After three seasons of coaching the Berwick Bulldogs Frank Sheptock resigned in March.
In April, Carmen DeFrancesco arrived to take over the program after stops in Danville, Shamokin and Mount Carmel.
"I come into a situation where these kids are fundamentally sound. They are good kids. They are smart kids, and they have a great love for football," said Carmen.
In the Dawgs three losses in 2018 they gave up 51 points but only mustered 17. The offense must be better to take pressure off the defense.
"We mostly saw it the first couple weeks that we we're installing plays, and you can definitely see his mindset as to what he wants to run on offense, and how we want to do our defense. And I think that the team picked up on that too, and we are going with whatever he throws at us," said Teagan.
"You have to get the ball into Teagan Wilk's hands? Obviously that's important? Yes you are exactly right! When we looked at the film Teagan did a little on offense but we have got to get him the ball," again said Carmen.
Berwick hasn't won a District title since 2013 and that was with Coach Curry and in this neck of the woods it's not about District championships they are always looking for that state title. Other schools like Scranton Prep, Valley View, North Pocono and Crestwood have knocked the Dawgs off the top.
"I'm ready to get some tackles for loss. Blitzing the "A" gap and blitzing the "B" gap and getting some sacks and trying to stop Dallas from running through the middle, and Valley View running through the middle and stuff like that. And teams pounding the ball but that won't happen on our defense," said Mike Zalutko.
"Honestly it's just a lot of the small things. You know every little step is taken in and if you miss it a coach or another player notices it and they are on you guys and they make sure that you do everything right that you can and every little small step makes the big things happen easy," said Dallas Schechterly.
The brain stem of Bennett, Orlando and DeFrancesco should change things in the Dawg pound. Expect great defense each week and some new wrinkles on offense. Steve Lloyd reporting for Newswatch 16 sports from Berwick.