THANKFUL TIGER
Senior persevered through times to lead team to playoffs
PAWTUCKET — In keeping with the theme of this week’s holiday, Justin Klemanchuck has plenty of reasons to be thankful.
Tonight’s 6 o’clock game at Max Read Field will mark the grand finale of a highschool football career for the Tolman High senior. Hopefully, the contest against city rival Shea won’t mark the final time Klemanchuck gets to play a game he loves so much.
The 5- foot- 8 quarterback with a big heart has his sights firmly set on playing college football. On that front, time will tell but understand this: when tallying up all the particulars that high school sports have the potential of drawing out of teenagers – the life lessons, the importance of working with others, the development of a work ethic that never wavers through good times and bad – Klemanchuck is thankful for everything that’s materialized over the past four years in conjunction with wearing a Tolman jersey.
It hasn’t always been the smoothest of rides. Last season, Tolman didn’t win any of its seven Division I games. The year before that, the Tigers also endured a winless league campaign (0-7). The first 0-fer came when Klemanchuck was in 10th grade, the first of three seasons he has spent as Tolman’s primary signal caller.
“I was a scrawny sophomore playing Division I football,” said Klemanchuck on Monday while sitting in the Tolman football office that’s located in the high school’s basement. “At times, it was hard to look at the product on the field and still see the potential in us.”
To say that Klemanchuck was under constant siege while Tolman was miscast as a D-I participant is not an exaggeration. Before he could drop back and survey the field, multiple defenders would jump into his line of tvision. The constant pressure left Klemanchuck little choice but to ad lib and im—provise. Sometimes, there was no time to look in the direction of the first option. It was run for your life and rhope that he wouldn’t get his bell rung too badly.
“It was pretty rough,” said Klemanchuck. “A lot kof games, it was tough for tme to walk afterwards, but I knew I had to stick with it.”
“Coaches would come up dto me and say, ‘Your quarfterback is so tough.’ I would always reply, ‘Tell me about tit,’” said Tolman head coach Jason DeLawrence.
Despite finding himself under constant duress, Klemanchuck never once slouched or complained. Huddling with his THS offensive mates before the tnext play, he never gave nthem a tongue lashing to
try harder so he could make Lsomething happen with his rarm or leg. Klemanchuck dknew that given the magnitude of the position he played, all eyes would be nfixated on him. To him, the mimportance of keeping his emotions firmly in check ranked high.
“Looking back, those struggles helped make me who I am,” said Klemanchuck. “There were moments of self-doubt, but I just tried to stay with what fI was doing, knowing that if aI kept working hard, we as a football program would neventually get what we detserve.” n There were times when the outside noise – Klemanchuck would get questions along the lines of “Why bother practicing if dyou’re not going to win any games?” – rivaled the pain of getting whacked to the ground by D-I teams. In sticking with this article’s main premise, Klemanchuck was and is thankful to have such a strong support system – both at home and within the context of Tolman football.
His father Larry was a standout basketball player at Tolman. If you’ve seen some of mother Jamie’s posts on social media, all discussion would quickly cease as to who is Justin’s biggest fan. Justin’s two older sisters, Jordyn and Megan, were also star athletes during their Tolman days.
Given the family legacy, Justin yearned to be a winning Tiger. From his parents to his siblings, each one of them took the time to remind him to stay humble and hungry, but don’t let losing bog you down.
“We’re always competitive and the family always believed in me,” said Klemanchuck. “They always told me to keep going.”
Klemanchuck also heard similar words of encouragement from DeLawrence, his Tolman coach who on multiple occasions told the Tiger in a No. 6 jersey not to worry about looking over his shoulder following an interception or lost fumble.
“Coach JD would tell me, ‘You’ve still got the rock. You’re still running the show,’” said Klemanchuck. “That helped give me faith and understand that through mistakes, I would be able to grow and develop as a person and a teammate.”
It’s nice to see those who never waver in their commitment get rewarded.
That’s the best way to sum up Klemanchuck’s senior year at Tolman. The Tigers won three straight to open league play in Division III, more wins than any THS club has posted in the last two years. They ended up going 6-1 during the regular season, losing only to eventual D-III Super Bowl champion Central Falls.
At long last, Klemanchuck played high school football with significant stakes attached. “It felt good to have the winning and the fun come together,” he said.
If the story were scripted in Hollywood, Klemanchuck and the Tigers would have been afforded the chance to, once again, meet Central Falls with a Super Bowl title at stake. Instead, Tolman lost to Pilgrim in the D-III semis. Despite the tough-to-swallow result, Klemanchuck is living proof that you don’t have to achieve your ultimate goal in order to be deemed a success.
As a program, the Tigers stand on much better footing at the end of Klemanchuck’s varsity career than they did when he was first handed the quarterback keys prior to the 2016 campaign. This season, Tolman lost only one player to poor grades, a positive development that could be traced to the off-field culture fostered by Klemanchuck, currently the fourth-ranked student among Tolman’s 2019 graduates.
“To me, losing guys to grades is unacceptable,” said Klemanchuck. “If you’re here, you’re a student-athlete but you’ve got to be a student first.”
Klemanchuck is thankful that after two seasons of endless takedowns, he can count on one hand how many times he was sacked this season. We’re talking about a 17-year-old who’s been a Pawtucket kid his whole life and needs to somewhat conserve his energy for his weekend shift as a busboy at The Roast House.
“At times it’s a lot, but there are no excuses in my house,” said Klemanchuck.
Klemanchuck plays other sports at Tolman, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. He knows there’s something unique about being part of a football team, especially when you’re the quarterback and seemingly every play rests on your shoulders. That’s why he plans to savor every moment of tonight’s holiday get-together with the Raiders, knowing full well that last call awaits as far as high school football.
“It’s a whirlwind of emotions because it was such a roller coaster. There were a lot of tests and self-doubt, but I had to stay true for the people who always stuck by me,” said Klemanchuck. “We’ve got one more game to get before handing the reins off to the younger kids.”
As thankful for Klemanchuck is for having the opportunity to author a turnaround season in his final high school go-around, DeLawrence is thankful for the chance to coach a young man who embodies what a Tolman football player should be.
“If I coach here for the next 15 years, I don’t think I’ll ever get a kid that’s as dedicated and skillful as Justin,” said DeLawrence. “If I do, then I’ll be a really lucky coach.”