Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Friars can thank Gueriera for getting on field
This has been a different kind of year due to the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic has reached down and drastically disrupted the scholastic fall sports season. At Malvern Prep, the Friars’ fall sports programs were put on hiatus in late August, when the Inter-Academic League shut down fall sports with an eye toward a potential spring season.
Enter Malvern Prep head football coach Dave Gueriera.
The Friars’ head man could not stand to see his kids lose their season, especially his large senior class. Gueriera held voluntary workouts, camps and behind the scenes tried to get his players some kind of football season, working tirelessly to make it happen in some form.
When other leagues around Pennsylvania showed they were going to play high school football, including the one in Malvern’s backyard — the ChesMont League — Gueriera organized a nonleague schedule for the Friars.
Yes, Malvern Prep would play football, just not against traditional rivals like Episcopal Academy or Germantown Academy, but against the likes of Salesianum, the Hun School and Archbishop Wood.
Then, with nearly everyone playing around them, the InterAc League reversed its course, as many other leagues had already done and said two weeks ago, that they were in for fall sports.
Except they made it clear they did not want to include Malvern Prep in the league slate.
No reasons were explicitly given, so we can only guess it was little bit of retribution for Gueriera and his staff breaking off and trying to give the Friars some games this fall.
Oh, or it could be they did not want to get steamrolled by the talented and loaded Malvern squad.
As hard as Gueriera fought for his kids to have a season, those same players paid back their head coach Saturday in the Friars’ opener as they opened up a commanding 35-0 lead on Salesianum at halftime and coasted home from there. You could just feel the emotion and passion the Friars’ players had in them on the sidelines and on the playing field.
Yes, Malvern Prep is one of the best teams in Pennsylvania. Gueriera, who came to the Friars after a successful stint at West Chester East, is surrounded by a very capable staff, headed by defensive coordinator Joe Carr. Carr was defensive coordinator for Strath Haven back when the Panthers were winning district and state titles, before a successful run at West Chester Rustin. Dante Coles, the former Conestoga and Temple University star, is also back with the Friars and he lends his vast experience to the Malvern players.
Throw in perhaps the best athlete in the state in Penn State University commit Lonnie White, and you can see why the Friars are so dangerous.
White is also a top level baseball player, who is rumored to be a first round pick in next June’s Major League Baseball Draft. White is a superlative receiver who is also playing in the defensive backfield this fall. He can also play quarterback and may be used in the Wildcat offense.
Malvern had a down year last year for the Friars’ high standards, losing two games in the Inter-Ac League, and Gueriera fought and fought behind the scenes for his kids to have some kind of season, league schedule or not. And the Malvern players know it was the man who leads them who fought the hardest for them, even when it was unpopular in some circles.
The Friars’ schedule is a gauntlet, littered with the best the region has to offer, so no one knows what the final record will be. What is known is the tight bond between the players and a head coach who would not stop fighting for what he thought was right. Fighting for his kids.
And that is what high school sports should be about anyway. Peter DiGiovanni covers high school football for The Daily Local News. You can email him at pdigiovanni07@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteDLN.