Falcons and the goose egg
His left wrist in a soft cast, Michael Orrvick takes a snap in the shotgun, fakes a handoff and rolls to his right.
The senior quarterback cocks his right arm back and snaps it forward, unleashing a spiral pass that drops into the hands of his receiver 30 yards down the field.
Touchdown.
Orrvick turns to coach Chris McNany and smiles.
"Nice pass," McNany says, patting his QB on the back.
It's only practice, but the A-C Valley High School football team will take its victories where it can get them.
They have been few and far between on the field on a Friday night.
For the Falcons, their wins come on chilly Tuesday afternoons on the practice field.
Victories don't show up in the standings. A-C Valley has lost 35 games in a row dating back to Oct. 7, 2005. The average score during the losing streak has been 41-7.
Four seniors have never experienced what it feels like to leave the field on a Friday night after a victory.
Yet they still show up. Victories, they say, show up in other ways.
"If we don't come, the program would die," said senior Justin Loll. "We have to keep coming in hopes we will win a game this season and maybe win two next season. If we give up on it, then the younger kids will say, 'Oh, the seniors are giving up on it, so it must be a lost cause.' We can't allow that to happen."
Orrvick, who goes to school at Cranberry in Venango County but plays football at A-C Valley as a part of a co-op agreement between the two schools, is the most versatile player on the team.Primarily a quarterback, he leads the Falcons with three touchdown receptions despite suffering a broken wrist just before halftime in a Week 3 loss to Clarion-Limestone.Orrvick desperately wants to win a game before his career is over. Deep down, he knows that probably won't happen."Being a senior and never winning a football game is not fun at all," Orrvick said. "But it prepares you for real life, character-wise."If there is one thing these Falcons have, it's character.The four seniors who have stuck with the team since their freshman seasons, Orrvick, Loll, Cullen McNany and Brandon McFall, realize they are taking a bullet for the program."We keep coming to keep a team here," said Cullen McNany. "We're trying to make a change to make sure there is a team here in the future. With the amount of people trying to get rid of the football organization around here, it is very important for us to keep coming back."Even when they know there is little prospect for success each Friday night.A-C Valley (0-4) has been outscored 213-28 this season, 123-0 in the first quarter.Despite the lopsided results, the team has remained amazingly upbeat."It's pretty rough," McFall said. "But we go out there and play our hearts out."Orrvick gives credit to Chris McNany for the positive attitude.Practices are laid back and fun. Players joke, laugh and execute the plays crisply, even if that doesn't always translate to the field during games."I don't think we can run a practice here like they can at Karns City," Chris McNany said. "I can't come in here scream and yell and run them into the ground."These (seniors) are sacrificing a lot. I really feel for these guys."
Orrvick goes through it all the time in school.The jokes. The pointing. The laughing.Classmates see the A-C Valley football team has a punch line to a joke that the four seniors don't find the least bit funny."They are very negative toward us," Orrvick said. "Everyone says we are terrible and won't win a game. But they aren't here. We are here fighting."To Orrvick and his classmates, Mondays through Thursdays is almost worse than what happens Friday nights."I think taking the beatings at school are worse that the ones we take on Friday," Orrvick said. "It just tears you down. You just try to stay upbeat, but it's hard when people are laughing at you in class."Still, A-C Valley draws good crowds. Against Moniteau last week, the bleachers and the grass hill that slopes down toward the field were full of Falcons fans.
The support from the school board and the administration hasn't been as vocal, however, Chris McNany said.Coach McNany said he hopes the program survives long enough for his rebuilding plan to take root."I have hope of all hope," he said. "Do we get the support a Keystone, a Karns City, a Moniteau, a Clarion gets? I don't think so. Then again, we are at 35 (losses) in a row here. There's not a lot to get excited about."McNany ordered new uniforms, which were made and ready to go for this season.However, there wasn't enough money in the football budget to buy them.McNany said the program has just 10 footballs.But, the coach stressed, the biggest problem is getting the best athletes at both A-C Valley and Cranberry to come out for football."My first goal is to get (more players)," said McNany, who has seen his roster grow from 28 to 36 players during the season. "We have open enrollment here. How many football programs around will let a kid walk onto the team in the middle of the season?"
Despite the losing, the jeers, the turnover — A-C Valley has had five coaches in the last 10 years — and players from two school districts coming together, the team is amazingly tight."We're a band of brothers," Orrvick said. "No one has character like we do."Loll took it one step further."It kind of shows our team's determination," Loll said. "It's easy for kids at Karns City to come out and practice, knowing they have a good shot at winning on Friday."We come out and we know that on Friday, we are playing this team, that beat this team, that beat us badly. We know, realistically, we aren't going to win. But we're here fighting anyway. It shows everyone's character that we keep coming back," he added.
