published Tuesday, August 27,1996

HICKORY

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`Homeless Hornets are road warriors`

If the Hickory Hornets' 1996 season reflected any Hollywood movie, it would have to be The Road Warrior with head coach Guy Gibbs billed in the feature role originally played by Mel Gibson.

The reason is the Hornets will be a team without a home this year as the multi-million dollar Hickory Stadium and recreation park project continue to progress. Thus, Hickory has been forced to move its home games to such sites as Kennedy and Farrell.

``We will go undefeated at home this year,'' Gibbs said, maintaining a sense of humor despite all the confusion and obstacles he and his team must face this season.

``We're looking at it as there's really nothing we can do,'' said Gibbs, who enters his 10th season with a 65-30-1 career mark, including 7-3 (2-1 MCAC AAA) in 1995. ``We support the administration because we know in the long run it will benefit us. We don't even have lights to practice for night games. We have to adjust to a lot of things.''

Among those were a drop to Class AA where the Hornets will knock heads with teams that comprise one of the strongest AA leagues in the state.

``Sharon is definitely the AA team to beat in our league,'' Gibbs said.

In addition to the drop in classification, Gibbs' team suffered heavy losses due to graduation and transfers. In fact, Gibbs said he has seven players who transferred to other area schools who would be starting this season.

``We're very, very young,'' said Gibbs, who welcomed 42 players into camp. ``We do have some seniors, but experience-wise they're young.''

Among the key graduation losses, according to Gibbs, were team leader and captain Frank Galati, Jon Benka, Mark Palermo, Matt Passalinqua, Jim Connors and Jason Hunter.

``To fill all these shoes, it's a big job to do,'' said Gibbs.

Gibbs welcomes back only one offensive starter _ right guard Tom Marenchin _ and four defensive starters _ linebackers Mike Jones, Gene Blair and Tony Pozar, and safety Scott Wallace.

``Our linebackers are going to make are defense go,'' Gibbs said. ``We're looking for them to be the strength of our defense. Blair is starting for the second year. He does a good job of reading, he's tough and aggressive and will be our team leader on defense.''

Vying for starting berths are:

Offense: quarterback _ junior Jeff Trott and freshman Brad Allen; tailback _ juniors Antuane Cornelius and Pozar; fullback _ seniors Mike Strechansky and Ray Sadowski, and junior Jason McKoy; tight end _ seniors Blair and John Bralich, and junior Harry Steele; tackles _ seniors Corey Trott and Jones; guards _ seniors Marenchin John Comninos, and junior Mark Wilson; center _ senior Pete Darby and Sadowski; wideouts _ seniors Wallace, juniors Rob Mott, Marc Tiberia and Marcus Murphy, and sophomore Torrance Gash.
Defense: ends _ Corey Trott, Steele, Bralich and Comninos; tackles _ seniors Sadowski, Quinton Smith, Strechansky, Nate Van Sickles and Dean Vadala, junior Mark Wilson, and sophomore Nick Van Sickles; linebackers _ Blair, Marenchin, Darby, Pozar and, Jones; safety _ Wallace, Tiberia and junior Ryan Thomas; cornerbacks _ Cornelius, Mott, Murphy, Gash and senior Mark Gelesky.

Assisting Gibbs are: Mike Nardone, Bill Brest, Tom Trimmer, Dennis Bornes, John Rafail, Brian Prezgay; Mark Herrmann and Mike Drda (freshman); Tim Jones and Scott Lordo (volunteers).

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Updated August 29, 1996