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West Chester Winding Down Spring Workouts

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It is the final week of spring workouts for the Division II West Chester University football team as they prepare for their annual spring game on Friday night.

The Golden Rams are coming off an 8-3 2016 season and head coach Bill Zwaan is pleased with how things have gone over the past few weeks.

"We've had a pretty good spring," Zwaan tells KYW Newsradio. "Some of the places where we felt like we had to get better, we've gotten better. Some places we've felt pretty good about, they've done a good job of (continuing) to work hard and guys that are returning starters are pushing each other. And we've got a good group of leaders. So, in general, it's been a pretty good spring for us."

Listen to the entire interview with West Chester's Bill Zwaan:

 

West Chester has an awful lot of talent returning in 2017. But Zwaan talks about one area that was a bit of a question mark coming into the spring.

"We graduated five guys in the secondary last year," Zwaan says. "Both starters and back-ups, and in particular at the safety position. One of our safeties is a returning starter in Nydair Rouse and he had a great year for us last year. The other two guys are going to be young guys, but both of them played in our nickel and dime packages. So they were prepared to step up and play and they both have had really good springs."

At the quarterback position, Andrew Derr had a fine 2016 season, but Zwaan says he won't be back in 2017, forgoing a final year of eligibility to pursue his career in the working world. The Golden Rams do have an experienced starter (including several games last season) back though in rising senior Pat Moriarty. Paul Dooley will be a redshirt sophomore in 2017 and he got some work in the "wildcat" role last season and he is expected to push Moriarty.

West Chester's spring game on Friday night is set for 6:00pm.

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