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Local schools' run of success is unprecedented
The mystics, sooth-sayers, and preseason prognosticators never saw this coming. Even Saturated Fats, the self-proclaimed football expert of Western Pennsylvania, has to be impressed.
For the first time since they lined the football fields, the three local colleges - California, Washington & Jefferson, and Waynesburg are undefeated, a combined 19-0, deep into the season.
California moved to 7-0 with a victory over Lock Haven Saturday while Washington & Jefferson and Waynesburg each hit 6-0 with victories over Westminster and Bethany, respectively.
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Don't get me wrong. Each of these football programs has had glorious moments in the past. California was PSAC champion in 1984 and last had an undefeated season in 1958. Waynesburg captured a national championship in the NAIA in 1966, and W&J played for the NCAA Division III championship in 1992 and '94 and was last unbeaten in the regular season three years ago.
For all three to be undefeated at the same time this late into the season is, well, dizzying and unprecedented.
How do you handle something like this?
Someone call Dr. Phil.
The most interesting part about this unusual accomplishment is that the three teams amassed these perfect marks in different ways.
At California, head coach John Luckhardt has assembled a defense that would tear your leg off as much as eat a hamburger. The Vulcans are so good on defense that Luckhardt moved arguably its most dynamic player, Jermaine Moye, from safety to wide receiver to help the offense.
No coach of sound mind would do that, right?
Maybe that's why Luckhardt is now handling his second reclamation project. He rebuilt W&J's football program after arriving there in 1982, winning 137 games in 17 seasons. Now, Cal is hitting new heights, especially if it is invited to the NCAA Division II playoffs this season.
The man might never swing a hammer, but he obviously is a superior construction worker.
At W&J, Mike Siriannni is extending the Presidents' domination in the PAC. Labeled a pass-first-ask-questions-later offensive coordinator when he arrived in 1999, Sirianni has matured into the head coaching job.
Example: Sirianni took last season's offense and turned it into a ground-up-your-guts running attack, with the passing game a nice complement to the rush.
With nearly the same group back this year, but without top running back Ryan Mendel, Sirianni shifted gears. Now, quarterback Bobby Swallow threads pinpoint passes into the chests of a glue-handed receiving corps with such efficiency that he has made it into the record books with the likes of such cannon-arms as Brian Dawson and Chris Edwards.
Maybe the most surprising body of work has come at Waynesburg, where three years ago head coach Rick Shepas was plucked out of Washington High School in Massillon, Ohio.
The hire was met with some chortling by Massillon fans, many of whom were happy to see Shepas leave. More than a handful of e-mails landed in this writer's inbox deriding Waynesburg's decision to take a "bad high school coach" off their hands.
No one is chortling now. Shepas' dogged recruiting of tailback Robert Heller and his shaping of a defense that will knock an opponent back into the Wing-T era has propelled the Yellow Jackets into one of the elite teams in the PAC.
Heller, a Division I talent who developed a loyalty to Shepas while at a prep school last year, could finish with more than 2,000 yards rushing this season. Defensive end Mike Czerwien, a pure sack master, has sent more than one opposing quarterback into therapy.
Can this continue?
No way.
Waynesburg and Washington & Jefferson meet in two weeks so one is coming away with a loss. Cal still has a tough test against West Chester in the regular-season finale.
So enjoy this while you can. It's been quite a show.
Assistant sports editor Joe Tuscano can be reached at jtuscano@observer-reporter.com
