www.kittanningpaper.comSaturday/Sunday • September 10-11, 2016 4

by Jake DeLuca

Wolves Squad Bigger Than Ever

First-year Armstrong Jr High Football Head Coach Markeis Allensworth chats with his team during Tuesday afternoon’s practice, passing on his knowl-edge and preparing these kids for a bright football future.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Zach Crispen Hunter Reedy

HIGH SCHOOL GAMES ON THE RADIO:WTYM 1380 AM LIVE BROADCAST:

Armstrong @ McKeesport AreaFriday, September 9 - Game Time: 7:00 PM

Ryan Vargo Hunter Reedy is a Senior at West Shamokin and has played the left guard on offense for years, but has spent time around the defensive line and linebacking corps during his career before ending up as a nose guard this season. This season Hunter wants to have the best season West Shamokin has ever had and as for personal goals Reedy says he wants to get off the line quick, blow up plays, and be a consistent force throughout the season. Hunter started playing football in the sixth grade when he wasn’t able to play baseball and he has loved football ever since. Hunter plans to join the Army once he is done with high school and in his free time he is either working or preparing for the Army.

ARMSTRONG WEST SHAMOKIN ARMSTRONG

Ryan Vargo is a Junior wide re-ceiver and outside linebacker for the Armstrong River Hawks. He expects himself and the team to adjust well to the 5-A WPIAL division. Ryan says that his friends and family are his main inspira-tion to start playing football. His favorite football memory was making the playoffs last year, which was also the first time in River Hawks history. If Ryan wasn’t playing wide receiver or outside linebacker he would like to play cornerback, because he feels like he can make plays on the ball defensively as well as offensively. Even though Ryan is a Patriots fan he says he doesn’t catch much flack from his team mates because their team motto is a Bill Belichick saying, “do your job”.

Zach Crispen is a Senior attending Armstrong High School and plays center and defensive tackle for the River Hawks. Playing on both sides of the line gives Zach the advantage of know-ing how opposing offensive and defen-sive linemen will try to challenge him throughout the game. Crispen expects the offensive line to be as good as ever to open up holes for the running game and protect the quarterback in the passing game. Zach says he is enjoying the higher level of competition in the WPIAL 5-A division, because it is only going to make him a better player. Zach said his favorite football memory was in JV when his grandfather saw him play and Zach got the opportunity to talk with him after the game.

WTYM AM1380 REBROADCAST: Saturday, September 10 - 10:00 AM

WTYM 1380 AM LIVE BROADCAST: Gateway @ Armstrong

Friday, September 16 - Game Time: 7:00 PM

WTYMradio.com/Mobile App LIVE BROADCAST: Purchase Line @ West Shamokin

Friday, September 9 - Game Time: 7:00 PMWTYM AM1380 REBROADCAST: Saturday, September 17 - 1:00 PM

WTYMradio.com/Mobile App LIVE BROADCAST: West Shamokin @ United

Friday, September 16 - Game Time: 7:00 PM

WTYM AM1380 REBROADCAST: Saturday, September 17 - 10:00 AM

WTYM AM1380 REBROADCAST: Saturday, September 10 - 1:00 PM

Junior High Football Teams Ready to Rumble

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Jr River Hawks Ready to GoThe West Shamokin Wolves Junior High football team is

ready for the season, and now with a bigger squad than ever the Wolves are poised to groom these young players into dif-ference makers on the field.

Jason McClafferty, the Head Coach for the junior high pro-gram said that this is the biggest team in a couple ways that he has had in the years he has been helping with the program.

“It’s the biggest team I have ever had, both in number of kids and size (of the kids). I have 22 kids on the roster and we have two kids who wear a size 15 shoe, and they’re only thirteen years old, so we have some pretty good sized boys, and the rest of them aren’t that small either,” McClafferty said of his team.

Although it is nice to be bigger than the teams you face off against, size does not always equal victory, and Jason knows this and has steps to ensure his players progress well through-out the season. For example, in their first scrimmage McClaf-ferty said the team struggled in pass blocking.

The solution? Having a couple varsity coaches come over to show them how they block properly.

“We struggled at blocking (in the scrimmage), but we ad-dressed that. A couple varsity coaches came over to help ad-dress that issue and I think we will be alright,” McClafferty explained.

Like most junior high programs, West Shamokin also runs the same or a simplified version of the varsity playbook.

“The reason we (run the same playbook as varsity) at the junior high level is because it’s more about education and not about winning and losing. To them (the players) it is about winning and losing for their competitiveness, but by the time they are done with the junior high program and they step into JV they should know the offense and defense, so at this level that’s what we teach them,” Jason explained.

Overall Jason is very happy with how the junior high program has come along since he started working with the Wolves.

“This program is coming along. I have been here for a few years now and the numbers at the junior high level, we are starting to see them grow. We want to get kids involved at this level and get them ready for the varsity level - keep our num-bers up, get the community involved, and have parents get kids

Some people say the most crucial time for a kid to start playing football is around the 7th grade, and the Armstrong River Hawks Junior High football squad looks to set them-selves up for a bright future in the game.

With scrimmages out of the way it is finally time to get to some regular season football for the Armstrong Junior High squad. River Hawks Head Coach Markeis Allens-worth went on to say what he was most impressed and sur-prised with in their scrimmage against Fox Chapel.

“The passing (impressed me the most); we didn’t think the passing would be ready, but we have three good quar-terbacks who I would like to see go the whole way through (to varsity). The quarterbacks are learning to read (de-fenses) real well and throw cross patterns, outs, and two of them can throw a nice fade (route),” Allensworth said of his signal callers.

Most of the time in high school and certainly in Junior High, the passing game is underdeveloped and takes a back seat to the rushing attack, but Coach Allensworth believes his team will have a nice mixture of both.

“(We want to) use the fast pace of the spread offense, but still with some old school tactics of hitting the middle heavy with a big back. That gives us flexibility because we have a lot of young athletes and I can move them in and out (of play),” Allensworth said.

This year the River Hawks Jr. High team is “split” into two squads, one being 7th graders and the other being 8th graders, however there is a catch. Coach Allensworth went on to explain the 7th and 8th grade teams.

“We have to run a double schedule this year with 7th and 8th grade. We only have seven 7th graders so the kids who don’t get in the 8th grade games will move down to help fill out the roster. We were going to have five 7th grade games - but now we have three, but what you will find is that we have quite a few 7th graders who are starting (on the 8th grade team),” Allensworth explained.

The number one thing that Allensworth is trying to do for these kids is to get them ready for the varsity level if they decide to go that route. He went on to say that the biggest

The West Shamokin Wolves Junior High squad pre-pared for their first game of the season by practicing special teams with 6’3” Wyatt Lager returning the ball on this play.

thing he and his coaching staff teach these young players is the playbook and basic fundamentals.

Coach Allensworth didn’t want to name any players specifically who may have stood out, be-cause he wants to mask it from the competition, but he did say this.

“We run and pass, tell them to be ready.”

involved,” McClafferty said.McClafferty had one last

message or call to action to those who are thinking about getting involved in local ath-letics at any level.

“Whether you’re just in the stands or if you want to try it out – get involved in any community activity; that’s the message I would like to get out.”