Schools
Penncrest Football Closing Strong
Penncrest football had a very slow start to their season but once the team got what their first-year coach was teaching, the Lions began to roll.
The improvement came in small increments, in little areas, and was very, very gradual. But once got down what first-year coach Rick Stroup was teaching, the Lions began to roll.
After not scoring a point in its first four games, Penncrest finished 2-8 overall, but closed with two-straight victories—the second a fourth-quarter comeback that resulted in a
"It was a great way to go out," said Lions’ junior quarterback Shane Donnelly, whose growth came with each passing week. "Our entire offense is returning next year, except for our fullback. I was extremely proud of our team, because we hadn’t scored a point in our first four games this year. We scored the one touchdown against Haverford, and once we did, it was a big thing of relief. After that, we just played. We started playing some pretty strong games."
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Donnelly senses bigger things will come next season, and he’ll be a better leader for the adversity he faced this season.
"I’ll be the first to admit I was a poor leader in the beginning of the year," Donnelly said. "But I had a talk with [quarterback’s coach] Paul Milewski and he asked me a simple question that made me think, 'Why are you playing football.' He pointed out that I wasn’t working hard enough. My attitude changed. I started to look more at what I had to do to become better."
