Young, DeSales going back to square one

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Gary Young has never been in a spot like this before, but he's ready for the challenge.

Young has known nothing but success as a player and coach in prep football, playing for Frank Lenti at Mount Carmel and serving as an assistant at Bishop McNamara and Providence.

Now Young has his first head coaching job, at St. Francis deSales, and it's the very definition of reclamation project. 

The Pioneers made their first and only trip to the IHSA playoffs in 2006 under coach Tom O'Connor, going 7-3. But then O'Connor took a medical leave, two-way star Tracy Wilson and a bunch of other seniors graduated and St. Francis struggled through a winless 2007 season under new coach Milton McGriggs.

McGriggs is gone and Young has replaced him with some basic goals.

"We're not going to have a varsity team this season," Young said this week. "We're just going to be running a JV-type schedule. That way I can implement my philosophy.

"The goal, taking over the program, is just to get numbers up and motivate kids to come out and play."

That was a problem last season, when the Pioneers' roster shrunk into the teens for their last two games of the season, lopsided losses to Mount Carmel and St. Rita.

"We're rebuilding this football program," athletic director Deon Tolliver said. "We started all the way over. It's a numbers game trying to get the kids out. A lot of kids were discouraged with this past season."

Young has held two voluntary workouts, which "had a pretty positive response. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased."

The new coach's goal is to have 30 players on the roster at the end of the season. The Pioneers plan to add a freshman team in 2009 and reinstate the varsity program as soon as it's feasible.

"Our goal is to build it up ... just like St. Ignatius did," said Tolliver, referring to the Wolfpack's plan of adding one level at a time when it brought back football a few years ago.

Young also looks to Lenti for inspiration, which is fitting in that the veteran Caravan coach had a stint as an assistant at DeSales during the program's glory days back in the 1970s.

"He gave me his blessing," Young said. "He said, 'Go for it.' When he started there, they had 50 kids on freshman [team], 50 on sophomore [team], 80 on the varsity."

With a school enrollment now in the 300s, that's not going to happen again. But Young doesn't see why the Pioneers can't tap into local grammar schools like Annunciata and Gallistel, and reach across the border into northwest Indiana, to get their numbers back into a more respectable range.

"Going to Carmel, I knew a lot of people from the East Side," said Young, who is 26. "I looked at it as a challenge. As a young guy, I can put in the time necessary."