Morning Journal / Ron Firth The 2024 Salem football team.

SALEM – The Salem Quakers program was on a roll. They had enjoyed four consecutive seasons qualifying for the playoffs and had a winning record in five of their previous six campaigns. But last year, the Quakers suffered from injuries and inexperience, resulting in a disappointing 1-9 record, snapping their playoff appearance streak.

“I don’t know that frustrating is the right word. It was just unfortunate,” Quakers head coach Ron Johnson said. “We had guys that had committed their lives to Salem football, four-year starters, and four-year lettermen, and they couldn’t play because of injuries and things that happened. I feel really bad for them.

“Was it disappointing that we didn’t get to meet our goals and play in the postseason? Absolutely. But it happened, unfortunately, and in 36 years of football, it had never happened to me before,” Johnson said.

The Quakers didn’t change any offseason routines with conditioning and practice this year despite those injuries. Johnson explained that they seriously looked at and evaluated what they were doing with their training and conditioning to address the reason for the rash of injuries last season.

Johnson said, “We really evaluated that. We looked into it deeply. We talked with our trainer, bringing her into the mix, asking her about it. And we talked to all of our coaches and a lot of our injuries were non-football. It wasn’t like we had a series of shoulder injuries or a series of things that you could trace back to the weight room. It was just freak things that all accumulated last year.”

Some of those fluke injuries that happened were to senior standout Ross Davidson, who wrecked a motorbike before the first game. Senior running back/linebacker and captain Dominic Maniscalo had his foot stepped on and suffered a fracture to his metatarsal. On-the-field injuries occurred when players got rolled up from behind.

“I don’t want to get frustrated because it wasn’t anybody’s fault. It just happened,” Johnson said.

“We had a lot of injuries, which hurts a team, especially when it’s your core guys,” senior Derek Oesch said. “But you know, we persevered.”

One of those key injuries occurred to starting quarterback Cletis Monroy. Although he continued to play the entire season, he was limited in what he could do.

“Cletis is a rare talent, he really is,” Johnson said. “He was a starting tailback for us his freshman year. He has grown so much. He was at such a disadvantage so much last year, because he is arguably our best defensive football player. But he didn’t play a snap of defense because he was injured the whole year. We were so thin, we tried to milk him through the year on offense to produce on that side of the ball, but not having him on defense was a huge hit.”

The benefit of the injuries, coupled with inexperience in several areas of the team last year, allowed Johnson to play a lot of his roster, searching for those players that could make an impact in varsity games.

“This year we are really excited because we got all those young guys who got varsity experience that are returning and playing ball for us,” Oesch said. “We grew a lot as a team. Everyone came together because we all knew we were going to be back this year. We had that sour taste of losing, and we don’t want that anymore.”

The Quakers enter this season not only having starters with varsity experience but also enjoying having many backups and rotation players with experience. So, they enter 2024 with depth in case of any injuries occurring again.

“We vowed at our retreat this year that we will never be caught like that again with not establishing depth and preparing for our young guys to play in case we get into that situation again,” Johnson said. “But the year before (2022) we had so many quality seniors who were so productive, and we knew we had to teach and get our guys up to speed and then when we lost our top guys, it was really difficult. We know that we have to emphasize depth and get our young guys reps, and we have done that all through the summer. So, we are really confident that it won’t happen to us again.”

The Quaker senior class has enjoyed winning seasons and playoffs while also suffering from the disappointment of a losing season last year. They are committed to turning things around and getting the Quakers football program back to where it should be.

“We meet with our players individually after the season, talking to them and getting their thoughts and feelings. We could tell right from the get-go that this year’s seniors were very focused and very locked in. They had only been accustomed to winning and being a part of something pretty special. They vowed that it would never happen again and that they would do everything that they could to help prepare the young guys and lead, and we developed a leadership council involving our guys. It has been very, very beneficial to us,” Johnson said.

The Quakers fully expect to return in 2024 to the standard that they set for their program with league championships and playoffs. With experience, depth and senior leadership, the Quakers could see themselves back in the playoffs at the end of this season.

“Everyone on this team views himself as a leader. I watched my brother, and he was a real leader, so I’m just trying to follow in his footsteps and take the team under my wings,” Oesch said.

OFFENSE

Coach Johnson cited that the Quakers’ offense has high expectations for this season with the chemistry and game experience from last season. They have some recall just from reps. However, he is concerned with the overall depth of the trenches heading into this campaign.

In the trenches, the Quakers will welcome back seniors Mikey Eckman at center and David Manges at tackle. Juniors Caleb Cutlip at guard and Matt Austin at tackle also return as starters up front. Battling for the final starting spot and depth will be seniors Chase Prendergast, Owen Spatz, Tyler Thorpe and junior Anthony Lucci. Johnson pointed out that other than the center position, they require their linemen to learn both the guard and tackle positions, making all of the linemen interchangeable.

In the backfield, Monroy (597 passing yards, 1 TD, 412 rushing yards, 4 TDs) returns at quarterback with senior Marcus Phillips (465 Rushing yards, 5 TDs, 575 receiving yards, 3 TDs) expected to be the Quakers’ starting running back. Sophomore Brandon Kana will also see some playing time at running back.

The Quakers’ receiving corps will feature two returning starters in senior Derek Oesch (21 receptions – 145 yards, one TD) and junior Will Harmon (33 receptions – 345 yards, three TDs). Additional targets that Monroy will be throwing to include senior Joey Kana and junior Lucas Adams splitting time along with senior Ayden Patchin and Steven Lanfried splitting time at H-back.

DEFENSE

Much like the offense, the expectations are higher this year with a more experienced defensive unit. The defense has a lot of enthusiasm and confidence, but will also need to develop some depth to get back into the postseason.

The only returning starter on the Quakers’ defensive line is senior Aidan Lucci, with Manges, Cutlip, Austin and Thorpe rotating in the trenches. Johnson said that they will rotate the defensive line like hockey lines, with a change of linemen about every three plays.

The linebacking corps will feature returning starters in Patchin, Spatz and senior David Mayhew. Also looking to see some playing time and providing depth will be juniors, Lucas Horan and Josh Kinker.

The secondary should be the strength of the Quaker’s defense this year with Monroy, Harmon, Joey Kana, Phillips and Adams returning as starters. Joshua Mayhew can also play at both corner and safety, providing them with depth. While Junior Sean Hoffman provides them additional depth at corner.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Senior Troy Gibson returns as the Quaker’s kicker following a season where he connected on two field goals and 13 extra points. Coach Johnson treats punting as an offensive play, so Monroy will punt depending on the defensive formation that he sees.

Phillips and Harmon along with Joey Kana have experience with kickoff and punt returns, but Johnson will also look to see if there are additional players who can provide returning duties before week one.

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