DiNardo Brings Plenty Of Skills to the Field for Bruins
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By SHAWN RINE- The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register
Receiver Joey DiNardo is the personification of what Brooke football is all about. Complaining is one of the few things not in this guy's repertoire, even when the game plan for one reason or another doesn't call for the Bruins to throw much.
And thus, on a team of standouts DiNardo, a legitimate Division-I prospect, sometimes gets overlooked. But if you've ever seen him, that's pretty difficult to believe.
At 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, this kid is a specimen.
''A freak of nature,'' is how coach Tom Bruney describes DiNardo. ''He's chiseled, he can jump and he's fast, even though he doesn't really look like it.
''He covers a lot of ground real quick and he's got great hands.''
But some days those hands are asked to be used more for blocking than catching.
During a three-week stretch midway through the season in which rain heavily soaked Brooke Memorial Stadium, Bruney elected to keep the football on the ground. The result was a measly two catches for 10 yards for DiNardo.
Despite those facts, DiNardo has accumulated 44 catches for 889 yards and nine scores for the No. 1 Bruins (13-0), who are headed into Saturday's West Virginia Class AAA title game against No. 2 South Charleston (12-1).
But wait - it gets scarier.
''He has not really figured out our offense yet, so he is just now scratching the surface of what he is capable of doing,'' Bruney said. ''In my opinion he's a Division-I athlete that's just about ready to break out of his shell.
''He's sort of like a cocoon right now. Once he comes out of there he's going to be a tremendous, tremendous wide receiver.''
A classic example of what DiNardo brings to the table came during the first quarter or the Bruins' 32-15, semifinal victory against University. Brooke was deep in Hawks territory but a couple penalties and a fumbled snap had it facing a fourth-and-22 from the 25.
''Where in anybody's playbook do they have a play drawn up for fourth-and-22?'' Bruney asked. ''What we decided to do was, the distance wasn't good for kicking and we're obviously too close to punt. OK, let's just throw it up to Joey.
''We tried to design a route and separate him from everybody else, sort of like what they used to do with Michael Jordan on the basketball court. Cotey just laid it up there perfectly for him.''
Cotey would be quarterback Cotey Wallace, who has put up Kennedy Award-worthy numbers thanks in no small part to the play of DiNardo. Wallace is well aware of what the junior receiver means to the team.
''It's nice to have a good receiver to have out there to bail you out,'' Wallace said. ''You just put it out there and he'll go get it for you.''
Which DiNardo did while being double-covered, giving the Bruins an insurmountable 20-0 lead.
Then there's his defense, which includes a team-best 11.5 sacks, 54 tackles - 25 solos and 8.5 for loss - and a pair of fumble recoveries.
So what happens when DiNardo gets a full grasp of this offense?
''There's other things that we could do with him because he's such a good athlete. But it's come down to understanding the game of football, and he's working very hard on that,'' Bruney said. ''I think once that light goes on for him, we're going to have a lot of proud things to say about Joey.
''I think we're going to be seeing him play on Saturdays.''
ed preparing (Sunday) when Coach brought a film over to me at home. Hopefully the best comes out of it.''
