With summer workout scrapped, McShane knows time not on his side
FAIRLESS HILLS, PA. » Following the cancellation of the spring seasons, it is now time to start looking ahead to how the coronavirus is going to impactscholasticsportsinthefall.
In the case of Pennsylvania highschoolfootballteams,that time is already here because in a normal year the 7-on-7s and passing drills would have gotten underway next week at the beginning of June.
Witheverythingonholdand the future uncertain, the usual June and quite possibly July preparationfortheseasonisnot going to happen. And although there are others programs staring at the same problem, this was definitely the wrong year forthePennsburyfootballteam to be in a lockdown.
Although you can be sure Pennsbury has its usual array of talent and size, and seniors often have to wait their turn in this deep program, the Falcons did get rocked by graduation. This includes the return of only one starter on defense, the loss ofvirtuallyitsentirehugeoffensivelineandtheneedtoreplace most of its backs and receivers.
Obviously, when you need to fill in so many key components you want all the practice time you can get. As such, teamsthatwereontheyounger side last year should be in better shape to get their seasons off and running whenever that time may occur.
Furthermore, Pennsbury, along with rival Neshaminy, is now facing an even tougher schedules after the Suburban One League was again realignedinthefashionoftheold so-called Power 10.
Instead of playing all the Lower Bucks County teams, Pennsbury’snewSuburbanOne schedule includes Neshaminy, Abington, Pennridge, North Penn, Central Bucks West,
Central Bucks East and Central Bucks South.
Furthermore, it has crossovergamesagainstUpperDublin and Truman to go along its one non-league game against AcademyPark,whichadvanced to the District 1 Class 5A championship game last year. Just call it brutal.
“It’s going to be rough sledding,” said Falcon coach Dan McShane, whose team rebounded from a slow start last year to finish 6-5 and earn a District 1 Class 6A playoff berth. “But we will show up and play — if the governor lets us play.”
That is, indeed, the million dollar question and there’s all kinds of speculation where all of this is headed.
One idea is moving the footballseasontothespring.There’s also the idea, which some colleges have already apparently adopted, to start the season a littleearliertobeattheexpected flare up of the virus in the fall.
New Jersey football programs, of course, are facing the same dilemma, although their 7-on-7sdonotgetgoinguntilthe end of June.
It’s all uncharted territory and everyone is dealing with it in their own way.
“I almost feel like a freed man,” said McShane. “For the first time in 33 years for me it isn’t all about football at this time of the year. We’ve had some coaching meetings, but with the way it is right now I’m really not thinking about it. We hadaprettyextensive(pre-officialpractice)schedule,butallof that is off right now.”
Where the closure of schools hasalsohadamajorimpactfor football teams is in the area of weight training.
“Before school closed we had 75 kids really cranking (the weights) hard,” said McShane. “Now you can only have so many in the weight room at onetimeandthereareotherrestrictions.It’slikewearebackto square one.”
Unlike past Pennsbury teamssuchastheonescoached by Galen Snyder that relied on a power running game, McShane has brought the spread to Falcon Field. Although on the surface this might appear to be a more intricate offense, McShane said the spread in itself isn’t that big a deal when it comes to a lack of preparation time.
“With the spread you really are using only a limited number of plays,” he said. “We have like 10 basic plays that we use.”
As for the defense, McShane saidyoucanexpecttoseeasimpleapproach,especiallyearlyin the year.
“We were going to be young anyway and we’ll just keep it simple,” he said. “We will play fastanduseasystemwhereyou don’t have to think a lot. You will just go and play.”
The Falcons do return a starting quarterback in CJ Kohler and McShane likes some of his talented new running backs. (Pennsbury always seems to have quality running backs).
But with the difficult schedule and rebuilt lines, it could very well take a while for all of this to come together. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say no sport as much as football will suffer from the lack of off-season drills.