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BERWICK — Foreboding dark clouds and an occasional flash of lightning over Crispin Field late Friday afternoon forced the Berwick football team inside for its media day.
Neither dampened the enthusiasm of coach Carmen DeFrancesco, who came out of retirement at 66 years old to take over the program.
“I got this job and I’m up at 5 o’clock in the morning,” said DeFrancesco, whose previous head coach job ended in 2014 at Mount Carmel. “I’m working out in the gym. I’m here all day coaching. I feel like I’m 35 years old again. I’m 66, but I feel like I’m 35 again.
“And what I expected here, these kids love football. They love to play the game. They love to practice. They are so easy to coach. And to (former) coach (Frank) Sheptock’s credit, they are fundamentally sound.”
Sheptock stepped down after three seasons to take an assistant coaching position at King’s College. DeFrancesco was hired in late April and said at the time Berwick was the only school that could lure him out of retirement.
Berwick is DeFrancesco’s sixth head coaching stop in his 23-year career. It nearly came 13 years earlier.
George Curry resigned as Berwick’s coach after the 2005 season and threw his support behind DeFrancesco. DeFrancesco interviewed once for the position and had a second interview set up when he decided to pull his name from consideration and remain at Shamokin. He later went on to coach Upper Dauphin and Mount Carmel. He started his head coaching career at now-closed Cardinal Brennan before moving to Danville and then Shamokin.
A majority of his coaching experience has come in District 4, particularly in the Heartland Conference. He is confident it won’t take long to learn the Wyoming Valley Conference.
“It’s not going to take much,” DeFrancesco said. “I’ve broken down all the film. As soon as I got hired, I came down here and watched every game, broke down every film.
“(The WVC) as compared to the Heartland Conference, this is a more physical league. I think they like more smash-mouth football. The Heartland Conference, there are a lot of teams that spread you out and throw the ball around, other than Southern (Columbia).”
Berwick and other WVC teams have been conducting voluntary workouts throughout the summer. The first official day of practice for all fall sports is Aug. 12. The football season starts Aug. 23.
STILL LOOKING
Holy Cross’ decision to suspend the football program left WVC members Holy Redeemer and Northwest searching for games to fill the void. Redeemer was scheduled to open the season with Holy Cross. Northwest had a game lined up Week 4 with the Crusaders.
Neither has been successful in finding an opponent, but three teams who had games scheduled with Holy Cross have.
Riverside will play Academy of the New Church in Week 6. ANC is a Class A school in Bryn Athyn, which is located about 20 miles north of Philadelphia. The game will be at Riverside.
Montrose and Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech also lost games, but are able to play each other Week 7. Montrose was slated to play Holy Cross in Week 2 and V0-Tech had Holy Cross in Week 9.
Montrose played Dunmore in Week 7 in 2018, but dropped the Bucks and elected to go with a nine-game schedule. Vo-Tech had an opening Week 7, so now the two teams will play then.
Dunmore plays Wyoming Area in Week 7, filling an opening in the Warriors’ schedule due to the Wilkes-Barre Area programs merging.
Besides Redeemer and Northwest, other teams looking for games with Holy Cross’ departure are Mid Valley (Week 3), Old Forge (Week 5), Susquehanna (Week 7), Carbondale (Week 8) and Lackawanna Trail (Week 10).