AUG. 30
NON-LEAGUE
W. Catholic 34, Roman 28 (OT)
Joe McCourt Era Begins
  The day has finally arrived for Joe McCourt. Joe is preparing for his first game as the new head coach for Roman Catholic High School. However, he is going against the reigning Catholic Blue champions. Before the game it was easy to tell that Joe was very calm, yet excited for the game to start. He was walking up and down the sideline, giving his players some extra enthusiasm and advice while talking over strategy with the other coaches. Many believed that West Catholic was going to run away with this game, but that wasn’t the case. The final was 34-28, with West Catholic winning in OT. There were many times during the game when Roman's players could have put their heads down and quit, but they’ve taken on the “work hard” mentality that their head coach once played with. The energy of the game was high. The energy at the family party afterwards was even more exciting (smiles). There were plenty of family members and friends at the game to show Joe our support. Even though it was a loss for Roman, everybody is excited for the direction that Roman is headed under Joe. “By seeing Roman come back from 14, it’s obvious that Joe has given the team a no-quit mentality.” Those were some of the gracious words ex-Roman coach Jim Murphy said of Joe, also I asked coach Murphy if he had any advice for Joe and his answer was, “Don’t stop working hard. And have fun.” I also stopped the three freshman water boys and asked to see what they thought of coach McCourt. Mike Sturgess, Bilel Rahim and Tyler Renninger all said that Coach McCourt is a great coach, but Mike stated, “Best coach in my eyes, I can’t wait to play for him.” I interviewed many people at the game but in my opinion the best interview came from Joe McCourt Sr. Joe Sr. believes “Joe has a lot to offer as a head coach, and after his playing days were over it was too hard for Joe to stay away.” Also Joe Sr. stated with a smile, “I’m old school and I personally think that Joe is too young to be a head coach.” How the season will go for Joe nobody knows, but I have feeling Joe will take Roman to a whole different yet better level.