Upper Darby

By ROB PARENT

rparent@delcotimes.com

UPPER DARBY — It’s quite literally a little hideaway out in the back woods area of Collegeville, hard by the Skippack Creek and not far from Valley Forge National Historical Park. Lots of trees, lots of open space, a natural habitat to bond as one with nature.

Or, with each other.

As Upper Darby football coach Rich Gentile says, “A lot of our kids have never seen a place like that.” And then they go to football camp to find out what it’s like.

For the past couple of years, the Royals have gone to this place called Hideaway Day Camp, which for nearly 50 years has been operated by one Upper Darby teacher or another, two of whom have been football coaches. While Gentile hasn’t had a hand in that side business that has passed through the Upper Darby teaching family, he has taken advantage of it.

“It’s worked well,” Gentile said. “I know it’s helped.”

It is there that the most recent of football Royals have learned lessons in team bonding. The team spends several days on mental exercises, physical activities and worthwhile chats, which Gentile says has combined with the usual two-a-days to produce much more effective training camp experiences. For proof: Upper Darby was 4-8 in 2012. Then, fully into their bonding makeover, the Royals doubled their win total in 2013 and took a trip to another unfamiliar place: The District One playoffs.

“The kids were more concerned about individual things before,” Gentile said. “We didn’t play hard as a team, in my opinion.”

Then the idea was struck that perhaps Hideaway Day Camp, now under the control of former Upper Darby and Neumann University lacrosse coach Roland D’Ortone, a longtime UD faculty member, might be a nice place to forge a new team identity. Previous owners included former Royals football coaches Chuck Leonard and John Scott.

But the current Upper Darby coaches have kept those day camp trip lessons as daily reminders that this is not the Upper Darby program of old.

Gentile, who wears his old school persona as a badge of honor, is entering his 20th season as head coach at Upper Darby. His teams have won a lot more than they’ve lost in that time (136-99-1), but it’s the growth the Royals made last season and the expectations that their rate of improvement isn’t about to slow down that has Gentile as fired up as any first-year coach.

“We want to build on the success that we had last year,” Gentile said. He added his players, “want to work hard and be competitive in every game and see where everything falls.”

Last season, after pledging the renewed focus on team play, the Royals kicked up their efforts and rolled to an 8-4 overall record (7-2 in the Central League) and their first District One playoff spot in seven years. Now they are looking to keep up their renewed rate of success.

To do so, they’ll be counting on the play of superb linemen Natar Henderson (6-5, 310 pounds), newcomer Shawn Page (6-3, 250) and Scott Rucci (6-2, 260).

A senior team leader, Rucci has benefitted from not only his experiences with the Royals, but some pretty good bloodlines. His uncle Todd patrolled the offensive line of the New England Patriots as a guard for eight seasons (1993-2000).

“I don’t like being compared to him,” Scott said of the elder Rucci, an All-Delco and all-state selection as a two-way end for Upper Darby in 1987 who played at Penn State. “It’s hard being a Rucci in Upper Darby because everybody knows of him. I’ve got to live with it.”

You get the feeling he enjoys doing just that. Todd Rucci, a financial planner who has served as executive director of the Pennsylvania Lottery, spends many of his free hours coaching high school football at Warwick in Lancaster County.

Of course, he’s also taken the time to work with his nephew, and attends Royals games when he can.

“Well,” Scott said, “he’s the nicest guy there is.”

With their power people up front, Upper Darby is hoping skill people like runners Lawrence Bowden and Chris Gambone and receiver Vince Coll can capitalize.

“The bonding builds a partnership,” Bowden said. “It builds a brotherhood.”

Bowden will also be part of a strong defensive backfield with returning All-Delco Kevin White, who should also be looking to catch passes from quarterback Christoff Minott, a junior JV grad with a lot of promise. What will help him, of course, is the way Upper Darby’s wall of protection has come together.

“We definitely saw a change last year in the O-line,” Bowden said. “Everything begins with the O-line in general. We also have a great D-line.”

Right smack in the middle of both entities, of course, will be their two Division I hopefuls, Henderson and Rucci, the latter of which has received an invitation to compete in the 2015 Blue-Grey All-American Bowl, a high school all-star game to be held in January at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Of course, for all of these players, the future can wait. For now, it’s all about the present, and this Upper Darby team.

“People aren’t thinking about themselves here, it’s about the whole team,” Henderson said. “It was getting like that last year but it wasn’t as good as this year so far.”