Football Preview: ‘New’ Penn Wood team aims to erase a winless memory

LANSDOWNE >> The 2021 season was a strange one for Penn Wood.

First, it was actually two seasons, the five-game spring campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic followed by the regular fall season several months later.

In between, there was no weight training or offseason workouts on campus due to pandemic concerns. To say that lack of offseason work set the Patriots back is an understatement.

Penn Wood went 0-9 overall and 0-4 in the Del Val League last fall.

“It was definitely a struggle,” said Ato Troop, who is in his sixth season as the head coach.

Things have returned to normal this year. The Patriots were able to get in the weight room and hold offseason practices that Troop and the players hope helps them put the disappointment of that winless season behind them.

“I see a lot of improvement,” senior running back/linebacker Marques Sarkor said. “Leadership is way better. People are coming to practices on time. There’s just some stuff we have to clean up, but I like us a lot this year. We’ve got a young team but there’s been a lot of effort and hustle. No one wants to have a winless season. It makes us strive more.”

Not that long ago the Patriots were the cream of the crop in the Del Val League. In 2019, Penn Wood shared the title with Academy Park. The year before that the Patriots completed a second straight 5-0 run through the conference and went 11-2, falling to Rustin in the semifinals of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs.

The Patriots are striving to return to those glory days.

“Last year we didn’t have enough time to learn our whole playbook on offense,” senior running back/linebacker Michael Keene said. “This year we had more time to study and the younger guys are picking up coverages faster. They’re starting to learn to play faster and with more confidence.”

“I’ve seen a lot of hard work,” added two-way senior lineman Osman Kamara. “Last year was not what we wanted. I’ve seen a lot of people putting the work in and we’re definitely getting better. It’s not going to be the Penn Wood from last year.”

Sarkor, Keene, Kamara and Alhassane Coulibaly are among the seniors Troop is counting on to help the Patriots return to their winning ways. The 5-11, 200-pound Sarkor led the team in total tackles (43), solo stops (22) and tackles for loss (six). The 5-11, 175-pound Keene was third on the team in rushing (38 carries, 167 yards), receiving (four receptions, 20 yards) and all-purpose yards (191). Defensively, he was tied for second in total tackles (40) and second in solo stops (18).

The 6-0, 245-pound Kamara recorded 36 tackles (17 solo) and led the team with three sacks. Coulibaly (6-2, 245) gives Penn Wood size on both sides of the football. Among the newcomers to watch are wide receiver/defensive back Rashon Sanders and two-way lineman Malachi Leonard. Both are freshmen.

“We’re going to be young,” Troop said. “We played a lot of freshmen and sophomores last year so a lot of the kids got a chance to play and gain some experience.”

And that was just with the benefit of training camp. This time around they’ve had the full offseason experience to improve their skills and get stronger and that is paying dividends.

“We’re so far ahead of where we were at this time last year,” Troop said. “We have all of our base offense in. We can just rep it and get better as opposed to last year when we were still figuring people out. We know what we got. We know what we can run. We know what we can be successful doing. It will be much closer to the years when we were winning and people didn’t want to play us. When you’re good, people don’t want to play you.

“You’ll definitely see a different offense than you saw the last year or two. It will be like when we had Des (Desman Johnson Jr., the leading passer in Delco history) and those guys, similar concepts to those teams. We’re still getting pieces back, too. We have a couple of guys who are going to come next week so that will help us out once we get them up to speed and get them in shape. I think you’ll see us get better as the year goes on.”