{"id":8533,"date":"2013-08-28T12:34:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T16:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=8533"},"modified":"2013-08-28T12:34:42","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T16:34:42","slug":"kennett-football-2013-rebuild-or-reload","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=8533","title":{"rendered":"Kennett Football 2013: rebuild or reload?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Demons have a host of new starters on offense, but likely to have a strong defense<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"UHSKennett-3\"<\/a>

Kennett High School senior quarterback Jordan Jones will be back running the option offense, but he’ll find himself working with a new cast of characters on offense.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span>
\nKENNETT \u2014 Although facing some key losses of returning players and an ever-increasingly tough Ches-Mont American Division, Kennett High School football head coach Scott Green seems intent on his program moving in the same direction as it has since he took the program over:<\/p>\n

Up.<\/p>\n

Green, now in his fourth season at the helm of the Blue Demons, has presided over the transformation of the program from also-ran to contender, first leading the team to its first winning season in 2011 and then following up in 2012 by coming within one win of a state playoff berth.
\n
\nBut now, he says, the challenge is to continue that upward path, despite the loss of a number of key players, including Jordan Lardani \u2014 who played the pivotal position of fullback in the Demon\u2019s option offense. Still, even with the losses to graduation, there is a strong sense of optimism around the program \u2014 and excitement as the team will be able to play its home games under the lights for the first time, starting Friday night against Avon Grove.<\/p>\n

Falling back is not an option, Green said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to continue to take strides forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Of course, the cupboard isn\u2019t totally bare \u2014 senior quarterback Jordan Jones is back and Liam Clarke moves from split end to fullback and senior center Cory Tomasetti \u2014 a 6-4, 230-pound roadgrader \u2014 is back to anchor what should be a bigger and stronger offensive line.<\/p>\n

And while the team will remain mostly option, Green said, they\u2019ll be making a few tweaks to better match the skills of the players on hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be changing the offense up a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cWe might use the shotgun a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while graduation has left holes, Green said he is pretty confident that there are no shortage of guys ready to step up \u2014 including a number of defensive starters who will now also start on offense.<\/p>\n

The offensive line looks to be solid, in addition to Tomasetti, senior Sean Rook \u2014 another big-body, 6-3, 250, a key starter and first team All-Conference on the defensive line \u2014 will start at offensive guard. Isiah Jones, another senior, 6-1, 260, moves into a starting slot.<\/p>\n

Jones, in particular, Green said, is a good story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt Isiah was good enough to start as a junior,\u201d Green said. \u201cBut we had returning senior starters, and so he didn\u2019t get much time on varsity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Jones suffered a knee injury in the offseason \u2014 and just Wednesday was cleared to return to practice. But despite that, because of his work ethic and character, his teammates voted him team captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that says a lot,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n

In addition to Jones and Clarke, in terms of skill positions, Green points to seniors Noah Turner and Brett Rose \u2014 both starters on defense last year (Rose is also the team\u2019s kicker and punter) \u2014 handling the slot position.<\/p>\n

The defense, with a number of returning starters, should be solid, but Green singled out senior middle linebacker Kyle Werner as being key.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started there for us as a sophomore, but we needed him to move to defensive end last year,\u201d Green said. \u201cNow, we have him back at linebacker and he\u2019s really the core of our defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

One addition: transfer Lee Woodall, Jr., whose dad played linebacker \u2014 and earned two Pro Bowl nods \u2014 for the San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos in an eight-year NFL career after being drafted out of West Chester University.<\/p>\n

While Green says he knows replacing the departed players will be a challenge \u2014 and the increasingly tough Ches Mont American, which looks to feature rugged teams in defending champ Unionville, West Chester Rustin, which won the previous four titles, an explosive Great Valley team, and improved teams in Oxford, Sun Valley and Octorara, there\u2019s never an easy week on the schedule. Not to mention non-conference games against Coatesville \u2014 which played in the AAAA State Championship game \u2014 and Twin Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no opportunities to coast,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe have a tough schedule. I like it that way. It helps the kids stay focused.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Demons have a host of new starters on offense, but likely to have a strong defense By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times KENNETT \u2014 Although facing some key losses of returning players and an ever-increasingly tough Ches-Mont American Division, Kennett High School football head coach Scott Green seems intent on his program moving in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,22],"tags":[222,3158,3157,79],"class_list":["post-8533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-blue-demons","tag-ches-mont-american","tag-football-2013","tag-kennett-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}