Legendary NFL head coach Bill Parcells is known for saying “you are only as good as your record says you are.”

Pascack Valley’s football coach Len Cusumano rejects that notion.

“Our record is not of concern,” said Cusumano. “The team has shown moments of greatness through the first four games.”

After Friday’s 28-12 loss against Ramapo, the Indians dropped to 0-4, marking the first time since 2001 that PV has dropped four games in a row.

After the game, Cusumano said, “I thought that we did improve [today], not necessarily by the score, but just in our general effort.”

This optimism and positivity are nothing new for Cusumano, who inherited a young team when he took the job last fall. Some coaches would be worried about that, but Cusumano embraces that youth and views it as imperative for success.

“Our younger players are consistently improving week to week,” he said. “It’s not easy to step in as a younger, inexperienced player.  These guys have done their absolute best to help our team every week within their own various talent levels.”

The Indians youth has been on display all season, as the starting quarterback, Joe Campagna, is a sophomore, as are many of the linemen and wide receivers.

Injuries have plagued PV this year, but that means the younger players have been given more opportunity to be the next man up.

“[The] next guy has to step up,” said Cusumano. “It’s a matter of the guys learining their roles as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Even though the Indians have only scored 15 points per game, and have given up 28.3 points, Cusumano still isn’t ready to push the panic button yet.

“The more guys you can get on the field, the better,” he said. “The more guys you can on the field to [fill in for] certain people, so you have a lot less two way players, and that helps you.”

However, Cusumano is cognizant that there are areas for improvement.

“It helps you as far as if you execute [special teams], and it hurts you if you don’t,” he said. “That helps in the field position battle, so we didn’t execute that efficiently enough.”

The area most in need of improvement to Cusumano is execution.

“We have to improve on our consistency and execution,” he said.

But for right now, his main goal is just on playing the next game.

“Our only focus right now is our next opponent, Wayne Hills,” he said.