40 teams in 40 days – Day 5: Berwick Area (2)

Written by: David Mika on Thursday, July 26th, 2012. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s Berwick Area was King of Football in Pennsylvania, winning six class 3A state titles from 1988, 1992, 1994 to 1997.

The Dawgs are ranked third all-time in wins in Pennsylvania. They won three mythical national championships in 1983, 1992 and 1995.

So what’s new?

After the 2005 season their head football coach George Curry resigned after 35 years at Berwick. After coaching three more years at Wyoming Valley West he retired and did some television at WNEP-16 and radio.

But when Gary Campbell resigned this year, Curry accepted the head coach position on an interim basis.

2011 season

The Dawgs finished strong, winning eight straight games and finished the season winning the Eastern Conference over Southern Lehigh.

We sat down with head football coach George Curry and talked to him about the big challenges he will face coming back to Berwick in 2012.

 

 

Q & A with Berwick Area head football coach George Curry

How is your off-season going this summer?

I am still trying to find out about these kids. You really don’t know what you got until they put on pads.

I have to be honest. I have only been here for a month. I really don’t know, until we play a real game.

We don’t have a big fullback and we lost a good runner Jeremy Freeman. Freeman led the Dawgs with 1,760 yards rushing and 24 touchdowns. We also losted our quarterback, Jared Pierce.

We lost a center and two guards to graduation. We have to bolster the middle.

Who do you have coming back on offense?

We feel we have good skilled kids coming back. It will start with the offensive tackles, Garin Harter and Andrew Groome.

Matt Cashman will be at running back.

At wide receiver we have some depth there, Jake Pecorelli and Jeff Steeber.

The quarterback is coming along. The one player who knows Curry’s offense is his starter quarterback, his grandson CJ Curry.

Who do you have coming back on defense?

We are going into the season with a new defense.

I think our defensive line will be good. Starting with Garin Harter  and Andrew Groome at defensive lineman. Keep a eye out on Adam Harrison and Brandon Dalberto at defensive tackle.

At linebackers we have Jordan Stout and Travis Potter.

The secondary we are still looking. But watch out for Alex Klinger, Andrew Wenner, John Bushinski at corner and Max Thomas.

At safety are Jake Pecorelli and Jeff Steeber or the two sophomores, Trevon Simmons or Andrew Force.

To have a successful season you have to?

I don’t care how good your people are. If you don’t have a line you can’t do anything. If we can get the protection than we can get the ball to the right people.

Home Opener

Berwick Area opens at Crestwood on August 31st

40 teams in 40 days

Day 1 – Mount Carmel Area (4)

Day 2 – Manheim Central (3)

Day 3 – Delaware Valley (2)

Day 4 – Southern Columbia (4)

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One Response to “40 teams in 40 days – Day 5: Berwick Area (2)”

1. Rollie Ciffo says:
   July 26th, 2012 at 7:56 am

   Thank goodness David wrote this. If it was Frankie it would have been a 5,000 word essay on why George Curry is the greatest coach in HS FB history. Instead we learned about the team. Good job. Thanks.