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FloraFrom page 17Flora family playing football. I wouldn’t settle for anything lessthan that.”And that, as anyone familiar with this family of athletes knows, is simply the Flora way.Sam was a hard-nosed player for New Castle High during the 1940s. Although only 5-foot-5, he bulled his way to all-WPIAL honorable mention honors before going on to a semi-professional career.Sam A., now 42 years old and the trainer for New Castle High, starred for the Red Hurricane from 1967-69. Denny Sr. followed suit from 1969-71 and Ricky further padded the family stats from 1974-76. Denny Sr. is currently an assistant coach at New Castle High, while Ricky is a ninth grade coach at Shenango.Sam A. is the school’s eighthall-time leading rusher with 1,718 yards. Denny Sr. is 12th in career rushing with 1,235 yards. Ricky, the quickest of the brothers, as well as the smallest at 5-7, also starred in track.Add to that group John Flora,Sam’s nephew, another current New Castle assistant coach who was a standout flank-er/cornerback from 1976-78, and the name Flora is quite visible in New Castle High record books.They were all upstaged, however, by Denny Jr., who became New Castle’s all-time leading rusher by bobbing and weaving his way for 3,216 yards on 585 carries during the past three years. Unlike the others, Denny Jr. was the first Flora never to play on a winning team in high school. The three ’Canes teams on which he starred won just eight games.Sam says he saw Denny Jr. coming for quite some time.‘‘When Denny was 5 years old, I told his dad he was going to be a good one someday,” Sam said. “I remember saying, ‘look at the way he moves, Den.’ He had that instinct, you could see it already.”Denny Jr. was so good, in fact, that he stayed on Sam’s East Side Rams team for just one game.“He was 13 years old, in eighth grade, and he scored four touchdowns in the first midget game he played,” Sam said. ‘‘We called Lindy (then-New Castle head coach Lindy Lauro) andsent him right up to the juniorhigh.”There are more Floras where Denny Jr. came from.Denny Jr.’s brother, Joey, is an outstanding ninth-grade tailback at New Castle. Sam A.’s son, Sam IV, was the star quarterback for the ninth grade team as well, although he may break from the mold a bit and make basketball his forte. JRicky's boys, Drue and David, are up-and-coming stars in the Shenango Pee Wee system.Even the girls, Rachel and Dana, are cheerleaders.It is a close family, these Floras. Each Sunday, they gather at the East Side home of Sam and Lucille Flora on Thorpe St., where Lucille prepares six pounds of pasta and more than 50 meatballs for a group of 16-18 children and grandchildren.In recent weeks, they have clustered as a group around their patriarch, Sam, who is battling an illness.“It’s a good family, good kids raising more good kids,” Sam said. “I’ve really enjoyed watching them grow. It’s been a whale of a ride.”
Newspaper Details
New Castle News Weekend
New Castle, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Nov 26, 1994
Page 20
Full Page
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USA 02 Dec 2021
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