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Mike DeFrancesco realized as he traveled to football coaching clinics as owner of The Funding Zone that the area was missing out on something. It needed a clinic as well.
Now, thanks to DeFrancesco, there is one. The Coaches Academy Mid Atlantic Football Coaches Clinic will be held from Feb. 17 through Feb. 19 at the Mohegan Sun Pocono casino in Plains Township. And DeFrancesco landed a big name to cap off Friday’s activities — Penn State coach James Franklin.
“We are thrilled that we’re going to bring in, for all of our Penn State fans obviously, coach Franklin,” said DeFrancesco, whose company helps raise money for sports programs from the high school to youth levels. “Coach Franklin, he immediately said yes. He will do anything not only to help out our district but all the PA state football coaches.”
Cost for the three-day clinic is $95, which includes food and refreshments. There’s a discount rate for staffs with more than four coaches attending. Registration can be done at the door, online at coachesacademyclinics.com or by calling DeFrancesco at 570-574-1595. Pre-registration is recommended.
DeFrancesco emphasized the clinic isn’t just for high school coaches since some speakers will offer instruction on fundamentals and techniques that can be used in youth programs. The speakers are from high school, college and NFL teams.
A football coaching clinic was an annual event at the Ramada Inn on Public Square from 1979 to 2004. It featured some big names, such as Buddy Ryan and Howard Schnellenberger. One also had a coach who hadn’t quite made a name for himself at the time — Bill Belichick.
The abrupt end to that clinic forced local coaches to go elsewhere. Now out-of-state coaches will be coming to the area next weekend.
“The response has been phenomenal,” DeFrancesco said. “We have coaches registered from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland. We have roughly 40-something different schools that will be represented and we have over 200 coaches already registered a week out. The schedule is phenomenal. There’s no doubt our clinic is going to have the best value of any coaches clinic in the country.”
Penn State assistant Ricky Rahne is also scheduled to speak on Friday. The entire schedule can be found on the registration website.
“We knew with the other clinic leaving town and the void being there, that this was something that our area really needed,” DeFrancesco said. “I sat down last winter with coach (Mark) Duda of Lackawanna College and his defensive coordinator Bill Reiss and they were right off the bat really excited and wanted to come on board and help us with this.
“I can’t say enough about coach Duda and his staff. We’re lucky to have one of the best junior colleges in the country in our backyard helping us out.”