Senior leaders earning ‘A’ for The U with winning ways

By Joe Sager

New Castle News

Senior year — one final chance to achieve your goals before heading off into the world.

It’s the time 13 Union High football players have been looking forward to for quite a while.

Of the team’s 13 seniors, nine of them have grown up together, battled alongside each other on the gridiron and navigated the unpredictable path known as childhood.

They’ve certainly enjoyed the ride. But, before they venture into young adulthood, they want to share success together one last time on the football field.

Clifford Clark, John Clark, John Hilke, Tre Major, Tyrone May III, Drew Robinson, Joe Salmen, Wayne Seamans and Austin Smith are part of the senior group that grew up together at Union. Classmate Elijah Williams spent the past three years with the Scotties, while seniors Dan Salvatore, Edgar VanTassel and Kevin Henson are new to the team this year.

Nevertheless, they’re all focused on one thing — qualifying for the WPIAL Class A playoffs. It’s a place their program hasn’t visited since 2003.

“I think this group is real special. We’re all friends. We’ve been waiting for our senior year for a while,” Robinson said. “We’re kind of a cocky group, so ever since we were little, we’d tell people, ‘Oh we’re going to be better than you when we’re seniors.’ Finally, you can see it’s showing and our hard work is paying off.”

Union is 4-1 and near the top of the Big Seven Conference standings. The Scotties’ lone defeat came against conference powerhouse Rochester, 21-19. While the strong start is encouraging, Union has another tough matchup when it welcomes Sto-Rox tonight. Rival Neshannock looms on the horizon as well.

“We take every week the same way. We win Friday, celebrate on Saturday, relax on Sunday and come back Monday and get to work,” Salmen said. “Right now, our focus is on Sto-Rox and nobody else.”

A conference championship remains possible for the Scotties, but they refuse to look ahead or over their shoulders. You won’t find them analyzing the standings, either.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time, one week at a time,” Major said. “When Week 9 is over, we’ll figure out if we’re in the playoffs.”

FAMILY

With a PIAA enrollment figure of 87 boys in the high school for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years, Union is one of the WPIAL’s smallest public schools. That small pool of potential players can be a major hindrance. However, this group has turned that negative into a positive.

“We’ve been playing together since Pop Warner football,” John Clark said. “We all hang out together. People always say that the people on the football team are family and we actually are family. We hang out every weekend, every day in school, sit at the same lunch table and all. We dreamed of being in this moment, winning games. This is the last shot we have. Time is running out, so we have to get it done now.”

Many of the seniors’ fathers also were athletic stars at Union. Not only have members of this current group grown up together on the football field, but most will head to the gym to play for the basketball team this winter and then transition to baseball or track and field in the spring.

“We’re all together all the time. It’s fun,” Major said. “It’s special because, usually at other schools, some people move away by the time they’re seniors. Everyone stayed and we’re all together, so it’s really great.”

The football team’s success has energized the Union Township community.

“It’s fun right now since we’re having a winning season. Everyone in the community is all happy. It’s just a good time to be around Union right now,” Robinson said. “In a way, it feels like we’re superstars in our own town. As funny as it may seem, it motivates you. School is fun; teachers are always congratulating us; our pictures are all over the school. It’s a good time.”

Added Salmen, “It’s nice to be in a small community. I would pick my 22-man roster over some of the 80-man rosters you get because you have that special time to bond and really become a team and a family that everyone wants to become. To do something like this for a small community is nice. It’s better than some of the other cities. It’s just a nice little town where everybody knows you and knows each other.”

HARD WORK

The Scotties had almost the same roster last year, but finished 1-6 in the conference. The inability to close out games hurt the team last season as it dropped its last five conference games, including three of the last four by five points or less.

So, what changed this year?

“I think it actually made us work harder in the offseason, just seeing how close we were as juniors,” Robinson said. “We realized we only had one year left and we wanted to go out with a bang and make it special.”

Union’s players didn’t take it easy in the offseason, either.

“It’s definitely the hard work that’s helped us,” Seamans said. “That hard work and conditioning pushed us to play well in the fourth quarter and we are able to finish games now. We have to keep working hard and doing what we’re doing.”

In addition, the team’s familiarity gives it an advantage when it comes to communication.

“We can do things without having to tell each other. Drew and I could give a look and he’ll run a certain route or Tre and I could give a certain look and he’ll know what to do. We just have signs and signals nobody else knows about,” Salmen said. “We just know what to do because we have been around together for so long. We know each others’ body mannerisms and we know what certain things mean. That’s where it comes into play with football. I think the main reason that helps us win games now is we do know we’re going to be in it together and we’re all going to strive to take the next step forward.

“We don’t have any fights because we all like each other. We never let anything come between us. If I am ever mad at one guy, it doesn’t mean I won’t throw him the ball. We do our own thing,” he continued. “We have a lot of help from the guys below us. The junior class really helps us out a lot. We just have the chemistry few teams have.”

MR. ROBINSON

Another aspect of the seniors’ friendship has paid dividends over the years. Robinson’s father, Stacy, is Union’s head coach and the senior group has been around the varsity program throughout its childhood.

“They have a lot of chemistry. Through Drew, they’ve probably been around the football program since they were in first or second grade. They’ve been around at practices or on the bus to certain games throughout the years,” Stacy Robinson said. “Believe it or not, they’re all used to getting yelled at by me. I am not afraid to yell at somebody else’s kids. That’s one good thing — they’ve been around me and they know the type of personality I have and I think it helps.”

The familiarity benefits the coach, too. He’s watched these boys grow up and mature into young men.

“They are a bunch of talented kids. The main thing is, before they even get on the football field, they’re all good kids. They are guys who I like to say touch all the bases and do all the right things. We have some good kids up here,” he said. “They enjoy themselves and the camaraderie. The outside distractions are not a part of this team.”

THE FUTURE

This senior group represents half of the team’s roster. So its eventual departure will deplete the roster for next season.

“It’s a big concern, that’s for sure. It used to be my goal was to get 10 guys out of each grade. I never thought that was too much to ask for. Over the last few years, it’s become a big burden to find that many,” Stacy Robinson said. “We had basically no seniors last year. You just can’t sustain a program if you don’t have a feeder system coming up.

“Right now, we don’t want to worry about the future even though you have to. That’s my job to do that. The kids here now, I think they all get the importance of the talks I give them about the door getting ready to close on this part of their life, so make sure you have a good time while you’re here because you can’t come back. They are intelligent enough to know that and they also want to leave their mark on the place.”

This fall is their final chance to do just that on Union’s football field.