Geibel Catholic adds middle school team to program
CONNELLSVILLE TWP. – The Geibel Gators football program has had a little bit of a disadvantage when compared to other programs in the area. They lacked a middle school program to feed players into the varsity program. “The program was discontinued several years ago because of declining enrollment and costs,” Gators varsity coach Angelo Dippolito said. “We’ve been working to get the program re-established and this year, we have enough kids to give it a go.”
The Gators will have at least 17 kids taking part in the 7th and 8th grade program, under the guidance of Brian Henckel.
“I think Brian is an outstanding young coach, and knows how important it is to have a middle school program,” Dippolito said. “He had a young son coming through the system he wanted to coach or I would have kept him on the varsity staff.”
Dippolito said the little Gators would work within the guidelines of the WPIAL and the PIAA. “When we previously had the program, it was in a midget football league that had weight limits, which left out some kids,” he said. “Without the weight limit we can get a few bigger kids out to play, plus we can only draw kids from the Catholic school system, unlike in the midget system when we could get a few public school kids.”
Dippolito’s goal for the little Gators is to learn how to play the game. He wants the kids to have a lot a fun and learn basic blocking and tackling techniques. He said learning the fundamentals will put them way ahead of the game.
He says if they can learn that, less time will have to be spent on teaching the techniques to inexperienced players at the varsity level, which will help advance the program by providing more skilled players for the varsity.
Another reason for the program is to help keep kids in the Catholic school system.
Dippolito says by having fun and some success here, they are less likely to transfer to another school to play football.
“We want this program to be successful,” he said. “I want these kids to know they can play good football at Geibel. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed and hope this initial group of kids will help us get started back in the right direction to being a successful program.”