Fort Cherry seeks identity in move to Double-A
CELESTE VAN KIRK
Entering his seventh season as the Fort Cherry High School head football coach, Jim Shiel can’t help but look back to the beginning, in March 2012.
When Shiel broke the succession of the Rangers’ having a coach with the last name Garry – legendary coach Jim Garry coached for 43 years and his son, Tim Garry, coached nine seasons – it came with a lot of questions.
Where will the offense come from? How do you a replace a do-everything quarterback? What’s going to be the offensive identity?
Fast forward six years and Shiel is asking those same questions.
“We aren’t quite sure what our offensive identity is going to be,” Shiel said. “That’s something I worry about all the time. I’m not sure where our offensive production is going to come from.”
Most of the production last season, when the Rangers scored more than 30 points per game and finished third in the Class A Tri-County South Conference with a 7-3 overall record, came from the arm and legs of since graduated quarterback Ryhan Culberson.
CELESTE VAN KIRK
Culberson produced 72 percent of Fort Cherry’s offensive production. He completed 33 passes for 643 yards and eight touchdowns, and ran for 1,564 yards and scored 21 times.
What the Rangers might be missing most is a big-play threat.
“In high school football, there are only a few teams that are successful not being big-play offenses, where they are putting together long, sustained drives,” Shiel said. “That hasn’t been our personality over the last five or six years. I’m just not sure where or who those big plays are going to come from.”
Senior Brady Whalen will play quarterback in his senior season. Whalen served as the backup the past two seasons but saw a lot of time as a sophomore, when Shiel would try to create mismatches by moving Culberson to other positions. Whalen completed 20 of 30 pass attempts for 450 yards and five touchdowns as a sophomore.
“Brady is a completely different kind of quarterback,” Shiel said. “We had lost so many of those skilled receivers going into last year so we opted to keep Ryhan at quarterback.”
Whalen only threw nine passes last season.
The most consistent returner on offense is senior running back Zach Vincenti, who had 677 yards and six touchdowns last season.
What Shiel is trying to avoid is switching the entire offensive playbook, something he needed to do in his first year as the Rangers’ coach. That was when Fort Cherry was replacing quarterback Tanner Garry, who threw for 2,171 yards and had 35 touchdowns, and had three freshmen starting on the offensive line.
CELESTE VAN KIRK
Now, Shiel is hoping one of their weaker areas over the past few seasons – the offensive and defensive lines – will be what can create a team identity.
“The trend over the past few seasons is we haven’t had bigger linemen and it’s hurt us a little bit,” Shiel said. “Some of the teams we have struggled with were so much bigger and stronger than us. They just wore us down. In Class AA, line size and strength is going to be a big factor.”
Aaron Baird, Brennon Smith and Brennan Shiel are returning starters up front. Brennan Shiel and Baird are two of only five seniors on the roster.
Defensively, Fort Cherry has all four linemen – Baird, Smith, Shiel and Joe Anderson – and middle linebackers – Josh Holder and Vincenti – returning. Four of the Rangers’ top five tacklers return to the defense.
Fort Cherry has moved up to Class AA this year and will compete in the Three Rivers Conference. The only other Washington County school in the league is Burgettstown.
“It’s going to be big to hold offenses down because we aren’t quite sure what our offensive identity is going to be,” Shiel said. “I loved being in the Tri-County South because that’s a good group of coaches. There are going to be guys who don’t have varsity experience coming up and being forced to fill key roles. It’s the beauty of coaching at a small school.” o