The first day of high school camp for PIAA schools (In Delco, that’s everyone sans Inter-Ac League) is Monday, Aug. 13. Many teams, though, hold unofficial practices and training sessions in order to prepare for the rigors of training camp.
I’ve been exchanging emails and texts with one area college scout as well as local coaches (both current and former) in recent days. Here are some of the things they’re saying:
“O’Hara has some big boys on the line. I like their athleticism all the way around, too. The one kid (junior athlete Thaddeus Smith) has big potential (and) reminds me a lot of (ex-Lion Damiere Shaw, who is playing at Temple).”
Smith showed flashes of brilliance as a complementary player last fall, often overshadowed by the aforementioned Shaw and Jay Watkins, who accounted for 1,039 rushing yards. Smith displayed playmaking ability similar to Shaw and Watkins
Here’s another view from one scout, discussing his thoughts about the quarterback situation at Ridley..
“It’s hard not to like them every) year, but what about the QB position? Starts and ends there with every (Central League) team…”
Well, there’s no secret that Ridley has a history developing spectacular signal callers…
“(They’ve) been down the last couple years there. Disappointing, even. Hard to tell, way too soon, but they better have someone that steps up there and makes smart decisions. Coach (Dennis) Decker is too good of a football mind. I have to believe there’s some talent coming though in the pipelines.”
I’ll have more little pre-camp tidbits in the coming days…
TWEET OF THE DAY…
So, @DelcoSports asked players, coaches and fans to chime in on anything Delco football-related.We thought it would be fun to post a few tweets on this blog every now and then.
Our first comes from Archbishop Carroll running back Eric Massenberg (@MASSiveAmbition). The Patriots look to make considerable strides this year under second-year coach Joe Powel.
Feel free to tweet your thoughts about upcoming season @DTMattSmith
Tweeted Massenberg: “(Quarterback) Sal (Bello) is back and Coach Powel is working us hard. We should be solid.”
We have a lot in store on Delcofootball.com this season, including preseason rankings and news and notes. I’ll post links to blog posts as well as audio updates on Twitter @delcosports and @dtmattsmith.
Once practice officially begins Aug. 13, the Daily Times staff will be on location at EVERY high school camp in the county as we work on our annual preview guide. Stay tuned.
