Armstrong Football Coach Confident for Upcoming Season

by Olivia Wasilko

Summer break may have just started for Armstrong High School students, but there is no off-season for football players.

New Junior High Head Coach Marckeis Allensworth said that the team has had a very early start.

“We’ve been lifting and conditioning and everything since January,” he said.

Coach Allensworth is definitely worthy of Head Coach title. A veteran football player himself, Allensworth has also spent about twelve years coaching various teams.

“I’ve coached at the youth levels throughout several years at Ford City and several years up here at West Kittanning as well where I did resume head coach at the lower levels. I played all my years at Ford City until Ford City and Kittanning consolidated for the first team of Armstrong Central. We came together and played and went to the playoffs the first year around. I was a rusher on that team. Then, I went to college and played a couple of years at Edinboro University.”

Though he has worked hard to earn the coaching position, it wasn’t without help from his mentors. Allensworth says his coaching inspiration comes from many sources, new and old.

“I do like some of the new stuff that Coach Frank Fabian had put out there with the spread offense and Coach Harry Beckwith, with the old-school methods.”

Beckwith, who in 1990 coached Allensworth, was inducted into the Pennsylvania Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2001 to honor his thirty-six years of coaching. Fabian is also a well-known coach in the area for his successes with the Kittanning team. Allensworth hopes to introduce methods from both coaches’ playbooks to the team.

“We’re going to utilize the short pass [from Fabian] on that as well as the double team [from Beckwith] and we’re going to run right at them,” he said.

Allensworth is sure that his team will succeed in the race and on the field this fall. When asked how he felt going up against larger opponents, such as East Allegheny and Greensburg Central Catholic, he stressed that size didn’t matter.

“We’re going to able to play with any of them,” he said. “Our record will speak for itself. I do believe we’re going to come out overall with a lot of wins. These guys are marching up the field. They’re not marching backwards, they’re marching forward.”

The team also has three assisting coaches who are working to bring them into shape. Billy Brown, James Roundtree, and David Grafton Jr. are no strangers to the game of football.

Coach Brown played for the first consolidated team when it went to the playoffs. As a running back and line back, he received high praises.

“He was very fluent with the game and knew some good tactics on defense,” Allensworth said of his former teammate. “We did very well.”

Roundtree, a Connecticut native, also played running back during his high school career. He played safety and defensive back as well. In his more recent years, he coached the local youth leagues with Brown.

Allensworth is especially proud of his youngest coach, Grafton. A new Kittanning High School graduate who played under Fabian, he knows the game of football inside and out.

Described as “a boy with old-school methods,” Grafton is the newest line coach.

Grafton isn’t the only new blood on the team. Out of the 63 players who have signed up for the fall season, some of them are girls. Allensworth, who has coached female players such as Armstrong sophomore Macey Wonderling, is enthusiastic at the prospect.

Despite the gender differences among players, the team has come together to be a family unit, according to Allensworth.

“A lot of them get together via social media or to the mall to watch a movie. Some of them even come down here to hang out or swim or hit the trail. The main thing is that since January, they’ve become a close unit. Almost like a family unit. Afterwards, when they go to break from any session, they all come together,” he said of the players.

In addition to out-of-practice bonding, the team focuses on its fitness in other ways that help the community.

The team will also be participating in Ford City’s weekend 5K. After long months of training, some players have clocked in times of close to 22 minutes.

While there are entrance fees, the coaches are trying to figure out an easier way to allow everyone to race.

After the event, the team will celebrate with a party from a local vendor. Bugsy’s Pizza in Kittanning will be providing pizza and snow cones.

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