After a 735-day wait, the latest renewal of the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic is finally here for many of the area’s top graduated football players.
The night figures to be an emotional send-off for a senior class that endured one of the most unusual high school football seasons imaginable. On one sideline, Pennsylvania got a delayed fall season; on the other, New York played an abbreviated spring schedule.
But after a 2020 game cancelation, the Big 30 is back this year for the 47th iteration, kicking off tonight at 7 p.m. (5 p.m. gates) at Parkway Field.
Pennsy coach Mark Heindl, of Ridgway, expects a motivated and emotional PA team come Saturday.
“THIS IS probably one of the senior classes that came through out of the whole history of this game that have been cheated out of their entire high school football career,” Heindl said. “The pandemic itself took a lot of things away that a lot of kids that have played in this game were accustomed to, one of them being a full season. A lot of these kids on our side of the ball only had six games. So the motivation itself of just getting the opportunity to play one more game has sat in the back of these kids’ minds since they were done back in the fall.
“Their attitude and effort in practice the last two weeks, if that shows anything, you’ll see something special Saturday. And not by Pennsylvania, but from both sides.”
But starting the game with emotion will only go so far. Heindl said his team will have to maintain its intensity throughout a pro-length game.
“What they need to understand is that this isn’t a typical high school football game; not only one, their high school career is over, but two, the quarters are 15 minutes,” he said. “You can’t go in all amped up from the get-go and fizzle out. You’ve got to keep everything in check and this could be a game that comes down to the last couple minutes of the ballgame, so you’ve got to keep all that in check. But knowing the way that our kids are on our side, seeing the way that they’ve bonded together the last couple weeks, I think we’ll be in good shape.”
PENNSYLVANIA hasn’t lost the game since 2015: it won three straight from 2016-18, then tied in 2019.
New York coach Frank Brown, formerly of Wellsville and the new boss at Coudersport, coached the game before in 2010. That experience informed how he set this year’s practice schedule. Instead of focusing heavily on individual and 7-on-7 drills, New York installed offense and defense in the first week to focus on team drills in the second.
“Being a part of that the first time,” Brown said, “you take a step back and you look at it and say there is value to that individual teaching in a training camp format, which is what we did Week 1, but Week 2 we did more of team (practice), because we had everything installed in that first week. So now it was basically offense vs. defense in team time and then we had time to set our (special teams) and things of that nature. We got into a routine in the second week, which was more game week prep-based than a training camp format.”
Brown stressed physical and mental preparation for a grueling game day experience for his team.
“The first thing is that those guys really got to get a lot of rest Friday night because Saturday is going to be a long day,” he said. “It’s fantastic, from the parade until we all get together at the field and it’s a long game. Just to be physically prepared is No. 1 and mentally and emotionally prepared is No. 2, and that’s where I’m working them out.
“You think about everything that the Big 30 All-Star game represents, it’s a whole lot bigger than just a bunch of all-stars and coaches getting together, the great things that those coaches do for the communities, (that is) the most important thing. We’re going to put on a show to the best of our ability and we’re looking forward to it.”
THE COACHES have prepared for each other for the better part of two years. Both were set to coach in 2020, and exchanged game tape then. But both agreed to come back for 2021.
Brown acknowledged not everything he saw on tape applies to how this game is played, given restrictions on certain formations and blitzes.
“Mark runs a real good program at Ridgway and we had shared film back in 2020,” Brown said. “That (game) didn’t happen, so what we did is we updated his fall campaign in 2020 and our spring campaign in 2021, so we’re pretty much familiar with what we do outside of the all-star game. There are some things by rule that can’t be done that his program does and our program … there’s just certain rules that you have to work under that we wouldn’t be doing in our regular programs.”
Heindl spoke of his respect for Brown’s coaching staff, as well as the talent on the New York sideline.
“They’re all-stars for a reason, and we know that they have a very good product on paper and we know that product will translate onto the field as well, and Pennsylvania’s the same way,” Heindl said. “You can scout, you can look at things that maybe Wellsville did over the years. But any good coach knows you’ve got to adapt to the talent that you have and I guarantee coach Brown did that. At the end of the day, when that ball goes in the air at 7 o’clock on Saturday, everything’s on the table. We’re just excited to be a part of it.”
