CATTARAUGUS — After going 0-8 last season, Cattaraugus-Little Valley football is focused on its transition to a new era after the departure of long-serving head coach Tim Miller.
The previous campaign for the Timberwolves is a harsh memory for new head coach Matt Minnekine, who served as a defensive coordinator under Miller for years before his appointment. He knows that it looked bad on paper, but made sure to note that there were positive takeaways for him and his coaching staff: one of these being a high-scoring loss to Franklinville/Ellicottville in the 2022 season finale.
“(It’s) not anything that anybody really wants to go back and you remember, when you look at the record, but we did some good things,” Minnekine said. “We got to the end of the season last year against F/E and we played pretty hard. It was kind of an exciting game for us to finish the end of the season. But we just looked to build on it week to week. It’s going to start week one at Portville, But we’re just gonna build and go from there.”
Moving forward, Minnekine looks to bring a new perspective to the game, adapting the Timberwolves’ game to the modern style of football that is played today. Not only has this tactical overhaul been an important undertaking for him, but so has the addition of two first-year quarterbacks to his roster. Minnekine acknowledged the lack of experience as something for he and his coaching staff to address.
“We started opening up the offense a little bit the last couple years and I think (we’re going to) head in that direction,” he said. “All football’s headed in that direction. It’s a little bit more spread type offense. It’s the first year we will be with a first year quarterback. I haven’t really decided who it is yet, but we’ve got two guys and either one will be a first year guy. So that was one of the only pitfalls coming into the season, coming in without any experience at quarterback.”
By opening up the game, Minnekine hopes that his team’s speed will be “a little better than normal.” With the different look, he wants his players “to show up week-to-week and play hard.”
IN TEAM training, Minnekine is harping on the basics while also employing the help of three-year Cortland football player, Brady Andrews. With a notably young offensive and defensive line, Minnekine hopes Andrews’ wealth of knowledge is taken in by his players.
“We’ve hit fundamentals awful hard,” he said. “Having Brady Andrews here, he played three years at Cortland, is a big asset to us working with our young line, and we are young at the line. So it’s given us an opportunity for a guy that’s got a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge to help us out there.”
As he prepares for his first season at the helm for the T-Wolves, one thing Minnekine has not had to worry about is the connection with the players. As a member of Miller’s coaching staff and a teacher at Cattaraugus-Little Valley, he built personal connections with players as they rose through the ranks.
“The connection is no different,” he said. “The 23 years I’ve worked with Tim (Miller) in this program, we’ve worked as a staff anyway. Tim did a great job with this program for a lot of years … but the transition’s not hard. I know these kids, I teach them all in high school anyway. I get all these kids daily, so that connection is not hard.”
Numbers-wise, the Timberwolves varsity program is sound. With 27 rostered players, Minnekine is happy with what he has at his disposal. However, in the lower levels, he sees a slight hit in numbers, which he chalks up to the ebb and flow of class sizes common for Class D schools.
“Our numbers are solid for us,” Minnekine said. “We go modified (and) varsity in our district. We’re struggling a little bit with our mods. So our mods numbers are down. But in the small D schools, all it takes is a small class and the next thing you know sitting and wondering. I think we had 30 mod (players) last year. So a lot of the sophomores are coming up that have only one year or a couple years of mods under their belts. So we’re young. But … we’ll get there. Everything’s gonna get there.”
WHILE THERE is a substantial amount of youth within the CLV program, leaders have emerged in the form of returners such as Perry Snyder, Matt Benzel and D.J. Szata. Minnekine will look to those returners to give guidance and leadership for the lesser-experienced players.
“Perry Snyder’s coming back is a lot. (He’s a) seasoned lineman and he’s been taking a great leadership role this summer with those young linemen,” Minnekine said. “Matt Benzel, a senior coming back, played right out for us last year and some defensive back. D.J.’s probably going to be that guy, you know, sitting at quarterback to start. He’s a returning junior this year. (They’re) just a group of kids that are working hard. I mean, we have people that have worked all summer and we’re hoping to put it together.”
Finally, to complete the Timberwolves’ overhaul, Minnekine has also taken to adjusting the way his team plans and executes their goals. As opposed to one big goal or expectation he has for the season, he and his team have taken to breaking down their goals into a digestible fashion.
“We’re kind of fine tuning our goal aspect and we’re going right through the stat goals, right down to ‘improve-every-day’ goals,” Minnekine noted. “That doesn’t include just week-to-week game nights. It includes day-to-day practices.”
With his first season at the helm around the corner, Minnekine wants his team to simply “get better, work harder, every day.”
THE RETURNING starters:
ALSO LETTERING were:
THE PLAYERS, by position:
OffenseQuarterbacks:
Running Backs:
Ends/Receivers:
Offensive Linemen:
DefenseEnds:
Down Linemen/Tackles:
Linebackers:
Defensive Backs:
THE SCHEDULE:
September 1 — at Portville, 7 p.m. 7 — at Gowanda Pine Valley, 7 p.m. 15 — Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton, 7 p.m. 22 — at Randolph, 7 p.m. 29 — Clymer/Sherman/Panama, 7 p.m.
October 6 — at Franklinville/Ellicottville, 7 p.m. 13 — Wilson, 7 p.m. 20 — Cardinal O’Hara, 7 p.m.
