2009 Season Overview; Top 10 Rankings; Golden 11s
By Gorden Blain
SE PA Football Inventory
Teams
Octorara, New Hope-Solebury and Boys Latin of Philadelphia Charter School launch varsity football teams this season. Octorara and New Hope-Solebury have been playing a junior varsity schedule the past three years. After playing an independent schedule this season, Octorara joins the Ches-Mont American Division and New Hope-Solebury joins the Bicentennial League in 2010. New Hope-Solebury began as a club team three years ago. While the school board has approved the existence of a varsity team, the team is 100 percent funded by the booster club, not the school. By contrast, the Public League’s Freire Charter will not have a varsity team this season. With this net gain of two teams, there are 131 high school football teams in Southeast Pennsylvania. They compete in 12 different conferences, which are comprised of 22 divisions. All but the six teams in the Inter-Ac and five prep schools are members of the PIAA, which enables them to compete for the District 1 and 12 championships and the PIAA State championships in Hershey.

Players
In the nine years of writing for and editing the Trend’s Southeastern PA High School Football Preview and in the 15 years as editor of SPORTSfever Magazine’s PA Football Fever Preview, I have not seen an season when there was such an abundance of talented offensive playmakers returning and a lack of dominant linemen in Southeast PA football. The 2008 Stat Leaders list I have compiled with the help of high school beat writers like Ted Silary and others is dominated by players who are returning this season. QBs Drew Loughery (La Salle), Sam Kind (Abington), Bret Gillespie (Downingtown West), Trey Lauletta (Downingtown East), Tony Smith (Father Judge), Ryan Ticknell (Quakertown) and Tyler Hamilton (Council Rock North) all passed for more than 1,500 yards last season and return this season on the verge of smashing school records and joining the 4,000 yards career club. Northeast QB Malik Stokes needs only 329 yards to become the Public League’s all-time career passing yardage leader.

There’s six running backs on the list of the top 15 rushing leaders from 2008 who return this season. Upper Moreland’s Chris Smallwood (3,020 career yards) and Bristol’s Woodrow Vorters (3,474 career yards) are the leading candidates to join the 4,000-yard career club. These are just the leaders. There are many others returning with eye-popping statistics. In just the Suburban One National, the top four teams have their starting QB, RB and WR all returning and all of them produced significant yards in 2008.

By contrast, when discussing the upcoming season with the head coaches, I have repeatedly heard time and time again, “Our offense is in place, but we need to find linemen.” I have found over the years that there are always big, strong, experienced linemen on most teams’ rosters in SE PA and that I always had plenty of names to pick from to fill the OL and DL spots on the All Southeastern PA and league Golden 11s. But the numbers of proven linemen just aren’t there this season. They may be in the pipeline and ready to emerge but offensive and defensive line coaches have their work cut out for them to identify and develop the guys upfront and in the trenches.

On the other hand, offensive coordinators and statisticians are going to be busy this season. There’s no doubt that the evolution of the shot-gun, spread offenses in high school and the concerted effort by coaches to take their best athletes and develop them into versatile, dual-threat QBs is reaping benefits. Ultimately, the players and the fans are the benefactors. We’re going see a lot of exciting, high-scoring games this season with more than enough plays worthy of the Sports TV networks’ Top 10 Plays of the Day.

Of all of the new coaches, none has a more difficult task than John Iannucci who replaces Van Smith at Harry S. Truman—to which he says, “No problem.” The Tigers have been sorely undermanned in the Suburban One National Conference (once known as the Power 10), overmatched against powerhouse heavyweights Neshaminy, Pennsbury, North Penn, Council Rock North and South, Central Bucks West, East and South and an emerging heavy-hitter Abington. Since 2000, the Tigers have a 10-55 conference record—just three wins since 2002-- and a 25-80 record overall.

“It’s high school football,” says Iannucci, succinctly putting all into perspective. “It’s going to take a while to get the program going. We’ve got a good nucleus of seniors. There used to be six or seven show up for summer workouts. We’ve been getting 40.” Iannucci, 56, who was the head coach at Cherry Hill two years ago and has also coached in college, fashions himself as doctor of cellar-dweller high school football teams, taking on the challenge and resurrecting them from the dead.

“I took over a team that had lost 49 in a row, another that had lost 37 in a row,” he says. “One that had three coaches in five years. Six of the last eight teams I’ve coached went on to the state playoffs.”

First game of the season in Pennsylvania
The first day high school football teams are permitted to play their first game is Friday September 4—and no sooner. The PIAA is hardline on this one. As best as can be determined, the first two games of the football season in all of Pennsylvania are played in Southeast PA. This season, in what has grown into a tradition, Bishop McDevitt visits Lower Moreland and Southern faces Bok, with both games scheduled to kick off at 10 a.m. on September 4.

“We think it’s the first game in the state,” says Bishop McDevitt head coach and athletic director Pat Manzi. “It gets a lot of attention and everybody seems to like it.” Not to mention, it gives everyone who plays or coaches in the game or wants to attend the game, a chance to get out of town a little sooner to enjoy a little extra beach time one final time on the final weekend of the summer.

On the road again
Every summer since 2000, West Catholic head coach Brian Fluck sets out on a road trip that takes him throughout the Midwest, South and Northeast United States. However, it’s not a sight-seeing tour or leisurely vacation. Fluck has loaded up his own car or the school van or a van donated by friend of the football team with some of his players and off they have gone traveling thousands of miles to visit college campuses. They have visited numerous times Notre Dame, Michigan State, Michigan, Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pitt, Penn State, Syracuse, Connecticut, North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke, Tennessee, Miami, Florida and Florida State, to name a few. The players who make the trip with him are those who have the credentials of a major college football recruit. Where they visit and who makes the trip, all depends.

“It depends,” says Fluck. “Who’s getting looked at and where.” The first trip benefitted Michael Bazemore, who landed a full-ride scholarship to play LB at Michigan State. This past summer, Fluck took along lineman Jake Zuzek, RB Branden Holloman, LB Jim Lynch and DE Christian Padgett. They visited football camps and college coaches at Pitt, Syracuse, Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana and Notre Dame. The coaches at all of these universities have come to expect to see Fluck and company every summer. “I talk to those guys all of the time now,” says Fluck.

It’s all paid off. And Fluck has paid for it, for the most part, out of his own pocket--$2,000 to $3,000 an excursion. Zuzek, who has a number of scholarship offers to consider, would be the 15th West Catholic player to collect a scholarship to play Division 1 or FCS (1-AA) college football. Last season’s AP All-state QB Curtis Drake, who led the Burrs to the PIAA State AA championship game, is now a promising freshman prospect at Penn State.

District 1 vs. District 11 AAAA state playoffs
There’s a nasty rash on District 1 AAAA football, once thought to be the blemish-free beauty of Pennsylvania high school football. It’s been brought on by the District 11 AAAA teams, from the gritty, blue-collar Lehigh Valley, in the past four Decembers and five out of the last seven.Last December Liberty avenged a loss to North Penn in the season opener by defeating the Knights 21-14 when it counted most. The next week in Hershey, Liberty defeated WPIAL champion Bethel Park in the state final. Since 2002, the top teams from the Lehigh Valley, specifically Liberty and Parkland, have a 5-2 record in the PIAA State semifinal—the Eastern final—against the top Southeast PA AAAA teams—North Penn, Ridley and Pennsbury. A dramatic turnaround, considering the fact that District 11 teams were absent from the first 14 PIAA State AAAA championship games—six of which were won by District 1 teams. Is the District 11 the new sheriff in the East?

“I don’t know if it makes District 11 better than District 1,” says North Penn head coach Dick Beck. “You have two good teams playing on that day. One team wins. I guess these things go in cycles.” Beck says he doesn’t want to make excuses but he does anyway when he suggests that the District 11 champion has gained an advantage from the PIAA’s predetermined playoff brackets. District 11 faces the District 12 champion—the past five seasons that has been the Public League champion George Washington or Frankford—in the state quarterfinal. After a close call in the first state playoff game with the Pub’s AAAA team in 2004 (Easton 15, GW 10), this round of the playoffs has amounted to a breather for the District 11 champion, which has won the games by an average of 26.25 points. Meanwhile on the same weekend, the District 1 championship game pits two teams that are playing a grueling game against a tough and talented opponent for the fourth straight week. “It does help that they play a Public League team the week before,” says Beck. “They play half a game.”

That may change as soon as this fall. George Washington may have its best team yet and the Catholic League champion—which is likely to be La Salle, St. Joseph’s Prep or Cardinal O’Hara—may be the District 12 champion by defeating the Public League champion in the City Championship game. For now, District 11 has recent history on the books to back up any claim it has the upper hand versus District 1. Overall, thanks to the dominance of C.B. West in the 1990s, District 1 still rules with its 7-5 record in AAAA state finals. District 11 is 2-3. The WPIAL is 10-8. The D-1 vs. D-11 faceoff wastes no time heating up with the North Penn-Liberty opener.

Recruiting
Here’s how a consensus of national recruiting publications rate the top recruits in SE PA.
1. DT-OT Sharrif Floyd (6-3, 310, Sr.) George Washington
2. RB-DB Corey Brown (6-1,190,Sr.) Cardinal O’Hara
3. OL Seth Betancourt (6-6, 290, Sr.) St. Joseph’s Prep
4. C J.D. Dzurko (6-2, 270, Sr.) North Penn
5. WR-DB Erik Williams (6-3, 205, Sr.) Pennsbury
6. QB Malik Stokes (6-0, 160, Sr.) Northeast
7. DB-RB Ibraheim Campbell (5-11, 190, Sr.) Chestnut Hill Academy

Early verbal declarations
Class of 2010
OL Seth Betancourt 6-6 290 St. Joseph’s Prep BOSTON COLLEGE
LB Wyatt Benson 6-1 220 Haverford School TEMPLE
WR-DB Anthony Robey 5-10 175 Norristown TEMPLE
RB-LB Myron Ross 6-0 205 Wissahickon VANDERBILT
Class of 2012
QB Skyler Mornhinweg 6-3, 185 St. Joseph’s Prep STANFORD

Returning 2008 Associated Press All-State
AAAA
DT-OT Sharrif Floyd (6-3, 310, Sr.) George Washington
QB Drew Loughery (6-1, 195, Sr.) La Salle
QB Bret Gillespie (6-2, 195, Sr,) Downingtown West
AAA
RB Ryan Brumfield (5-10, 165, Jr.) Owen J. Roberts
LB Preston Hamlette (5-10, 200, Sr.) Pottsgrove
RB Chris Smallwood (6-0, 185, Sr.) Upper Moreland
RB-DB Rondell White (5-10, 175, Sr.) Bayard Rustin
DB Lonnie Richardson (5-11, 185, Sr.) Strath Haven
AA
OL Jake Zuzek (6-2, 290, Sr.) West Catholic

2008 Playoff Recap
District 12 Champions (City Title Games)
AAAA: George Washington 23, La Salle 14
AAA: Archbishop Wood 56, Dobbins 7
AA: West Catholic 55, Bok 0

District 1 Champions
AAAA: North Penn 28, Neshaminy 0
AAA: Bayard Rustin 21, Upper Moreland 14

District 1-2 Subregional Champions
AA: West Catholic 56, Ben Franklin 6
A: Communications Tech 22, Jenkintown 10

Public League Champions
AAAA: George Washington 41, Northeast 34
AAA: Dobbins 33, Mastbaum 6
AA: Bok
A: Communications Tech

Catholic League Champions
AAAA: La Salle 28, Father Judge 20
AAA: Archbishop Wood 44, Conwell-Egan 14
AA: West Catholic 56, Archbishop Carroll 7

PIAA State Tournament
AAAA
Quarterfinal
Liberty 30, George Washington 13
Semifinal
Liberty 21, North Penn 14
AAA
Quarterfinal
Archbishop Wood 37, Bayard Rustin 7
Semifinal
Archbishop Wood 13, Selinsgrove 7
State Championship
Thomas Jefferson 34, Archbishop Wood 7
AA
First Round
West Catholic 63, Palisades 20
Quarterfinal
West Catholic 49, Dunmore 21
Semifinal
West Catholic 37, Lancaster Catholic 14
State Championship
Wilmington 35, West Catholic 34 2 OTs
A
First round
Schuylkill Haven 43, Communications Tech 0

2009 Predictions
AAAA
St. Joseph’s Prep will meet Bishop McDevitt (District 3) in the PIAA State Championship game one week before Christmas in Hershey in the first-ever all-Catholic AAAA state final. La Salle starts the season as the Number 1 team in SE PA and it will stay there into November by defeating St. Joe’s Prep for the third straight time in the Catholic League AAAA opener on the last weekend of September. The two teams will meet again in the Red Division playoffs but it’s too much to ask of La Salle to make it four-in-a-row over The Prep. North Penn, with a deep lineup full of young, speedy bucks, or we should say Knights, will mature during the season (always does) and slug its way through the bruising District 1 playoffs, holding off surprise team Downingtown East in the final and advance to the PIAA State Semifinal, also called the Eastern final. The Prep will have knocked off three-time Public League George Washington, who coasted to a Pub crown, and District 11 champion Parkland in two down-to-the-wire games to get a rematch with North Penn, to whom it lost during a rugged first three weeks of the season that took the Hawks to West Virginia to play McKeesport and to Rutgers to play St. Peters. Unfortunately, the Prep, after such a long and wicked journey, won’t have enough left in the tank to finish the job. On what essentially is the Crusaders’ home field in Hershey, The Prep loses to McDevitt, a Harrisburg team that gave Eagles fans Ricky Watters and LeSean McCoy and is stocked with Division 1 recruits that finally found a way to keep the WPIAL champion at home for the holidays.
AAA
Pottsgrove will be the West Catholic of 2009. West Catholic lit up scoreboards all season long to reach the PIAA State AA championship game last season. The Falcons have the firepower to do the same this season. On the way to Hershey, Archbishop Wood, Bayard Rustin and Upper Moreland won’t be able to hang with the Falcons, who slip by a rugged Coal Region team (Selinsgrove-Berwick-Blue Mountain-Abington Heights) in the Eastern Final. Unfortunately for Pottsgrove, the WPIAL’s Thomas Jefferson is a AAA team that plays like a barrel-chested AAAA team. TJ will win its third straight AAA state championship over Pottsgrove.
AA
West Catholic, the 2008 state runnerup, remains the team to beat among SE PA AA teams but the Burrs won’t advance past the state quarterfinals. They lose to Dunmore, the team they beat in the quarters last season. The state final will match Lancaster Catholic, with its record-setting QB Kyle Smith who earlier in the playoffs jumped over Downingtown East’s Pat Devlin as the all-time passing yardage leader in PA, against Sto-Rox, the WPIAL champion, which made a late season push when Penn State QB recruit Paul Jones returned from an injury. Catholic makes it two out of three state titles for the Pope’s District 3 teams.
A
This small group of local teams just can’t get by the Coal Region teams in the first round of the state tournament. With its dynamic little back Woodrow Vorters, Bristol gives it a go this time around and quickly returns home to hand in its uniforms. The state champion will be Clairton.


Former Southeastern PA high school stars shine on SPORTSfever TV Network’s NCAA Division II College Football Game of the Week telecasts
For the third consecutive year, the SPORTSfever Television Network will televise an exciting NCAA Division II College Football Game of the Week, feature in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. PSAC teams such as West Chester, Kutztown, Bloomsburg, Shippensburg, East Stroudsburg, Clarion, Edinboro, Slippery Rock and IUP universities are featured every Saturday. Their lineups are stocked with former Southeastern PA standouts. Of the 96 players on the West Chester roster, 64 are from SE PA high schools. At Kutztown, 33 of 89 are from SE PA. Most of the high school players from SE PA who go one to play college football play for the PSAC universities. The schedule of games was not finalized before the Preview’s deadline. So check at pasportsfever.com or pacollegesports.net for the schedule and to identify the TV station and cable system affiliates in your area airing the games.

Southeast PA Super 10
1.La Salle… An unstoppable pass offense
2. St. Joseph’s Prep… Score to settle with La Salle and North Penn
3. Neshaminy… Always has championship-caliber toughness
4. George Washington… Determined to gain the respect of PIAA AAAA powerhouses
5. Pennsbury… Due to win the close calls
6. North Penn… Just too many talented players to pick from
7. Downingtown West… QB can light’em up
8. Cardinal O’Hara… Plenty of Division 1 recruits
9. Coatesville… Will surprise with new coach from York
10. Downingtown East.. A load of veterans with an attitude
5 to watch: Penncrest, Pottsgrove, Chestnut Hill Academy, Abington, Council Rock North

PIAA Top 5s
AAAA
1.La Salle
2. St. Joseph’s Prep
3. Neshaminy
4. George Washington
5. Pennsbury
AAA
1. Pottsgrove
2. Upper Moreland
3. Archbishop Wood
4. Bayard Rustin
5. Interboro
AA
1. West Catholic
2. Bishop McDevitt
3. Archbishop Carroll
4. Bok
5. Lower Moreland
A
1. Bristol
2. Jenkintown
3. Communications Tech
4. St. Pius X
5. Calvary Christian

All Southeasten PA Golden 11s
Offense
QB Bret Gillespie 6-2 200 Sr. Downingtown West
RB Corey Brown 6-1 190 Sr. Cardinal O’Hara
RB Chris Smallwood 5-10 190 Sr. Upper Moreland
WR Anthony Robey 5-10 175 Sr. Norristown
WR Erik Williams 6-3 205 Sr. Pennsbury
TE-HB Sam Feleccia 6-3 210 Sr. La Salle
OL Seth Betancourt 6-6 290 Sr. St. Joseph’s Prep
OL Nick Disandro 6-4 260 Sr. Abington
OL J.D. Dzurko 6-2 270 Sr. North Penn
OL Jake Zuzek 6-2 290 Sr. West Catholic
OL Derek Schartz 6-3 260 Sr. Council Rock South
OL Matt Williams 6-3 275 Sr. Cardinal O’Hara
PK Mike Bennett 6-1 180 Sr. La Salle
ATH-QB Malik Stokes 6-0 160 Sr. Northeast

Defense
DL Josh Coulter 6-2 225 Sr. Downingtown West
DL Shariff Floyd 6-3 295 Sr. George Washington
DL Josh Mitchell 6-1 280 Sr. Pennsbury
DL-LB Mike Huf 6-3 235 Sr. Cardinal O’Hara
LB Bill Labor 6-3 220 Sr. St. Joseph’s Prep
LB Corey Majors 6-0 210 Jr. Neshaminy
LB Wyatt Benson 6-1 220 Sr. Haverford School
LB Myron Ross 6-0 205 Sr. Wissahickon
DB Ibraheim Campbell 5-11 190 Sr. Chestnut Hill Academy
DB Tyler Hamilton 6-1 180 Sr. Council Rock North
DB Lonnie Richardson 5-11 185 Sr. Strath Haven
DB Rondell White 5-10 175 Sr. Bayard Rustin
P Geoff Delan 5-10 190 Sr. Quakertown
ATH-DB Terrell Chestnut 6-0 165 Jr. Pottsgrove