New Coach, Approach for PV Football

PUTNAM VALLEY—In each of the last two seasons, the Putnam Valley high football team has finished at 3-5. This season the Tigers have a new coach, a new offensive style and a bulkier frontline.

Jon Warden SKIP PEARLmAN Unfortunately, the Tigers were bumped back up to Class B, only return six seniors, and the roster is only 22 players deep. So even though things are looking up, they still have a tall mountain to climb if they want to get over the hump to a winning season.

Last season the Tigers snuck into the playoffs, but were eliminated in the first round by Dobbs Ferry. First-year head coach Matt Mello was an assistant with the team last year and worked with former coach Frank Heitman for 10 years. Mello is confident that his team can do some damage this year but he knows it won’t be easy.

“I’m excited about our running game this year,” said Mello. “We are going to be a ground and pound type of offense. Last year our offensive line averaged about 175 pounds, this year we may have added close to 50 pounds. We used to run more of a spread offense but it is hard to pass the ball when teams don’t respect your run game. We want to change that this year, we want to be more physical and fire off of the ball. But our schedule is tough from top to bottom, there are no games we can go into expecting to win easily. We will be challenged by going back to Class B, the kids will only get bigger up there. But I think if we stay healthy we can be competitive.”

Will Mauro SKIP PEARLMAN Put Valley only returns five starters, including Jon Warden (12, HB/DE) who picked up All-League honors last season. Bryan Minnerly (12, TE/DE), AJ Martinez (11, FB/LB), Will Mauro (11, DT) and Suniel Vaswani (11, DT) are also returning starters. Other key players returning include Jason Kobb (12, OL/DT) and Anthony Polidoro (12, OL/DT), each will play a big role for this revamped O-line and their coach’s hopes of a stronger running game.

Bryan Minnerly SKIP PEARLMAN “We expect a lot out of Jon,” said Mello. “We are looking for him to play like we know he can play. He is capable of doing some good things, Kobb and Polidoro are expected to be important in helping to sure up our line and making it so that Jon has room to run. As for the rest of these guys we expect them to show some leadership, and they can all be good for us if they stay healthy.”

Some newcomers to look out for are Connor Gembecki (11, QB/DB), Anthony Gentile (11, FB/CB), Rob Pasquale (11, OL/DE), Brian Sillery (11, OL/LB) and Mike Walsh (10, DB).

“Connor is our starting QB, but he is a heck of an athlete, so he will be out there playing defense sometimes too.”

The Tigers will have their work cut out for them this season, in a strong league with Lourdes, Ardsley, Pelham, Irvington and state runner-up Nanuet.

Connor Gembecki SKIP PEARLMAN “The league is good,” said Mello. “We know we will have to bring it every game. Pelham is supposedly returning a ton of good players, Lourdes has a new coach and Nanuet made it to states last year. But I know if we stay healthy we can be competitive.”

Mello is not shy about his confidence, he feels like his team is bringing in a new style and they can turn some heads in the upcoming season.

“We expect to make the playoffs,” he said. “We want to stay healthy and improve each week, if we do that I think we can compete. We have a chance to be one of those sleeper teams, we don’t expect many people to be talking about us right now but we want them to be at the end of the season.”

The Tigers open their season Saturday at home under the lights at 7 pm against league opponent Lourdes.