TRIBUNE-REVIEW • SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 • 19
adno=6605003_v3 Deep, veteran Freeport sets sights high
32 years of service to Armstrong Co.&AKValley Good Luck
to all the
High School
Football Players!
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GOOD LUCK JACKETS
The Yellowjackets graduated
leading receiver and kicker
Jake Sarver, leading tackler
Austin Kempand linemanMatt
Charlton, but the majority of
the roster remains intact.
Romanchak, who has a preferred
walk-on offer at Penn
State, and Selinger combined
to rush for more than 1,300
yards and 20 touchdowns last
season. Romanchak passed for
nearly 500 yards and returns
Evan McCrea and Bauman at
receiver.
“We’ve all been playing since
seventh grade together and
someeven before that,”McCrea
said. “We’ve been adding on
through the years with some
new guys, but it’s been fun to
see how we’ve progressed as
a unit.”
It’s been fun for Gaillot to
watch his backfield’s development
since they debuted together
as sophomores.
“That first year, they took
some shots and showed us how
tough they were,” Gaillot said.
“They were small. I think Austin
was 125 pounds his sophomore
year, and Conor was
maybe 160. They were pretty
small kids for varsity sophomores.
Now Conor is around
200 pounds, and Austin is
around 165. They’re bigger and
stronger.”
When Romanchak and Selinger
line up this fall, they’ll
do so behind a line Gaillot
said has the potential of the
line they had in 2011, which
featured Jon Turner, Nathan
Rummel and Shane McKillop.
Gaillot considered the 2011
unit to be the best line Freeport’s
had in his tenure.
The Yellowjackets have a new
offensive coordinator in former
Knoch coach Mike King. Gaillot
said he has been trying to
get King to join his staff since
he retired at Knoch in 2016 and
finally convinced him to join
this year.
The two have known each
other since Gaillot was a rookie
track and field coach at Freeport
24 years ago. He credited
King for taking him under his
wing at his first meet at Knoch,
helping him mark the throwing
events, and they’ve been
friends ever since.
The interaction and adjustment
to the new offense has
been positive thus far.
“It’s been an easier transition
to learn a newoffense than
most of us probably expected,”
McCrea said. “It’s really cool
considering that (King’s) dad
coached (Freeport) back in the
’70s.
“It’s a little different. Most
of the time, we’re running the
same types of plays, but they
are called something different,
and they have a different
scheme.”
On defense, losing Kemp
— the Allegheny Conference
co-defensive player of the year
— creates a void, but the Yellowjackets
return five of their
top six tackling leaders in Selinger,
Bauman, Patrick Keeley,
Schaffhauser and Craven.
Realignment puts Freeport
in a mostly new conference
outside of keeping Burrell
and Deer Lakes. Derry, Cardinal
Wuerl North Catholic,
Elizabeth Forward, Yough,
Mt. Pleasant and Uniontown
are new teams for Freeport in
the Class 3A Big East Conference.
Freeport played Yough
in a Week Zero game last year.
“We’re looking at it as an exciting
opportunity to face some
new opponents,” McCrea said.
“We really don’t know what to
expect, so it will be more of a
challenge for us. It’s good that
we kept Deer Lakes and Burrell.
It’s nice to have two teams
that we know well, and we get
to have good, old-fashioned rivalries
with them.”
Freeport faces Derry and
North Catholic right out of
the gate, two teams that made
the playoffs last year. If the Yellowjackets
stay healthy, they’re
hopeful of making a return to
the playoffs, but they are also
weary of the road they’ll take
to get there.
“We know what we have, but
wealso knowthat it’s a difficult
conference,” Gaillot said.
“My job is to make sure
that everyone is focused every
week. We have to have that
one-game-at-a-time mentality
and treat each game like it’s a
playoff game.”
FREEPORT · FROM 18
BIG EAST
EVAN MCRAE