The Falcons have once again dipped into their history for their third head coach in program history.
Pat Mooney may bleed Mountain Valley blue and silver, but that blood is boiling as he takes over the task of bringing the Falcons back to their glory days.
He should know what that will take, seeing as he was in uniform at the beginning of those glory years. Mooney graduated in 2004 — the year before the first of three titles in five years under Aylward. Assistant coach Devin Roberts played on the 2006 state championship team.
“As the football team goes, so does the moral of the community,” Mooney said. “And we haven’t had a great year the last three or four years. There’s a sense of urgency now.
“We’re used to winning. We want to win. We’ve got to get this thing going. It’s been too long. We’ve got to get moving.”
If Mooney has his way, the Falcons will be moving on both sides of the ball. Returning running back Kyle Farrar is now a senior, and his classmate Nick Newman has come back to football as the team’s “spin back.” The Falcons will again run Mooney’s “44 swarm” defensive scheme.
“I think we have some of the fastest backs in the league, if not the whole state, right now,” Farrar said. “We’re looking fast. And we’re getting our offense down quick, our new offense. I like the new offense. It’s going to really surprise some teams. They’re not going to know what hit ’em.”
“I think we can be a very explosive team,” Mooney said. “We’ve put in a new offensive system that really plays to their strengths. We’ve got three guys in the backfield that were all sprinters for the track and field team.”
It doesn’t take much thinking to figure out the genesis of the “swarm” defense.
“We have to be definitely more angry, more physical, and basically just finish our tackles,” said senior linebacker Zach Duguay.
“We just need to start making tackles,” Farrar, a safety on defense, said. “In practice we’re getting better at swarming. That’s what our defense is, a swarm defense. If we can just wrap up this year, man, we’re going to be killer.”
Mooney called his scheme a “team defense,” where everyone has to stick to his assignment or things could fall apart.
Mooney was an outside linebacker during his time at Mountain Valley, and he was the defensive coordinator for LaPointe the past two years. That side of the ball is his identity.
“We have to be physical. That’s always been Mountain Valley’s bread and butter. That was our reputation,” Mooney said. “I think the past couple years people have forgotten that. We’re kind of coming into the season with a chip on our shoulder. We feel like we’ve been written off, and we shouldn’t be.”
Mooney has preached intensity and discipline during his first preseason as head coach of his alma mater. Those are two sentiments that can often times run counter to each other, but if the players can mesh them harmoniously, the Falcons can fly high once again.
“I think we want to go out with a bang,” Newman said of the senior class. “The past couple years the teams haven’t been that strong, and I think we just want to show that Mountain Valley is going to … we want to make a comeback.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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