40 teams in 40 days – Day 12: Pottsville (11)

Written by: David Mika on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

2011 season

Pottsville lost two 900-yard rushers from last year, Derek Knight and Cliff Newton. Also gone is their quarterback Tyler Heffner who threw for 1,200 yards.

The Crimson Tide finished the 2011 season with a 6-6 record. They had a big win during the regular season against Exeter Township.

Toward the end of the season they had a five game winning streak, including a playoff win against Bangor, 35-13.

They lost in the District 11 3A finals to Allentown Central Catholic to end their season.

Q & A with Pottsville head football coach Kevin Keating

We sat down with Keating and talked to him about his team for the 2012 season.

How is your off-season going this summer?

I have been busy coaching track. We feel track compliments football players nicely. Our conditioning program and weight program have been great this off-season.

Soon we will start our mini-camp.

Who do you have coming back on offense?

We are bringing back most of our offensive line. Our strength going into the football season is clearly the offensive line.

Matt McCall is back at center.

We are bringing back our top three guards. Danny Conville, Tucker Smink and Ryan Bertsch.

We are bringing back our top three tackles. Dan Grosser who is a division one prospect, Greg Revenis and Stan Burke.

We have a battle between our quarterbacks. Tyler Moser is a junior who was the number two quarterback last year and Patrick Keating is a sophomore.

We lost our top receiver from last year during the pre-season due to injury. He is back. He is 6-foot-5. His name is Bobby Witman. He is a three-sport star. We have a young kid by the name of AJ Stevens. He is a big tall kid.

Travis Blankenhorn is a sophomore. He started three sports as a freshman last year. He started at wide receiver last year and we are moving him to running back.

We also have Aaron Kupperavage at running back and we have Michael Wythe back at fullback.

Charlie Schuster returns at wing-back.

We feel we have a good nucleus back on offense coming back.

Who do you have coming back on defense?

Most of our defensive line is back this year. Junior Tristian Shoopack will start at nose guard for us. He is probably one of the strongest kids we have.

Calvin Rivera started at tackle. The other tackle is Ryan Schappell.

The only starting linebacker we have back is Michael Wythe.

In the secondary we have Travis Blankenhorn back. Bobby Whitman will be at safety. AJ Stevens is back at corner. Charlie Schuster will be our strong safety.

Quentin Chambers will be fighting for one of the corner back positions.

Who do you have coming back on special teams?

Blankenhorn will kick and punt. But Billy Robbins might do some punting.

To have a successful season you have to?

Stay healthy. We aren’t real deep at the skill positions. But we are real deep on the offensive and defensive lines.

If we can stay healthy, we should have a nice football team.

Home Opener

Pottsville opens home against Shamokin on August 31^st

40 teams in 40 days

Day 1 – Mount Carmel Area (4)

Day 2 – Manheim Central (3)

Day 3 – Delaware Valley (2)