Postseason appearances have been few and far between for Summit Academy. The Knights have only qualified for the postseason twice in their history, the most recent time being two years ago when they were knocked off by Clairton in the first round of the WPIAL Class 1A tournament.
Realignment did not help matters either, as Summit Academy was pushed up into Class 2A and struggled mightily in the Allegheny Conference. The Knights finished winless in their first foray and surrendered the third-most points in the classification behind only Brownsville and Shenango.
Having problems competing against established programs is to be expected. Summit Academy is, for all intents and purposes, a reform school mostly made up of court-appointed students. The turnover rate is extreme and, for the second consecutive year, the Knights will not have one returning starter on either side of the ball.
“Right now we have a very hard-working group and that’s the best part of this group so far,” first-year coach Joe Marak said. “They’re very hard-working and very coachable, which has really helped out. We’re a couple of steps ahead of where we should be for the time and we’re getting to where we need to be, slowly but surely.”
Getting players to adapt to a coach and a system is one thing, but Summit Academy has to instruct its players about the nuances of the game from the ground up. For the most part, learning plays and following through on assignments is sometimes secondary to picking up on the basics of the game.
“Fundamentals are essential in my eyes and, what I’ve found as a coach, if you don’t have those, you’re not going to be a very good football team,” Marak said. “But normally we only get 10 or 15 percent of the kids who have played organized football, so we’re basically starting with high school players that have a pee-wee mind-set, starting from stance and starts to proper alignment to understanding coverages and schemes and formations, so we’re starting from zero.”
It may sound like a lot of work for little reward in the win column. But as a coach, it may be the best overall experience in that you can play the role of teacher and show the players the game while watching the growth from start to finish.
“People always ask me because they see it as extremely hard, but in a way it’s really easy because we’re able to teach these kids exactly the way we want them to play,” Marak said. “They haven’t heard how to play this way or that way, all they’re hearing is the way we want them to play and sometimes that benefits us as coaches.”
At the end of the day, though, Summit Academy will take the field and compete to win. And one of the players the team will be relying on to make that happen is senior quarterback Camer Curry.
“He’s a very cerebral guy and is one of the few who have played before and understands the defenses that we’re throwing at him,” Marak said. “He’s a great athlete and is one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes. He always has a great charisma around him and always tries to bring everyone along and gets them to work as hard as they can.”
Though wins and losses are normally used to judge a team, Summit Academy grades on a different kind of curve.
“We want to win football games, but the No. 1 goal is to change these kids’ lives when they leave us,” Marak said. “If we win, we win. We’re trying to build the character of these kids.”
Coach: Joseph Marak
Years at school: 1
2018 record: 0-10
WPIAL playoff appearances: 2
Returning starters: Offense 0, Defense 0
Key players: Cole Hines (5-11, 175, Sr., WR-OLB), Camer Curry (6-2, 185, Sr., QB-S), Austin Roundtree (6-1, 255, Sr., OL-DL)
Keys to success: Learning the game at the high school level. Coming together as a group.
Schedule
Aug. 24 | Western Beaver* | 12:30 |
Aug. 30 | at Apollo-Ridge | 7 |
Sept. 7 | Washington* | 12:30 |
Sept. 14 | Burgettstown* | 12:30 |
Sept. 20 | at East Allegheny | 7 |
Sept. 27 | at Avonworth | 7 |
Oct. 4 | at Shady Side Academy | 7 |
Oct. 12 | Valley | 12:30 |
Oct. 19 | Steel Valley | 12:30 |
Oct. 25 | at Mohawk* | 7 |
*Non-conference game
First Published: August 14, 2019, 10:00 a.m.