McDonald hopes to bring wins to Connellsville
The Connellsville Falcons expect to get a complete makeover this year, with a new coach, new staff, new offensive and defensive schemes and more wins.
The Falcons have struggled in recent years and snapped a long losing streak with a win over Valley to end the 2010 season.
New coach Dave McDonald takes over the program, coming to Connellsville from Sagertown where his team rebounded from a two-win season his first year to rack up nine wins and make the playoffs the second year.
McDonald plans to have similar success and more at Connellsville. “My first year at Sagertown reminded a lot of this team, except we have more seniors at Connellsville,” he said. “We went 2-8 the first year but we worked and got better every practice as the year went along. Then last year we turned things around and went 9-2 before losing a barn-burner in the playoffs. It’s the same thing I’m sensing here. The kids are buying into what we are selling.”
McDonald and his staff are spending a lot of time teaching his version of the Wing-T no-huddle offense. He hopes to give teams multiple formations and shifts, but he says the kids are still learning and expects to have about 30 percent of his offense in by the end of the year.
“We’re giving the kids our base packages,” he said. “Then as we can progress, we’ll progress. Our philosophy right now is to keep things simple and improve our execution rate. As they adapt to the simple techniques and concepts we’ll expand our offense during the season.”
McDonald explained why he liked the concept of the no-huddle offense. “We can control the tempo of the game. We can go as fast as we want to go and put stress on the defense,” he said. “We’re trying to give multiple looks and not really do too much different to keep our execution rate up.”
Defensively, he said the Falcons will basically be a 4-4 defense but from time to time they will change their look. He says they are teaching base defensive fundamentals, especially tackling. “Looking at the film from last year Connellsville did not tackle well,” he said. “We’re spending a lot of time teaching tackling and getting better at the base football fundamentals so our kids can be successful.”
McDonald watched a lot a film to get an idea of what type of talent he had returning this season. Sophomore quarterback Jade Maher appears to be the man to direct the offense. “Jade is picking things up, but he is still a sophomore and only 15 years old. He’s still a kid,” McDonald said. “Sometimes, he becomes a little overwhelmed with all we’re trying to teach him. He’s probably the most mature 15 year old I’ve known. He really accepts the coaching and he is getting better every rep. I think he will be a very good quarterback if he continues to work hard.”
McDonald mentioned a few other players that have caught his eye early. Senior wide receiver Josh Fremd is looking for a big year. McDonald says he is working hard to run better routes and read the coverages.
He says senior Seth Kozak has emerged as one of the leaders on the team. “Seth has really stepped up as a leader and will play fullback and middle linebacker. He’s a very coachable kid and is a very good leader for our program.”
McDonald says he saw several more kids on film that showed some ability and have a chance to do some good things this year. He says the theme for the team this year is “Do Your Job.”
“I talk to the players all the time about staying focused and not worrying about the peripheral things,” he said. “If we can get 11 guys to come together as a team, we’ll be OK. We’re starting to see flashes of guys executing at a high level and that’s exciting. We’ve got a lot to do, but I wouldn’t coach anywhere different right now because the 56 guys we have out there have really bought into what we are trying to do and they’re doing a great job.”