ALLEN, EMMAUS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL POSTCARDS
Fairclough has just 5 starters back, so it could be a tall order
When he took over before the 2016 football season, Harold Fairclough expected to need two or three years to build Emmaus into a winner.
The Green Hornets instead head into Fairclough’s fourth season as head coach with players who are already trying to maintain success.
Emmaus won the outright EPC South title in his first season and shared the division title with Freedom last year. It also played in the program’s first District 11 final last season.
The Green Hornets need a bunch of players to step into prominent roles to stay among the EPC South’s top teams in 2019. They return just five starters.
“We’ve got guys that are coachable and that are committed to what we’re doing, so that makes it better,” Fairclough said earlier this week as practice wound down. “We might not be as talented, but we’ve got guys who are locked in and hungry to kind of prove themselves.”
Emmaus’ biggest question comes at quarterback. Ethan Parvel accounted for 2,407 yards of total offense and 36 touchdowns in his one season with the Green Hornets.
Junior Alex Lanzone is slated to replace Parvel. Lanzone would have started last season had Parvel not transferred from Whitehall to Emmaus.
“He’s got something to prove,” Fairclough said. “We’re not sure what we’re going to get out of
him. In practice we know what we’re getting. He has a very high football IQ. He knows where to go with the ball.
“It’s just a matter of now getting those live reps. He’ll get better with live reps.”
Emmaus’ defense is another uncertainty. The Green Hornets lost multiple starters at all three levels, suffering the biggest hits in the secondary and on the defensive line.
Senior Adam Heiserman returns at linebacker. Free safety Jameel Sanders is a breakout candidate.
Fairclough said what the defense lacks in size it compensates for with speed and pursuit. None of the new defenders wantto be part of a team that dips in the standings because of them.
“With the early success that we had, these kids are starting to understand that if they put in that hard work and they hold each other accountable, hold themselves accountable and make the offseason important, we can succeed,” Fairclough said. “That was one of the big things coming into this [in 2016], that there wasn’t a whole lot of accountability in the offseason.
“They’re buying in, and they want to leave their legacy.”