District 9 Kicks Off 2021 with Successful Media Day

Tagged under: District 9, News

Phil Myers | August 5, 2021

District Nine opened the 2021 football season with a very successful media day Wednesday morning.  Excitement and getting back to ‘normal’ were the prevalent themes when talking to the coaches and kids about the upcoming year, one year after the pandemic cut the 2020 regular season short and limited fan attendance.  There were 22 teams represented including a newcomer to the league, the Bucktail Bucks, who are a District Four team but elected and has been accepted into the small school division of District Nine.  Only Clearfield and Curwensville, who are both in different leagues featuring mostly District Six teams, were not in attendance at D-9’s media day.

Bonnie Wolbert, the Athletic Director at North Clarion, helped put the event together again and did an excellent job.  The event was held in the St. Marys High School cafeteria.  Everyone was served a delicious buffet style breakfast that included an omelet making station before the media began interviewing coaches and players.  No one came away hungry, that’s for sure.

For the Single A schools, Redbank Valley appears to be the team most expect to be in the hunt for a title come year end.  The Bulldogs are the reigning champs.  Smethport and Coudersport were also mentioned repeatedly.  Keep an eye out for someone like Union-AC Valley or Keystone to make some noise.  Every year a team steps up their game to surprise some people come playoff time.  It was nice to see Sheffield planning on fielding a team this year after closing shop only one game into the season last year.

The RBV Bulldogs at media day were Gunner Mangiantini (1), Chris Marshall (9), Ray Schreckengost (24), Marquese Gardlock (10), head coach Blane Gold, and Joe Mansfield (2)

The AA classification appears to be wide open.  Karns City is the consensus team to beat since they are the defending D-9 champs, but not by much.  Watch out for Kane just because Todd Silfies is back as head coach after a three-year hiatus.  Ridgway has pretty good numbers and Mark Heindl has done an excellent job coaching the past few years.  In fact, a comment most heard around the 2A schools was the great coaches that each and every team has.

A sleeper in 2A could be Brockway.  Coach Varischetti is back where he once was head coach.  This year, the Rover head coach, Jake Heigel, hired him to be offensive coordinator.  With a very athletic freshman quarterback likely to get a lot of playing time this could be another project that Coach V is famous for, developing a young quarterback.

The Karns City Gremlins at media day are head coach Joe Sherwin, Luke Garing, and Josh Griffiths.

In 3A, the odds favor St. Marys and Clearfield.  The Flying Dutchmen have QB Christian Coudriet back and that does not spell good news for opponents.  Coach Dworek has many other returning starters from last year, so the St. Marys show will not be a one-man band so to speak.  Clearfield coach, Tim Janocko has his QB back too in Oliver Billotte and the cupboard is not bare in Bison country.  Could be quite a battle if these two should hook-up again in the playoffs.

DuBois and Bradford are the lone 4A squads in District Nine.  A good season should propel them both into the 5-6-8-9 playoffs.  The Beavers are led by second year coach TJ Wingard.  The Owls’ head coach is Jeff Puglio.

PFN had a couple different questions that probably the other media outlets didn’t ask.  All the players and some coaches were curious as to the final results.  Among the 59 players asked, pepperoni by far was the most favorite pizza topping.  Banana peppers edged out bacon for second by one vote.  Sausage came in fourth as a favorite pizza topping.

The second question was a little more serious and caused some occasional thought among those 59 football players.  ‘Who has been your role model in life’ was the inquiry.  Not surprisingly dad came in first and parents came in second.  Grandpa placed third edging brother and coach who were tied for fourth.

Most all of the teams have some sort of pre-game meal or ritual including wing nights, breakfasts, meals Thursday nights, meals in the afternoon of games, etc.  The pandemic interfered to some extent as to where the meals were eaten last year, but 2021 appears to be on track to get these traditions back to normal.  Also, many coaches hand out awards and stickers for helmets at these team functions.  Other things to note were prayers before games, silence on the bus, music in the locker room, etc.

Good luck to every team and player this year.  Stay healthy and most importantly have fun.

More pics HERE

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