If Bryan Deal went looking for a challenge, he found one.

A 19-year Ohio high school football coaching veteran who won a state title with Dublin (near Columbus) in 1995, Deal moved on to the University of Pittsburgh and served as assistant quarterback coach and recruiting coordinator under Walt Harris for six years.

Last year, he took on the head coaching job at Fox Chapel High School.

"They haven't won there in a long, long time,"Deal said. "But I've missed high school football. This is where I want to be."

After leading the Foxes to a 2-7 record in 2005 — doubling the program's win total of the previous two years combined — Deal will lead Fox Chapel (0-2)into Art Bernardi Stadium for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff against Butler Friday night.

"We're 500 percent better than last year with nothing to show for it,"Deal said.

Fox Chapel only had 49 players in its program last season. The Foxes are dressing 100 kids this year, including freshmen. And those freshmen work with the varsity squad.

Fox Chapel's freshman team was 0-27 over the previous three years. The Foxes are not playing a freshman schedule this year.

"I bumped four freshmen up to the junior varsity team last year and they were so much farther along and improved than the other freshmen by the end of the year,"Deal said. "I decided that this year, I want everybody up with the varsity coaches.

"I coach the freshman quarterbacks, the sophomore quarterbacks, etc. I want to work with all of these kids for four years."

Fox Chapel dropped a 23-18 decision to Highlands to open the season and suffered a 37-13 loss to Upper St. Clair in Week 2.

At halftime against USC, Fox Chapel trailed 17-13 and had a 250-90 edge in total yardage.

"Our kids were excited to only be down by four,"Deal said. "We're trying to change that attitude. Losing by four at halftime is not our expectation.

"They hit a 48-yard field goal at the end of the half to increase their lead — and we were excited. I didn't like that."

While the Foxes return 14 starters from last year, they graduated most of their offensive linemen.

"We just don't have any big kids in our school,"Deal said. "We went looking for kids to play football after last year and there was nobody 6-foot-4, 240 pounds roaming the hallways."

Some skilled players are back, however, including junior quarterback Joe Donahoe, 5-foot-4 senior running back Anthony Schulli, receivers Terry Hartford and Mike Carlino.

Schulli has 250 yards rushing through two games, including 190 against Highlands.

The Foxes play a 43 defensively. Standouts include senior 240-pound linebacker John Sasson, free safety Alex Malyszka and defensive back Vince Pettinato.

"We haven't been tackling well,"Deal said. "Physically, we've been in some mismatches. Toward the end of games, breakdowns defensively have cost us.

"Tackling is confidence combined with technique. Our kids play with heart now, they don't quit. But they're used to not making plays in critical situations.

"That's when we hurt ourselves. Some teams find a way to make plays when the chips are down. We find ways to not make plays,"the coach added.

Harvey Miller is a soccer player recruited to be Fox Chapel's placekicker. In his first two field goal attempts ever last week, he connected from 35 and 38 yards out.

"He doesn't have any experience, but he has quite a leg,"Deal said.

Deal said he isn't crazy about the prospect of playing Butler a week after the Golden Tornado's unexpected loss to Norwin.

"We were shocked to see they let one get away last week,"he said. "I'm sure they're sick about it. Them losing like that last week ... We didn't need that.

"Nineteen of 22 starters are seniors for them. There's no replacing experience and they have some talent. We'll see how we stack up."