This week, there was an official announcement saying goodbye to two assistant coaches on last year's staff, and hello to two new assistants.
The goodbyes to Sal DeWalt, who assisted the coaching the offensive line and tight ends last year, and Ernest Moore, who played for the Brown & White and assisted the coaching of the defensive backs last year. DeWalt moves to a new position at Randolph Macon College in Virginia, while Moore is going to the University of Chicago as their new defensive backs coach.
There's a distinct Division II and III flavor to the incoming coaches as well.
Replacing Moore is Charles Alexander, who comes from a frequent foe of Lehigh back in the 1940's, 50's, 60's, and 70's: the Gettysburg Bullets, where he was the defensive backs coach for the last three years. He coached a secondary that hauled in 11 interceptions in 2010 and guided the Bullets to a 6-4 record, their first winning season in three years.
Alexander started his playing career at non-scholarship Butler University, and later transferred to Ohio State where he got his degree in education in 2002.
Replacing DeWalt is Greg Keziah, who comes to South Mountain from the staff at Yale where he held a similar position under head coach Tom Williams. His playing career took place at D-II Wingate, where he was a four-year starter on the offensive line.
Of note last year was Williams' Yale team, which has been busy retooling itself from a running team to a passing team. The Eli's 244.30 passing yards a game was tied for the lead in the Ivy League, of which Keziah played a part.
*****
In terms of incoming recruits, we have this signing day report I've been sitting on for months concerning freshman OL Kyle Moore:
Though by his own admission he played virtually his entire senior football season at 90 percent, Owen J. Roberts lineman Kyle Moore nonetheless did a superior job of paving the way for the Wildcats’ high-octane ground attack.
After undergoing successful surgery on his right ankle three weeks ago, Moore expects to be back at full strength when he kicks off his college career this fall.
The 6-4, 280-pound Moore has signed a letter-of-intent to accept a partial scholarship to attend Lehigh University and play football for the Division I Mountain Hawks.
The article adds that he's coming to Lehigh to study engineering.
Usually this time of year, I'm reporting on the high school all-star games that are occurring.
This particular year has seen the biggest all-star game of them all, the Pennsylvania/Ohio "Big 33" game, feature zero incoming Ivy League or Patriot League players on either roster. This is the first year I recall this happening; in addition, there are also precious few FCS players at all on the roster.
While the Big 33 game is filled with BCS players and is still a huge event in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the smaller All-Star games are having to struggle just to survive. The PSFCA East-West game was suspended for this year since their major sponsor pulled out.
Another thing causing some of these all-star games to wane in popularity is the potential for injury before playing a down at the college level. That seems to be the reason why incoming Lehigh freshman WR Josh Parris, who was selected to play in the Lehigh Valley All-Star Classic, chose not to participate.
Comments