Nagy anxious to lead
CHERRY TWP — The first three passes Chance Nagy attempted as a high school quarterback went for touchdowns.
He threw for 224 yards in his first varsity start under center last September for the Moniteau football team.
Nagy, now a year older, a year wiser and with 10 games of highs and lows to draw on, learned a lot from the success of that first game.
And how it can be fleeting.
“I learned not to get big-headed,” Nagy said, smiling. “I was like, 'Yeah, I threw for 200 yards and I'm one of the top quarterbacks.' It wasn't as easy as I thought it was.”
Nagy, along with the Warriors, had a strange, up-and-down season.
Nagy ended up completing 49-of-124 passes for 828 yards and eight touchdowns in Moniteau's run-heavy offense.
But he also threw 13 interceptions.
He helped lead the Warriors to the District 9 Class AA playoffs, but Moniteau was routed by Kane in the first round and finished 3-7.
“I realized you can't let success or failure get to you,” Nagy said. “You have to go out there and play the same game every Friday.”
The game Nagy will play this season on Friday nights will be a starkly different one.
Under new coach Jon McCune, the Warriors have scrapped their I-formation, run-first attack for a four-wide, hurry-up offense with Nagy running the show.
The hope is that it will free up Nagy to use his improved arm, throwing mechanics and feet.
Nagy ran for 334 yards and five touchdowns last season.
“It's going to be a little bit different,” Nagy said, smiling again. “It's up-tempo and a lot faster. I have to throw the ball a lot better. There were times last year when I needed to throw the ball a lot better, so I corrected my mechanics.”
Nagy worked extensively with McCune, who was a graduate assistant coach at Slippery Rock University in 2012 and learned the offense from former Rock offensive coordinator Phil Longo, to improve his skill set this offseason.
“He kind of showed me what I was doing wrong and helped make it right,” Nagy said of McCune. “Going back on film, I was throwing off my back foot a lot and not getting a whole lot on my throws. I worked on not dropping my shoulder and throwing. That was one of the reasons why I wasn't able to throw the ball as far and help my team out.”
With Nagy's mechanics ironed out, McCune is expecting a lot out of his quarterback.
McCune didn't rule out using Nagy at wide receiver in some packages.
“Chance is obviously going to be a big playmaker for us. No doubt about it,” McCune said. “But the great thing about the system I run is whoever is a playmaker, we're going to try to get them the ball and it will also take the pressure off Chance. Chance is a great player and he has a great attitude.”
