First Team PA Big 33 weekend in the books (gallery)

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Tristan Klinefelter | April 11, 2022

Head coach John Franco talks to players during Saturday’s practice at Memorial Field in State College.

This past weekend was the first time the PSFCA Big 33 team got together to begin practices before the game on May 30th. All the players and coaches met in State College and were able to use Memorial Field to practice.

Before heading to Memorial Field all the coaches and players met at the Ramada to get geared up as well as get a heart screening from the Peyton Walker Foundation. The Peyton Walker Foundation is one of the country’s prominent heart screening advocates and leaders in providing CPR and AED training and equipment donations. After being screened, given gear, and eating lunch players were bussed to Memorial Field to begin walkthroughs and start practice. Over the two-day weekend, the team was able to practice four total times and really get to bond. Offensive lineman Nick Bryan said on Twitter Sunday, “To say I’m proud to be a part of this team would be an understatement. This team’s offensive line molded together so quickly that you think we’ve been playing together for years.”

The team is filled with athletes from across the state. This includes five Penn State signees, Texas A&M signee Enai White and the three-headed attack of, Eli Heindreich, Joey Daniels, and Alex Tecza from the 6A state champions Mount Lebanon. On top of having these athletes, the Big 33 team also had an individual names Justin Cook that was late for the first day because he was at a track meet. Not only did Cook compete in the track meet but he won first in the 100m, and he also won a third-place medal and fifth-place medal.

Head coach John Franco commented on the weekend and being able to be the head coach of the Big 33, “We have four practices. The goal of this week is to fit the players into their position and learn the basic offense and basic defense and have the foundation and take it down to Harrisburg in May. It’s just an honor and an honor to our program as well as the assistant coaches that I’ve worked with. And the associations around the state that I’ve been fortunate enough to be with. I’m just very proud and honored and we’re having a lot of fun with it.”

Penn State commit Mehki Flowers also commented about playing in the game, “It feels great, being able to represent Pennsylvania and being able to practice and being able to put on for the whole state. It’s a great experience being around all the guys and other Penn State commits and it’s fun.”

Another product the Big 33 team utilized was a play call system called GoRout in which coaches call plays from an app that directly goes to the players. The players are equipped with a belt and a device that shows the play call in its entirety including run blocking and pass concepts.

Even though both days were cold and it snowed on Sunday the players and coaches got through the weekend and many are looking forward to the game on May 30th, kickoff is set for 2:00 p.m. at Rocco Ortenzio Stadium.

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