So. 6’2″ 315 OL/DT
81 Josh Kriebel Jr. 5’11” 179 WR/DB
82 Clayton Adams So. 6’2″ 140 WR/DB
86 Dominic Fleming Jr. 5’9″ 173 TE/DT
89 Thomas Wurster So. 6’2″ 211 TE/DE

COACHING STAFF
Head Coach Larry Wiser –  Linebackers – Defensive Coordinator
Assistant Coach Scott Miller – Wide Receivers/Defensive Backs – Special Teams Coordinator
Assistant Coach Lee Weber – Running Backs/Defensive Ends
Assistant Coach Don Skunda – Quarterbacks – Offensive Coordinator
Assistant Coach Nate McClaine – Offensive Line/Defensive Tackles
Assistant Coach Ray Burkhart – Offensive Line/Defensive Tackles

(Go to the Schedule Page for the schedules for the all the fall sports teams.)