2014 Team Preview: Wissahickon (1)

Written by: David Mika on Sunday, August 3rd, 2014. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

Head Coach Jeff Cappa Q&A

 

Q. What are the key things we should know about your offense?

A. Well, the key to any offense in football is the offensive line.  We replace some key lineman, but I believe we have guys stepping in that have prepared well to give us a good push up front.  We also return Drew Bright-Bailey, Jason Caso, and Kyle Stein on the O Line.  So, with those three returners, hopefully we have some strong leadership up front to get some movement for our skilled players.

Key impact players on Offense (the 3 lineman I named above), as well as:

Josh Smith-Sr. Athlete.  Josh will run, throw, and catch for us. He’s a very dynamic and explosive player.

Josh Trunk-Sr. RB.  Josh can score any time he touches the ball.  He is a great blocker, receiver, and can throw.

Michael Marino-Jr. QB. He’s a 2-year starter at QB for us.  Michael is a tremendous leader and hard worker.  Michael reads defenses very well. He understands the offense and what we’re trying to accomplish.

Brandon Pace-Jerry-Sr. WR.  Brandon is a returning starter.  Brandon has great hands, size, and runs routes very well.  He’s a solid WR that will cause some problems with the deep ball for DB’s.

Jon Laracuente-Sr. RB. Jon is a hard-nosed gritty football player. He’s a tough kid that does a lot of blocking for our offense to work.  He’s a very good team player and a solid runner.

 

Q. What are the key things we should know about your defense?

A. We have made some adjustments to our schemes to allow us to have more flexibility in disguising coverages. We also load the front to stop the run.  We need our D-line to cause problems for opposing offenses to free up our LB’s/SS’s.

The impact players will be: 

Kyle Stein-Sr DL Kyle is a returning 3-year starter.  He is one of the most explosive d-lineman we’ve had at Wissahickon.  Kyle is a tough competitor that has a continuous motor.  He has worked extremely hard in the off-season.

Drew Bright-Bailey-Sr DL Big, strong, and tough.  Drew has progressed well and is a returning starter on the D-line.  He is one of our strongest players.

Jason Caso-Sr LB.  Jason is a returning starter at ILB.  He’s a tough player that really understands our scouting reports and the entire defense.  He has a tremendous ability to find the football.

Colin Williams-Sr. SS.  Colin is a dynamic defensive player.  He may be one of the best defensive players we’ve ever had at Wiss.  Colin is a great athlete and is an extremely physical player.

Josh Smith-Sr. CB Josh is a great athlete and outstanding DB.  He can jump, run, and hit.

Josh Trunk-Sr. FS Josh has a great nose for the ball.  He’s what we consider our “ball hawk.”  He has great instincts as a DB.

Darren James-Sr. CB.  Darren is a fast DB and seems to make a lot of good plays.  He is a very committed football player and has worked hard in the off-season.

 

Q. What are the key things we should know about your special teams? Who are your kick and punt returners? Who are your kicker and punter?

A. Our Kicker and punter positions are open.  We have a couple players competing for the jobs.  Mason Menhardt is a TE/LB and will compete as well as a soccer player, Devon Memis.  Both players have strong legs and will help our team in the kicking games.

We have a lot of speed on the team, so our returners are always a bit of a revolving door based on game and situation.  All our skill players work on kick and punt returns every practice, so basically they all have a shot to play and get on the field in our return games.

 

Head Coach:  Jeff Cappa

2013 Record:  6-4

2014 Schedule

Key Starters Lost: DB Khalil Byrd,LB Jimmy Gorman, Kicker Neal Guaglianone,WR Jared Reed,C Alex Smith,RB Dave Stellato,LB/TE Chris Tronoski and RB Keith Oliphant

 

Offensive Starters Returning: (6)

• Sr. G Jason Caso,
• Sr. G Kyle Stein,
• Sr. RB Jon Laracuente,
• Sr. RB Josh Smith,
• Sr. RB Josh Trunk,
• Jr. QB Michael Marino,

 

Defensive Starters Returning: (8)

• Sr. LB Jason Caso,
• Sr. DB Shawn Gilman,
• Sr. SS Jon Laracuente,
• Sr. DL Andrew Penning,
• Sr. DB Josh Smith,
• Sr. DL Kyle Stein,
• Sr. SS Josh Trunk,
• Sr. SS Colin Williams

 

Key Newcomers: 

• Sr. OL/DL Ryan Dalsemer,
• Sr. OL/DL Aiden Dunn,
• Sr. OL/DL Ethan Silver,
• Sr. DB/RB Darren James,
• Sr. LB Sebastian Rivera,
• Sr. OL/DL Marcus Smith,
• Jr. OL/DE Davontae Allen,
• Jr. OL/DL Yondel Dudley,
• Jr. LB Deshawn Newman,
• Jr. S Brendan O’Connor,
• Jr. LB Ricky Pons,
• Jr. WR/DB Donovan Hartsock

 

D1 (FBS & FCS) Prospects: 

• Sr. RB/DB Josh Smith
• Sr. LB/SS Colin Williams

 

Key Stats: 

• Josh Smith returns as the leading rusher from last year with 556 yards rushing (4 TD’s), 184 yards passing (4 TD’s), 2 Kickoff Returns for TD’s
• Michael Marino returns at QB with 823 yards passing and 7 TD’s as a sophomore
• Kyle Stein returns from last year with 42.5 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT., 1 FR, 2 forced fumbles

 

2014 Outlook:

The outlook is somewhat bright for this new football team.  We have a new attitude in the weight room, higher expectations, and a group of players that do not make excuses.  We want to take the 4^th year of the program and try to develop into a consistently winning team on and off the field.

We return many offensive linemen as well as skilled positions. Our QB will be a 2^nd year returner as a junior.

We feel that our biggest strength will be on defense where we return eight starters and have a lot of talent coming up on the defensive side of the ball.

With the addition of Hatboro-Horsham coming into our conference and a tough non-league schedule, we will need a tremendous off-season to be ready to compete at a high level.

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