First-year Boyertown football coach George Parkinson hasn’t quite identified the specific personnel the Bears will deploy for their opener against Exeter Aug. 29.
What Parkinson does know, though, is the kind of squad he wants to see take the field.
“My biggest thing with any team is that they play together, play for one another and play as a team,’ Parkinson said. “And not just talk about it, but do it. We want to make sure we stress discipline and have a disciplined team.’
Like a number of area squads, the Bears (5-4, 7-4 last year) incurred heavy graduation losses — most notably feature back Cody Richmond, quarterback Griffin Pasik, wideout Nick Brough and line behemoths Kyle Schutt and Austin Jacobs from a record-setting offense.
While Parkinson — he succeeds Mark Scisly, who took the head job at Northampton — will scrap the no-huddle attack, he said he still plans to run a spread offense.
Junior Lawrence Garnett and sophomore Evan Giannetti will vie for the quarterback position, with a lot of the key skill positions still up for grabs at this point.
In addition, both lines need to be rebuilt entirely and will be works in progress.
On defense, safety Justin Siejk and linebacker Mike Murphy are expected to be key players.
“We have to give it our all and play with heart and emotion,’ Siejk said. “We might not have as much talent, but we do have guys who play with emotion and can fly to the ball.’
“We just have to stay confident and focused on our goals,’ added Murphy. “We have a lot of young players coming in who are hungry.’
Parkinson previously served as head coach at St. Pius X from 2006-09, guiding the Winged Lions to an 8-6 mark and PIAA Class A Tournament berth his final season.
“I think the biggest key for us is staying healthy,’ Parkinson said. “As long as we can stay healthy through camp and the season, I think we’ll be OK.
“I have confidence in the guys we have. We have guys that are buying into the program and are picking up the system and getting better at it every day.’
