Derry, Pa., is a square-mile town of roughly 3,000 people where the annual Railroad Days Festival, meant to remind its citizens of the town’s once-thriving railroad economy, marks the apex of local celebration.
For Derry youngsters seeking a change of scenery, they might want to give long-snapping a go.
“Something about Derry is that you kind of want to get out of it for a few years,” Terrapin starting long-snapper Andrew Schmitt said. “It’s a place where you can raise a family, but being an 18-to-22-year-old kid, you want to get out for a couple years.”
But something might be a-brewin’ in the southwestern Pennsylvania borough.
Derry, and more specifically Derry Area High School, has given the Terrapin football team both its current and future long-snappers, Schmitt and redshirt freshman Tim Downs, respectively. One has only been perfect throughout his collegiate career, while the other graduated high school highly touted at a position that receives little acclaim.
Schmitt arrived on the campus in large part because of Jon Condo, who roomed with Schmitt’s older brother Kyle and was the long-snapper before Schmitt took over in 2005. Condo, who did not return several phone calls, now snaps for the Oakland Raiders but still keeps in regular contact with his former protégé.
“Jon was the guy who, for the five years he was here playing, I hung out with a lot when I came down,” Schmitt said. “I’d pick his brain every chance I could when I was down at games. He kind of showed me the ropes early and his work ethic towards everything, not just long-snapping, just football in general was really something I tried to take to heart.”
n The apprentice
This season and last, Schmitt has switched roles, with Downs serving as his apprentice. The two did not play together for the Derry Area Trojans, but Downs knew of Schmitt because he was the only football player from the high school to attend a major university for football.
The senior Schmitt has shown Downs the ropes this season as he prepares to hand him the long-snapping duties.
“I try to be tough on Tim, try to let him know that he’s got a legacy to carry on,” Schmitt said.
“Constructive criticism,” said Downs. “Basically he’s like the big brother right there making sure I do the right things and not the wrong things.”
While Schmitt wasn’t heavily recruited as a long-snapper, Downs was rated the No. 6 long-snapper in the nation by former Oakland Raider Ray Guy after attending a camp hosted by the College Football Hall of Fame punter.
“I knew who he was, so I YouTubed him, and that’s how I found out more about him,” Downs said. “But throughout the camp, you never think you’d see a 65-year-old guy punt a football still as well as him.”
So, if there ever were such a thing as a heralded long-snapper prospect, Downs would be it. When it came time to pick where he would snap in college, he only had to think back to hearing about Schmitt, who was also friends with Downs’ older brother.
“Not a lot of people from our town go to out-of-state schools or play sports in college,” Downs said. “It showed me that people from a small town can make it somewhere else.”
n No glory and no mistakes
One place Schmitt isn’t likely to be, whether the Terps win or lose this weekend against No. 21 Wake Forest, is the next day’s newspaper.
That is, unless the fifth-year senior does something he hasn’t done his entire career – mess up. During a season where consistency has been in short supply for the Terps, Schmitt, known as “Dewey” in the Terp locker room, has been its model.
“You never know ’til you don’t have one what the luxury is of having a good long-snapper, and he’s definitely been consistent over his career,” first-year special teams coach Danny Pearman said.
For Schmitt, a quarterback in high school, playing the position was different, but necessary.
Early on, he played safety on the Terps’ scout team. But he knew if he wanted to play, it would have to be at long-snapper.
“I became a long-snapper [in high school] because I was a quarterback and I had the strongest arm on the team, so they told me to bend over and throw it between my legs,” Schmitt said. “I kind of taught myself how to do a lot of things, and then once I got here, I learned more technique.”
n A lineage of success
Since taking over the long-snapping duties in 2005 as a redshirt freshman, Schmitt has continued a nation-long 104-game streak in which the Terps have not had a punt blocked. Yet he plays one of the few positions in sports where perfection can go relatively unnoticed by those outside the locker room.
“It’s kind of an all-in opportunity every time they’re out there,” Pearman said. “If it’s a field goal, he’s a part of the battery that either makes points or doesn’t make points. If he’s a part of the punt team, he’s a part of the team that either gets us good field position or doesn’t. So it’s kind of a win or lose. There’s not as much gray area as there is at other positions.”
The streak began in 1999 under then-special teams coach Ray Rychleski and continued when Condo took over the long-snapping duties in 2001. Schmitt hopes to pass down not only the streak, but the same lessons he learned from Condo to Downs.
“There’s a lot of pride in it and it’s the one thing that a long-snapper would, other than of course being bad, that would get you in the paper,” Schmitt said. “It’s something that I try and show my pride and passion for to Tim and pass it on to him.”
If recent history is any indicator, Downs will succeed at the position. And maybe other college football teams can head to Derry when they need a long-snapper.
“Probably,” Pearman said, “something’s in the water or the milk up there.”
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