Adams, team measure success by more than win-loss record
by Jacob Oberdorf, Staff Writer
October 6, 2010
The Varsity Blue Devils entered the 2010 football season with high expectations. With 14 seniors on their roster and their head coach returning for his fourth season, this seemed to be the year that it would all come together.
Leechburg has not made the playoffs in almost two decades, a far cry from when the Blue Devil football program was at its best in the ‘50s through the early ‘80s. During this time the Blue Devils even won back-to-back WPIAL titles, amassing 20 wins in those two seasons.
The Devils have totaled 15 wins in the past 10 seasons.
No one knows these facts better than Head Coach Mark Adams who attended and graduated from LAHS in the ‘80s. He played running back for the Devils. “We knew we were going to win when we walked on that field,” Adams said about his time as a Blue Devil. This attitude is what Adams said he wants to bring back to his team.
There’s one way Adams said he intends to instill this mentality into his players: by playing “fundamental football.”
“Fundamental football,” according to junior quarterback DJ Oberdorf, “is going out on that field every Friday night and playing with arrogance. When you’re arrogant, you can back it up. He [Adams] stresses fundamental football because he just wants us to be football players, not robots.”
Adams returned to Leechburg after working as an assistant coach at Greensburg Salem High School. “The best perk about being the head football coach at Leechburg,” he said, “is the opportunity to bring up these young men and see them grow.”
Five games into the regular season, the Blue Devils are 1-4, but have shown signs of growth as the weeks progressed. Success this season may not be measured in the number of wins the team finishes with, according to Oberdorf, but in “people not looking at us as the same old Leechburg.”
There’s still a chance for a statistical winning season with four games left in the schedule. If the Devils would finish this season with a winning record, it would and accomplishment that the Devils haven’t achieved since the early ‘90s.
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