[tps_title]Cheltenham Panthers [/tps_title]
Gene Walsh Digital First Media
Cheltenham’s head coach Brian Mace during practice August 9, 2017.
Panthers excited to get going under Nase
WYNCOTE >> In a perfect world, Ryan Nase says, all of his guys would be playing three sports.
He likes the fact many of his players are busy elsewhere — the basketball court, the track and the baseball diamond — when football is not in season. 
“I’m a huge proponent of that,” Cheltenham’s first-year head coach said. “I’m advocating for all of our guys to be doing something else. And if they’re not doing something, we want them in with us and making sure they’re working on that strength and conditioning.
“We have a great problem in that a lot of our best athletes were participating in other sports during the spring,” Nase went on, “which I’m really happy about and we want to encourage.”
One of those players is Mason Jones, a 6-foot-3 wide receiver with tremendous leaping ability. A standout jumper and hurdler with the track and field team, Jones is part of an offense with diverse, varied skills.
“There’s a lot of options,” said Jones, a junior. “We have a lot of athletic players. We’re a fast group, and that’s a good thing.
“I think we’re doing well. We’re staring off fresh. We’re getting used to the new coaching staff, the new players coming in. We had a lot of seniors last year so we’re staring off with a young group. We’re just trying to get better as a whole and have a good season this year.”
The Panthers won two of their final three games last year to finish 3-7. The 2017 squad, with its wide variety of athletes, is finding new ways to come together as a group.
“We made a decision this year as a new staff to really focus the summer on strength and conditioning rather than be out on the field,” Nase said. “We’re very happy with where they are, in terms of the weight room and speed development and things like that. It does mean we’re a little bit behind in terms of some of the football stuff, but we’ll catch up and we’ll be ready to go.
“We’re doing things a little bit differently. We’re not just going in the weight room five days a week and seeing how much we can lift. We’ll spend one day where we’ll focus on core strength and flexibility, incorporating stretching and yoga and stuff like that into it so we’re trying to bring in a lot of different dynamics and workouts.”
Many Looks
Cheltenham’s offense will go with multiple sets.
“We hope to make the coaches miserable the week that they’re playing us and getting their game plan together,” said Nase.
“One thing that we did notice is that we have a lot of guys that aren’t your prototypical tight end, fullback or running back,” he said. “So we have the ability to use guys in a lot of different ways. We’re gonna be able to run multiple formations, throw the ball, run the ball, and use play action out of a bunch of different formations with the same guys in.”
Zero Predictability
“We’re not gonna be a huge pressure team,” Nase said. “We’ll obviously bring some blitz packages and time that up in certain situations but we’re not gonna be a team that blitzes 60 or 70 percent of the time.
“We are gonna be a team that tries to switch up what front we’re in and what look we’re in, based on formations and things like that. So I think it’ll be more difficult for other teams’ offenses to prepare to play us.”
New Sheriff in Town
Nase takes over for the retired Joe Gro, who had roamed the Panther sideline for 29 seasons.
Prior to taking over at Cheltenham, Nase spent the last four years at Penn Charter working with the tight ends, defensive linemen and special-teams units.
One of the youngest head coaches around at age 32, he’s excited to get started.
“I’m a first-year head coach, and I like to think I’m still a young guy,” the coach said with a smile. “So I’m really excited for the start of the season. And I can’t even wait until Aug. 19 (for the first scrimmage).
“Sometimes I feel like a player again as much as I love practice and know how important it is as far as the teaching aspect. I can’t wait to get out into those game situations.”
By Kev Hunter; khunter@21st-centurymedia.com
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