Sep 4, 2009 4 min read

Waynesburg Central is the only Greene County team that will host its season opener, as the Raiders look to start a new chapter under first-year coach John Kuhns by hosting Washington. ?We want to see the guys out there and playing fearlessly against a tough opponent,? said Kuhns. Kuhns said that this past week was spent on filling in the details for the team in preparation for the season. ?We were very vanilla in our scrimmages,? said Kuhns. ?We didn?t want to give anything away for what we might do in the first game.? Kuhns admitted that Washington wouldn?t be an easy game to build a season upon but that his team was eager to get going. ?They only had two seniors last year and are bringing back a lot of guys,? said Kuhns. ?Right now, we just need to play hard and show determination. We haven?t had the best of records the past few years, but I think the guys are eager to turn that around. They have been waiting for tonight.? Mapletown?s team may be down in numbers, but not grit, according to Maples coach George Messich. ?Our numbers were way down this year,? said Messich. ?We had 16 guys come out for football and I told them I was still going to open it up to others to join and we got a few newcomers.? While Messich welcomed seven new players, unforeseen events still plagued the team with the loss of two athletes at the running back/linebacker position. ?We had a couple of guys in a car wreck last Saturday night,? said Messich. ?We lost Tyler Stevulak for the season and we?re not sure how long Nick Bezjak will be out.? Dealing with the new faces and injuries, Messich said he hopes the team?s resolve will help when the Maples travel to Bentworth tonight. ?They are a hardworking intelligent group of players,? said Messich. ?It?s been a strange year for us and I hope the guys can pull it together and play hard.? Jefferson-Morgan coach Jan Haiden also had to deal with the injury bug and answer questions about other aspects of his team as the Rockets prepared to travel to Leechburg tonight. ?We have some guys out across the board,? said Haiden. ?We lost running back Chris Faddis for the season due to knee surgery. Placekicker Taylor Barchiesi is out with a concussion. Our running back and linebacker Ryan Knight is out with a concussion, as well. Stephen Wheaton is out and he was admitted to the hospital recently, so we?re not sure when he?ll be back, either.? Haiden expects to learn a lot about his team from tonight?s performance and said he is focusing on an intangible that he believes is important. ?I want to see leadership out there,? said Haiden. ?We lacked that last year and we have talked about that this offseason, about what we can all do about it. I want to see leaders out there both playing and vocally. And I want to see the guys give 150 percent on every play.? Carmichaels will also be on the road tonight as the Mighty Mikes travel to Fort Cherry with John Menhart returning as their coach. ?We are really excited and eager to compete better,? said Menhart. ?We have gotten better from scrimmage to scrimmage. We are ready to go.? Still, Menhart knows that the Rangers aren?t going to be an easy challenge. ?It?s going to be tough,? said Menhart. ?We are going to have to play excellent ball. But it?s going to be important for us to learn from the experience and take steps which I think will lead to success for the program. The guys bought into what we were teaching in the past and I think they will respond positively to it this time, as well.? The other Greene County Tri-County South Conference team, West Greene, will travel to Chartiers-Houston tonight.