The Haverford School

By MATTHEW De GEORGE

mdegeorge@delcotimes.com

HAVERFORD — The operative word for Haverford School this fall, according to senior running back Phil Poquie, is “memorable”.

For the 20 members of a talented senior class that recovered from a bumpy start in 2013 to capture a share of the Inter-Ac crown, there’s a palpable sense that something special is in the air.

It’s why the players asked the coaching staff to challenge them with a daunting nonleague slate. It’s why the team’s leaders voluntarily submitted to an earlier start to their off-field preparations this summer, why they’ve endorsed increased conditioning work in the heat to ready for the rigors of the late-season grind.

And it’s why the consensus has formed on Lancaster Avenue that last year’s travails were OK for that assemblage of players. But for the 2014 Fords, the particulars of last year’s title run — a 6-5 record, the wait until Week 4 for win No. 1, the growing panic of entering league play off a 39-point humbling furnished by Cardinal O’Hara — aren’t acceptable.

Instead, the standard this year is for the Fords to etch their names into history as one of the strongest squads ever deployed on the Sabol Field gridiron.

“That’s something that you want as a coach, and with certain teams, you look at that and say, ‘hey, we were a young team in the beginning; we got a lot better and we ended up sharing a championship and that’s a good thing,’” coach Michael Murphy said. “For us, with this football team, that’s not what we want to happen. We expect with this football team, we want to come out Week 1 against West Catholic and be ready to go and let people know that we’re a team to be reckoned with in the area.”

Putting last year’s slow start into context is complex for Murphy and his staff, and the trend of slow starts extends well beyond last year. Over the last four seasons, the Fords are 8-15 in nonleague games, including an 0-6 run in 2010 that turned into a 5-0 record in the Inter-Ac that season.

Since nonleague futility doesn’t often correlate with their league championship hopes, there’s a fine line to walk: Between not panicking during non-ideal starts to seasons and not using the uncharacteristic length of the pre-Inter-Ac schedule as a crutch to say, ‘get ’em next week.’

“If it doesn’t exactly go the way you want it in the beginning, it’s a new start in Week 6,” Murphy said. “That’s a really unique thing. But at the same time, our focus this year has really been on, we want to treat this thing as one season and get off to a great start.”

When you consider the cache of weapons at Murphy’s disposal, there’s plenty to suggest that this season will be different. But perhaps the most poignant piece of evidence stems from what the Fords endured last year, when Murphy and his staff abruptly changed from their power, straight-ahead offense to a spread attack that better utilized the bevy of options to stretch defenses, laterally and up the field.

That mentality translates to this season.

“Last year when we started to hit our stride, we changed that identity, fit to our strengths,” Noah Lejman said. “This year, we’ve started out well finding an offense and a defense that fits our strengths.”

The Fords boast a bevy of weapons on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Poquie has the potential to be the biggest playmaker in the Inter-Ac, a lightning quick ball-carrier who is a terror to tackle in open space.

The receiving corps has speed (junior Micah Sims) and size (6-5 Derek Mountain, 6-4 Dox Aitken plus 6-4 tight end Lejman), plus a great pass-catcher in Poquie to serve as the ultimate safety valve underneath.

The success of that unit will hinge on junior quarterback Kevin Carter, who got a taste of running the offense last season. Murphy is happy with his early progression in grasping the Fords’ deep playbook, but he’s most encouraged that Carter has the understanding that he doesn’t have to force plays that aren’t there.

“Coach has talked to me a lot about that, saying we have a punter who can punt 60 yards,” Carter said. “We have a defense that is senior-heavy and with juniors that played last year. We have tools on the team to be able to hang with other teams. So I don’t have to do everything on offense.”

The defensive options may be even more plentiful. Mountain and Lejman are ball-hawking outside linebackers with the length and athleticism to disrupt passing lanes, while the speed to get up the field is provided by Niles Easley. LJ Barlow is a monster in the pass rush. Chauncey Simmons’ 320-pound frame can occupy blockers to provide space for teammates to operate. Aitken and Tommy McNamara will anchor the secondary.

The pieces for that memorable campaign exist. It’s just a matter of the Fords following the blueprint to assemble them.

“We’re deep. We have the numbers. We have the experience,” Poquie said. “A lot of our seniors have played the past year, two years. It’s all about leadership at this point. We have to get guys galvanized and ready to play. We have the senior class to do that with the numbers and the maturity.”

“They want their legacy to be not, ‘hey we started slow and won the Inter-Ac,’ which is great,” Murphy said. “They want their legacy to be, ‘we’re one of the best teams that’s played at the Haverford School.’”