Minisink Valley, O’Neill have 1st day of practice
They seek to pick up where they left off.
Saturday was the first day of high school football practice for some teams in Section 9. All four defending champions (Newburgh Free Academy, Minisink Valley, Port Jervis, James I. O’Neill) are carrying new quarterbacks. And the Warriors and Raiders looked forward to being back on the practice fields.
“I think we’re good,” said Kevin Gallagher, Minisink Valley coach. “We had a good year last year and we have a really good core coming back. We have some kids coming out of junior varsity who I think can step in and perform right away.
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Watch: Minisink Valley begins training for the 2022-23 football season
Watch: O’Neill holds season opening practice
The team has been working with new quarterback Crew Colon, the brother of former Minisink Valley quarterback Kai Colon, who now plays at Princeton.
And one of the Warriors’ strengths are the guys blocking first-team All-Star running back Ethan Gallo, including lineman Dan Morgan, for 2021 Varsity 845.
“We have most of our line coming back, which I think is key to any football team, and we have some good receivers coming back,” Gallagher said. “Crew [Colon] really worked with wide receiver Josh Peguero and some other guys.”
Colon described the mood on the first day of training.
“It’s definitely a different energy after winning the section championship,” said Colon. “Everyone, I think, just buys a little more and puts in a little more effort, and I definitely think it’s going to pay off this year.”
Over at James I. O’Neill, senior Nick Waugh and junior Chad Haley are competing for the starting quarterback position. Both are returning from torn labrums in the same shoulder.
“I think we have a lot of experience when we come back, that’s the first thing,” said coach David Moskowitz. “I think we have some really good talent kids. I’ll give you a sleeper for Varsity 845 Player of the Year. It’s Jadon Spain. He’ll make a lot of noise. We have a lot of good talent in Marek Arbogast, Jadon Spain and Jordan Thompson, our running back. We have that and a lot of experience when we return to defence.”
O’Neill will have Arbogast, who topped Section 9 last year’s scoring, alongside Jadon Spain as a wide receiver.
Haley said the two work well together.
And Arbogast paid tribute to Spain.
“He’s great,” Arbogast said of Spain. “He’s really fast, very strong and he’s going to be great. He was really underrated last year and I think he will be great offensively this year. He is our best wide receiver.”
Twitter: @MKramerTHR