FC hoping for healthy chance at playoffs
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry freshman quarterback Matt Sieg lines up a pass during practice. The Rangers play tonight at Cornell in a game that has playoff implications in the Class A Black Hills Conference.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Sophomore running back Nathan Heirendt, right, wrestles past junior Ethan Faletto in a ball-control drill preseason drills for the Fort Cherry Rangers.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Freshman quarterback Matt Seig leads his Fort Cherry teammates in leaps up the hill between plays in preseason camp.
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry head coach Tanner Gary watches as sophomore quarterback J.J. Meyers lines up a pass in preseason workouts.
Holly Tonini/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry defensive back Shane Cornali (14) was among the WPIAL's leaders in interceptions a year go with eight.
By Joe Smeltzer
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
All was rosy for Fort Cherry last October.
After a 29-28 win over Northgate, the Rangers were 4-2 overall and 2-1 in Class A Big Seven Conference play.
Rewinding a bit, coach Tanner Garry took over a program that went winless in 2019, the season before his arrival, and had won just two games combined in the previous two seasons.
As October 2021 began to kick in, the Rangers were just a couple of glorious Friday nights away from making it back to the postseason for the first time since 2018.
Then, well, COVID-19 became a problem.
First, Fort Cherry fell hard to Rochester, 35-0.
After a win over Union, the Rangers had to forfeit their game at Cornell because of the pandemic-related issues.
Fort Cherry then went into the last week of the regular season needing a win over Burgettstown to make it to the postseason.
But because of COVID, the Rangers couldn’t even have a live practice leading up to the big game, and the result reflected that. Burgettstown 23, Fort Cherry 0.
Burgettstown went to the playoffs. Fort Cherry’s season ended.
Fort Cherry would love nothing more than to attain what slipped through the cracks last season and make it to the playoffs, but it has an uphill battle.
For one, Fort Cherry has moved into the Black Hills conference.
In this league, the Rangers will still have to deal with Class A runner-up Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and semifinalist Cornell, and now will have to go through defending WPIAL champ Bishop Canevin.
Yikes.
Another challenge will be youth.
The Rangers lost seven starters from last year’s defense and five offensive starters – including quarterback Maddox Truschel and receiver Dylan Rogers – to graduation.
For Garry, adapting to a young team after coaching an experienced one will be vital to the team’s success and his development in what will be his third season as head coach.
“I think that we could take on a little bit different of a coaching style last year because we were a team that was really fueled by a large group of seniors,” Garry said. “So it’s a bit of a different approach to coaching. Just because a lot of those kids were starters for us as juniors, we got them back as seniors, and now, all of a sudden, you graduate eight or nine seniors and you have a group of young kids, so you have to get back to the basics.”
Fort Cherry, however, has some talented players returning.
Defensive back Shane Cornali, who had eight interceptions as a freshman last season, is one of them. Another is Shane Seuher, one of the Rangers’ three seniors, who the team hopes will make up for some of Rogers’ production at wide receiver.
Additionally, Adam Wolfe, who played a role in Fort Cherry basketball’s run to the WPIAL championship game this past winter, is playing football for his senior season.
Garry said Wolfe hasn’t played football competitively since middle school, but the team hopes the 6-2, 220-pounder can help both at tight end and linebacker.
Garry is also excited about Braydon Cook, a “great athlete” who he hopes will break out at wide receiver in his sophomore season.
Fort Cherry opens its season Aug. 26, hosting Northgate in a nonconference game. After two more nonconference games at Carmichaels and at home against Beth Center, the Rangers will start Black Hills play Sept. 16 at home against Chartiers-Houston.
Fort Cherry’s goal is to get to the playoffs and see what happens there.
Garry’s grandfather, Jim, was Fort Cherry’s head coach for 43 years and is who the school’s stadium is named after. Tanner’s father, Tim, succeeded Jim and ran the program for nine seasons, helping his son become a star quarterback in the process.
Tanner has yet to lead Fort Cherry to the playoffs as its head coach.
He loves the possibility this year.
“Everyone wants to win a WPIAL championship, but we want to get back to the playoffs,” Garry said. “It’s something that I think a lot of people in the area are kind of used to. Fort Cherry, for me growing up, was a team that was consistently a playoff contender at the Class A level. I just think that, for us, it’s been a pretty big goal since we came back.”