Clairton Bears in 2013

[footballguy99]

What kind of season do you expect for Clairton? Have they finally lost enough that they aren't the favorites to win the WPIAL? Their success creates expectations for the new athletes entering the program but at some point I'd think the talent pool has to come down a bit. I don't believe this year's team will return a lot of starters from last year.

[YinzerKyle]

Joey aka animus is our local Clairton expert so his opinion would be the most valued on this subject.

Clairton should still be extremely good this year. Some people probably still pick them as the #1 team in Single-A, though I think this is the year that Sto-Rox finally beats Clairton at Heinz

[animus]

Here's the thing about the Bears. Clairton returns 4 of 5 upfront from a team that pushed Dunmore around for 4Q's on both sides of the ball and 2 others have had a plethora of playoff experience due to injuries in the state playoffs. Melvin, Hampton, Gibson, Gressem, and Hall should be a dominant force offensively. And of course the skill positions will be a work in progress. The QB battle between Ryan Williams and Aaron Mathews should be a sight to see. And the loser of the battle will end up at the WR position. I see the Bears starting Lamont Wade at RB as a Fresh w/ Murphy getting some carries to spell him. I could see the Bears being a downhill power run team until the passing game gets its feet wet over the first 3-4 games. The DL should be very solid but the back 7 will be very green.

The real blessing is that the schedule really benefits the Bears. We open w/ Char Houston at home, Carlynton at home, California away and then Monessen at home. Later in the season we got Brentwood and Bishop Canevin at home. The season is taylor-made for the Bears streak to continue to at least the playoffs. The beginning stretch allows the Bears to work out the kinks and then the 3-4 toughest foes are at home. Another benefit that will help this team is that the backups have had at least 1 long playoff run and up to 2 others. That means tons of extra practices, and game experience in the 2nd halves of blowouts. So while this current green roster may not be as good as the 2010 through 12 squads, I think they can be as good or possibly better than the 08 and 09 teams. And that's still very good as 1 lost the state championship game and the other won it all.

The teams best that have the best opportunity to beat the Bears are Char Houston, Monessen, Sto Rox and a state contender. I mostly included Char Houston because its the week 1 game and those are always tough as Clairton is prone to start a little slow as it is. Starting tons of green against the Bucs is an interesting scenario. If that game was week 7 or 8 I got the Bears winning easily. Monessen is starting to develop into an rivalry game a little. But the one thing to remember is that when people call for this team to lose, they take their games to another level. I know people talk about Sto Rox as the squad that will eventually knock the Bears from the top and end the streak. My opinion is that Clairton is a bad matchup for Sto Rox and by the time the two teams could potentially meet Clairton will be a well oiled machine. Sto Rox really doesn't have the defense to match up w/ the Bears. Maybe this season they work those kinks out themselves. So even if the Bears aren't as explosive as the past 2 years I could easily see a 35-21 type win for the Bears against Sto Rox. I say a program like Rochester would be more prone to stop Clairton because they're more prone to have the kind of defense to at least stay in the game and to see what happens in the 4th. Which leads me to teams in the east like Riverside, Dunmore, SCA, and Old Forge.

[animus]

Clairton added more beef up front. 6'3 260 Wellington returned to the team after sitting out last season. This potentially could be our biggest team up front since the 90's w/ Melvin being 255, Wellington 260, Hampton 290, Gibson 245, and Hall 240 with Gressen in the 225/230 range.

[animus]

Clairton 3 TD's to 2....

On their first two sets of 10 they only got like 2-3 yards of offense.... Their JV squad moved the ball nice. We got a few turnovers on defense...
Our first two sets we moved the ball quite nicely and at will and got a TD each set... Our JV squad moved the ball ok at best.

When they put up the sticks KO moved the ball quite nicely and scored a TD... our set we got stuff on 4 plays. They scored their second TD... then we drove down the field to get our last TD to end the scrimmage.
Our RB's looks as good as advertised. QB's look very shaky... WR's very good once they get the ball in their hands... our lines was fantastic and looked like they got tired as the scrimmage went on.

[Coach]

Who did they play??

[animus]

Keystone Oaks