LOWELLVILLE ROCKETS

LOWELLVILLE — Perhaps the biggest obstacle facing Doug Velasquez, hired in April, in his first season at the helm at Lowellville is the number of kids that he has on the roster.

“We’ve got 29 kids, 9-12, so we’re down a little bit,” Velasquez said. “But I think it’s been down for a while here so we need to win obviously and get some excitement back in the town. But the 29 that are here want to be here and they work hard, and I can’t ask for more than that.”

Velasquez brings an old school philosophy with him to the Rockets’ program.

“I think you got to run the ball. We’re going to start there,” Velasquez said. “We’re going to run the football, we’re going to play great defense. We’re going to start from there and build from there.”

Offense

“We’ve got good skill, a lot of skill,” Velasquez said. “We’ve got a couple quarterbacks competing, both young kids, neither of them are seniors, so that’s a good starting point. And we’ve got a few backs that can run the ball with good vision and good speed.

“Sophomore Jake Rotz played a little quarterback as a freshman last season. At 6-foot-3, Rotz is more of a drop back guy that can throw the ball and run a little bit while junior Dylan Sallaz is a smaller, more compact kid that can throw ball a little bit and run the ball.”

Senior Evan Stevens is the top returning ball carrier and he’ll team with junior Achili Minch in the backfield. Freshman Vinnie Kacir is an exciting prospect at running back while sophomore Joey Ballone is a running back/receiver. Other wideouts are sophomore Matt Hvisdak, junior Alex Mamula-Zarlingo and a first-time senior Devin Wright.

“We’re a little bit thin on the line. We’ll have some young and inexperienced guys up front,” Velasquez said. “I wanted to have multiple tight ends but we might have to move some of those guys inside.”

Senior Tyler Stellmar is a mainstay as an athletic tight end while junior Nate Solak is another tight end. Junior Dom Layko is a guard. Senior Nick Conti and sophomore Dylan Durkin are other candidates up front.

Defense

Velasquez has his roots as a player and student assistant coach under Rex Ryan at Morehead State so he wants to control gaps and apply pressure and mix it up a little bit.

“We’ll probably have to move a couple of people around to get some strength up front,” Velasquez said. “But we’ll be young up there as well.”

Stellmar, Solak, Durkin and junior Carl Larosa are some of guys that might have to perform on the defensive line.

“We’ll have a lot of kids playing,” Velasquez said. “Even now with 29 guys, I don’t want to be a two-way guy. I’m more of a one-and-a-half way guy. I want a guy to go one way on offense and maybe half the time on defense.”

Dom Layko is slated to play some linebacker and senior Alex Heasley is a returning starter at cornerback. Minch is another solid player in the secondary.

Outlook

Velasquez got the ball rolling right off the bat with a midnight madness hitting session at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 1 to get the community excited about Lowellville football after going 2-8 last season.

“I think we’ll win some games. I think we’ll surprise people,” Velasquez said. “I think a lot of people have Lowellville as a win on their schedule, but I think they’ll be surprised. We’re excited and our kids are motivated by the fact that a lot of people have counted them out already.”