RIDGWAY — Players and coaches from the 21-team District 9 football league gathered Wednesday morning at Aiello’s Cafe in Ridgway for the second annual D9 Media Day event.
Unlike last season, there were no preseason favorites selected for either the large or the two small school divisions, setting the tone for what is poised to be a wide-open football season.
“This league is unpredictable,” said Elk County Catholic head coach Tony Gerg. “I always made that comment to people that I would rather sit on the bus an extra 20 minutes and play a competitive game, and that’s how it’s viewed throughout the season. A lot of games, you don’t know which way it can go, and that unpredictability creates a lot of excitement.”
Defending District 9 Class AA champion Ridgway returns six starters to its always stingy defense, but head coach Mark Heindl understands it’s a new season with new challenges.
“Our kids are humble. Last year is last year, and we know each week we get everybody’s best game, and we want it that way,” he said. “You have to compete day in and day out, because the minute you take a backseat, somebody trumps you.”
Wednesday also served as the first opportunity to meet the new coaches at several programs, including Ryan Neyman (Cameron County), Justin Bienkowski (Port Allegany) and Chris Dworek (St. Marys).
For Bienkowski, it’ll be his second stint as head coach with the Gators, previously stepping down after the 2016 season to spend more time with his family.
“I stepped away because I needed to be with my family. My wife was having our third kid,” he said. “But I missed (football), so I came back on as an assistant last year… Now, here I am again. It’s a good group of kids and school to work with. There’s good potential, so we’re excited to get rolling.”
Dworek comes to St. Marys with an impressive coaching resume that has included stops at Brookville and Clarion University. He’ll have the tall task of turning around a Dutch program that went 0-10 a season ago.
“So far, so good,” Dworek said. “We had a great summer as a program, and we saw about 60 kids at our first meeting. There are good signs… The attitudes have been super, and that’s contagious.”
At Cameron County, it’ll be the first head coaching gig for Ryan Neyman, who played for the Raiders and spent the last couple of seasons as an assistant. He’ll look to change the culture in Emporium with a program that has gone 1-16 over the past two seasons and scored just 18 total points last year.
“I want us to get the best out of our kids. These last couple years, I believe there’s been a lot of untapped potential,” Neyman said. “I want to bring that potential to the forefront. We need to motivate the kids in a way that encourages them so they can believe in themselves. It’s more psychological than physical a lot of times.”
There are plenty of teams across District 9 that will have to replace talented seniors who graduated. Maybe none more so than Bradford, which graduated 24 seniors from a season ago, but does return quarterback Caleb Nuzzo and running back Derek Sunafrank.
“The group that just graduated played a lot of football for us, so it’s going to be fun to start over with this new group,” Bradford head coach Jeff Puglio said. “These guys coming up have played a lot together as JV players, so we’re transitioning from an experienced varsity squad to players with a lot of JV experience.”
The Smethport Hubbers, meanwhile, are in a similar position after going undefeated en route to their best season in nearly two decades in 2018. Smethport graduated its top two backs from that team (Nate Hollowell and Blake Kinner), but head coach Adam Jack cautioned that his group shouldn’t be overlooked.
“I’m most excited for these young guys to get a chance to play and prove there won’t be as much of a dropoff as we’ve been hearing about,” Jack said. “Those two guys (Hollowell and Kinner) were great talents, but it’s going to be a different look for us this year. We’ve got kids that are very athletic and will do well in space.”
Fellow small school Coudersport is also tasked with replacing its top rusher, as Stephen Kelly graduated after posting 1,782 yards in his senior season. In addition, the Falcons lost three seniors along the offensive line.
“The big thing for us this year is it’s a new season, and we’ll take it game by game,” Coudy head coach Tom Storey said. “It’s going to be fun to rebuild the line some.”
And as for the backfield?
“We have guys that can step in and do what they need to do. It’s going to be by committee instead of one guy alone, so we want to get everybody running,” he said.
With so many teams in transition, the league promises to be anybody’s to take this year.
“I think every week is a playoff game in this league,” Kane head coach Jim Hillman said. “The teams we all see on Fridays are teams from the playoffs, so it’s really a wide open league. Everybody is good, and there really is no poor team. It’s going to be a very exciting season.”
