Wissahickon rebuilding project off to good start

First-year Wissahickon coach Jeff Cappa talks like he knows exactly what he wants for his football program.

He already has the coach-speak down pat. He says the things football coaches are supposed to say.

But when Cappa declares that he wants to rebuild the Wissahickon football program completely, his enthusiasm and straight-to-the point inflection suggest he is very serious.

"Everything," Cappa says when asked what he wanted to change. "I want to build a brand-new football program from the ground up."

With his Trojans at 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the Suburban One League American Conference, the early returns are there. But the coach is still thinking big-picture.

"We have a lot of work to do. We're working on the attitude and the culture of the players, teaching them how to win," he says.

"Building a program, it's about more than the team. We've been building a booster club. We have the middle school running the same offense and defense as us. The parents have had a hand in it. It's from the bottom up."

This is Cappa's first head-coaching job. He was Wissahickon's defensive coordinator from 2001-05, Pennridge's lines coach in 2006, Central Bucks West defensive coordinator from 2007-2008, and Wissahickon quarterbacks coach the last two years.

Cappa says the key to his plan was to stress player development and coaching. He believes that outside of those two things, the ingredients for a successful program are already there.

"Wissahickon has always had the athletes. That was never the problem. We have always had good enough players to be successful," he says.

Cappa initiated a team motto of "one team, one goal" in training camp, with the "goal" being to get better each week. He didn't set statistical targets or demand victories. He asked only that as a program, the Trojans fix their mistakes and improve.

To further inject a culture of hard work into the program, Cappa had to be tough early on.

"I knew from the start, things had to be different on and off the field. Unfortunately, we had to kick some kids off the team," he says. "I wanted everyone to know that every job was up for grabs. A combination of potential and performance will dictate who plays."

Nowhere is Cappa's team-first approach more apparent than in the Wissahickon backfield, where 15 Trojans have carried the ball this year.

Senior captains Anthony Delegall and Ricky O'Donnell have combined with junior Dan Murphy to rack up 1,215 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns among them.

Meanwhile, senior quarterback J.T. Crits has managed the offense effectively, keeping defenses honest with more than 400 yards passing and three touchdowns.

"It's hard to pinpoint one player," Cappa says. "So far, all of the players have bought into what we want to do."

The result has been a Wissahickon team that has already won more games than in any of its previous three seasons.

While it's too early to gauge the lasting effects of Cappa's makeover, the Trojans will have a chance to prove they're for real on Friday night against conference rival Upper Dublin (6-2, 4-1).