2020 Team Previews: Lakeland Chiefs (2)

Written by: David Mika on Friday, August 7th, 2020. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

Head Coach: David Piwowarczyk

Assistant Coaches:

Dom Esgro
Brian Kubilus
Craig Chopko
Matt Serniak
Geoff Demming
Keith Galinsky

Team Name: Lakeland Chiefs

2019 Record: 5-6

Key Starters Lost:

WR/S/K/P- Chris Mellon
WR/DB/K/P- Billy Good
DE/T -Robbie Thomas
G- Chris Zabrowski

Offensive Starters Returning: (8)

Sr. WR Mike Pidgeon 5-10 155
Sr. RB Giovanni Spataro 5-9 180
Sr. OL Cross Douglas 6-1, 270
Sr. QB/TE. CJ Dippre 6-5, 250 (Committed to Maryland to play TE)
Sr. FB Shane Barrett 5-9 200
Sr. OL Branden Berry 5-10 230
Jr. OL Mason Ormsby 5-10 235
Jr. WR Nick Mancuso, 5-10 160

Defensive Starters Returning: (11)

Sr. DE CJ Dippre, 6-5, 250
Sr. DE Robert Romanowski, 6-2 200
Sr. DT Cross Douglas, 6-1 270
Sr. LB Chase Nolan, 6-0 210
Sr. LB Shane Barrett, 5-9, 200
Sr. DB Mike Pidgeon, 5-10 155
Sr. LB Giovanni Spataro, 5-9 180
Jr. DT Mason Ormsby 5-10 235
Jr. LB Jaron Bullick 5-10 180
Jr. DB Nick Mancuso, 5-10 160
So. S Dominico Spataro, 5-9 170

Special Team Starters Returning: (1)

Sr. LS Colin Clauss-Walton, 6-2 220

Key Newcomers:

So. DB/WR Jon Seamans, 5-11 165
So. ATH Lacota Dippre, 6-2 190
So. OL/DL Joey Dunstone 6-2 200
So. H/LB Ryan Petrucci 5-10 175
So. ATH/ DB Chris Russian 5-10 150
So. QB/LB Evan Pochas 5-9 155
So. OL/DL Thomas Scalzo 6-3 280

2020 Offensive Outlook: It all starts at the top with myself and coaching staff being better and putting the team in good situations on the field. As a team we need to improve our overall offensive production and consistency along with team discipline, we had way to many penalty yards last year that put us in bad spots on the field. We also need to improve our 3rd down efficiency, if we can improve upon all areas we will improve as an offensive unit.

2020 Defensive Outlook: Our pass defense was an overall weakness last year for a variety of reasons, at one point we had CB’s playing OLB positions due to injuries. We have a bunch of great athletes coming back with a year of experience in the system under their belt, we need to teach our base concepts better, for better execution on the field and not catch the injury bug that hit us pretty hard last year.

2020 Special Teams Outlook: We lost an All-Region punter to graduation (Chris Mellon) along with our great Kicker in (Billy Good). These two guys helped give us great field position last year. It will be a hard task to replace both guys but we have a few guys working hard to replace them. We return our top two LS from last year (Colin Clauss-Walton & Kevin Snyder) which will help provide some consistency. We have some very dynamic return guys also returning, hopefully they can provide us with the spark that is needed on special teams.