Football Preview: Sanogo now the one dishing out lessons for young Academy Park

SHARON HILL >> Ibrahim Sanogo was just a sophomore, but already he understood how football at Academy Park worked.

The running back/linebacker spent the summer of 2019 working out. He knew that when football started, as has been the dictum behind the wildly successful teams of the last decade coached by Jason Vosheski, the best players would play. If they were sophomores or seniors, new to the district or there since elementary school, the best players would suit up on Friday nights.

It took Sanogo three games, mostly due to lost time in training camp after he visited family back in Guinea, and he might not have expected to start as a then-slightly undersized defensive end. But he knew, with a confidence that reflects his work ethic, that sooner rather than later he needed to start.

“Age doesn’t really matter,” Sanogo said. “If you know how to play the game, you’re going to play in the game.”

Two years later, Sanogo is on the other side of that equation, tasked with communicating it to younger players. As a senior leader, a bruising running back and a ball-hawking linebacker, Sanogo is tutoring the next generation of Academy Park players in the same lessons.

If you put in the work, you’ll prove that you’re good enough.

If you’re good enough, you’ll get chances to play.

If you do well with those chances, you’ll get more.

And, writ large, if the best players do their jobs day after day, Academy Park will win games and, eventually, championships.

That’s an easy sell from a leader like Sanogo to young players shorter on varsity experience than usual, given AP’s spring-shifted 2020 season.

“We’ve got to step up, really be a leader, show these young guys how to do the work,” Sanogo said. “We’ve got to scream at them a little bit, but we’ve got to step up. The leader job, I feel like it isn’t that hard. You’ve just got to get people to listen and get their trust.”

AP went 4-1 last spring. It lost the opener to Penn Wood by one point, then won four straight, playing spoiler to eventual United X League champ Chester in the Knights’ finale.

That a Vosheski team improved as the season wore on should be no surprise. The only difference is that the anticipated October/November peak didn’t have an analogue in the truncated spring.

The bright side, Sanogo said, is that with the season concluding in April, the team’s core had a couple of weeks off and went straight into their offseason preparations.

The Knights will have a new quarterback for the third straight season, with Anthony Rodriguez having graduated. The two leading candidates, Darryl Farmer and lefty Justin Dade, are long on size but short on experience. Knowing AP, there are plenty of gadget plays in the back pocket to give those QBs room to grow.

“I’m trying to give them little tips and everything, trying to show them different things,” senior wide receiver Eric Willis said. “I try to work out with them differently because I know everything won’t be in my vicinity; I might have to go up and make a play, do different types of things. So I try to help them as much as I can, encourage them as much as I can.”

Willis has been a primary weapon for all three of those signal-callers, like Sanogo stepping into significant snaps as a sophomore on the way to a district final. His role has changed, and he might end up with the ball in the backfield more this season, the lightning option to the thunderous Sanogo.

Jersae Cavanaugh and TJ Washington are other options with the ball. And while the line is reloading, the Knights always seem to figure out well-drilled combinations to win battles in the trenches.

The tests this year will be significant. A game at Avon Grove and a visit from Downingtown East serve as Del Val League tuneups for a program never shy about courting challenges.

“It’s definitely good, knowing that you’re not scared of anything,” Willis said. “We’ll go for anything that comes our way. We’re up for any challenge, for any fight. … I’m glad he makes us do those hard challenges during the season because we know what we have to face and it’s definitely a dogfight in playoffs.”

On paper, defense presents a challenge due to graduations. But as ever, young talents are waiting in the wings to earn snaps.

Sanogo did it as a sophomore and he’s ready to help the next group of youngsters make the same jump.

“I feel like I was a leader,” Sanogo said of last spring. “I had a lot of young guys looking at me, so I had to really concentrate. It was hard because sophomore year, I had a lot of seniors. There were a lot of people to look up to. So it’s my turn to shine.”