Another year, another coach for Lakeview Sailors

By Pete Chiodo
Herald Writer

Hope springs eternal for the 2000 Lakeview High football team. Hope is for a winning season, which the Sailors haven't had since 1992 when they went 5-3-1; the spring is a veritable fountain of youthful talent as freshmen outnumber seniors.

Leading the Sailors on their quest is first-year head coach Dan York, an Oil City product who played scholastically for the Oilers and returned to his alma mater to serve as an assistant coach under Dan Brown for 12 years. He also coached under Dave Armstrong at Thiel College for three years, but this is the 43-year-old York's first shot at head coaching.

York, who is Lakeview's 8th head coach in the last eight years, takes over for the Sailors' previous head coach Jim Walter. In Walter's three year reign he amassed a record of 4-26, 1-9 in 1999.

Despite Lakeview's lack of experience and recent success, York finds his new surroundings comfortable.

"The administration has been great. The principal and the athletic director have been great to me,'' York emphasized." Along with the new coach, the perpetually-youthful Sailors are fielding an almost entirely new offense, as imcumbent starting quarterback James Charlton elected not to play football this season. Taking over for Charlton is senior Mitch McAfoose. McAfoose was a guard last season.

To put it more accurately, McAfoose was a point guard for the Sailors' basketball team. It's his first year playing football since he was in the eighth grade.

"He's been looking real good though," says York. "He's been working really hard."

For the record, McAfoose scored about 11.7 points per game for the Lakeview cagers last season.

Justin George, who was Lakeview's star running back since he was a freshman, decided to spend his senior year at Kennedy Christian. George racked up 146 points in his three seasons with Lakeview. That's over half of Lakeview's total offensive product in the same time span. He led the team in both yardage and points in 1998 and 1999 including 1,139 yards in the '98 campaign.

Even though George was gone before York was hired the new coach still feels the sting.

"That was a shame," he said. "To have a kid that won the 200-meters at the state track meet would have been a big help. It was a real shame."

Also missing from this year's lineup are eight seniors lost to graduation, including Craig Ison and Jim and Rick Turner, each of whom were receivers last season. Rick Turner also place-kicked for the Sailors. Tight end Mike Bromley also graduated along with running back Chuck Mowry and linemen Jake Krafchek, Kenny Knauff and Issac Dean.

Despite the obvious holes, York still counts the backfield as one of the team's strong points, claiming, "They're doing real well."

The strength of the backfield rests mainly on the return of Deke Ison, a junior who started the last two years at fullback where he tallied a pair of rushing touchdowns each season. This year he has moved to tailback, where he'll play a more integral part of the offensive scheme. Replacing Ison at fullback is last year's starting tackle Buddy Love, a senior listed at 6-foot, 215 pounds.

Moving into Love's spot on the line will be Brad Watson, who wrestled heavyweight last year but hasn't played organized football for a couple seasons.

"Where is the experience?" York rhetorically asked in expressing his concern regarding the overall lack of depth as the Sailors are only fielding 29 players. Hopefully it will be enough, as the team has to prove itself in the combative French Creek Valley Conference. Unfortunately for Lakeview, its opener is against Union City and game No. 2 is a trip to Guys Mills to meet Maplewood.

One way York plans to contend with the FCVC competition is the host of full-sized underclassmen, mostly 6-foot plus and 200-plus pounds.

Assisting York will be Lakeview alumnus Rusty Wright, who has worked with York before; Mike Grimm, a former assistant at Wilmington; Rick Koller, who played under York at Thiel; Rick Claypool and Bob Muschik.