RIMERSBURG— Walking off the practice field, a senior carried a gray lunch pail.

If you follow Union High football, get used to it. You're going to see a lot of it.

"That's a millworker's lunch box and it will serve as a constant reminder that hard work will be the key to this team," Golden Knights assistant coach Brian Lipps said.

"Inside that box are 11 links of chain. That's going to be our theme. We need to stay linked together as a team."

A member of the Union team will carry that lunch box to and from every practice, to and from every game.

It's a rallying tool for a football program that's lost 47 of its last 50 games, is coming off a 1-9 season and has a 23-year-old head coach.

None of the coaches on the Golden Knights' staff were with the team last year.

"Maybe other people were shocked that I got this job, but it wasn't a shock to me,"first-year head coach Jeremy Lipps said. "I've got a physical education degree from Slippery Rock University, I've followed football for a long time and I've groomed myself for this opportunity."

Lipps is a 2003 Union graduate and has kept an eye on his alma mater's football program ever since.

"The first thing we're instilling is discipline,"he said. "We're going back to the basics and we need the right attitude. If we play and execute the way we're supposed to, we'll be in every game.

"We have no goal of wins or losses. Our goal is to compete. After 48 minutes, we want the opposition to know they've been on the field with the Union Golden Knights."

Hired in late January, Lipps immediately instituted a weight program. He said 15 to 20 players came in every day to lift during the summer.

Union ended last season with 21 players. The Golden Knights are beginning this year with 32.

"Our strength has improved through summer lifting,"line coach William Coradi Jr. said. "These guys know that to compete hard for a full game, they had to get physically stronger."

On offense, Union plans to spread the field and take advantage of its overall team speed. Senior Matt Gagliano will be the quarterback, beating out Clarion transfer Kurtis Shirey during camp. Shirey will play wide receiver.

Gagliano threw for 859 yards, five touchdowns and 16 interceptions last season.

Colby Davis (406 yards, 5 TDs) and Zach Traister (238 yards, 2 TDs) will anchor the run, and D.J. Ethriedge will be the main receiver.

"We've got nine seniors back on both sides of the ball," Jeremy Lipps said. "There's definitely a veteran presence on this team."

A pair of juniors, Brennan Bliss and Dillon Heasley, anchor the offensive line.

The Golden Knights will play a 43 base defense, with Davis, Bliss and Jake Myers anchoring the line. Heasley, Shirey and Shawn Earley will be the linebackers.

"Our linebackers will be very active," Lipps said.

Union allowed an average of 33.9 points per game last year.

Traister will handle the punting and kicking chores.

"Zach secured those jobs early and he's been working at it,"Lipps said. "We know we can rely on him for a critical PAT, but our attitude is when the ball is placed on the 3-yard line for two points, we're going for it."

Like his brother, Brian Lipps, 24, is a Union graduate (2002).

"I've been watching football in this area and constantly hear the comment that Union doesn't have athletes," he said. "We have athletes, they just haven't been headed in the right direction.

"We're confident we can change that."