Move to independent schedule paying off for Uniontown

By: Jamie Rankin
Thursday, August 24, 2023 | 10:15 PM

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In 2021, the Uniontown football team swapped WPIAL competition for an independent schedule that school administrators hoped would spark the struggling Red Raiders to success. So far, it seems to be working.

“It’s been a good situation for us,” coach Keith Jeffries said. “One, we’re getting the numbers; our numbers are improving. We’re in more competitive games.”

Jeffries said player retention was one facet of the team that the Uniontown school board asked him to address when he accepted the head coaching position that year.

He said the team saw an increase in numbers last season, and the same is true this year, with roughly 50 players on the current roster.

And the number of players wasn’t the only increase. Uniontown also saw more victories last season.

“My first year, we were 2-4, and then last year, we were 5-5,” Jeffries reported. “So, we’re progressing.”

Jeffries’ accomplishments thus far aren’t too surprising, given his considerable experience both in playing football and guiding young athletes.

A Uniontown graduate, Jeffries furthered his academic and athletic careers at Waynesburg University.

“Right after I was done playing (at Waynesburg), I coached there,” he said.

After one season, Jeffries returned to Uniontown as both a teacher and an assistant football coach.

“This is my 26th year at Uniontown,” he said. “I was an assistant coach for 22 years here.”

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, Jeffries didn’t coach at all in 2020, but upon his return to the gridiron, he stepped into the head coaching position.

He brought with him an equally experienced staff of assistants: Jeremy Brain (wide receivers/defensive backs), Maurice Jackson Sr. (running backs/defensive backs) Harry Kaufman and Gary Smitley (offensive/defensive line), Eric Saylor (running backs/defensive linemen), Tim Tatar (quarterbacks) and Brian Gates (quarterbacks/defensive backs).

The Red Raiders also will benefit from the knowledge of longtime head coach John Fortugna, who will serve as a volunteer coach.

Jeffries said Uniontown has a mix of seasoned veterans and talented newcomers on its roster this year, which will help the team overcome a couple of key losses.

“Maurice Jackson (Jr.) and then Braxton Swaney are two big losses,” Jeffries said. “They were two good linebackers for us last year, and running backs. They’re probably going to be our two biggest losses.”

Fortunately for the Red Raiders, there are plenty of hungry players ready to step into key roles.

“Maurice’s younger brother, Cameron Jackson, is kind of carrying us at running back,” Jeffries said, noting the senior split time with his brother at the running back position last year.

The younger Jackson also plays strong safety.

“At linebacker, (we have) David Ranitu, and then Chase Brumley looks OK at linebacker as well. They’re going to make up some of that slack inside,” Jeffries said of the pair of juniors.

Jeffries said Uniontown looks to be pretty solid at the wide receiver position this year.

“There are a whole bunch of kids that look really good,” he said. “There is Notorious Grooms and Calvin Winfrey; they are returning players from last year.”

Both Grooms and Winfrey are juniors.

Jeffries also pointed to a couple of transfer students who should be able to help the Red Raiders at wide receiver: seniors Najee Higgins and Malachi Mitchell. Higgins transferred from Geibel, where he played football for Southmoreland due to a cooperative agreement between the schools. Mitchell came to Uniontown from Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Jeffries also praised the abilities of the team’s linemen.

“The linemen are looking pretty good,” he said. “We probably have a good seven to 10 kids who are probably going to rep in.”

He noted the Red Raiders have two returning linemen in senior Kyle Ray and junior Gary Smitley.

“We expect those two to be the two big guys up front,” he said.

One more positive for the Raiders are its young skill players in general, Jeffries said.

“We have a bunch of young skill kids,” he said. “The freshman skill players as a whole, they’re doing really well.”

But the player who is garnering the most attention, Jeffries said, is one who has a little less experience on the field.

Senior K’Adrian McLee started playing varsity football only last season, but he is gaining quite a bit of notice already.

“He’s getting some interest from some Division I schools,” Jeffries said. “He’s kind of our big dog right now.”

Jeffries noted McLee is an athletic player from a well-known football family. He will be starting at quarterback this season after playing their sporadically last year.

“He started at wide receiver and kind of played quarterback for us as we needed him to,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries said Uniontown is fortunate to have a good many players who know their way around a football field.

“We have a lot of kids that have a lot of playing time,” he said. “That’s kind of a luxury.”

The last two years, he said, the Red Raiders have had only about 10 seniors. There are about a dozen on this year’s roster, and Jeffries reported a great deal of interest from freshmen as well.

“We had 38 freshmen that showed interest,” he said. “We went into the middle schools, and we met with 38 freshmen.”

Jeffries expressed regret at the demise of freshman football programs, saying he believes many ninth graders leave the varsity team because they don’t want to play against some of the much bigger seniors. Others aren’t quite ready for the varsity level.

Uniontown’s players, though, are ready to kick off their season, and Jeffries said they seem to be responding well to what he and the other coaches are teaching them.

“The kids seem to be buying into what we’re doing,” he said, noting that the buy-in appears evident during practices.

Jeffries said that was underscored by a conversation he had with another coach during a recent 7-on-7 competition.

“The coach told me, ‘Your kids are engaged,’” Jeffries said. “So, that’s a positive in our favor here.”

Jeffries said the Red Raiders are enthusiastic about going head to head with several of the teams on their independent schedule.

“We’re excited because we play a lot of local teams. We get to play Laurel Highlands, Brownsville and Albert Gallatin,” he said. “We wanted to get a couple of other local teams, but we’re excited about those teams.”

Jeffries said Uniontown will take on Carrick twice again this season.

“We will play Windber again. They’re a really solid team,” he said. “North Star is coming down here to play us.”

Though the Red Raiders have not played North Star before, Jeffries said he expects it to be a good game based on both teams’ close matchups against Windber.

Jeffries said he has a few goals in mind for Uniontown this season.

“We want to improve on our number of wins, so we want to keep building in that direction,” he said. “(We want) individual player success. It doesn’t have to be a stat; it’s just improvement. We want to see the kids continue to improve.”

As a former high school player who went on to play in college, Jeffries said he hopes to inspire some of his players to do the same.

“It’s been a couple of years since we had kids play football in college,” he said.

He encourages his players to do that, he said, because he wants them to consider the idea of “using football to get an education and building on their lives.”

And if Uniontown continues to build on its last two seasons, there is a chance the Red Raiders may rejoin the WPIAL.

“We’re going to assess that in January, whether we go back in or not,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries will meet with administrators and school board members regarding that decision.

“We’ll see how the season goes,” he said.

For now, his players just want to get out on the field.

“I had to remind them before we started practice that it’s no contact,” he said during heat week. “They’re fired up and ready for … full contact. And of course, Friday nights will be even better.”

Uniontown

Coach: Keith Jeffries

2022 record: 5-5 playing independent schedule

All-time: 494-544-45

SCHEDULE

Date, Opponent, Time

8.25 Laurel Highlands, 7

9.1 at Brownsville, 7

9.8 Carrick, 7

9.15 at Albert Gallatin, 7

9.22 at Valley, 7

9.29 Windber, 7

10.6 North Star, 7

10.13 at Waynesburg, 7

10.27 Brownsville, 7

Jamie Rankin is a contributing writer for the Tribune-Review.

Tags: Uniontown