Skiles looking to revive Bentworth again
Bentworth’s Ty Mitchell carries the ball during practice.
ELLSWORTH – The good news for the Bentworth football program is that it returns every player who scored a touchdown for the team in 2013.
The bad news?
Bentworth reached the end zone just 14 times in a forgettable 1-8 season that culminated in head coach Bob Niziol resigining after just two seasons.
Enter Ron Skiles.
If the name sounds familiar, it should.
The 70-year-old Skiles is entering his third term as head coach of the Bearcats. He’s had some kind of involvement with the program in five of the past six decades, first as a player in the 1960s, an asistant coach in the ’70s, head coach from 1981 through 1988 and again from 2004 through 2007.
Skiles has helped revive the Bearcats in the past and hopes to do the same again this time for a program that has won just three games in the past two seasons.
“We’ve got a big hole to dig out of,” said Skiles. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
That would be an understatement for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2005, perhaps not so coincidentally with Skiles on the sideline.
Skiles has kept an eye on the program, splitting time between homes here and in Florida in the winter.
So when he received a call from a school board member – one of his former players – over the winter, he spoke to his family and some of the people he intended to bring in as assistant coaches.
“It’s an interesting thing, especially with Class A,” said Skiles. “You start losing games and the thing spirals downward. You start to lose players. The more players you lose, the more games you lose. The more games you lose, the more players you continue to lose. It just spirals downward until you get to the point where Geibel Catholic was at and you can’t field a team. That happened to Avella a few years back. Last year, we were down to 16 (by season’s end). It spirals downward.
“It all starts with coaching, otherwise you’re going to fail. If you have the staff, you’ve got a chance. If you don’t have the staff, you don’t.”
Skiles wanted not only former Bentworth players, but ones he trusted to teach things his way and who had experienced success at the school.
He brought in Mark Lohr, the quarterback of his first team in 1981, as assistant head coach, former lineman Jason Harding and quarterback Travis Harff, members of the mid-2000 teams, to coach those positions, as well. Justin Rakosky, Mike Schrader and Colton Korpus are assisting with the varsity while also running the middle school program.
“We assume that everybody knows nothing,” Skiles said. “That’s our approach. We’re down on the ground teaching basic stuff.”
Because of that approach, every job was opened.
“Nobody’s proven anything yet,” Skiles said.
That will take time, though he has a bigger roster to work with, including senior Angelo Lopez, who played quarterback last season, and juniors Ethan Tush, Matt McMillan, Ty Mitchell and Noah Peternal, among others, who contributed greatly last season to a team that lost just two seniors to graduation.
“We’ve got some kids that are athletic” Skiles said. “We have a lot of seniors but we’re still young. We’re looking for attitude. Some of it’s skill. Are they buying into what we are? We’re seeing that. They’re buying in.”
One improvement Skiles has seen already is an increase in the numbers. The Bearcats began last season with 27 players and finished with 16.
This season, they had 35 players on the roster to open camp.
Particularly in Class A, numbers can mean everything, as Skiles found out in 2004.
“We had 16 football players (in 2004),” he said. “When we left four years later, we had 42. They got in the playoffs and were successful.”
He hopes to make his third stint with the team just as successful, though there have been some changes to the game since he last coached.
First, more teams than ever are throwing the ball effectively, even at the Class A level.
“It’s faster with more wide receivers. To win championships in the day, you had to be able to run the football,” Skiles said. “You get into the playoffs, you weren’t passing. The weather wouldn’t let you. Now, you’ve got some turf fields, those championships are basically played on turf fields. It’s allowed the game to get faster and teams throw the ball more. You’ve got to cover 53 yards (sideline to sideline) instead of that little group in the middle. That’s changed. Our preparation has been to adjust to that.
“I’ve kept up with the game, even thought I was not coaching, where it was going. I have my thoughts about what we were going to do, coming back, because of that.”
The second thing that has changed since his last tenure is that Bentworth now competes in the Tri-County South instead of the rugged Black Hills Conference.
It means shorter bus rides and better geographical rivalries.
Skiles also hopes it means some success.
“We were in the Black Hills and we were successful,” Skiles said. “Geographically, yes, they’re closer. There’s still some pretty good football out there. We intend to be a part of that. I don’t know when, but we’ll get there.”