Freshmen added to varsity roster at Uniontown
Aside from the construction that has been changing the landscape around Bill Power Stadium in Uniontown, there aren’t a lot of direct changes involving Red Raider football this year, with one lone exception. Among the nearly 80 players who are listed on the 2011 Uniontown roster are 19 freshmen.
In past years, the freshmen had their own team and in only rare cases was a talented ninth grade player awarded a spot on the varsity roster.
Coach John Fortugna said that all changed this year although with considerable mixed emotions. The decision to fold the freshman class onto the varsity roster and eliminate freshman football was made shortly before the start of preseason drills for budgetary and logistical reasons in part since many other schools have eliminated their freshman programs and scheduling games was becoming more difficult.
Most schools on the Class A and Class AA levels added freshmen to their rosters a number of years ago. That trend has now moved into some of the programs in the Class AAA ranks, like Uniontown.
Fortugna said he put in a lot of nights pondering the change and conferring with his coaching staff. He said that every one of his assistants was on board with the decision when everything was finalized.
“This is the first time we’ve ever done this. We didn’t want to do it, but we had to.”
Fortugna said he is optimistic that the team’s 19 freshmen will have a chance to play in junior varsity games while the coaching staff hopes to provide a sophomore team schedule in which the ninth grade players can also play.
“You’ve got to be careful not to pair freshmen with seasoned players,” Fortugna said. “You don’t want them playing against the bigger guys because these are only 14-year-olds and some of our players are 18-year-olds. We have to teach them the right way to tackle.
“A lot of those kids were here all summer doing conditioning and lifting weights. They’re in pretty good shape and in practice they’ve been hard workers.”
Fortugna likes what he sees as far as the freshmen’s combined talent level and said all of the newcomers have stuck with the program through the hot weather and the early drills.
“We’re very excited about this,” Fortugna said. “We want to dress everybody (for varsity games). If they practice all week and don’t miss a practice then they deserve to dress.”
He said that those who have put in all the hard work and dedication are actually helping the program by providing an example that may draw more freshmen to want to come out for the team.