CHERRY TWP — The Butler County Bears have a new home, new league and renewed hope.

The semi-pro football team opens the 2013 season this weekend at the Western Reserve Scourge. The Bears are playing in their fourth different league in as many years.

“Hopefully, this will be the league that will stick around and one we can stick with,” Bears owner-head coach Kirk Bergbigler said.

“They seem to have everything in place and we feel we have the chance to be very competitive in this league.”

The Bears are playing in the 18-team Ohio Football League. The league features three six-team divisions put together geographically.

The league’s Superior Division consists of the Bears, Greensburg Panthers, Pittsburgh Colts, Western Reserve Scourge, Strabane Spartans and Pittsburgh Blue Devils.

“Our longest road trip is an hour and 15 minutes,” Bergbigler said.

Moniteau High School’s football stadium is the new home for the Bears. Butler County finished 9-4 last season, losing in the first round of the playoffs, and played its home games at Butler’s Art Bernardi Stadium the past two years.

“Moniteau has opened its arms to us and we’ve already developed a good relationship in the community,” Bergbigler said. “Our cheerleaders have done a competition there and our players are umpiring youth baseball games in that area.

“They’re excited to have us there. Attendance at our home games may be way up compared to what it was at Butler.”

The Bears’ first home game is June 1 against Strabane. Other home dates are June 8, June 22, June 29 and July 13. All home games begin at 7 p.m.

Eight teams will make the playoffs out of the league’s 18.

The Bears enter the season with a 50-player roster — their biggest ever — including 24 returnees from last year. The roster includes 21 players from Butler County.

Bob Manno, nearing 40 and the oldest player on the roster, will begin the season as the Bears’ starting quarterback.

“We have a new offensive coordinator in Rodney Hall and he’s put in a fast-tempo, spread offense,” Bergbigler said. “It’s a single-back, pistol type of attack and the guys are catching on to the schematics of it.

“It will be exciting to watch.”

Hall is a former offensive tackle at the University of Kentucky who spent two seasons on the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad.

Manno played at Slippery Rock High School and Slippery Rock University. Other local players on the Bears’ roster include Justin Switzer, Stephon Conto, Erik Fuhrer, Jerod Hutchison and Justin Hutchison from Karns City; Brian Perry and Mike Dubois from Seneca Valley; Vince Papley, Tony Drescher and Nathan Zmijowski from Slippery Rock; James Shope, Chad Krumpe, Tyler Steinheiser and Steve Bair from Moniteau; Bill McCaslin, Patrick Kaiser, Robert Christy, Cody Christy and Alex Brown from Butler.

The team is practicing at Butler Memorial Park this year.

“That helps, too, because we’re on a full-length field and guys can get their routes and spacing down,” Bergbigler said. “We’ve had 43 guys show up for practice and that’s unheard of at the semi-pro level.

“Anything less than the league championship would be a big disappointment for us. These guys are into it.”