Slippery Rock embracing fewer expectations
SLIPPERY ROCK — As the days get shorter and the floodlights start to brighten at Slippery Rock High School’s Troy-Alan Stadium, a number of variances will be illuminated.
Gone is quarterback William Mokel, who threw for 4,379 yards and 39 scores in his Rockets career. He’ll be replaced by senior Eli Anderson, who’s thrown all of 10 passes at the varsity level.
Maddox Allen won’t be taking carries for the Rockets anymore. Aiden Corace, Dominick Zandi, and Rico Esquivel take over with that duty.
John Sabo is across the street striving for playing time at Slippery Rock University. Sam Schwartz will be called upon to fill that pass-catching production.
Even coach Larry Wendereusz has changed how he looks, dropping 35 pounds through dieting and running over the off-season.
“It’s going to be different, year in and year out,” said the noticeably slimmer Wendereusz. “Is it different when you take a three-year starting quarterback and you lose him? Sure. But, I’m sure, you go to some places that have a three-year starting center and they’re going to say it looks different.
“We had a lot of kids that left that had a lot of playing experience. So, yeah, it’s going to look different.”
New day, new personnel, and some players may get looks in new positions.
“Even some change in coaches caused some different terminology,” Wendereusz said. “It’s a lot of off-season meetings for coaches and a lot of off-season clinics for coaches. Because when you do have that large group that’s been here for a couple years, you just keep doing the same things and tweaking.
“Now we’re looking at it as, ‘It’s a change. What’s best for this group of kids?’ And I think that’s part of high school football.”
Spearheading the attack with what is likely one of the fastest quarterback/receiver batteries in the state is a good start. Anderson and Schwartz were both on the state runner-up 1,600-meter relay team.
“Unfortunately for Eli, he got hurt last year, so he lost some time,” Wendereusz said. “I think you could see his elusiveness when he was playing wide receiver for us those couple games.
“Sam Schwartz is a kid that’s played for us now for two years as a wide receiver beside John. Now it’s his time to, you know, ‘Hey, go be that guy.’”
Junior Cooper Glass and sophomores Zac Frederick and Douglas Popovec round out the receiving corps.
Slippery Rock has two starters back on the offensive line — Blaise Mullen and Matthew Cratty. Senior Austin McFarland is no newcomer to the varisty trenches, though, having filled in for injured blockers last go-round. Senior Ian Fair and sophomore Jacob Reich will be in that mix, too.
As for what the defense will look like?
“We don’t know, let’s put it that way,” Wendereusz said of the defense. “We have a lot of spots.”
Senior Trey McDowell has impressed and will work with the aforementioned big men. Corace, senior Cooper Alleman, sophomore Bryce Covert, and freshman Parker Wilhide are in the running for linebacker positions. Some combination of Anderson, Schwartz, Esquivel, Popovic, and Zandi will make up the secondary.
“When you look at our roster, we have a decent amount of seniors,” Wendereusz said. “Our roster is very light in the junior class. Which means you’re expecting young kids to step up and fill the shoes. That’s where you’ve got to do a lot of teaching.”
With less overall experience comes less pressure.
“That’s one of the things that we’ve talked about this year already is, ‘How do you meet expectations and surpass expectations?’” Wendereusz said. “The expectations from this group is nowhere near what it was last year. Everybody in the district knows that.
“I’ll use our neighbors. The expectation for Grove City was not to win a District 10 title last year, and they got together and they did it. Let’s mirror what they did. Let’s take a shot at thing and go get it.”
