It’s about that time … no, not time for kick-off. But at least time to plan where you’ll be when the high school football season begins this Friday (I’ll be taking a trip to Academy Park, for those interested).
So while you peruse the Week 1 schedule under the scores tab and check out each team’s week-by-week schedules under their team archive pages, you can also weigh in with our weekly poll in the main page sidebar: What game are you looking forward to most this weekend?
Over the next couple weeks we will take you inside training camp of your favorite Delco team. For full reports on every team, make sure to check out our annual football preview guide, due out Aug. 30.
1. Chambers heading out wide
Breyon Chambers was Chester’s starting quarterback last season, one where he tossed eight touchdown passes for the Clippers. But even though there’s a four-man competition for who’ll take the snaps this year, one certainty is that it won’t be Chambers. He’s moving to wide receiver and defensive back. So what’s the biggest difference in going from throwing the passes to catching them? “Catching the ball,” Chambers said with a smile. “I like receiver better because I’m a bigger asset to the team if I play receiver and D-back.
2. A fresh(man) take
One of the four quarterbacks in the hunt for the starting job is freshman Nahmir Ishmael. He might have the best arm of the four and head coach Chuck Crews likes Ishmael’s heart and toughness a lot. Crews also thinks highly of Ishmael’s ability to stay calm. “He’s too young to be scared,” Crews said. “He’s calm.”
3. Getting off the line
How’s this for an interesting position switch? Senior Anthony Moss spent last season on the offensive and defensive lines. This year, he goes to…running back and linebacker? But Moss likes where’s at for his final season. “I should have picked (running back) after ninth grade, and I regret not picking it,” Moss said. Why O-line and D-line then? “Lazy,” Moss said. “I didn’t want to do anything. I wasn’t even sure until tenth grade that I wanted to play football.”
— MATT CHANDIK
Over the next couple weeks we will take you inside training camp of your favorite Delco team. For full reports on every team, make sure to check out our annual football preview guide, due out Aug. 30.
1. Eagles confidence soaring
It’s clear that Chichester snapping a historic 31-game losing streak is doing wonders for the program. So much so, in fact, that the Eagles consider themselves to be a threat to win the Del Val League. It’s a possibility with the talent they have returning, but who could have imagined such a train of thought when they were losing all of those games? “I think we’re going to win the Del Val,” senior tight end and outside linebacker Corbyn Nyemah said. “We can do it.”
2. Anderson the change of pace
DeJuan Santana is the No. 1 running back and Na’ceem Antenor has the speed, quickness and agility to be a dangerous change-of-pace back, but head coach Ryan Smith is really high on fullback Trey Anderson as the third piece to what could be a potent ground attack. “He’s so strong and he’s worked really hard,” Smith said of Anderson. “He runs hard and he can break some tackles. I think we’ll have a pretty good ground game.”
— MATT CHANDIK
Over the next couple weeks we will take you inside training camp of your favorite Delco team. For full reports on every team, make sure to check out our annual football preview guide, due out Aug. 30.
1. Not your average Inter-Ac team
When you think of the Inter-Ac, you can be forgiven for conjuring images of three yards and a cloud of dust. But this Haverford School team isn’t of the run-between-the-tackles ilk. They’ve got a playbook that rivals many small colleges and aren’t afraid to open things up. It’s a good thing, too, as they must replace all five starting linemen from a season ago. They’ve got some pieces, including seniors Joe Soloman and Stu Denious, but expect this to be a team that doesn’t simply win games in the trenches.
2. Galambos the destroyer
There’s no two ways about it: New Pitt commit Matt Galambos is a beast. He’s an agile pass-catching tight end who is an utter matchup nightmare, mainly because he can run through any linebackers that could possibly run with him (as a scout-teamer found out Wednesday the hard way). Quarterback Steve Fitzgerald is under order to get Galambos the ball anytime he identifies one-on-one coverage. He’s also a ball hawk on defense, a valuable commodity as the Fords sort out their line packages.
3. Speed kills
Continuing with the theme of not being a stereotypical Inter-Ac team, the Fords have some playmakers who while young can get to the edge and make things happen. Fitzgerald isn’t afraid to tuck the ball and run. In the backfield, junior Anthony Hill returns with experience, while sophomores Phil Poquie and Niles Easley have shown flashes of a some serious upside. Combine that with Chris Morgan out wide and Galambos, and this Fords team has the potential to be explosive.
Over the next couple weeks we will take you inside training camp of your favorite Delco team. For full reports on every team, make sure to check out our annual football preview guide, due out Aug. 30.
1. Trying to kick an old habit
Despite the fact that the football team always seems to ooze athleticism, the Battlin’ Bulls never seem to be able to lock down a consistent kicker until right before the first game. The main reason? They’re busy trying to see if the soccer team can provide one, and it usually does. Head coach Kevin Owens doesn’t have anyone in mind yet, but… “The soccer team’s finding me a kicker,” Owens said with a hearty laugh. “They’re working on it.”
2. Some pretty big bigs
Owens always finds a way to produce top-notch running backs, including Baltimore Ravens second-round pick Bernard Pierce a few years ago and All-Delco George Walker last year. There might not be one as good as those two, but it might not matter. The Bulls always have a huge offensive line, and this one’s anchored by 6-2, 290-pound Frank Thompson at right tackle and 6-3, 327-pound left tackle in…wait for it…freshman (!!) R.A. Thomas. Safe to say that those two suit Owens’ power running scheme pretty well.
3. A veteran under center
He’s the lone returnee on the team, and quarterback Alexander Cheatham takes over full-time under center. After mainly lining up in the I, the ace and the shotgun for, well, a long time, Cheatham says the Bulls will incorporate some of the pistol formation into their playbook this year. “It helps me see the field better,” Cheatham said of the pistol, “especially with those big linemen in front of me.”
Over the next couple weeks we will take you inside training camp of your favorite Delco team. For full reports on every team, make sure to check out our annual football preview guide, due out Aug. 30.
1. A change of scheme
Head coach Jim Grugan is scrapping the four- and five-wide sets that Sun Valley ran last year in favor of a Wing-T offense based out of the pistol formation. So…Pistol-T, if you will. It will give the Vanguards’ playmakers the ball more quickly and not have to put as much stress on new quarterback T.J. Mancini.
2. Chandler one to watch
Grugan seemed genuinely excited about what sophomore wingback/defensive back Juwan Chandler can do for the Vanguards. Chandler barely missed the cut for All-Ches-Mont League honors a year ago, but he appears poised for a breakout year. He caught 23 passes for 393 yards and a pair of scores last year, and there’s a belief that he’ll be able to do more as a wingback in the Pistol-T. Chandler seems to be penciled in as a starter at wingback, cornerback, punt returner and kick returner. Somewhere in there, he might have to occasionally take a breath.
3. Drawing a veteran line
There are significant losses on offense – namely at quarterback (Billy Hudson) and wide receiver (Anthony Okoorian) – but Grugan has the luxury of bringing back four offensive linemen that started a year ago in Derrick Seng (right tackle), Ed Racine (right guard), Ryan France (center) and Mike Bruton (left guard). The best part? Grugan mentioned new left tackle Brian Bowden, the lone non-returnee, has impressed so much that he’s almost caught up to the others.
– Matt Chandik
Over the next couple weeks we will take you inside training camp of your favorite Delco team. For full reports on every team, make sure to check out our annual football preview guide, due out Aug. 30.
1. Meet the new running backs
Head coach Kevin Clancy has the uncanny ability to produce prolific running back after prolific running back, usually in pairs. It’s a feed-forward mechanism of his program’s success: They blow out teams, getting young players valuable experience that readies them for the spotlight so that when it’s their turns, they blow out teams, and so on. This year’s candidates: Tevon Howie (64 carries, 470 yards, 6 TDs in 2011) and Mike Moschella (11-71-1). A name to watch for the future is speedster Anthony Myers, who though just a sophomore, has a running style that bears a striking resemblance to graduated 1,000-yard back and All-Delco James Griffin.
2. A passing fad
There’s good news and bad news in the passing game. The good news is that quarterback Kevin Mohollen returns with a year under his belt and a cannon for an arm. The bad news is that the targets are limited. With the transfer of Wellington Zaza to Garnet Valley, the only player on the roster with a scholastic reception is Howie (three catches for 56 yards last year). Kevin Sherry has moved from guard to tight end – where he’ll still do a lot of run blocking – and John Fender will be a primary target as a tight end/slot receiver to remedy the issue. But the threat of vertically stretching the field with the speedster Zaza isn’t immediately replaceable.
3. Losses on the line
The graduation of the likes of All-Delco P.J. Plummer and stalwarts like Drew Platt from the line leave holes to be filled. Luckily, the Panthers have some bigs to fill the gaps on both sides of the ball. Henry Barnett, his Clay Matthews haircut and all, will play a role, as will youngsters like Brady Logan and Eric Legett.
Over the next couple weeks we will take you inside training camp of your favorite Delco team. For full reports on every team, make sure to check out our annual football preview guide, due out Aug. 30.
1. Ciao Bello
Last year’s season-ending injury to starting quarterback Jalal Timmons in the season opener put a damper on what proved to be the Patriots’ only win. But that silver lining was the seasoning back-up quarterback Sal Bello got a season ago. Miles ahead of where he was when he started, according to head coach Joe Powel, and having filled out a 6-1, 190-pound frame, Bello certainly looks the part of a starting QB.
2. Some things change, some stay the same
Bello has familiarity in terms of the weapons he has back. That includes running back Eric Massenberg, an interesting mix of low-to-the-ground speed who’s also recovering from a knee injury, and wide receiver Danny Bier. But he’s working in a new spread offense with offensive coordinator Mike McKay and wideouts coach Dan Pfeiffer reprising their roles as assistants to Powel dating back to their days at Archbishop Wood. If they get the schemes down, they could put up some points this season.
3. You stay classy
The one area in which Carroll will improve is completely out of their control: They bump down a class to AA. Instead of having to contend with Cardinal O’Hara, Wood and Bonner-Prendergast (though they’ll still book dates with them in the nonconference slate), they’ll get smaller schools like Conwell-Egan, Bishop McDevitt and Neumann-Goretti.
