When Marcus Ware graduated, he left a huge hole in the middle of the Vineland High School boys’ basketball team’s lineup. A 6-foot-7, 230-pound hole, to be exact.

The most likely candidate to fill that position was Josh Ashley, a 6-6, 178-pound junior who played beside Ware as a role player last season. But rather than shifting deeper into the post, Ashley glided out to the wing.

“My coach (Jack Martine) wants to get the ball more in my hands, not only to score but to make plays for my teammates,” Ashley said.

That’s easier to do from the perimeter for Ashley, who struggled to master the footwork and positioning necessary to play in the post. Size and athleticism were not enough to play inside at the varsity level.

“I never liked getting the ball inside,” Ashley said. “I wasn’t always involved in organized basketball growing up. I played a lot of streetball.”

On high school teams everywhere, players are shifting to different positions than the ones they played last year, as graduation and individual development create new ways for players to contribute.

Inside to outside

When Millville’s two starting guards graduated and their rising point guard moved out of the district, Jaymere Hadden looked at the Thunderbolts’ returning roster and realized the team would need a new floor general.

So the lanky 6-3 center asked around, trying to recruit a few ballhandlers from the student body. None emerged.

Hadden, seeing no other alternative, took it upon himself to become that player.

“I could not handle the ball for nothing last year,” admitted Hadden, a junior. “I knew I was going to have to work on that part of my game because I knew we were going to need a dominant guard. And I want to go to college, and I knew at the height I am, I’m going to be a guard there.”

If Hadden continues to improve at the rate he has since his transformation began last summer, the sky may be the limit. He traveled to Florida with St. Augustine Prep guard Isaiah Morton for an AAU tournament, sharing the backcourt with the area’s most seasoned backcourt player. In addition, he has been working out with the legendary Paul Gause, who scored 3,144 points at Schalick, the third-highest career total in state history.

“His cousin goes to Millville, I think, and he just came to our practice one day,” Hadden said of Gause, who could not be reached for comment for this story. “He comes to all our games, and this summer he’s going to teach me a lot about ballhandling for next year.”

Outside to inside

In Charlie Monaghan’s playing career at St. Augustine, the only constant has been change.

Monaghan arrived in Richland two years ago expecting to play small forward alongside twin towers Gene Teague and Jack Crawford. But when Teague transferred out and Crawford elected not to play basketball and focus on football, which he now plays at Penn State, Monaghan was thrust into the post.

“There was an opening there,” said Monaghan, a 6-6, 200-pound junior from West Deptford. “I wanted to contribute as much as I could as a freshman to the varsity, so I’d run inside.”

After 6-9 center Heberto Guanipa arrived, Monaghan shifted out to the high post or wing. Now that Guanipa has graduated, Monaghan is relearning the post game.

He worked with assistant coach Jose Gonzalez on his post game, which was an awkward adjustment at first. Not only is the game more physical on the block, but Monaghan had to fight certain instincts, such as establishing position and waiting for a post-entry pass rather than coming to the ball, as he would on the perimeter.

Monaghan said he takes the changes in stride because, on the whole, they make him a more well-rounded basketball player.

He also knows next year will bring changes, as always. Freshmen Ryn Bland and Austin Johnson are expected to bring heft to the Hermits next season, so Monaghan is ready for anything.

“Next year, Ryn should be getting a little bit of time and Austin should be developed,” Monaghan said. “Maybe I’ll even move out to the wing next year and play the three. Whatever helps the team.”

MILLVILLE, N.J. — Dale Moore wasn’t exactly angry. Exasperated was a better word to describe the coach’s emotion as the players on Millville High School’s boys’ basketball team struggled through a defensive drill in practice last Wednesday.

“We have to improve our help defense, guys,” Moore implored. “Oakcrest killed us because we didn’t help in our man defense yesterday. If we don’t do that against Egg Harbor, we’re going to lose by 30!”

The Thunderbolts had won the previous game against the Falcons, but it was far from a convincing win. Looming was a showdown with Egg Harbor Township, one of the favorites in Division I of the Cape-Atlantic League American Conference.

As the players tried to shore up their shortcomings in practice, little did they know that in a little more than 24 hours, they would pull off one of the many surprising upsets South Jersey basketball has seen this season.

Addressing weaknesses

Practice ran a lot more smoothly last season. Millville started four seniors then, and that group basically ran practice. Their chemistry allowed the undersized Bolts to reach the Group IV South quarterfinals.

Only junior guard Jaymere Hadden, who started at forward last season, remains from that starting five. This year’s lineup includes senior forward Deondre Mooring and senior guard Tariq Gaskins, who hardly saw any varsity time as juniors; senior Derrick Gattis, a sweet-shooting guard who couldn’t crack a lineup that had two all-conference caliber guards; and senior Khalil Wallace, who was not even enrolled at the school last year.

“It’s a lot different,” said Gattis, who at 5-foot-7 and 164 pounds has a game reminiscent of former NBA player Dana Barros. “Last year, we had a lot of leadership. This year we have leadership, just not as much because there’s not as much experience. It makes a big difference in practice.”

Moore and assistant coach Michael Jones do more talking now, but on this day they only stop practice a couple times. The previous game factors heavily into what the Bolts address in practice, Moore said, and the players were aware the mistakes they made against Oakcrest would cost them against EHT.

“Sometimes it’s hard, going into a season, knowing what you need to focus on and work on,” Moore said. “But when you have games, it exposes your weaknesses. Coming out of the Oakcrest game, even though we won, I thought the things we needed to concentrate on were press, press break, weakside rebounding, our 3-2 defense and man-to-man defense. Really, it’s about focusing on our technique.”

Implementing the gameplan

It is the first home game of the season. The stands are packed. The team needs to get the fans involved early to shellshock the Eagles and create energy off which the Bolts can feed.

They do.

“I had bubbleguts about it a little bit, because so many people were talking about this game,” Hadden said. “But when we started warming up, I just got in the game. The crowd got me hyped and we were ready.”

Right away, the adjustments made in practice — and reiterated in the locker room before the game — pay off. The Bolts dictate the tempo offensively and give up only eight first-quarter points due to improved help defense.

Of course, gameplanning only goes so far. Part of the Bolts’ success has to do with Wallace, the most tenacious rebounder in the area, crashing the boards as usual. He and the 6-3, 240-pound Mooring essentially solve Millville’s weakside rebounding issues by themselves. Hadden runs the offense like a natural point guard. Gattis, who downed two Five-Hour energy drinks before tipoff in a move he is sure to regret later that evening, appears to have decided he’s not going to miss a shot and hits six three-pointers.

The Bolts burst to a 28-18 lead at halftime and cling to a 49-43 lead after three quarters. In the waning moments, after Wallace and Mooring foul out, sophomore forward Aaron Cox endures some jawing by EHT’s Anthony Taylor (who would score a game-high 33 points) and calmly drops two free throws to seal the 73-69 victory.

After all the preparation, the result depended on the players once the ball went up.

“I thought they played outstanding,” Moore said. “I told them in the locker room, I know they were tired in the fourth quarter, and they gave everything they had. That’s all you can ask for from your basketball team. If we came up a little short, I’m just as proud of them as if we win the game.”

While the Eagles ride home on a quiet bus and the home fans celebrate, the Bolts briefly congratulate each other in the locker room. Within minutes, however, they have pulled on their sweatpants and heavy coats to depart into the winter night. Tomorrow is another game.

“Gotta forget about this one,” Mooring said. “I mean, this is a good win, but we’ve got to go into tomorrow as a new day. This one means nothing after today.”

Marcus Ware is a freshman men's basketball player at Monmouth University. (Ben Watanabe/The Daily Journal)

As Marcus Ware showed a visitor around the Monmouth University campus this week, the informal tour was occasionally interrupted with a wave from a smiling girl or a brief greeting from a classmate.

Every interaction revealed that while Ware had only just finished his first semester, the Vineland High School graduate was already on his way to making himself at home.

“I think I’ve adjusted well,” said Ware, a freshman on the men’s basketball team. “I have a lot of friends here. If you play sports, a lot of people know who you are. First, I got close with my roommates, then my teammates. Then I started meeting new people and building friendships with those people.”

The first year of college requires adjustments for student-athletes, who juggle additional responsibilities to those of average students. First-year student-athletes quickly learn to manage their time, since falling behind in the classroom or on the playing field can mean a hard climb to get back on track.

Ware walks through Woodrow Wilson Hall at Monmouth University.

“I have to fend for myself with a lot of things my dad used to stay on me about at home,” Ware said. “Eating right, studying, waking up to run at 6 a.m. Me and my teammates all lean on each other, because if one person messes up, it can affect the whole team.”

Set in stone

Brooke and Britney Kott were never the type to get nervous before the first day of school. As honors students and standout runners at Millville Senior High School, the Kotts had reason to feel confident when classes began each fall.

Even by their standards, the first day of class at East Carolina University in September was remarkably unremarkable. A four-day preseason camp in the Appalachian Mountains with their cross country teammates in August had given the Kotts a built-in group of almost 30 friends before they attended a single class.

“It felt kind of awkward when we moved in, because I didn’t really know my roommate, even though she was a runner,” Brooke Kott said. “We went to camp, came back and were best friends.”

For many students, arriving at college can be the scariest first day of school ever. But the built-in network of teammates, coaches and advisors eases the social and academic transition for student-athletes.

“Even though you only need about a C average, somewhere around a 2.0, the coaches are always making sure you get good grades,” Britney Kott said. “My coach just texted me last night saying, congratulations on your grades. If you’re doing well, he’s going to notice. And if you’re doing bad, they’re going to get on you about your grades, because we’re representing the school not just in athletics, but academics as well.”

Athletes have a better chance of success in college than the general student population because of the institutional support, said Mickey C. Melendez, an assistant professor in the John Jay College Department of Counseling at The City University of New York.

The challenge is to avoid over-identifying as an athlete, rather than a student, and closing off from other experiences on campus, he said. Melendez called this “identity foreclosure.”

“At the Division I level, when I was working in support of student-athletes, the biggest thing for student-athletes to adjust to was the regimented aspect of their lives,” Melendez said. “From the first moment they step on campus, they are told this is where they live, this is when they eat, these are the classes they take. That brings with it advantages and pitfalls. Oftentimes, how well student-athletes adhere to the regimented aspects of their role is used to determine how dedicated they are and, further down the road, how much playing time they get.”

The regimen may help explain why 79 percent of Division I athletes graduate within six years, according to NCAA data, a far greater rate than the general student population. Various data place the six-year graduation rate of all college students between 54 and 62 percent.

“Even if they have no interest in academics, one thing is keeping them there, and that is a desire to pursue their sport,” Melendez said. “That is a powerful motivation.”

On rare occasions, an athlete is unable to graduate from his original school through no fault of his own.

Being recruited … again

All things considered, Andrew Anastor considered his first semester at Northeastern University a success as the Huskies’ football season neared its end.

Anastor, a Vineland native, did not play a down as he served a redshirt year, and the team won just three games. But as he filed into a team meeting the day after the Huskies concluded the season with a win over Rhode Island on Nov. 21, he felt optimistic about his next four years.

When head coach Rocky Hager began to tell the players this would be his last time addressing them, Anastor wasn’t shaken. Hager posted a .299 winning percentage in six seasons. Everyone figured the administration would relieve Hager of his duties eventually.

Then Peter Roby, the director of athletics, stepped in. That struck Anastor as odd.

“I recommended to the board of trustees that we discontinue football,” Roby said, in Anastor’s recollection.

“We were like, Wow,” Anastor said.

An athlete never imagines he will be making official visits to colleges while enrolled in college, but that day, Anastor set events in motion to do just that. Granted a blanket release from Northeastern that would allow him to transfer and be eligible to play immediately, Anastor fielded offers from Monmouth, Robert Morris, Wagner and Sacred Heart, and made visits to Lafayette and Lehigh.

On those visits, Anastor set the tone by insisting his hosts not introduce him like a typical incoming player.

“Don’t call me a recruit,” he warned. “I did this last year. I’m a transfer. I’m not a recruit. I didn’t want to be called a recruit again. I wasn’t in high school. I’ve done this. I’ve been through a camp. I’ve been through a whole season. I went through just as much as you have.”

After flirting with Lehigh, Anastor plans to enroll at Lafayette in the spring. Yet his first-year story is far from over. It remains to be seen how many of the 18 credits he took to get ahead of his studies at NU will transfer to Lafayette. Since the Patriot League, to which Lafayette belongs, does not offer athletic scholarships, Anastor has to apply for grants to offset the scholarship money he received from NU.

He also hopes to receive four full years of eligibility because he did not play this season. Getting that could be complicated by the fact that the Patriot League does not offer redshirt seasons.

If the transfer goes through as planned, Anastor believes the move could ultimately be a good thing. He was “blown away” by Lafayette’s brand-new facilities and said the coaches project him as at least a three-year, all-league left tackle.

Still, Northeastern was his first choice. No amount of winning or awards can change that.

“I mean, we weren’t that great,” Anastor said. “We weren’t winning football games, but it was a great school. I loved the school, loved the social life, when I had a chance to have a social life outside of football. I was looking forward to playing next year. I really had a chance to start at guard or even tackle. So I was looking forward to getting things turned around.”

Keeping up

The men’s basketball program at Monmouth is in no danger of being cut, but Ware’s first year has had its challenges. In the team’s final scrimmage before the regular season, he suffered a stress fracture in his left foot and missed eight games. He returned against Rutgers, playing four minutes, and scored his first points two games later in a four-point loss to Princeton.

He re-aggravated the injury in practice the next day, and is now shelved until mid-January.

Ware watches his teammates practice in the Monmouth Athletic Center. Ware is unable to play with a stress fracture in his left foot.

While he unable to play, Ware bore down in class. His stepmother, Felicia Harris, cannot help him with his schoolwork like she did when he was in high school, but Ware attended mandatory study halls and worked with tutors supplied by the school this fall.

“My stepmom used to help me when I needed help,” Ware said. “Now I take the initiative on my own to study, get a tutor if I need to, and basically keep my own schedule. I keep a planner so I don’t get caught behind.”

Unlike at Vineland, where any extended absence by Ware would have forced the Fighting Clan to completely reassess their season, the injury barely registered as a blip for the Hawks.

“Here, the team moves on, and it’s on Marcus to jump back on board,” Monmouth coach Dave Calloway said. “As a freshman, he’s way behind. If it’s a sophomore or junior that gets hurt, they’re behind, but they still know what they’re supposed to be doing and they’re in tune with everything that’s going on. He’s still new and doesn’t understand everything, so being hurt really, really set him back in the basketball part of things. But he’ll be OK.”

At practice later that day, Ware sat on the sideline in the palatial new athletic complex as his teammates ran through their 1-2-2 matchup zone defense. With each drill, it became clearer how much Ware is missing on the bench, even though he absorbed as much as he could by watching.

During a water break, sophomore center Phil Wait came over and sat beside Ware. Every player has his first-season saga. Wait’s included playing 11 games at St. John’s before transferring to Monmouth.

The two had a brief, quiet conversation. Wait stood up and gave Ware a reassuring pat on the head before returning to the court. He had been there before. They were all freshmen once.

A spot in the record book is assured for the Delsea Regional High School football team, which this season set a new South Jersey mark for points scored in a single season. But the player who may have been most responsible for attaining that feat never got the witness the record-setting play.

When Sean McPherson crossed the goal line in the Crusaders’ victory over Haddonfield in the Group II South championship game, fullback Austin Medley was face-down on the turf his own head ringing from a block that helped spring his teammate.

“I was actually on the ground, because I made a block,” Medley said. “I didn’t see it, but I heard everyone screaming, so I guess he made it.”

In the brief celebration that ensued, Medley’s headache completely was forgotten. What will never be forgotten is the impact Medley had on Delsea’s historic season.

Medley rushed for 1,697 yards to break Assad Hafiz’s school record for rushing in a season, led South Jersey with 35 touchdowns and 212 points, and made all the blocks and little plays to enable the Crusaders to repeat as sectional champs for the first time. To top it all off, he collects The Daily Journal’s 2009 Football Player of the Year award.

The credit for that, in Medley’s opinion, doesn’t belong to him.

“I had the greatest line,” Medley said. “That’s all that means.”

Delsea center Kyle Jones, who cleared a path for Medley since midget league, respectfully disagreed.

“He’s phenomenal,” Jones said. “You make your block and he’s gone. He’s a physical specimen, that kid. He’s just a great running back. Watch out for him at the next level. You can’t hold him to high school. He’ll play in college, and I cannot wait to watch him on television.”

The process of running the football is not complicated: Receive the handoff. Secure the ball. Find the hole. Get through the hole. Get to the second level of the defense. Break a big run.

It’s simple, but it’s not easy. Medley made it look easy through endless hours in the weight room and on the track, transforming himself into a back who was both bruising and blazing.

“Track was a big thing,” Delsea coach Sal Marchese Jr. said. “He didn’t have blinding speed when he was a young kid. He learned how to run through track. He came out here and busted his butt on the track team to get fast for football. He just attacked that.”

Along with Medley’s talent and work ethic come instincts. Late in the third quarter of the sectional final, with Haddonfield attempting a comeback, the Bulldawgs attempted an onside kick after scoring a touchdown to close Delsea’s lead to 26-14.

Fundamentally sound, Medley waited patiently for the ball to travel 10 yards, then gobbled up the ball at Haddonfield’s 43 yard line.

The play did not add an inch to Medley’s stat total, but it allowed the Crusaders to shave another four minutes off the clock and eventually seal the win.

“He’s a heady kid, and he wants the ball all the time,” Marchese said. “He wants to make big plays, and he usually does.”

FRANKLIN TWP. — As a freshman, Jon Hickman had very little going for him. In the words of Ronn Flaim, the offensive line coach for Delsea Regional High School’s football team, Hickman “was just another kid on the team.”

Determined to crack the varsity starting lineup, Hickman became a different player. Helped by a natural teenage growth spurt and hours in the weight room, he gained 45 pounds between his freshman and junior seasons. Now a senior, Hickman will be firmly entrenched at left guard when Delsea hosts Haddonfield tonight in the Group II South championship game.

“I knew if I wanted to play, I had to do it,” Hickman said of his fitness program. “This offense is all about strength and staying low. In order to do that, you have to be strong and fast.”

Dedication like his has made Delsea’s line play the envy of South Jersey. While the multiple Wing-T garners lots of yards and headlines for fullback Austin Medley, wingback Sean McPherson and others, the linemen who make the offense work operate in anonymity.

The all-senior unit of Dennis Handy, Kyle Jones, Chris Trotts, Gary Colone and Hickman forms the backbone of an offense that compiled 4,600 yards of total offense through the first nine games of the season, running the ball 94 percent of the time.

“We’re a running football team, and you can’t do that without a good offensive line,” Flaim said. “Our whole program is based around those guys being good run blockers.”

Introducing the Wing-T

The Wing-T is one of the oldest offenses in football. Yet after decades of use on the high school and college gridirons, defenses still have not come up with a reliable way to stop a properly run Wing-T.

Most Wing-T formations consist of:

• Five down lineman
• A quarterback under center
• A fullback
• A tight end
• Two wingbacks set back from the line of scrimmage on either side of the offensive line
• Either a tailback, a wide receiver or another tight end

Delsea’s offense is patterned after the most popular version of the Wing-T, known as “Delaware,” in homage to the offense’s birthplace. Unlike “Delaware,” however, the Crusaders do not always have a tailback lined up beside fullback Medley and almost never pass.

The essence of the Wing-T is not so much the formations as the premise. Every formation brings with it a multitude of plays that succeed due to misdirection and fakes by all 11 players.

During practice this week, the Crusaders ran a trap and a sweep on successive plays. The two plays resulted in the ball going in very different directions, but they looked identical when the Crusaders lined up.

“Some people call it a hybrid Wing-T,” center Kyle Jones said. “Basically, they move around the wideouts and the backs and the tight ends. The central, core five stay the same. Our job (as linemen) never changes.”

Reading material

Motion by the backs forces the defense to react, which the offensive linemen read before the snap.

“We know they’re going to be making a lot of adjustments,” Hickman said. “You just sort of have to keep it simple and know your assignment on a single play.”

The center has a difficult job in any offense, and the Wing-T is no exception. As Jones strides to the line of scrimmage, he will double-check the snap count in his head. He will identify his assignment and any blitzers.

His pre-snap responsibilities are eased, however, by his familiarity with quarterback Chris Jackson.

“We’ve been quarterback and center since seventh grade,” Jones said. “We have the chemistry down. I don’t even think about snapping the ball anymore. I know he’s back there.”

For an experienced group like this, once the ball is snapped, instinct takes over. The nature of the offense makes blocking straightforward after four years in the program.

“They have a chance, if they do the right things in the weight room, to be a good run blocker,” Flaim said. “Because that’s all we practice.”

Perfect fit

When head coach Sal Marchese sits down with his staff at the beginning and end of each year, he starts by identifying which linemen are returning. Whereas some coaches build around their playmakers, the Crusaders build around the big men.

When the coaches formulated their plan for this season, they jotted down five names, all seniors, all with varsity experience.

The Crusaders had the perfect foundation for their state title defense, both on the field and off.

“You couldn’t ask for a better group of kids than this,” Flaim said. “Personality, work ethic, they’re the whole package.”

Still, many of the most diehard high school football fans have never heard their names. Jackson? Sure. McPherson? Probably. Medley? Of course.

From a Delsea lineman’s perspective, the attention those players receive is well-deserved.

“It’s great that they get that,” Handy said. “They’re the guys that get all the rushing yards. They have to do something, too. We just open the holes, do the small work. They have to get up the sideline and run all the way to the endzone. I’d rather have them running 70 yards, not me.”

Allen Iverson is back where he started his pro basketball career, and when he takes the court Monday at the Wachovia Center, many fans will have visions of the 2001 NBA Finals run dancing in their heads.

There is little harm in that. It is the holiday season, after all. Belief and good will are popular at this time of year.

Beyond the irrational exuberance, however — which ignores the fact that Iverson, 34, is not the same player physically who won four scoring titles and a Most Valuable Player Award — there is a more logical reason to cheer the move. Due to failures by management over the last three seasons, the Sixers cannot make a significant move to improve themselves for at least three more years.

In the meantime, the Iverson signing is the most inspired move possible.

The Sixers are dead in the water, as many fans appear to have noticed (or not noticed, if home attendance is any indication). They are in no position to make a leap to the top of the standings this season with the personnel on hand, and will never make that jump as long as they retain Elton Brand, Samuel Dalembert and Andre Iguodala under their prohibitive contracts.

Player salaries are the single biggest determinant of success in the NBA, which somewhat counter-intuitively combines freedom of guaranteed contracts with the constraints of a salary cap. The most valuable commodity in the league is a large, expiring contract. Some teams clamor to acquire such players, eager to shed a good chunk of money at the end of the season.

The Sixers will have one such contract next season in $12 million man Dalembert. The next time they will have similar flexibility is when Brand’s deal expires with his $18 million salary in 2012-13. Because of a player option, Iguodala is signed on for another five years of at least $12 million per.

In the meantime, the Sixers can’t do anything.

n They can’t make a serious offer to Cavaliers megastar LeBron James, who becomes a free agent this offseason. No acquisition would make anywhere near the same impact.

n They can’t trade Brand or Dalembert, because every other team saw at the time of their respective signings that those two players were compromised. Brand was damaged, injury-prone goods. Dalembert has the basketball IQ of a frog.

n They can’t build around Iguodala. He has made vast improvements since entering the league in 2004, but last season and early this season have revealed that Iggy would make a great second-fiddle in the Scottie Pippen or Lamar Odom mold, but doesn’t have the gift to be a headline star.

With all these realities, the Sixers cannot begin to formulate a plan for three years from now. There is too much house cleaning to do, and signing Iverson to a non-guaranteed contract worth a little more than $1 million is not going to make a heap of difference there.

Where his signing might make a difference is on the court and at Philadelphia nightspots. Only the latter is a legitimate concern.

On the court, some have voiced concern over hurting the development of the team’s young talent. In response, what young talent would be hurt? If Lou Williams is the future, as the team insists, then we have seen the future and it is immature and weak with the basketball. Thaddeus Young has regressed wildly since the middle of last season. In limited duty, rookie Jrue Holiday has shown all the skills but a shortage of chutzpah.

If there was one quality Iverson always brought to his team, it was chutzpah.

As for the nightlife thing, well, that’s part of the package. Iverson is 34 now, so one hopes he has gotten most of the late nights out of his system. If it weren’t for baggage, Iverson wouldn’t be on the market. In fact, he never would have been traded from the Sixers in the first place.

Should Iverson show up for a 10 a.m. shootaround with bloodshot eyes, surely Sixers president and general manager Ed Stefanski would sympathize. A bad hangover goes away in a few hours; Stefanski is still feeling sick to his stomach over deals he signed two years ago.

MILLVILLE — If there were a page in Daron Moore’s and Khalil Wallace’s playbooks that was dog-eared and wrinkled from constant study, it was the one they dubbed “Tebow pass.”

Before Thursday, Moore and Wallace, two of the top playmakers on Millville High School’s football team, had only been given one opportunity to run the play. The play borrows from a short-yardage play popularized by quarterback Tim Tebow at the University of Florida, which borrows the play from the old-time single-wing at the dawn of the forward pass.

For the first time since Week 3, when Millville coach Jason Durham gave the nod on a two-point conversion against Absegami, the Bolts dusted off “Tebow pass” in the fourth quarter against Vineland. Trailing 21-19 after a touchdown by Dominick Askins, Millville coach Jason Durham signaled the play, Moore took a direct snap out of shotgun and Wallace caught a wobbly ball for one of the biggest plays of Millville’s season.

“I’m just throwing it up,” Moore recalled saying on the sideline. “Go get it.”

“I’m 6-foot-4 and I’ve got ups,” Wallace replied. “No matter how it looks, I’m going to come down with it.”

Four plays later, the Fighting Clan snapped the ball over their punter’s head into the endzone for a safety, and Millville was on its way to a 23-21 comeback win.

“We hadn’t run that play in a long time, and you know, Daron Moore’s a joker,” Wallace said. “He’s always joking, ‘Yo coach, we’re going to win on Tebow pass.’ That’s what happened.”

The element of surprise is pivotal on the play, so Durham uses it selectively. With his first victory as a head coach in the 138-year rivalry on the line, Durham decided the situation was tailor-made for such a play.

“For me, to put the game in the hands off those two guys to win the football game, I thought was our best chance,” Durham said.

The opportunity was made possible by a surprising play call on Vineland’s previous possession. On third down and five near midfield and Vineland leading, 21-13, with less than six minutes remaining, the Clan attempted a pass.

A run, even if not successful in picking up the first down, would have kept the clock moving. Instead, Darrius Flowers’ pass was intercepted by Moore, who was shocked at the play call, too.

“I was very surprised,” Moore said. “I was expecting a pop for (Steven) Ribot, because he ran hard all game. I don’t know what convinced them to go for play-action, but I’m glad they did.”

A few minutes later, after “Tebow pass” tied the game and the safety gave Millville the lead, the Bolts marched off the field with The Daily Journal Victory Cup. Two calls — one good, one bad — made a huge difference.

BRIDGETON — A light rain moistened the grass at John Hursey Stadium as the 23 remaining members of Bridgeton High School’s football team practiced Wednesday.

That’s right, 23 players are all that are left after a midseason spate of injuries and departures by key players gutted a team that began the season as one of South Jersey’s biggest surprises.

Among the remaining players was senior running back Mike Cisrow. He stuck around, and the Bulldogs are lucky he did.

“He can carry the team,” said sophomore Sean Henigin, a 6-foot-6, 319-pound two-way tackle who helps clear the way for the 5-foot-7, 175-pound Cisrow. “He doesn’t need much room. You give him a little window, he’s gone. The window doesn’t have to be there long. A couple seconds, that’s all he needs.”

As the Bulldogs limp into the playoffs with a paper-thin roster, Cisrow is one reason for them to feel confident when they arrive at Cinnaminson for the Group II South opener tonight. With all-league linebacker Rashaun Smith serving as the anchor of the defense, Cisrow holds the same role on offense.

Through eight games this season, Cisrow has gained 1,409 yards on the ground. That is more yards on the ground than the likes of Delsea’s Austin Medley, Vineland’s Brian Winchester and Buena’s Donetae McKinnon.

To slow him down, the defense could try stacking eight in the box, but they don’t.

“Eight? No,” Cisrow said. “Nine in the box. The majority of the season, that’s what most of the teams we played did. I expect that. We’re a running team. Anyone can tell.”

Although Cisrow does not have the physical build of an obvious varsity star, Bridgeton coach Dave Ellen anticipated Cisrow’s strong senior campaign. As a junior, Cisrow was limited to seven games due to a sprained meniscus in his right knee and a sprained right ankle, and still finished third in the area with 1,117 rushing yards.

Despite his numbers, Cisrow said he was never at full strength last season.

“I felt about 85 percent,” Cisrow said. “It was like I was playing not to get hurt again. This year, that feeling’s gone. I’ve got a couple bumps and bruises, but I’m not going to complain about anything.”

It’s tough to complain when seven opening day starters are gone. What began as a roster with over 50 players is down to fewer than two dozen.

Kevin Bunton, the team’s second-leading rusher, suffered a concussion. Tyler Haydak, a junior quarterback, severely sprained his ankle. Taron Byers, an athletic 6-0, 185-pound junior, broke his collarbone.

But more players simply decided they didn’t want to play anymore, which has made practice a challenge for the coaches.

“It’s really difficult right now to practice and prepare for the other team, because we’ve got to go half-line,” Ellen said. “It’s hard to go full-speed. That’s the most difficult thing. The kids we do have, our 11 can play with anybody’s 11.”

Cisrow shrugs off the lost manpower.

“Some of it’s because of injuries, and that’s part of football,” Cisrow said. “But some guys just quit on us. Guys we were on the field with all summer, treated like family, just gave up on us. We had to play through it. Can’t go back and beg them to play. We play the cards we were dealt.”

When Cisrow lines up in the backfield, he usually starts with a hand most people would fold.

In those cases, Cisrow is usually tired from playing cornerback. Since every Bulldog has to play both ways, his linemen are bushed, too. And the defense has four linemen, four linebackers and often a safety standing between him and the sticks.

Asked what goes through his mind in such situations, Cisrow smiled.

“Keep pounding it down their throats,” he said with a smile. “They’ll eventually fall.”

Then Cisrow pulled on his practice gear and jogged out into the rain. The field had gotten a little muddy. He and the Bulldogs were bound to get dirty, but no one complained.

Anyone who might have complained was long gone.

FRANKLIN TWP. — Austin Medley expected to make an impact eventually with Delsea Regional High School’s football team.

“I was waiting for my senior year,” he said. “I always thought my senior year would be my time to be great. My coaches told me, ‘Don’t wait.’”

Drawing on a work ethic instilled in him by his father and older brother, Medley transformed himself from a diminutive freshman fullback into a 5-foot-11, 198-pound tough-yardage machine.

The Crusaders have a bye this week, and Medley could use the rest. His senior year has arrived, and he has indeed been great thus far. Medley leads South Jersey in with 158 points, including 26 touchdowns, and is second in the area with 1,065 rushing yards on 132 carries. He enjoyed a field day last week against Highland, scoring six touchdowns before the third quarter had expired.

The game did not always come so easily for Medley.

After a solid midget football tenure, he earned his way into the starting lineup on Delsea’s freshman team. But future stardom for Medley was not evident until Delsea’s coaches noticed that the 5-foot-6 freshman was a constant presence in the Crusaders’ weight room.

Medley’s work ethic alone gave him a chance to play regularly, but Brian Carione, who has coached freshmen gridders at Delsea for 13 years, saw bigger things for him down the road.

“He’s a real good example of what you can be if you work hard,” Carione said. “We have kids that don’t even start as freshmen, and by the time they’re juniors they’re all-group, all-South Jersey, things like that. It’s all in how they work once they get a taste of it when they’re freshmen.”

If Medley seems at home in the weight room, it’s because he has a weight room in his home.

Medley’s father, Biddle, a state trooper who played defensive back at Salem High School and Grambling State University under legendary coach Eddie Robinson, turned the basement of the family’s home in Franklinville into a weight room. In the subterranean fitness center, Medley worked out from a young age with his father and brother B.J., who played quarterback at Delsea and safety at Northern Iowa University.

The older Medleys put the eager youngster through all he could handle. He started doing running back drills when he was 5 years old because “my dad said I had big knees, so he thought I’d be a running back when I got older.”

The training sessions were about more than honing Medley’s body.

“It gives you confidence not only on the football field, but with life,” Biddle Medley said. “The message is lost if you don’t carry that work ethic from the field into life. Whether you’re a police officer, a doctor, a lawyer or a dentist, your work ethic, that’s the key.

“If you’re healthy and you feel good about yourself, that gives you a confidence others don’t have. After a while, it gets to be a way of life.”

As young as Medley was, it was impossible to overwork him.

“I love working out,” he said. “It’s my hobby, actually. Being around it all the time with my family, with my own gym in the basement, it’s just something to do.”

One day, Medley hopes to be the fittest person wearing a suit in a courtroom. He wants to go to law school after college, for which he appears to be a Division I talent.

Among the colleges he said he is considering are Monmouth, Rutgers, Connecticut, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Temple and Richmond.

Medley is still relatively young, too. He won’t turn 18 until June 3, so there might still be room for him to grow.

It would take a lot of hours of hard work to get there.

He likes that.

BUENA VISTA — To reach the cusp of setting a new record for career touchdown passes, a quarterback needs to spread the ball around.

Dustin Thomas, the St. Augustine Prep senior who tonight may become the most prolific touchdown passer in South Jersey history, has distributed the football to plenty of targets in his four-year varsity career.

Still, every great quarterback has his favorites. If and when Thomas throws his 65th touchdown pass to slide past Tom Reilly of Holy Cross for the most all-time, the odds are good his target will be Gabe Voumard or Jimmy Goodroe, senior wide receivers who both have played with Thomas since they were sophomores.

“They’ve played a big part in me getting this far,” said Thomas, who this week committed to Villanova University. “Especially this year, they know how to read everything I’m reading. We’re on the same page, and it’s not just those two. It’s the receivers over all four years I’ve had here. But those two have been here the longest with me, so we’ve built up a chemistry that’s going to eventually, hopefully, make me able to beat the record.”

Of Thomas’ 64 scoring passes to date, 14 were to Voumard and to Goodroe. He has had other notable targets over the years, such as Jack Crawford, Josh Thompson and Bill Giberson, but the longevity of his relationship with Voumard and Goodroe has been pivotal on a few touchdown plays this season.

The chemistry is sometimes the result of conscientious practice, as it was when Thomas hit Voumard on a perfect fade route to the back corner of the endzone against Bridgeton. Other times, the chemistry shows up on broken plays, like when Goodroe moved into a spot vacated by a cornerback who had come up to defend Thomas as he rolled out of the pocket. Thomas found Goodroe for six.

“He likes to run around,” said Voumard, who leads the area with 16 receptions for 314 yards. “Sometimes you’ve got to work back to the ball and read everyone else, move where he’s going and make a play from there. We don’t really work on it, but by now it’s kind of common knowledge for us.”

The two receivers, Lower Cape May natives who have played together since they were 6 years old, ride to school together every day.

Voumard, by far the less vocal of the two, claims he predicted as a freshman that Thomas would develop into one of the best quarterbacks in South Jersey history. Along the same lines, Dale Amos, the Hermits’ offensive coordinator and receivers’ coach, saw something in the young trio as ninth and 10th graders.

“It’s a special class, and you knew being around Dustin and Jimmy and Gabe that they were going to click,” Amos said. “Dustin’s very special, but you need to have two kids you can count on to get open, and he has that confidence in them.”

Amos never broadcasted his opinion, but he and the rest of the coaches knew. He also believed fullback Matt Piotrowicz, running back Darnell Laws, and right tackle John Bowden, all multi-year starters, would develop their primetime talents as well.

Usually, Goodroe is the one making bold statements. Not even he was bold enough to predict Thomas would be on the doorstep of an all-time record, however.

“When we were young, we didn’t think, ‘Hey, we have a freshman quarterback who’ll probably break a whole bunch of records,’” Goodroe said. “We just thought, ‘We’ll pass the ball a lot.’ As the years progressed, we saw his numbers were pretty great, and growing every year. Senior year comes along and we’re like, ‘Man, he’s pretty close to the record. Let’s try to get it for him.’”

The larger goal is to win a state championship, Thomas noted. But to be the one on the receiving end of history tonight wouldn’t be half bad, Goodroe said.

“If I catch that pass, I can’t wait to see the look in his eye when I hand him the ball,” Goodroe said. “It’d be a great honor to catch that touchdown pass. Then again, I don’t care who catches it. As long as we’re winning that game and someone helps Dustin break that record, that’s all that matters to us.”