Prep Football Preview: Shady Spring going to battle with new faces

What seemed improbable became possible late last season as Shady Spring ran off three straight wins at the end of the year to earn its third playoff berth in four years.

If the Tigers hope to make it to the postseason for the fourth time in five years they’ll do so with some unfamiliar faces.

All-state linebacker Bryson Pinardo is at Glenville State while senior quarterback Cameron Manns elected not to play this season. To replace those leadership positions on each side of the ball the Tigers will rely on a pair of talented players that now step into the spotlight.

Linebacker James Sellards will be tasked with filling Pinardo’s shoes while Brady Green, who tore his ACL in the first game last season, will step in at quarterback.

“James (Sellards) is our main guy, no doubt,” Shady Spring head coach Vince Culicerto said. “Now he gets to do a little bit of offense with running the ball. We know what he can do defensively but he’s ran some for us over the years but we didn’t have a lot of room for him to play over the last few years to play a bunch but we knew he was a good runner and now he’ll get to show that as our main guy. Defensively he’s shown what he can do. At quarterback we have Brady Green and he was our backup to start the year last year but we felt like he would play a decent bit anyway at QB last year. So far this year he’s done a great job and he’s looked real good. We’re pretty excited about it.”

As far as experience, the Tigers have very little but Culicerto is optimistic his younger players can learn on the job and grow into what the team needs.

“We really don’t have many other returners,” Culicerto said. “We have John Hinkle on the line and he’s played offensive line and defensive line the last couple of years. The rest of the spots – Gavin Davis is a returning starter and he’s a junior that will play both ways. Elsewhere it’s a lot of new guys. The other linemen are mostly sophomores and in the offseason they hit the weights hard. We’re looking for good things from them down the road. They’re going to have to step up and show us something early but we’re real happy and we’ve got a bunch of them we’re rotating in and out and we think they’re going to be pretty good.”

The positive Culicerto has discovered early is that the young kids tasked with filling the vacant roles are willing to work at it.

“It’s a good hardworking bunch,” Culicerto said. “There hasn’t been a problem. They’ve come out and went to practice and worked hard and we’ve had no problems. They’re there to play and get after it. That’s a positive and the big numbers are always good. We’re just moving ahead and everybody is ready to go.”

The negatives though pertain mostly to the offensive line. By trade the position often has one of the largest learning curves with experience going a long way as contact is limited in practice.

“Our line play would probably be it,” Culicerto said. “We’ve got a lot of sophomores starting and that can go one of two ways. It’s going to be better for down the road but I don’t want to undercut them because I feel like they’re good enough to even get better this year. But even at other positions we’ve got other guys like Jalon Bailey who’s talented but young and a little undersized and I know how those first years are. He’s going to have his bumps and bruises but we feel like he’s going to be a good player. It takes a bit to get going though unless you’re a great athlete. Even Brady, this is going to be his first year as the quarterback so he’ll take his lumps too.”

Breaking in a new line won’t deter what the Tigers like to do on offense. A team that likes to play with balance, Culicerto believes his stable of big bruising backs will help them run the ball more. With veteran skill players like Tyler Mackey he believes they’ll also be able to hit on some big plays in the passing game when needed as well.

“It will be really similar to what we’ve done,” Culicerto aid. “We might even run more if the line’s holding up. We’ve got three or four backs that are 190 pounds or more and they can tote it. We like to throw it too. Tyler Mackey is back and he has some experience. Jalon Bailey too with the way Brady throws the ball. We’ve got some speed so we can do some things but it will be a lot of the same.”

Shady will open its season on Aug. 25 at Tug Valley.