The area’s best football talent put their summer jobs and college preparations on hold Monday evening, as preparations for the 46th annual Big 30 Charities Classic officially began.
Pennsylvania held its first practice — an hour-long session at Floyd C. Fretz Middle School — that primarily featured special teams work.
It was the first of nine practices leading up to the game on Saturday, Aug. 3 at Parkway Field and the first opportunity for the Bradford-led coaching staff to see some of the top seniors from the Keystone State in action.
“It’s a lot of fun because they are all all-stars,” Pennsylvania head coach Jeff Puglio said. “They all know what they’re doing and they were all among the best players on their team so the fundamentals we don’t really have to go through. They’ve got those, and they pick up everything else really really fast.”
The team will practice across the Big 30 landscape over the next two weeks, beginning tonight in Kane and will also feature stops in Ridgway, Warren and Russell.
Although it’s a limited window to properly prepare for the game, Puglio is confident that a loose attitude as well as a willingness to accept new roles will lead to success for the team.
“I think it’s for them to stay focused,” he said. “It’s going to be different for them because they are used to playing both ways and they don’t have to do that now.
“Just learn their positions, learn their roles and mostly have fun. It’s an all-star game, it’s a charity game and we are here for that. Stay healthy and have fun; that’s what I’m looking to do.”
Several Big 30 committee members on hand for Monday’s practice were pleased with how this year’s rosters came together for both states. The Big 30 decided to trim two practice dates off the calendar in hopes of getting more kids to come out for the game, and according to Shawn Llewellyn, it paid off right away.
“It was a bit easier this year, for sure,” he said. “We still lost kids to the military and to college programs that didn’t want them to play and just to work because they have to play for college. But it was much easier this year to keep the team together.”
Although most of the Pennsylvania roster is used to lining up against each other, several members have recent experience lining up on the same side in a charity game.
Nearly a third of Pennsy’s team played together last month at the Varischetti all-star game in Brockway that featured the best players from the former Allegheny Mountain League.
The AML lost that game 20-7.
“They already got a taste of what it’s like to get their butts kicked, and they didn’t like it very much,” Llewellyn said. “They are looking for some better results this time.”
Pennsylvania’s roster is full of talent, particularly in the backfield with standout running backs such as Stephen Kelly, Donny Pattison, Nate Hollwell and Blake Kinner all lining up for the Pennsy squad.
It’s an embarrassment of riches for an offensive coach to gameplan with.
“I like our speed,” said Puglio, who will lead the Pennsylvania roster for the first time in his coaching career. “We’ve got some decent size. I just think intelligence and athleticism is going to be what we’re going to have to rely on.”
“There’s a lot of talent,” Llewellyn said. “There really is a lot of talent this year and because we didn’t lose too many of those players to (college and the military), you are going to see a lot of that talent on the field for those big plays.”
Puglio will be joined by Bradford High assistants Jerry Pattison, Andy Reid, Davis Reddington and Tom Reid. That quartet helped lead an Owls team with 24 seniors to a 6-3 record in District 9 a season ago.
“From the coaching standpoint, it’s about preparation,” Llewellyn said. “We have a couple of really good coaching staffs and I know both sides dot the I’s and cross the T’s when it comes to the X’s and O’s.”
Pennsylvania, which threw for over 300 yards in last year’s 37-22 win, is looking for its fourth consecutive victory.
Llewellyn, who said he doesn’t like to make predictions for the game, said it’ll be very interesting to see how the talent amongst the two states plays out in this year’s contest.
“In my time on the committee — I’ve been here 20 years — New York probably has the best player that I’ve ever seen in the game this year (Pioneer’s Mike Rigerman) but I think as a group, this Pennsylvania team has the most overall group as a team working together. I think it’ll be interesting to see individual talent versus team talent.”
