In 1995, then Sheffield head football coach Corey Copley, who is now the school's Athletic Director, was facing the unfortunate reality of declining student athletes. However, one football coaching magazine, five head coaches and 20 years of an unbelievable amount of time and sacrifice later, the Sheffield-Abraxas co-op has become not only an inspiration for the football program, but one for the community as well.
So much so, that when word reached Sports Illustrated Producer Alex Hampl, while doing a shoot on the Kittanning and Ford City High School merger, he started following the program through newspapers and online. This led to Hampl inquiring with Copley about making the co-op a part of Sports Illustrated's award winning online series "Underdogs." After several weeks of researching and conversations with both Copley and Wolverines' head coach Dave Fitch, Hampl and his Supervising Producer, Collin Orcutt, realized that this really was a great story and one they wanted to tell.
"It's a fun opportunity," Copley said of the coverage. "I can't imagine anybody that's been a part of it that isn't excited about the opportunity. Obviously being from the beginning, through it all, there's some gratitude that I feel that it's (the co-op) where it's at now. What I like best about this thing is that we did not self-promote this. It's coming to us. The program caught somebody's eye along the way. We haven't really been out there pushing it, on how great this is."
Dave Fitch understands more than anyone the difficulties of the unique situation. Having once been a defensive coordinator under former head coach Scott Park, and now in the midst of his fourth season (0-7) with the top job, while also working at Abraxas, Fitch is eager to credit former players, coaches, and administrators for their hard work at making the co-op a success story.
"This is not just about this year, or just the football team," Fitch said, "but for every player who has ever been a part of our sports
"Underdogs" which is, like Fitch, in it's fourth season, was first launched with the idea of sharing inspiring high school football stories. According to Orcutt, the very first piece that the crew did was on a team outside of Washington D.C. at Friendship Collegiate Academy.
"I think within the first five minutes of filming we realized that this was a much more compelling series than we ever thought it could be," Orcutt said.
So what would bring a Sports Illustrated series that once traveled to the northern most point in the United States, Barrow Alaska, some 300 miles, by two air planes into the Arctic Circle, all the way back to the heart of the Allegheny National Forest?
Inspiration.
"The goal behind the series itself is kind of what we're tackling," Orcutt explained. "Trying to find inspiring stories about the sport. I think that's when the series is at it's best. People can relate to the human stories. It doesn't necessarily matter that people are playing football. That's a hook for some, but it's that you can relate to them."
Hampl added that the series has covered both large and small schools, some of which compete for state championships at the highest level, but that the common thread between all these stories has been the human element and how relationships are developed through football, while bettering themselves personally.
"Once we started reporting," Hampl said of the Sheffield-Abraxas co-op, "we confirmed that this was a case of that. That everyone on this team is kind of really getting something out of it besides the x's and o's of football and technique."
Like many other stories that Hampl and Orcutt have covered for "Underdogs", they are approaching Sheffield's without any preconceived ideas about where the tale of two culturally different groups of kids will take them.
"The thing that really drew us to it, was just that a situation where this is unique," Orcutt said. "This isn't like every school. People are using this to expand their horizons and learn more about other people, to maybe better themselves at new opportunities."
Once the program caught the eye of the duo, and they agreed to cover the Wolverines, it became a matter of understanding who the people involved are and what their motivation and hopes and dreams are.
That understanding of a community and the discovery of how it all comes together is what they enjoy the most.
"That's kind of the best part of doing any series like this," Orcutt said. "When it gets passed the point of going up to do the story and gets to the point of meeting the people."
So how does the head coach of a unique small town football co-op of only 23 players, react to the opportunity to go beyond the sports pages of this very newspaper and into the connected world of SportsIllustrated.com?
He's hopeful.
Hopeful the national exposure will allow other schools to open their minds and take chances on non-traditional co-ops that will teach both sides valuable life lessons on and beyond the playing field.
"For Sheffield, the community, I hope the story comes through of how the town's people support the team as one, and does not look at the co-op anymore as a wedge, but a necessity to keeping the sports programs alive," Fitch said. "For the Abraxas community, I hope the story comes through of a facility that truly supports opportunities for their clients to become successful well after they discharge."
