YSU begins practice with split sessions

By Pete Mollica | August 6, 2009 at 12:09a.m.

YSU Sets Summer Practice

YSU Football kicks off this week with practices scheduled for Thursday and Friday

YOUNGSTOWN — Football officially begins at Youngstown State today as the Penguins open fall practice for the 2009 campaign.

Some 90 candidates, including 13 seniors, will begin drills, but today and Friday the squad will be split into two groups because 20 to 25 veterans will be finishing their final exams from summer school.

“We’ll go in two groups with about 40 to 45 players in each group,” said YSU coach Jon Heacock, who is beginning his ninth season.

Heacock said the morning session will be made up of mostly of the team’s recruiting class and younger players, while most of the veterans will take part in the afternoon session.

The Penguins struggled through a 4-8 season a year ago with more injuries than they care to think about.

“We’re still a very young football team with only 13 seniors, but we probably have more depth than we’ve had in a long time,” said Heacock.

Of those 13 seniors returning, two of them will be playing big roles this season, one on each side of the football.

Fifth-year senior Mychal Savage is back at a defensive tackle after missing all but the season opener last year with a knee injury.

Savage was a first-team All-American and first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference player in 2007. The 6-foot-2, 305-pounder from Hartsdale, N.Y., was injured last year in the season opener at Ohio State. He applied for and received another season from the NCAA.

On the other side of the football is senior quarterback Brandon Summers. The 6-2, 215-pounder from Southfield, Mich., came to the Penguins last season after transferring from the University of Toledo. He was outstanding when he was healthy and quarterbacked the team to all four of its victories.

“Mychal Savage and Brandon Summers need to stay healthy,” said Heacock. “We know that’s probably not going to happen so we have to have our young quarterbacks ready to go.”

Summers’ backups are sophomores Dailyn Campbell and Marc Kanetsky, who both saw action as true freshmen a year ago. The Penguins also recruited freshman Kurt Hess from Dayton Chaminade-Julienne, and Poland High quarterback Gannon Hulea, who was recruited as an athlete and could be moved to defense.

Summers will have some outstanding receivers to throw to this season and Heacock is also excited about this group.

“The receivers are a talented group as a whole,” said Heacock. “We’ll see how they progress as the camp goes on.”

Senior Donald Jones is one of the top returnees, although he missed all of spring practice recuperating from a pulled hamstring. He’ll be joined by junior Dominique Barnes, sophomore Dionte Snow, and seniors Aaron Pitts and Ty Campana.

While the Penguins have several key players returning, they will also be without two returning starters for the season.

Senior linebacker Rashod Simons has left the team for personal reasons, while senior cornerback Jarvis Richards, who missed most of last season with a knee injury and then was granted another season of eligibility by the NCAA, has decided not to return.

“He went through a lot of rehab to just get back to where he’s at, but he just didn’t feel he was ready to return,” Heacock said of Richards. “He’ll still have that year available to him next season if he decides to come back.”

Heacock said there will be several players who will be seeing limited action in the early practices as they recover from some injuries, but the bulk of the team will be intact.

Heacock will get his first look at his entire group together on Saturday, but the team won’t put on full pads until Monday morning’s practice.

Heacock also said the team’s Friday’s practices, both morning and afternoon sessions, will be held at the grass practice field, weather permitting. Two-a-day practices will be held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday after next Monday’s session, which will be a single session.

mollica@vindy.com