By CORY ISENBERG
JOHNSTOWN — Westmont Hilltop football coach Matt Glennon is still a relative newcomer to the area, just completing his first year at the helm.
The Hilltoppers skipper is getting an opportunity this week to experience the traditions of the Ken Lantzy Finest 40 All-Star Football Classic, which is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Johnstown’s Trojan Stadium.
Glennon, who is serving as the defensive coordinator for the South squad, says working with head coach Ken Salem and the other Rebels assistants will definitely increase his football knowledge.
“This is great to be around other coaches, and any time you’re talking about football, you learn a lot for yourself,” Glennon said.
“You find out what the other coaches bring to practice and the ideas that they have. It brings a lot of growth and is a great experience. It will only help me as a coach. It’s an honor to be here and I’m glad they asked me to come.
“The kids have really accepted the coaching that we have to give them. They are great kids. They are very respectful. You see them improve at every practice.”
There are limitations placed on the defenses according to the Lantzy game rules, and coaches have to learn to be creative.
“The hardest part is wrapping your head around it and trying to create a scheme that you think will hold the offense to a certain number of points,” Glennon said. “Obviously we can only do so much in a 5-2, so we’re trying rotate our secondary around and give our athletes some space and hopefully using the edge players to create bubbles that our backs can run to the ball.
“The kids are very athletic. Looking at the rosters, we don’t match up quite as big with the North roster, but we have kids that can move and kids that have a lot of football smarts and pick up schemes very well.
“We’re going to move around a lot and try to cause some confusion up front and hope our skill kids can run with their skill kids.”
In the secondary for the South, Garrett Berkey of Shade and Jason Reynolds of Bishop McCort are at the corners. The safeties include Tyler Capitosti of United, Patrick Hall of Laurel Valley, Adam Jones of Somerset, T.J. Keklak of Westmont and Joe Miller of Rockwood.
“So far, we are all meshing really well,” Keklak said. “Sometimes it takes a team days or weeks to come together, but we did a communication drill between our secondary kids (Monday) morning where we crisscross and switch receivers. Coach Glennon wanted to know if Garrett Berkey from Shade and I had ever done the drill together before because it was like we’ve been playing together before this. It’s amazing how great talent can come together so quickly.”
The linebackers include Tribune-Democrat Defensive Player of the Year Matt Beckman of Ligonier Valley, Jordan Curcija of Richland, Kevin Erickson of Windber and John Poloyac of Conemaugh Valley.
“It’s tough. It’s been a while since I played football,” said Beckman, who is headed to IUP to play in the fall. “I like getting back into it. We have a lot of fast kids that I read about in the paper and some big defensive linemen, so I think we should do pretty well against the North’s offense.”
Listed as the ends are Alex Burns of Ligonier Valley, Brett Hankinson of Berlin and Justin Tantlinger of Laurel Valley. The tackles are Robert Campbell of Blacklick Valley, Dan Curry of Westmont, David Istanich of Johnstown and Rudy Zach of Saltsburg.
Nose guards are Jared Anderson of Meyersdale and Derek Engleka of Berlin.
“I knew the game was going to be a lot faster and that I was going to be going up against a lot bigger people than I’m used to going up against,” Anderson said. “Coming from a small school, you get up against these big schools and you’re a little intimidated at first, but you just go with the flow. It helps to know that I was selected to play with these other players and you just have to go out there and play football.”
