'Coach Carm' era begins at MCA

MOUNT CARMEL - Meet the new Tornadoes, they're the same as the old Tornadoes.

In a way that's true.

Mount Carmel welcomes native son and one-time assistant Carm DeFrancesco back, this time as head coach, after a nearly two-decade hiatus.

Most of this year's skill position players are the same as last year from a team that won the Class AA Eastern Conference championship, and the base of the coaching staff remains unchanged and as solid as bedrock.

The Tornadoes have only seven seniors, but DeFrancesco doesn't consider his team inexperienced, especially with starting quarterback Eddy Stewart, his leading receivers and a plethora of running backs returning.

"When we got the film out of the Eastern Conference championship game, most of the kids we have running with the first group now played in that football game," DeFrancesco said. "So we could classify this as a young, but an experienced team."

To facilitate a quick learning curve and give that young squad a little more experience, the coaching staff took full advantage of the change to the PIAA's offseason practice and conditioning rules. It allowed DeFrancesco to get his coaches and players acclimated to changes in language and philosophy.

"First of all, with a new coaching staff and a new system, it was more teaching sessions and getting the kids in shape," DeFrancesco said of his team's minicamps. "It was a lot of conditioning drills, agility drills and learning terminology, and I think it worked out well. We went three days one week, and four days the next week so when we started camp on Monday, our kids were in real good shape. The soreness was gone and they could concentrate and focus on the mental aspect of the game."

For those seven seniors and a number of juniors, who have played under Mike Brennan, Bob Chesney and now DeFrancesco, the expectation to win still surrounds the Tornadoes, and win still means the same thing even if other phrases have changed.

"These seniors have had three coaching staffs in three years, and that was a concern for us," DeFrancesco said. "The transition was smooth because the coaching staff and I compromised on a lot of stuff. We're using some of their old terminology, and some new terminology. The biggest thing we were concerned with was what was best and more comfortable for the kids. So we came up with a compromise and it worked out well."

Most of the changes revolve around the offensive line, which has only two lettermen returning from last year's team with the graduation losses of Trevor Demko and Ahmad Abuomar.

Mike Scicchitano, a 6-foot, 246-pound sophomore, and Ed Smerlick, a 6-1, 211-pound junior, will anchor a line which has promise, but little experience.

"We have a young line, if there were any seniors on last year's team, they were mostly on the line. Our biggest concern after one week is the offensive line, they've been slow coming around, but that's natural.

"It's all new blocking schemes. Most of the changes we've made have been with the blocking schemes on the offensive line."

Among those expected to step in and contribute is a 6-3, 229-pound sophomore, Eric Joraskie.

At running back, the Tornadoes have a heap of explosiveness and production to replace with the graduation of Justin Pellowski, but instead of trying to just replace Pellowski, who gained 1,242 yards on the ground last year, the Tornadoes will rely on a couple of options at running back.

Meyrick Lamb, who finally seems to be fully recovered after breaking his leg near the end of 2008, looks like the first option after backing up Pellowski last year. Tyler Hodge replaced Pellowski in the Eastern Conference championship game and will get some carries, as will fullbacks Tyler Karycki and Cody Shustack, who caught 11 passes out of the backfield last year.

"We have about six backs we can put in there, but we have a nice stable so we can alternate guys," DeFrancesco said. "Running backs are a special breed, and knowing that when a running back is hot you have to give them the ball. So if one of those guys gets hot, we're going to give him the ball."

Josh Maloney, Mark Minnig and Jacob Kleman give Stewart a trio of capable receivers with different ways to hurt a defense.

Maloney has speed to burn, while Minnig caught more passes than any pure receiver last year with seven grabs for 113 yards. The key to the Tornadoes' passing attack lies in the third receiver, Kleman, who gets to focus on playing receiver this year instead of trying to back up Stewart and get reps at receiver at the same time.

"Our biggest pleasure and positive force that we've seen on offense is Jacob," DeFrancesco said. "He's no longer a quarterback, and I didn't know how he would handle that. He had a tremendous camp at Juniata, and I told him to forget about quarterback because he was a heck of a receiver. I asked him how he felt about it, and he said, 'Coach, I love it.'

"The pressure is off him worrying about playing quarterback and receiver. He's concentrating on one position, and he's been our most wonderful surprise."

Despite all the players returning on the offensive side of the ball, defense will be the Tornadoes' calling card, as it was a year ago.

Tommy Hynoski and Shustack return at linebacker, while in front of them both Scicchitano and Smerlick played a great deal at defensive tackle. And with the Pellowski the only loss in the backfield, the secondary is nearly completely intact.

"Defensively, geez, our kids are flying around to the ball. We have a lot of kids that played, and they're good, they're experienced and they're quick," DeFrancesco said.

"We have some players, and they go after the ball. If I had to say right now what the strength of the team is - defense.

"We've created an atmosphere, and I'm so proud of our coaches, for our kids that they know it's okay to make a mistake. Just do your assignment, think about it when we call the play, and when the ball is snapped, just go. If you make a mistake, just go 100 percent. The kids are playing loose, and when they play loose, they play hard."

The Tornadoes open the season at Selinsgrove, the team they've geared all their offseason and preseason workouts toward. After Selinsgrove, the Tornadoes schedule doesn't get any easier with six more playoff teams, with back-to-back rivalry games to close the season traveling to Southern Columbia in week nine, and hosting Shamokin in the regular-season finale.