COAL TOWNSHIP - Shamokin Area's football team has seen plenty of adversity over the past couple of seasons.
With the Indians' last win coming in 2012, new coach Pat DiRienzo is trying to change the thinking in the Shamokin locker room - and outside of it, too.
"We need people to be positive, not only the players," DiRienzo said. "We need coaches to be positive, we need parents to be positive. We need our administration to be positive. We just need this positive feeling around here."
To make that goal a reality, DiRienzo, who was hired as the Shamokin head coach June 27, has started with up-tempo practices.
Wednesday, the team had music blaring from the loudspeakers while working on drills. Tuesday and Thursday, the players conducted 7-on-7 drills before traveling to Penn State to compete in a 32-team, 7-on-7 tournament.
"We're working on trying to get a good culture around here. Trying to get positive attitudes," DiRienzo said. "In the past, the heads would go down if they scored a touchdown on us. We're just trying to keep everything upbeat."
DiRienzo replaces Yaacov Yisrael, who guided the Indians to an 0-10 record in his only season at the helm. Former North Schuylkill and Cardinal Brennan head coach Rick Geist was a finalist for the position, but declined.
In only his third week as head coach, DiRienzo hasn't had much time to instill the changes he would like to see, but he also thinks that the transition has been going smoothly.
"Sort of going high-paced right now, trying to get stuff involved. They're getting it," DiRienzo said. "We're keeping it simple right now."
Before DiRienzo could change the practices to fit his upbeat style, he needed to put together a coaching staff.
He wanted continuity on his team, so he kept most of the same staff from last year, and brought up Gary Stand and Leo Mirolli from the junior high team.
DiRienzo also brought in Dave Grimes, a former player, as a coach, and three other former Shamokin players as volunteers during the summer practices.
DiRienzo still is "waiting on one or two people" to join his new staff, but knows how he would like his coaching staff to work.
"We're trying to get an offensive staff and a defensive staff together, which is going to help me oversee everything running smooth," DiRienzo said.
In the meantime, DiRienzo and the coaches in place have used summer workouts to teach the players changes he would like to see on the field.
"We're changing the offense up; we're going to go spread because we have a lot of quick kids. We've got an experienced quarterback," DiRienzo said. "We're going to mix it up - run, throw. We're gonna do what the defense gives us."
The up-tempo practices, the attempt to change culture and the new offensive system are all being done in an effort by DiRienzo to answer a problem he knows can be solved.
"We need a win. With a loss, right away, the heads go down, the fingers point," DiRienzo said. "We just want an overall good feeling throughout the whole community."