Numbers are up, and so is Mapletown’s outlook
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Many high schools change football coaches regularly, but not at Mapletown, where George Messich has coached the Maples for 34 consecutive years. He is the dean of area football coaches.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Mapletown quarterback Max Vanata.
MAPLETOWN – Anybody who has done so will tell you this is a difficult place to play football. However, that degree of difficulty was never as large as last season, when the Maples’ sideline was a lonely place.
“We played most of the season with only 13 players,” Mapletown’s veteran head coach George Messich said.
Mapletown, which has the second-smallest enrollment among all WPIAL schools that play football, forfeited one game because of a lack of healthy players, muddled through the remainder of the season by playing games with shortened quarters and finished with an 0-10 record.
“We were only in one game, and that was our opener against Avella,” Messich said.
That one game was a 14-12 loss in a nonconference contest. The next week, Mapletown forfeited to Clairton, then limped through the remainder of the season, which included a 47-14 loss again to Avella in a game that did count in the Tri-County South Conference standings.
“We were glad to make it through the season,” Messich said with sense of relief, though he did manage to maintain his sense of humor.
“The good thing about having only 13 players is, when I wondered if we had 11 guys on the field, all I had to do was look to my left or right on the sideline, count 1, 2 … Yep, we have 11 on the field.”
This year, Messich hopes that playing Mapletown is no laughing matter. He believes his team is significantly improved. The numbers are already upgraded in one area as there were 21 players, including six seniors, requesting equipment when heat acclimatization workouts began.
“And all 21 can help us somewhere,” Messich said. “Are we a better football team? Yes.”
How much better, Messich isn’t sure. He said he’ll have a better understanding of his team after the season opener Friday at home against, you guessed it, Avella. That will be followed by a game against Trinity Christian, a school in Morgantown, W.Va., that is playing its first season of football.
“We’re going to find out a lot of things in that first game,” Messich said. “We have some good size – our smallest offensive lineman is 210 to 215 pounds – we have experience in the backfield, a 200-pound running back who will be starting for his third year. It’s going to be interesting.”
Among the experienced guys are senior running back Zach Greene and sophomore quarterback Max Vanata.
“Max started as a freshman and he had a great 7-on-7 season this summer,” Messich said.
The Maples like their group of wide receivers. Clay Menear started as a freshman last year, senior Chuckie Lash has extensive experience and Messich says senior Alex Lipscomb and sophomore Dalton Engelhardt have “catch and run” potential.
“That’s a nice group of wide receivers with athletic ability,” Messich said. “I’m very confident in those guys.”
Greene is back as a starter at running back, as is junior Lance Stevenson. Messich has high hopes for freshman running back Landan Stevenson.
“He has some God-given abilities that you can’t coach,” Messich said.
Mapletown hopes it has closed the gap on its opponents when it comes to physical play on the offensive and defensive lines. Having several starters back should help. Senior Lucas Hall is a 6-1, 300-pound tackle who played football for the first time last season and has shown marked improvement after a full year in the program. Junior Blake Holbert returns on the line as does James Thompson, who started as a freshman. Freshman Cohen Stout is a surprise at guard.
“Cohen Stout was a fullback, and he’s going to be a very good fullback for us, but we needed a guard and he volunteered,” Messich said. “He’s 220 pounds and doesn’t play like a freshman.”
After a season in which Mapletown had nothing to lose and only experience to gain, the future looks brighter.
“We’re sure that we have a more competitive football team,” Messich said. “These guys want to be successful and they will. I don’t know if it’s going to be this year or next year or when, but I know we have a lot better group.
“I give those kids who stuck it out last year, and their parents, a lot of credit. I had one kid who played defensive back, linebacker and defensive line, another who played wide receiver and guard on offense. When you only have 13 players, you have to play wherever you’re needed to field a team. Hopefully, we won’t have to do anything like that this year.”