Cole Weist and his Tussey Mountain teammates were more than excited to put the pads and helmets on for real Friday night.
And when they did, their performance was quite exciting as well.
Weist ran for 121 yards with a touchdown and a pair of two-point conversions, in helping the Titans defeat Claysburg-Kimmel, 42-28.
"Every football team talks about how much preparation they put into the season," said Weist, one of six seniors for Tussey Mountain. "I believe that we worked for this. The anxiety and excitement for this was unbelievable."
Weist is one of the upperclassmen that has been through some tough times with the Titan program of late, as only three wins over the past two seasons was on the record prior to Friday.
Tussey decided to go a different way in the offseason, bringing in Anthony Sottasante as the team's new head coach. Sottasante previously coached on the scholastic level at Columbia High School in District 3.
Along with a very uptempo type of offense, Sottasante also introduced the term "WADL" to the Titans. It stands for "Win All Day Long," and goes beyond whatever happens on the football field.
"It means that not only are we respectful on the field win or lose, but we accomplish daily tasks off the field," said Weist. "We're not just athletes, we're student athletes, and students first."
Tussey Mountain will look for a 2-0 start when it hosts Everett, also 1-0, this Friday.
NOTE: This is the first piece of a new series, entitled "Spring's Spotlight," that I expect to continue throughout the school year, and involve not only football but other sports.
Monday, August 27, 2018
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Countdown to Kickoff
We're now less than 48 hours from the opening whistle of the 2018 high school football season. Despite all the rain over the late spring and summer, Friday night's forecast as of now is for near-perfect weather, which is also a welcome sign.
And there's plenty of intrigue around my coverage area for the Bedford Gazette. By the way, the Gazette's annual preview insert comes out on Friday (I didn't do much for the issue, so forward any comments/concerns to others not named Ryan Spring, LOL).
Here's some of the top storylines in my opinion:
Chestnut Ridge to the Laurel Highlands
The Lions, who have been very good of late, find themselves back in a league this fall as a full member of the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference. They will have a lot of new faces in the skill positions, and their development will be key. I've heard some people saying that Ridge will struggle in the LHAC, but to that point, I'll make two counterpoints.
First, I would argue that Chestnut Ridge's independent scheduling over the past decade has been just as rigorous as any league team. The Lions have faced opponents such as Berks Catholic, Fort Hill and Allegany from Maryland, Musselman from West Virginia, plus more regional powers like Berlin, Portage, Tyrone and others.
Second, in the 10 seasons against many of those above, Chestnut Ridge has had only one losing season, and that was 5-6 in 2009.
Sure, like mentioned above, Max Shoemaker will have a lot of new people on his first string offense and defense, but it is one of the stronger football programs from top to bottom around right now. The Lions draw one of the LHAC favorites, Forest Hills, right out of the box on Friday night in Sidman, and while I'm not sure they could pull out an upset in that one, I wouldn't sleep on them over the rest of the fall.
Rest of the LHAC
Bedford, my other team in the league, has had a couple down years of late, but I expect the Bisons to be better. That said, I think they're still a year or two away from contending. They do avoid Bishop Guilfoyle on the schedule this season, which helps.
It appears as if Forest Hills and Bishop Guilfoyle are the preseason favorites, while it could be a battle between several teams for the next slot or two.
New Coaches
There's two new head coaches in my area, and they'll face each other in two days as Claysburg-Kimmel visits Tussey Mountain.
After winning its first playoff game in nearly 30 years, the Bulldogs gave the reigns to Matt Bilchak, who is the head man for the first time anywhere. He was an assistant to Dan Foor previously. Bilchak has a nice nucleus of starters back and expectations are up in CK country.
Meanwhile, the Titans went with Anthony Sottasante, who previously coached at Columbia in District 3.
Tussey Mountain has only three wins in the past two years, but rumors are a scrimmage this past weekend with perennial WestPAC power Portage went better than expected. A scrimmage is a scrimmage, so I don't know what can be taken out of it. But it's at the very least some positive vibes for the Titan faithful.
Inter-County Glory
It's a broken record, but it seems again like the road to an ICC title goes through Bellwood-Antis. Despite the fact that legendary coach John Hayes retired, the Blue Devils should be strong again, as assistant Nick Lovrich moved up to Hayes' spot.
The contenders could include Juniata Valley, Claysburg, and Southern Huntingdon.
Northern Bedford isn't getting a lot of press, but that's probably how Black Panthers' coach Garry Black likes it, coming off a district championship in 2017. Like Chestnut Ridge, Black will have a lot of skill position changes from a year ago. Central and Southern Huntingdon in the first two weeks will be challenges, but could also pave the way for success later on in the season. By the way, the Southern Huntingdon game is on a Thursday if you saw that and thought it was a misprint. The game is at Southern next Thursday, August 30.
And there's plenty of intrigue around my coverage area for the Bedford Gazette. By the way, the Gazette's annual preview insert comes out on Friday (I didn't do much for the issue, so forward any comments/concerns to others not named Ryan Spring, LOL).
Here's some of the top storylines in my opinion:
Chestnut Ridge to the Laurel Highlands
The Lions, who have been very good of late, find themselves back in a league this fall as a full member of the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference. They will have a lot of new faces in the skill positions, and their development will be key. I've heard some people saying that Ridge will struggle in the LHAC, but to that point, I'll make two counterpoints.
First, I would argue that Chestnut Ridge's independent scheduling over the past decade has been just as rigorous as any league team. The Lions have faced opponents such as Berks Catholic, Fort Hill and Allegany from Maryland, Musselman from West Virginia, plus more regional powers like Berlin, Portage, Tyrone and others.
Second, in the 10 seasons against many of those above, Chestnut Ridge has had only one losing season, and that was 5-6 in 2009.
Sure, like mentioned above, Max Shoemaker will have a lot of new people on his first string offense and defense, but it is one of the stronger football programs from top to bottom around right now. The Lions draw one of the LHAC favorites, Forest Hills, right out of the box on Friday night in Sidman, and while I'm not sure they could pull out an upset in that one, I wouldn't sleep on them over the rest of the fall.
Rest of the LHAC
Bedford, my other team in the league, has had a couple down years of late, but I expect the Bisons to be better. That said, I think they're still a year or two away from contending. They do avoid Bishop Guilfoyle on the schedule this season, which helps.
It appears as if Forest Hills and Bishop Guilfoyle are the preseason favorites, while it could be a battle between several teams for the next slot or two.
New Coaches
There's two new head coaches in my area, and they'll face each other in two days as Claysburg-Kimmel visits Tussey Mountain.
After winning its first playoff game in nearly 30 years, the Bulldogs gave the reigns to Matt Bilchak, who is the head man for the first time anywhere. He was an assistant to Dan Foor previously. Bilchak has a nice nucleus of starters back and expectations are up in CK country.
Meanwhile, the Titans went with Anthony Sottasante, who previously coached at Columbia in District 3.
Tussey Mountain has only three wins in the past two years, but rumors are a scrimmage this past weekend with perennial WestPAC power Portage went better than expected. A scrimmage is a scrimmage, so I don't know what can be taken out of it. But it's at the very least some positive vibes for the Titan faithful.
Inter-County Glory
It's a broken record, but it seems again like the road to an ICC title goes through Bellwood-Antis. Despite the fact that legendary coach John Hayes retired, the Blue Devils should be strong again, as assistant Nick Lovrich moved up to Hayes' spot.
The contenders could include Juniata Valley, Claysburg, and Southern Huntingdon.
Northern Bedford isn't getting a lot of press, but that's probably how Black Panthers' coach Garry Black likes it, coming off a district championship in 2017. Like Chestnut Ridge, Black will have a lot of skill position changes from a year ago. Central and Southern Huntingdon in the first two weeks will be challenges, but could also pave the way for success later on in the season. By the way, the Southern Huntingdon game is on a Thursday if you saw that and thought it was a misprint. The game is at Southern next Thursday, August 30.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Cassidy back in Bedford colors
With two promising years left as a varsity wrestler, Kaden Cassidy is returning to his roots as a member of Bedford's team.
A former junior wrestling standout in the Bison program, Cassidy was a PIAA third-place finisher at 106 pounds for Bishop McCort as a freshman. Last season at Chestnut Ridge, Cassidy began on a high note by winning the King of the Mountain Tournament, but missed the rest of the season due to injuries.
Cassidy won a Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling (PJW) state title in 2016 for Bedford, and will certainly be a nice building block for new Bisons' coach Joel Easter.
Cassidy and his family moved back into the Bedford Area School District over the summer. The transfer between the two county schools was approved at the recent District 5 meeting, and the new PIAA rules regarding transfers sitting out postseason events do not apply in this case, as Cassidy's move was prior to the state's August 6 deadline.
A former junior wrestling standout in the Bison program, Cassidy was a PIAA third-place finisher at 106 pounds for Bishop McCort as a freshman. Last season at Chestnut Ridge, Cassidy began on a high note by winning the King of the Mountain Tournament, but missed the rest of the season due to injuries.
Cassidy won a Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling (PJW) state title in 2016 for Bedford, and will certainly be a nice building block for new Bisons' coach Joel Easter.
Cassidy and his family moved back into the Bedford Area School District over the summer. The transfer between the two county schools was approved at the recent District 5 meeting, and the new PIAA rules regarding transfers sitting out postseason events do not apply in this case, as Cassidy's move was prior to the state's August 6 deadline.
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