Numbers are back up for Purple Riders By SETH STASKEY
Special to the Preview
MARTINS FERRY — The Martins Ferry Purple Riders have a long and storied tradition on the football field. Veteran head c o a c h D a v e Bruney, who is embarking on his 35th season at the helm of his alma mater, is hopeful that another exciting chapter can be added as the 2013 campaign opens Friday night. “I think we have a chance to be a really solid team,” Bruney said. The Riders welcome back a deep and talented nucleus which saw a lot of quality action during a 5-5 season. It was a season in which the Purple Riders were just a handful of plays away from possibly being in the playoffs.
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At one point, Ferry stood at 5-1, but dropped its final four, including a heartbreaking 34-28 setback in overtime to archrival Bellaire. “If everyone’s healthy, we’re probably better than a 5-5 team, but injuries are a part of footb a l l , ” Bruney said. “You have to make the best of the cards you’re dealt. In some games, I thought we did and others were a disappointment to me.” The Purple Riders’ goals never change in terms of desire to reach the postseason and battle for the OVAC and Buckeye 8 titles. However, Bruney, who just wrapped up his 41st consecutive summer of going through double sessions, won’t even begin to let his club look ahead to any of that. “There’s an old saying,’before you can be
2-0, you have to be 1-0,’ so you can’t lose sight of the task each week,” Bruney said. “You can’t dwell on things either if something doesn’t go your way. I think all of that has to do with maturity.” Bruney has been very pleased with the maturation of his team. “They’ve matured attitude wise, workethic wise, but we’ll have to see on game night, when the lights come on, if they’ve matured poise wse and performance wise when you’re under the gun,” Bruney said. “They’ve practiced well.” That maturation process began almost immediately after the 2012 season ended. “We had a good winter, a good spring and we’ve got five or six kids in the senior class who are really good players. Plus, we have a really good junior class. There aren’t any really great players, but there are a lot of really good players, so we have a
Seniors (14) Ricardo Alvardo, Taylor Cotoure, Austin DeLeonardis, Daniel Dokes, Eric Flowers, Logan Kinney, Hondo Palmer, Dustin Schau, Seth Scott, Luke Straub, Bryan Styles, Marcus Sutton, Robert Vargo, JaVaughn Wade. Juniors (17) Lucas Agnew, Nick Bain, Jake Barritt, Cody Beavers, Jonathan Bodkin, Bruce Burger, Bryce Coleman, Mark Douglas, Jack Fitch, T.J. Jacob, Jahad Joyce, Shawon Manns, Sam Redinger, R.J. Reed, Brian Sadosky, Kyle Staley, Andrew Watts. Sophomores (7) Emilio Appolloni, Matt Barbour, Arjay Burress, James Edwards, Andrew Hython, Brandon Mayle, Steffan Ries. Freshmen (16) Dominic Bell, Darren Clark, Nick Cummings, Jack Davis, Ryan Fox, Malik Hill, Keegan Hupp, Rich Lechner, Cade Lloyd, Dan Melewski, Connor Patterson, Drake Rice, Sam Russell, Logan Selby, George Stan, Jared Straub.
chance to have a good team.” Numbers are up, attitudes are right, but Bruney especially likes the chemistry his team has shown through the summer months, which is often times the ultimate ‘X’ factor in a team’s success. “You can tell these guys genuinely like each other,” Bruney said. “I really like their togetherness. When you have that kind of chemistry, it becomes hard to let your buddies down because you don’t want to be that weak link so to speak.” Because of some of
the injuries to the players who Bruney thought could be impact guys, some of the younger Riders were thrown into the fire early, which could pay dividends this season. “A lot of our guys got a lot of reps so far in their career and they’re only juniors,” Bruney said. “Our junior class has gotten to play a lot of football sooner than they maybe would have if it weren’t for different circumstances.” With so much experience and talent back in numerous places, Bruney believes that his club has the capability to come firing on all cylinders right out of the gates. “We sure hope that’s the case,” Bruney said. “We’ve (had) three scrimmages to see what we have in game situations, but it’s still going to come down to being able to stay healthy. If we learned any lessons last year, it’s that things can go south in a hurry.” Avoiding that injury bug is simply paramount for many teams in the area and the Purple Riders are no different despite the fact that
Bruney does like his team’s depth. “It doesn’t take too many injuries to cause some changes,” Bruney pointed out. “You’ve still got a schedule to play and you can’t go out and sign a free agent, recruit a new kid or make a trade. You go with what you have, so we’ve spent a lot of time this summer trying to develop that depth.” Bruney and his staff have stressed over and over to their players that it only takes one play and someone new could have their number called. “When the opportunity (to play) presents itself and you’re ready to grab it by the throat, regardless of your talent level, you could go in and not hurt us,” Bruney said. “Then you’re making a meaningful contribution.” Outside of staying healthy, Bruney points to things such as winning the turnover and penalty battles as what could be the ultimate determining factors this season. “If we do those See FERRY Page 108 ➪