Shippensburg

By Shawn Michael

smichael@GameTimePA.com

@ShawnCMichael on Twitter

“On three, 1-2-3-peat!”

Shippensburg doesn’t create much buzz around Franklin County, and if you look at the team on paper, you wouldn’t think there would be that much to talk about.

From the outside, the Greyhounds don’t look intimidating.

Last year’s starting quarterback, gone. The top four running backs and top wide receiver, graduated. Team leaders, also gone.

And you won’t hear much coming from the players themselves, but don’t take the back-to-back Mid Penn Colonial Division champ’s silence for weakness. The Hounds are a confident group and are set on repeating as the division champs for the third straight season.

“We’ll leave the talking up to the outside,” senior linebacker Mike McCleary said. “We’ll do our talking on the field, and our goal is to get back to that top spot.”

Just a few days into practice, there are several things that already stand out about the Greyhounds.

They are fast, athletic and talented, but they are also raw and inexperienced..

“We’re pleased with where we are so far,” Ship coach Eric Foust said. “We are replacing a lot of pieces on this team, and the people we are replacing them with seem to be doing well.

“We knew the young kids coming in were talented; we just didn’t know if they could step into their roles, and so far they’re doing OK with it.”

The biggest question marks for Ship are at the skill positions on offense.

At quarterback, junior Tyler Gustafson (6-foot-2, 175 pounds) will take over for Seth Frey, who totaled 994 yards passing last season with a 54 percent completion percentage. Gustafson may not possess quite the arm that Frey did, but he makes up for it with hard work.

“He’s a gym rat and works hard every practice,” Foust said. “He’s more athletic than you think at first glance, and he’s working hard to be a leader out there. But that’s tough to walk into.”

Senior tight end Ryan Ingram said, “He’s got some work to do, but he wants to win and will push through it.”

In Ship’s wing-T offense, running backs are key, and the Hounds will need to rely on an inexperienced group to fill big shoes left by last year’s seniors.

Senior Victor Fermin (5-8, 160) will be the main back for Ship and will try to fill the void left by William Burt, who had 1,276 yards on the ground last season. Emmitt Geiger (6-0, 195) and Nadir Jones (5-7, 145) will be expected to complement Fermin, just as Dylan Herb (631 yards) and Elijah Harris (415) complemented Burt in 2013.

“It’s tough to replace the character and personalities of those kids. That’s the biggest transition,” Foust said.

McCleary said, “Emmitt is a big, powerful guy and then we have Nadir and Victor who can fly around the field and are strong. They’re going to be hard to contain.”

And as if that wasn’t enough, Ship will also be looking to replace the production left behind by wideout Storm Fridinger, who finished last season with 19 catches for 415 yards, nearly 42 percent of Shippensburg’s yardage through the air.

Ingram said, “Andrew Norman (6-0, 160) has the speed and talent, and Wade Mills (6-6, 175) is a tall guy on the outside. They’re going to have to work hard, but I think they will fit in nicely.”

On defense, however, there aren’t nearly as many question marks.

“We’re going be a good defensive team,” Foust said. “I have great confidence in where we’ll be.”

Shippensburg still lost several pieces on the defensive side, including Herb and Spencer Van Scyoc, but most of the players stepping into those roles had plenty of time at the varsity level last season.

Dante Nighbert (6-3, 220), Dezmond Cordero (5-8, 280) and Tim Hart (6-3, 240) will anchor the defensive line in Ship’s 3-4 scheme, and Ingram (6-2, 180) and McCleary (5-8, 200) return to lead the defense at the linebacker position.

“We’re young but very smart, and we work hard, read our keys well and get to the ball fast,” McCleary said. “The seniors are going to try to lead the defense, and I think we can be one of the best units in the conference.”

The secondary will be one area of the defense to keep an eye on.

Outside of talented sophomore safety Cameron Tinner (6-0, 185), there are still a lot of unanswered questions in the defensive backfield.

“Victor is going to play one of the corner positions, but there are a whole bunch of guys fighting for that second corner spot,” Foust said. “We’ve been working on our defense since last November, so we have a good idea of who’s going to be where, and they know what to expect.”

Knowing what to expect is also common among the Greyhounds. Foust, who’s in his 13th season as coach, has set a solid foundation in the Ship football program, so that players have no surprises when they get to the varsity level.

He said, “Stability is a nice thing to have in any program. It’s a comfortable atmosphere for the kids and that’s a good thing for us. They know this has been a successful program, and they know it works so they have to adjust and make it work for them.”

But it doesn’t seem like the Hounds have gotten too comfortable, and they shouldn’t, because their schedule is a daunting one.

Shippensburg opens its season against Dover, then will follow it up with games against Chambersburg and Bermudian Springs.

“We have three formidable opponents to start, and if we don’t come out of the gate strong, we could be 0-3 quick and have to climb our way back in the division,” Foust said.

Even after two consecutive seasons as Colonial champs, Ship is not satisfied, and if any team plans to take the top spot in the division, it will have to go through a hungry Hounds team to get there.

“Our goal is to three-peat,” McCleary said. “We all want it on this team.”

“We have set some very lofty goals for ourselves, and it’s going to be tough to meet them,” Foust said, “but these kids think it’s what they need to do, and I’m along for the ride for that one.”