Council Rock North coach John Greiner found an innovative way to keep his team together during the quarantine. The Indians are hoping the work they put in during the offseason will yield rewards this season. (Sponsored article)
Luke Molden & Brendon Hardy have lived through some lean years.
The Council Rock North seniors are part of a football program that won just one game in both their freshman and sophomore seasons. The Indians doubled that total last year under then first-year coach John Greiner. Both enter their senior season grateful to simply have the opportunity to play and hopeful their team will leave its mark.
“Last year was kind of the adjustment period,” Molden said. “We still didn’t have the best record, we finished the season with under 40 kids on the varsity roster, which is not a lot.
“This year we’re just way more in the flow, and we’re almost doubling our previous numbers. People are just a little more trusting in the process because when I was a freshman and sophomore telling people to join, they were like, ‘Why do I want to join a losing team?’ which wasn’t the right attitude to begin with, but I think people are more hopeful.”
“We are definitely setting goals this year because the amount of athletes we have, the amount of talent we have now is just incredible,” Hardy said.
This year’s squad has 65 players, and the freshman team has 35. Molden is an advertisement for the program’s growth. Thanks to some serious offseason work, the senior lineman has gone from 6-4, 195, last year to 6-4, 245, and Molden – who didn’t crack the varsity lineup until last year – is now a legitimate collegiate prospect.
It’s something he couldn’t have imagined last year when the season came to an end, but then a college reached out to him.
“Villanova reached out and said they were interested, and even though it’s minimal interest, it got me thinking,” Molden said. “If a school like Villanova is even somewhat interested, a lot of other schools might be more interested than they are, so I started taking it more seriously, started trying to gain good weight and really worked out.”
Last spring, with his team and the rest of the country in the midst of the COVID-19 quarantine, Greiner was looking for a way to keep his players motivated. His wife, Blair Greiner, had an idea.
“She’s the brains of the operation, and she gave me the idea that people have been meeting by Zoom in the business world,” Greiner said. “I just thought to myself – if the business world is meeting through zoom and trying to motivate people, I would give it a shot to try and keep our players motivated, enthusiastic and energetic for the upcoming season.”
Greiner’s idea included more than just friendly team chats. The Indians’ second-year coach reached out to some high profile people to talk to his team.
“Fifty percent of the time, I got a positive response,” he said. “We were able to accumulate quite a guest list for the players to see and view and hear and learn about their situation.”
The guest list is an impressive one and included former Notre Dame and Pittsburgh Steeler running back Rocky Bleier, a favorite of Hardy.
“It was crazy to have someone like him – such a huge player who played in the NFL – on our Zoom call,” Hardy said. “Especially Greiner being 
able to get in contact with him. It was incredible. He was very good motivation-wise. It was an amazing experience.
Former Council Rock South star Justin Pugh – who is now playing in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals – was Greiner’s first contact, and he was on three Zoom calls with the team. For Molden, Pugh was especially inspiring.
“I liked that one because it was familiar to me,” said Molden, who worked at Pugh’s Camp at North – Pugh Crew – the summer of 2019. “He plays line, and I play line. He went to Council Rock South, and I go to Council Rock North.
“He’s a local guy, and actually, when I was younger and played for the Pop Warner League, my team went to Florida for the championship, and when we came home, they had a party, and Justin Pugh was there. It was cool to meet him again.”
Bleier and Pugh were just two of many guests. The list also included former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, Eagles long-time broadcaster Merrill Reese, former New York Giants defensive lineman Leonard Marshall (contacted by assistant coach Greg Mackrides), legendary coach Bill Curry, who had stints at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky.
“He was actually coached by Vince Lombardi,” Greiner said of Curry. “He’s such a wonderful man in terms of talking about what football gives, what family gives, the fact that everyone works together in terms of the family unit.
“He was awesome. We probably speak once a month – he’s always asking how the players are doing.”
Philadelphia native Mike Mayock, now the general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders, also paid a visit. Sergeant Keith Palmer of the Travis Manion Foundation was also a guest as was Tyler Newsome, a four-year punter and captain at Notre Name who is looking to land a job in the NFL.
“I just happened to have an offseason workout at Council Rock North, and he comes up with a friend of his and starts punting the bejesus out of the football,” Greiner said. “I walked over to him, introduced myself. He is such a gentleman.
“He introduced himself, and I did a double take. When he was a junior in high school, he got in a horrific car accident, and he was basically in the hospital for close to 21 days, recovered and had a nice high school career. He went on to Notre Dame for four years. He and I struck up a nice relationship. He’s worked personally with some of our players.”
According to Greiner, there were 30-plus players on the Zoom calls each week.
“It was cool in terms of what we were able to do,” Greiner said. “For them to understand they have a possibility of reaching some of those goals
“For example – Justin Pugh is a local kid who went to CR South. Mike Mayock is from the Philadelphia, and he was wonderful in terms of what he
was able to do. Merrill Reese is a legend in the area. All the people – I’m very thankful they were gracious with their time. They were enthusiastic and motivated.”
Greiner coached at Pennsbury before taking the head coaching job at Bristol Borough where he had four successful years. He is looking to change the culture of a Rock North program that had won just one game in each of the three years preceding his arrival.
The weekly Zoom sessions were just one of many initiatives Greiner has put in place since taking over the helm.
“It showed that the coaches actually cared even though we were stuck at home not being able to do anything,” Hardy said. “It showed they wanted us to become a lot better because we were going over plays we did last year and if they worked or didn’t work on both offense and defense.”
“It was definitely a very good thing during quarantine,” Molden said. “People were in a quarantine slump or whatever – not much going on, getting out of their schedule and routine.
“I think it was great for us. It got me kind of back on my feet. I was working out more. I was doing it on my own, but nothing can compare to when you’re there with your teammates and working toward a goal. I think we were one of the first teams in the league to start working out again.”
Greiner will look to Hardy, Molden and their fellow seniors to lead the way.
“Someone like Luke Molden played varsity football for the first time last year,” Greiner said. “He had a great offseason, and now he’s going to be one of our leaders.
“We have a core group of seniors who got a lot of experience last year playing because of the fact that we relied on a lot of sophomores and juniors last year. We were young and we started late as well, which didn’t help, but I think experience plays a key. I teach social studies, and I tell my students – experience is the greatest teacher in life. That experience some of these players were able to get will help us going forward this year.”
Just being back on the field has been a victory for all the players.
“I was actually starting to get bummed out because there was a pretty good chance we weren’t going to be able to have a season,” Hardy said. “A lot of the seniors this year deserve the world, and they need to have this season because this kind of sets the record straight for them the rest of their lives. It’s incredible – even to have five games this year, we’re very lucky.”
“It’s a haunting feeling to put in that much time and effort, and there’s the chance it could amount to nothing because there could be no season,” Molden said. “I was pretty nervous at one point, not very hopeful. Five games is better than no games. Some places aren’t going to have a season, so I’m just grateful.”
The season might only be five games, but the players hope to make a statement.
“Coach Greiner is very active with the school and the community,” Molden said. “He’s posting things on Instagram, reaching out to people, very involved, and getting people hyped up.
“We’ve got a lot of new people to come out this year in all grades. I’m definitely excited to see what we can do because the past three years we have not done too well. I’m very excited for the season.”
Council Rock North will kick off its season on Friday against a familiar opponent when the Indians travel to Bensalem for a 7 p.m. contest.
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH FOOTBALL PREVIEW
Head coach: John Greiner (2nd season)
Assistant coaches: Cliff Stout, Greg Mackrides, Joe King, Zach Schram, Joe Brown, Ken Simon, Peter Brill, Brandon Garrett, Matt Applebaum
Last year’s record: 2-8 overall, 1-5 SOL
Key players: Key players: Mike Sylvester (Sr/QB), Brendon Hardy (Sr/RB/LB), Gavin Papp (Soph/RB/S), Dylon Herbert (So/RB), Connor Atkinson (Sr/TE/LB), Luke Molden (Sr/OT/DT), Blake Koch (Sr./OG), Andrew Jones (Sr/OL), Justin Nowmos (Sr/OG), Isaac Keller (Sr/OT), Three split ends that will rotate in: Ryan McCaffrey (Sr/WR), Josh Moss (Sr/SE), Jordan Weissman (Sr/SE), Roni Elbarouki (Sr/NG), Aden Roe (Jr/DT), Charlie Murphy (Sr/LB), Sean Beverley (Sr/LB), Ryan Marlow (Sr/CB), Anthony Esposito (Sr/CB), Shawn Perry (Sr/S), Sawyer Kozia (Jr/K) Kick returner Seunghyeon Kim
Outlook: “Changing the culture, changing the mindset. First and foremost for any coach at this point is to make sure the kids are enjoying themselves and to have the reward of success for the offseason as well. That success does hinge on winning a couple of games, and we only have five games to play around with. The winning part will be the redemption part in my mind of everything that they’ve been put through. We’ll just see how everything plays out. Like I tell the players, it’s day by day in terms of what we’re doing with it, just like in life.
“Right now we’re teaching virtually, and I tell my students in class – I think the world of them because this is the greatest adaptation American society has ever seen from an educational standpoint – the fact that you go from being in the classroom on March 12, and Friday, the 13th of March, the world changes completely, and everything goes virtual without warning. To me, I just have so much respect for these players in terms of how much they adapted so quickly to the situation at hand because of the fact that you look at other people who struggle with adaptation and change. These kids have done a tremendous job for me and my coaching staff and for the Council Rock community in terms of what they have done. The reward for them would be to taste some success, which they deserve.”
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