(This is the fourth of a four-part series on the New York
and Pennsylvania units for Saturday night’s 37th annual Don Raabe
Big 30 Charities Classic at Bradford’s Parkway Field.)

ALLEGANY — The one thing that doesn’t concern Frank Brown about
the roster he has to work with for tomorrow night’s Don Raabe
Charities Classic is leadership.

“It’s an interesting situation because most of the players you
have were captains on their respective teams,” said the Wellsville
mentor, who will head into his third season on the Lions’ sidelines
with a 10-9 record. “And many of the were league All-Stars.

“These kids know football. So when it came time to teach them
our system, they picked it up very quickly.”

Brown will call the defensive shots for New York in the 37th
annual midsummer contest formerly known as the Big 30 All-Star
Game.

Even then, however, you might hear Brown barking out some
offensive directions as well.

“Offensively, we have rules in our system at Wellsville,” said
Brown. “Once you learn the rules, we can run just about any
offense. We have a power offense that can run North and South or we
can spread up the field.”

As for New York’s defense Saturday night, Brown has seen leaders
emerge everywhere.

THE 22 players on the New York squad who will play defense
include Kyle Ingalls (Bolivar-Richburg) and Ryan Lollier (Olean
High) at free safety and Matt Phearsdorf (Allegany-Limestone) and
Casey Caya (Portville) at strong safety.

The cornerbacks are Jeff Engels (West Valley), Brett Reynolds
(Cattaraugus-Little Valley), Travis Enser (West Valley) and Jesse
Howk (Pioneer) and the linebackers will be Ryan Schemminger (Olean
High), Matt Brown (Wellsville), Eric Seeley (Allegany-Limestone)
and Tyler Mendell (Randolph).

Lined up at nose guard will be Zach Barrett (Cattaraugus-Little
Valley) and Jon Jones (Portville).

Splitting time at tackle will be Alex Maben
(Allegany-Limestone), Ryan Miller (Franklinville), Matt Ryan
(Cattaraugus-Little Valley) and Mike Miller (Salamanca) and Taylor
Scott (Bolivar-Richburg), Brandon Durnell (Randolph), Zach Zurat
(Salamanca) and Steve Buchanan (Portville) will play defensive
end.

‘THIS IS the first high school game I’ve been involved in where
we do not have a scouting report or game films on the opposition,”
said Brown. “That makes it hard to prepare your team for the game.
All we know is that they have a roster with good athletes.

“I know that, traditionally, Pennsylvania is big up front. I
think we have some real good quickness on the line.”

Whether that translates into an advantage for New York remains
to be seen.

Brown is equally pleased with the play of his linebacking corps
during practice.

“On the field, I’ve seen a lot of leadership emerge, especially
from our linebackers,” he said. “As a unit, they’ve really come
together.

“In our system at Wellsville, everybody has a responsibility.
I’ve asked these guys to take on those responsibilities and they
haven’t disappointed me. I think that’s what you expect from a
group of kids that includes so many captains.”

Oddly, Brown wrestled with the method he would use to choose
captains for the New York squad.

“I was racking my brain trying to figure who our captains would
be,” he said. “Finally, I figured the easiest and funest way to do
it would be to put everyone’s name into four envelopes and pick the
names in front of the entire team. There was no favoritism.

“Some of the captains aren’t real big-name players. We have an
offensive tackle and a nose guard. We even have a special teams
captain.”

How will all of this work for New York?

“When we got together for our Friday practice two weeks ago, I
sat everyone down in front of a blackboard and went over our
system,” said Brown. “Then I simply said, ‘Over the next two weeks,
we’re going to crawl, then walk and then run.

“This week, it’s all about running. Running and polishing up
what we can do so that we can have fun.”

Then Brown caught himself.

“I told these guys, ‘This is a fun game to be involved with
because you get to meet and play with some of the best players in
the area. This is a charity event. But they still keep score,’” he
noted. “Then I said, ‘So let’s go out and win this thing.’”