20 SportsUnion | SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
high school
Football
Last year was a trying time to be a football player at Bish-
op Timon-St. Jude. With so much uncertainty around the pro-
gram over the summer, players didn’t know if the school was
going to field a team.
By Matt Ondesko Managing Editor
With that in mind, stu-
dents started to transfer
to other schools in hopes
of continuing their foot-
ball and scholastic ca-
reers. One of those to
leave the product was
All-Western New York,
and current University at
Buffalo, quarterback Matt
Myers.
Myers wasn’t sure what
was going to happen with
the football program, so
he went back to his home
district in West Seneca
West. All he did at WSW
was lead them to an un-
defeated season and a
run to the Sectional title
game.
While he was having
success at WSW, the play-
ers at Timon were left to
pick up the pieces of a
once proud program. Joe
Licata was named ath-
letic director late in the
summer and he was left
trying to put a team to-
gether.
One of the biggest needs
for the Tigers was finding
a quarterback. Everyone
around the South Buf-
falo community knew it
wouldn’t be easy to fill
Face of the
program
the shoes of Meyers. After
all, Meyers pretty much
did
everything
while
wearing the Green and
Gold. Besides being a
tremendous
quarter-
back, Meyers also was the
team’s punter, and a very
good one.
Mitchell Theal would
be the young man who
would step up and take
the reins to the lead new
generation of Tigers. The
Tigers would be ushering
in a new era, which in-
cluded a different color
scheme and new green
helmets – replacing eh
white helmet with green
tiger paw that was worn
since the school first
fielded a team.
Theal would be the face
of a program that was try-
ing to find its identity. He
was the face of a program
that was in full survival
mode as the season start-
ed.
“After everything that
happen last year it was