John DeMarco is entering only his second season as the football coach at Elizabeth Forward, but the stamp he has put on his team is unmistakable.
Chris Climes, his best player, is Example A. Like DeMarco, the 6-foot-3, 300-pound senior is humble but quietly confident.
“It’s all about team. I’m just a piece of the puzzle,” said Climes, who is headed to the University of Buffalo next fall.
He may be a piece, but he’s a big piece, possibly even the biggest piece. DeMarco describes him as a dominant force on the defensive line, just “the perfect kid, perfect player.”
“It’s over when he gets on the field,” DeMarco said. “It’s his work ethic, what he puts in in the weight room.”
Great expectations
The Warriors finished 10-2 last season, DeMarco’s first at the helm, but fell short of where they wanted to go, losing in the WPIAL semifinals to Avonworth, 21-10, to end their season.
“We expected to go further last year,” DeMarco said. “Nobody else did, but we did. Everyone wants to try to take that next step.”
Climes could carry the Warriors on his broad shoulders if he wanted to, or needed to, but an army of talented players at the skill positions doesn’t make it necessary.
Quarterback Ryan Messina (6-4, 195) returns for his junior year as the unquestioned starter, joined in the backfield by senior running back Charlie Nigut, a four-year starter who stands only 5 feet 7 and weighs 165 pounds but can score any time he gets the ball.
In a 31-24 win last season against Southmoreland, Nigut found the end zone four times, including on a 90-yard kickoff return and 2-point conversion that tied the score in the fourth quarter.
“They scored, he returned the kickoff for a TD, then we stopped them,” DeMarco said. “Charlie takes it to the house, and that’s it. That’s the kind of kid he is. He says, ‘Coach, when the game is on the line just give me the ball.’
“He’s the kind of kid — he will not lose,” DeMarco said. “He does it in the big games.”
The coach, like his players, possesses a quiet confidence. He’s quick to praise his opponents and savors the chance to play against the best teams in WPIAL Class 3A — and higher. The Warriors open at Class 4A West Mifflin Aug. 23 and stay on the road to play Class 3A Highlands and East Allegheny. Their home opener is against Class 5A South Fayette, and they close out their non-conference slate at Class 5A Baldwin.
“We wanted to play a tough non-conference schedule,” DeMarco said, “and I think the WPIAL heard us.”
The Warriors reeled off nine wins in a row to start the season last year before losing to Belle Vernon, 49-28, in the regular-season finale, their only conference loss. They won their playoff opener against West Mifflin before falling to Avonworth, a game where they lost Nigut to an ankle injury.
“He tried to go back in. He tried to go, but he didn’t want to hurt the team,” DeMarco said.
Elizabeth Forward returns seven starters on each side of the ball from the 10-2 team, so a WPIAL championship is not just hopeful thinking, it’s realistic thinking. Unfortunately, the Warriors are already dealing with their first setback. Center Tyler Scott was lost for the season earlier in the summer with a torn ACL.
“When you’re at a smaller school, it’s the injuries,” DeMarco said. “If we can stay away from the injuries we should be good.”
Scott is out, but senior defensive end Alex Dziadyk (6-1, 245), who tore his ACL in the fifth game last season, has been cleared for contact and was a full participant in summer practice. He has his eyes on 15 sacks and a lot of TFLs (tackles for loss).
“I want to be a big dominating force on the defensive line,” he said.
It won’t hurt that Climes gets most of the attention on the unit — and deservedly so.
A force up front
When DeMarco talks about his team, he frames it in a way that says, hey, we’re not just Chris Climes. We’ve got some other guys who can play, too.
In that way, he makes it clear that if the Warriors are to make the WPIAL championship game Nov. 23 and walk away victorious at Acrisure Stadium, they won’t just be relying on the mountain of a man up front. He’s one guy, and sometimes they’re going to have to lean on their offense.
But make no mistake Climes can — and will — disrupt a game like few others. He recorded 15½ sacks last season.
“Chris Climes is at another level. I think everybody knows who he is,” DeMarco said.
The future Buffalo Bull got a little bit of a late start in football — in the eighth grade — but perhaps he was always destined to be a great football player — and a great athlete.
Even at 6-3, 300, he can dunk a basketball. A former soccer player like his cousin Tessa Dellarose, who plays collegiately at North Carolina, he works out with a Riverhounds trainer to maximize his agility and footwork. His uncle, Justin Dellarose, is a former Youngstown State linebacker (1999-2004).
“As a person, he’s almost like a big teddy bear,” said Justin Dellarose, who is now the principal at South Park High School. “He just turns on a switch when he gets onto the field.
“He’s a great cousin. I’ve got two boys and one girl and he’s a great cousin to them. I think he may do something where he can work with youth some day.”
As a former football player, Dellarose comes away impressed with Climes’ dedication in the weight room, how he watches what he eats and the way he studies his craft, but it’s also more than that, something more intangible.
“It’s setting a goal, and then not falling short. It’s seeing him grow, watching film with him, learning how to beat a double-team,” Dellarose said.
It’s best to let Dellarose and DeMarco talk about how special Climes is, because Climes won’t. Like his teammates, he talks about team goals first and usually only personal ones when prodded. That’s a reflection of DeMarco and the Elizabeth Forward community itself — blue collar, understated, anything but flashy.
DeMarco, who starred at Elizabeth Forward in the late 1970s before playing collegiately at Louisville, speaks reverentially of the role he plays. A career assistant with previous stops at Elizabeth Forward (twice), Clairton (twice) and Southmoreland, among other schools, he got his first head coaching opportunity at age 60.
“I live near here. I have a little more at stake here. Everyone in the community knows me. I can’t say enough about the community, the boosters. Everyone has made it so easy. We just came up a couple plays short last season.”
The goal this season is clear. It’s a team one. It’s a championship. Ask DeMarco, Climes, Nigut, Messina. Any of them.
Rob is an associate sports editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.