Mercersburg Academy

By Shawn Michael

smichael@GameTimePA.com

@ShawnCMichael on Twitter

For the Mercersburg Academy football team, success hinges on adjustments.

Every year, a large group of players graduate, and every year, the entire team has to get acclimated together once again.

“We want our kids to know each other like they’ve been playing together for years,” Blue Storm coach Dan Walker said, “but we have to accomplish that in just two short weeks.”

Mercersburg opened up last season with a pair of wins, but lost its final six games, finishing 2-6 and 0-5 inside the Mid Atlantic Prep League.

Walker said, “Depth is an issue for everyone inside our league, and we ran into some injury trouble that really hurt us down the stretch.”

Now, even though the Storm don’t report for camp until Aug. 25, Walker likes what he sees of the team on paper.

Mercersburg returns two key leaders, Boo Jordan and Kam Undieh, who will start at running back to form a dynamic duo in the backfield.

“We have two very solid running backs in the backfield, and I’m excited that we’re going to come in and have some size up front with three new guys,” Walker said. “That will add some depth to a position where we are always thin.”

But outside of their running game, the Blue Storm will still have several questions to answer on offense before they start the regular season.

Jakob Krebelj, who is 6-foot-7 and is from Slovenia, will start at quarterback, while Brice Sydnor and Sean Vessah will be the main wide receivers.

Walker said, “We’re not sure what we’re going to be able to do in the passing game, but we’re excited to get out there and see what happens.”

Defensively, Mercersburg should be strong up front, while most of its question marks are in the defensive backfield. Vessah and Sydnor should start in the secondary, but the other two positions are up in the air.

“In past years, we have been strong in the secondary, but now I think our front seven is going to be our strength,” Walker said. “I think we will have some beef on the D-line, and Boo and Kam will help us be strong at linebacker.”

But outside of Xs and Os, the Blue Storm’s biggest obstacle may be building team chemistry.

“Our biggest challenge is going to be working hard to gel this team together,” Walker said. “We lost 15 seniors from last year, which is nearly half of our team, so we lost a lot of experience, and are going to be a young team.

“One advantage we do have is that once our kids are here, they’re here. So we can have cookouts at night and spend a lot of time together off of the field.”

Overall, Walker thinks there will be three keys to Mercersburg’s success this season: Health, its ability to finish and penalties.

“At the end of the day, the team that stays the healthiest usually has the best chance to win the division,” Walker said. “There were a lot of games last year that we had a chance to win, but we just couldn’t finish those games out — and our biggest problem in those games were penalties.

“So, if we can clean those two things up and have the luxury of good health, I think we have a good chance to compete this season.”