Upper Dauphin and Carmie Out to 7-0 Start

At the end of the 2006 high school season, Shamokin Area decided to severe ties with Carmen DeFrancesco. In 2007, after stops at Cardinal Brennan, Danville, and Shamokin all of sudden Coach Carm wasn't in high demand.

A few applications not many takers and Defrancesco found himself in high school football purgatory......Upper Dauphin. The Trojans would win a few games here and there and churn out a class of good athletes, but nothing of the like you would see playing about an hour north. There are no Southern's, Mount Carmel's, Selinsgrove's on the schedule and over a 1000 in attendance is a good night at the gate.

Starting out with a win over Pequa Valley in Week 1 in 2007, Upper Dauphin would lose the next 10 in a row, score only 18 more points and be shut out in 8 out of those 10 losses. Earlier in that 2007, I ran into DeFrancesco scouting Line Mountain against Juniata. He asked me to take a guess on who was the fastest person on his team? He later replied, "the head coach."

Three seasons later Tyler Koppenhaver, Ty Grosser, and Ty Rubenstine are at or near the top in passing, rushing and receiving in the Twin Valley League. When DeFrancesco commented about team speed he said I have a good sophomore class with a good work ethic. He also said the team isn't bad defensively. That was 2007.

You never know what the rest of the 2009 will bring, but this restoration job could prove to be DeFrancesco's finest.