SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP – First-year Shawnee head football coach Frank Crea didn’t have much time to make plans for summer conditioning.
With the late resignation of coach Jon Carpenter on June 30th, Crea did not get hired until toward the end of summer workouts. Carpenter resigned after one year.
However, the late start hasn’t affected Crea’s outlook on what he needs to accomplish at a school that has not seen a winning season since the 2009 campaign (7-3). In 2011, Shawnee went 5-5. The Indians were 0-10 in 2015.
“When I officially got hired, it was July the 18th,” Crea said. “So, in that two weeks’ time I had to first of all, try to find coaches. And I have a great young staff of coaches that are energetic, that love coaching football as much as I do. They just love being around our kids.
“I got all the coaches to buy in to what I want as a football team. One thing I stress to my coaches is that I want to have fun, because football is supposed to be fun. It’s an extra-curricular activity. I want them to have fun playing football. I want them to have a good experience playing football like I did. I’m from Youngstown. Football was huge over there when I was a kid growing up.”
Crea said it’s going to be a process; one that he believes can result in a winning program.
“One, we’re trying to stay positive. Two, we’re trying to build some excitement. And three, we’re trying to get the kids to buy into our system. I think they are right now,” he said. “That’s been tough. Most high school coaches get a year to plan their stuff out. We got two weeks (before August 1). We implemented an offense. We implemented a defense. We implemented team rules. We got a nice weight room program going on right now. It’s amazing what we have done in two weeks.”
Despite being around the football program for a short time, the players said Crea’s impact has been felt already.
Senior quarterback Ray Manley (6-0, 150), who has been in the program all four years of high school, feels confident about the possibilities for his team.
“I hope we do good this season,” Manley said. “We’re really coming together as a team. We just need to keep up with the tempo.
“We have a new offensive scheme and everything. This offense is new for us. We have speed. We have great linemen that can block for us. We just have to get the ball outside. We want to have a winning season, get to the playoffs and just go on from there.”
Added senior Mitchell Shirk (6-3, 220, OL/DL), “We’re all very excited. We’re super happy to have Coach Crea with us. We’re all looking to having fun and looking to get after it.”
Crea has been around football for quite some time. Most recently, Crea was the defensive coordinator at Lima Senior the past three seasons under head coach Mike Fell. Before that, Crea was the defensive coordinator at Ada from 2006-2012, once again under Fell.
In 2000, Crea was briefly the head coach at Upper Scioto Valley, a season that ended after one game when USV did not field enough players to complete its schedule. From 1986-1999, Crea coached the offensive line and special teams at Lima Senior. He also was an assistant coach at Perry.
Crea is bringing many of the same ideas he utilized over the years, on both sides of the football.
“If you watched Lima Senior and you watched Ada, you’ll be watching us (Shawnee),” Crea said. “Now, we do have a few wrinkles that we’re not going to tell people about.
“Defensively, we’re a multiple 3-5-3 front, where we can move guys around and make it a multiple front defense. I think with today’s football you have to have a multiple-front defense. It’s the same defense we ran at Lima Senior.
“Our main thing is to hustle, hustle, hustle. Hustle and communication are the two things we preach,” he said.
Despite the recent struggles for the Shawnee football program, Crea is confident.
“I don’t look at it as a challenge,” Crea said. “I look at it as an opportunity for me and my coaches.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
