By Joe Scalzo
scalzo@vindy.com
Youngstown
A few weeks ago, David Rach had just finished his final exams after a tough — and football-free — spring semester. He headed back to the weight room and was greeted by a group of former teammate who couldn’t wait to bust his chops over missing three weeks’ worth of spring practice.
“Yeah, they were messing around, kidding me about my fresh legs and my fresh body,” said Rach, a YSU linebacker who quit the team before spring practice. “The guys pretty much acted like I never left.”
By that point, Rach was toying with the idea of coming back. But he needed to know the team wanted him back.
They did.
“That’s part of what made it so special,” said Rach, a South Range High graduate who will be a senior this fall. “I was away the whole spring and the guys still treated me like a teammate.”
Rach’s addition was offset by two departures on Tuesday, as senior cornerback Randy Louis and senior wide receiver Dionte Snow left the team, according to a report on WFMJ-TV.
Louis started eight games last fall and was expected to contend for a starting spot this fall, although the Penguins picked up a key transfer in recent days in former Miami Hurricane CB Devont’a Davis. Davis has enrolled and attended his first class at YSU on Tuesday.
“I came here to compete for a starting job and I think I’ve got a pretty good chance,” Davis said by phone on Tuesday afternoon. “YSU gave me the opportunity I want and I think I can help out the program.”
Davis, who redshirted last season and will have four years of eligibility, is from Gainesville, Fla. but he’s not worried about being so far from home.
“I’m a man, I can deal with pressure,” said Davis, who plans to major in sociology. “I’ve been in pressure situations all my life, so it’s not a problem.”
Snow mainly played special teams his first two seasons and did not see action last fall.
Rach started all 11 games last fall and was third on the team with 64 tackles, second on the team in tackles for loss (five), first in fumbles recovered (two) and tied for first in sacks (two). It was a breakout junior season for Rach, who played sparingly his first two seasons.
“It basically came down to missing the guys,” Rach said. “I left in the spring to primarily focus on academics and I was a little beat up.
“To be honest, I stayed away this spring because I didn’t want to be a distraction to the guys who were working hard and I knew it would be tough to be around it.”
The YSU coaches had planned to move the 6-foot-4 Rach to defensive end, and he’s assuming that’s still the plan.
“I kind of hope so, because I’m eating like a defensive end,” joked Rach, who’s gained about 15 pounds from last year’s playing weight of 230 and plans to add five more. “It might be too late. I might have solidified myself as a lineman, by the way I’m running — or not running.
“Right now, I’m approaching it as if I’m an incoming freshman and I’m at the bottom of the depth chart, trying to work my way up. I’ll try to help any way I can.”
Rach, an education major on track to graduate next spring, plans to teach and coach when his career is over and hopes to staying in the Valley.
“In my opinion, Ohio high school football is the best in the country,” he said. “People argue for Texas and California and I’m obviously partial to this area, but I don’t think it gets any better than here. If I have the opportunity, this is where I’d like to coach.”
