Fort Cherry ready to write successful chapter to season
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Senior quarterback Maddox Truschel leads his teammates through an agility drill. The Rangers have been preparing for a key Class A Big Seven Conference game tonight at Rochester.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry's Louis Ryan launches into a tackle as the Fort Cherry team works on preseason conditioning.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry’s Anthony D’Alessandro warms up during preseason conditioning with his fellow Rangers.
By Chris Dugan
Sports editor
dugan@observer-reporter.com
McDONALD – Unless you were paying close attention to the Class A Big Seven Conference last fall, you missed one of the best turnarounds in the WPIAL.
The tradition-rich Fort Cherry High School football program had fallen on hard times in recent seasons and dragged an 18-game losing streak into 2020. The Rangers got off to an 0-3 start but didn’t lack for determination or positive attitudes, and those things proved valuable in the long run.
Fort Cherry won at Northgate for their first win in 22 games, dating back to August of 2018. Then, seemingly overnight, the Rangers put it all together. And by season’s end, the Rangers became a good football team. Fort Cherry had one of the best wins by any local team last season when it defeated Rochester, the WPIAL Class A runnerup. The Rangers won three of their final four games, the lone loss a 43-42 shootout at Union.
“The win over Rochester brought the Fort Cherry tradition back,” said quarterback Maddox Truschel. “It brought the whole team together. It showed that Fort Cherry means business.”
Fort Cherry’s turnaround actually started with the hire of an energetic young coach with a familiar name and good genes. Following the footsteps of his grandfather, the legendary Jim Garry, and his father, Tim, Tanner Garry became the Rangers’ third-generation head coach. A quarterback in college, Garry brought with him a wide-open offense and a positive attitude that big things can happen again in McDonald.
“We definitely picked it up as the season went along,” Garry said. “A lot of it had to do with the time we missed preparing for the season because of COVID. I was hired in the winter and we had only two or three weeks of weightlifting and then we were shut down. … We were putting in a new offense and defense. We laugh about it now but our first game, against Burgettstown, it’s amazing how unprepared we were.”
It took only three games for the Rangers to learn the new systems and then the Fort Cherry program took off. And the momentum continued into the offseason.
“We told the kids that we were starting with three good teams: Burgettstown, which everybody picked to finish second in the conference, then OLSH, then Shenango. We said don’t get discouraged with the results,” Garry recalled. “It was a tough start but we figured it out by the end of the year.”
And with plenty of skill-position players and linemen returning, the Rangers could be primed for bigger things this year.
Chief among the returnees are Truschel and senior receivers Dylan Rogers and Anthony D’Alessandro. Truschel is the triggerman in the offense, a dual threat quarterback who had more than 700 passing yards and about 400 rushing. Rogers led the WPIAL in receiving deep into last season and D’Alessandro, a 6-2, 225-pounder causes matchup problems for opponents.
“Rogers is a possession receiver and Anthony is our Rob Gronkowski,” Garry said. “We try to get matchups with him as a slot receiver. He’s a raw talent. He started playing football as a sophomore.”
Inside linebacker Mitchell Cook led the defense, which should be improved. Cook was an honorable mention all-state selection last year.
“He’s the quarterback of the defense,” Garry said. “He gets the guys where they need to be. He’s very cerebral and what I want Fort Cherry football to be. He’s hard-nosed, his energy never stops. He’s not going to back down from anyone.”
The Rangers have size and experience in the trenches, including Lou Ryan and Brayden Kirby, both of whom started a year ago as freshmen, but a running back must be found to replace Chase Belsterling, who had several big games last season.
“We have all these kids back, but we have some very important holes to fill at running back and inside linebacker,” Garry admitted.
“We have the potential to be a better team than last year but there are some players who we’ll miss dearly.”
Added Truschel, “I’m more offensive-minded, but we have the potential to be a very good offense.”