Decision easy for Carmie

It was a warm fall day and Upper Dauphin had just come off a win over Line Mountain when Carmen DeFrancesco declared he was happy being a Trojan.

DeFrancesco said this with a maturity that comes with age, as though he'd finally decided against chasing the pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, and it was believable.

It's the same DeFrancesco who had been a player at Mount Carmel and later an assistant coach under Jazz Diminick with the Red Tornadoes.

So too was it believable on Thursday night when the veteran coach was excited beyond comprehension at the news that he'd be leaving Upper Dauphin for his dream job at Mount Carmel Area, a job he's waited 17 years for.

Who knows if the decision to leave Upper Dauphin would have been as easy if Mount Carmel had opened up next year, or the year after, but conventional wisdom seems to dictate that any time the Mount Carmel would have opened, DeFrancesco would have been interested until he finally got the job.

"I was perfectly happy where I was," DeFrancesco said Thursday night after being hired at Mount Carmel. "I decided it was over. I had to resign myself to the fact that I was there (Upper Dauphin). At that moment, it was an honest answer, but little did I know that in one year that opportunity would come again. I'd be lying if I said it didn't strike me again."

DeFrancesco's exit from Upper Dauphin was facilitated by a 7-2 vote of the Mount Carmel Area School Board on Thursday night.

In his three years there, Upper Dauphin welcomed him with open arms when everyone else was weary that the coach would bolt as soon as possible for Mount Carmel. To resign himself to such a place, well, there seems to be worse fates than finishing a career in Elizabethville.

Turns out their suspicions were rewarded, and the words of caution - be careful what you wish for - were never more ardently offered for DeFrancesco.

For those who know him and the situation he's stepping into, there's reason for joy and apprehension about his appointment as head Tornado.

He is one of their own, something Mount Carmel hasn't had in a long time, and he always has been and always will be a Tornado,

despite a coaching stop at Shamokin.

DeFrancesco spoke of incredible appreciation for his time at Mount Carmel as a student and the opportunities playing football accorded him. Such as going to college; something he admits might not have happened had football not been in his life, and, according to him, more precisely Mount Carmel football.

"I can't wait to get in that school and meet the kids," DeFrancesco said. "I'm one of them. For the first time in my career, I can say that. I'm just so happy to be home."

There's a certain magic to going to home after a long career.

"Maybe the time is right to come home," he said. "I've experienced it all. The highs and the lows, and winning and losing."

And that sound is the other shoe dropping.

For DeFrancesco, let's hope the losing is held to a minimum. And that's where the warning needs to be seen and reseen. There's also a stronger poison saved for those who come home and don't live up to the lofty expectations set by a rabid fan base.

Coaching isn't so much about the Xs and the Os, nor the Jimmy's and the Joe's, as it is about how good of a salesman a particular coach is. Getting a team to believe it's better than it is and playing that way is sometimes more helpful than having a group of highly talented underachievers.

DeFrancesco has to sell the kids that he isn't going anywhere by choice. That should be an easy one. He must sell them on his style of football, and he must try to convince a very good staff to coach alongside him.

"Those guys on the staff I either coached or played with," he said. "I can't wait to meet those guys, and I hope they're interested in staying on."

While there may be some defections from the staff, DeFrancesco also must find a way to unite a divided district where present reality and a storied past are often at odds.

And in all honestly, if DeFrancesco wasn't the man for this job, then who would have been?

No doubt the other candidates were qualified, but in Carm, as everyone in town knows him, there's the old-shoe factor, even if it does come a year after he abandoned all hope.

Let's just hope in another year Carm recognizes himself in the mirror after teaching and coaching at his alma mater. This is, after all, what he's always wanted.

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