Experience could be the key for Big Reds

By Pete Chiodo
Herald Writer

If the life span of a high school football coach's career were anything like that of the players', then Rick Resatar is facing his impending graduation into a veteran coach with more experience and more confidence.

Resatar, now in his fourth term at West Middlesex, expects the 2000 season to be his best yet. Now 9-20 in his career after a 1-win 1999 season, he sees the hard work that the budding freshmen of '97 suffered during the past three years finally paying off.

The Big Reds are returning 18 letterwinners, 10 of whom are seniors, and a handful of promising underclassmen that possess a decent amount of playing time. Experience is the key to this year's Big Reds' enterprise. Last season, the offense had trouble getting off the ground while three different quarterbacks started throughout the season.

Chad Fette began the season at QB only to move to running back by game No. 4 when Jeremy Baker took over offense after playing running back for three weeks. It was the first time Baker had taken snaps in his career. Jake Buzard earned one start as a freshman and had a pretty fair outing despite a Saegertown loss in week No. 7.

"The inexperience last year really hurt us," recalled Resatar. "We had a small senior class. We lettered four freshmen last season and of those four, three actually started."

The Big Reds will maintain a run-and-shoot style offense with a 1-back set and two slots off each tackle. This season, Fette is firmly entrenched at tailback while Baker and Buzard will alternate between quarterback and slotback. Dan Mihalcak will back up Fette at tailback, while Joe Habarka and John Derry will alternate with Baker and Buzard in the slots.

"This is a little bit of a younger version of our team two years ago," explained Resatar, referring to '98 when the Big Reds returned 15 seniors, 13 of whom were lettermen, and finished 6-4.

"We got some key players that might be sophomores or juniors. Two years ago we had a nice senior class in all of our skill-positions. But the experience we have is really going to help us out a lot. We're not going to make a lot of first-year mistakes. We've got decent speed. We're not really big, but we've got a lot of guys 175-180 pounds all the way across. So we're not big, big but we're not going to go out there with 120-pound kids, either. So our experience is a strength of ours. We have some athletes, a little bit of speed, decent strength. We will hit."

The Big Reds' defense looks quite solid this season, especially up front where the brothers Habarka, Jason and Joe, will lead from the inside-linebacker positions. The lack of experience on the latter's part doesn't concern Resatar, who noted, "Joe's going to make what I call 'good mistakes.' He's going to make mistakes, but he's going to make them at 100 miles-per-hour."

Ben Buzard, a 300-plus-pound letterman, will start at defensive tackle. "He's a real good defensive tackle," said Resatar. "He's definitely the best one I've seen since I've been at Middlesex."

Buzard will line up alongside 220- pound Bob Krusey, while Mark Rubeo will take up the defensive end position opposite Josh Fette, who is described by Resatar as being "very quick." Justin Barnes, who started last year on the offensive and defensive lines, will return to action and further strengthen the Big Reds' defense sometime in the early part of the schedule after suffering a broken arm in the off-season.

What West Middlesex lacks, like all Class A-sized schools, is depth.

"If we go out there and lose three or four players in the first few weeks," Resatar said, "we will struggle. But if we could go into this season with everybody healthy ...

"Do I think we're going to be 10-0? No. I don't think that and I think that any team that goes into the season saying that would only be kidding themselves,'' Resatar said. "Do I think we will win over half of our games? Absolutely."

Reflecting on his team's schedule, Resatar noticed that the first three games will be versus first-year coaches, including Neshannock, whose Dan Matsook, after leaving Rochester with a 111-48 career record, will be in his first year leading the Lancers. The Big Reds also face Mercer, whose Tom Phillips is in his first go as a head coach, as well as Tom York who will lead Lakeview.

"I know what it was like my first year," admitted Resatar. "We were 2-8 and we didn't really have a bad football team. The problem was when you were calling a play and you're expecting it to get done, but the kids do something different because not everyone is on the same page. I take nothing away from the guys that are the head coaches but I would never want to go through that again, that first year."

Resatar's hopes rest on his first three opponents' inability to gel in the short preparation time they've had, which may enable the Big Reds to get off to a productive start and, hopefully, set the tempo for the rest of the year.

"I've got mixed emotions," Resatar confided. "I think we have the ability to be a good team. I don't think I've ever said that before, especially to the media.

"We're really excited. We need September 1st to show up right now. I want to see what we're going to do. I tell (the team) all the time: 'You come to work, you come to work, you come to work every single day and payday is on Friday.' Well, we've been working since wintertime and we've got to get paid."

Resatar will be assisted by: running backs coach Rick Fox; receivers/secondary coach D.J. Lawrence; line coach Brian Hoffman; linebackers coach Matt Karlovic, and junior high coaches Larry Connelly, Randy McFall, and Dan Natale, along with Doug Fette.