Ellenville’s star, head coach lead All-Stars
Ellenville’s Sean Pettway and Dan Cavanagh highlight the Freeman’s 2019 high school football All-Stars.
Sean Pettway is a human Swiss army knife. The senior served 13 different roles for Ellenville High’s championship 8-Man football team.
He played running back for the Blue Devils and also saw time at quarterback, wide receiver, defensive end, middle linebacker, outside linebacker, cornerback, safety, kick returner, punt returner, kicker, punter. He also liked to block, so he was occasionally put at tight end.
“He was our Mr. Everything. He’s a very special talent,” Ellenville coach Dan Cavanagh said. “He’s a great kid and he’s a tremendous athlete. At the 11-man level, but especially at the 8-man level, you got to have your best athletes in at all times, in all phases.”
“Last year, I feel I was a lot more held back and I wasn’t as aggressive and motivated as I was this year,” said Pettway, who bounced back from an injury-marred 2018 season to become the Freeman’s Player of the Year.
“This year I definitely had a lot more going for me. It was my senior year, so I just wanted to go out there and play my best every game. Just leave it all out there on the field. I feel like I did that this year.”
He accounted for 192 points and 2,483 all-purpose years in 2019. He rushed for 1,469 yards and 18 touchdowns, had 326 yards and five TDs receiving, plus 587 yards and five TDs on kick returns. He also scored on a fumble recovery. Al
together, Pettway had 28 touchdowns and also converted a dozen 2-point conversions.
“In easy terms, we got to get the ball in Sean’s hands,” Cavanagh remarked.
“That’s just something that came about this year,” said Pettway about becoming a ‘Sean of all trades.’ “Last year, we had so many skill guys.
“The only time they actually let me come off the field was if I was to score like an 85-yard touchdown,” he said. “They knew I needed a blow, I’d go get a drink and they’d send in somebody else to kick the ball.”
Pettway started at quarterback in a few games, giving teams a different look before sophomore standout David McCombs took over. Pettway threw for 212 yards (not included in the all-purpose total) and two touchdowns.
He had eight straight
100-yard rushing games, including a 242-yard, 3-TD performance against Pine Plains in the sectional semifinals. He had a ‘triple-double’ in a regularseason game against Fallsburg with 184 yards rushing, 107 receiving and 155 on kickoff returns.
Pettway ran for 611 yards and 11 touchdowns as a sophomore and was expected to be a big piece of the offense the next year. But he separated the AC joint in the left shoulder on the first play of the season against Woodlands. Even though he came back, he was not the same. He finished with 189 yards and two touchdowns rushing and one TD receiving.
“I played even though I wasn’t 100 percent,” he said. “Because of that, they limited my touches and the amount of time I played on defense.”
“In certain games, he played only one side of the ball when we could,” Cavanagh explained. “Based on whether we were in the game or out of it, we tried to protect him. We were hoping that he would rebound
and have a great senior season. We knew that he was going to be a big part of the team.”
Pettway plans on focusing on defense in college. He had 83 tackles, two fumble recoveries, seven pass deflections and five interceptions, including two picks in the state regional win over Lansing.
On the field, Pettway comes across as a shoulderpadded Tasmanian Devil, known for his quick lateral movement and spin moves to shed tacklers.
“This year I definitely worked a lot more on my footwork and my speed, because I knew there would be less people on the field,” he said, “so I felt like I had more of a chance to get to an open space and go.
“It’s like going into the street and playing twohand touch with your friends,” said Pettway, who mentions New York Jet Le’Veon Bell as an influence. “You don’t want to get touched, so you have to make a move. I just went out there and played like I use to when I was playing
outside. That was a big part of it, plus me putting in the work. Cav always said my vision has to be top notch for me to actually find holes and go. Once I starting looking and finding where the open spot was, I knew I had to make a move to go there and not just move to look cool.
“This has definitely been a work in progress. The first time that I actually started to make juke moves and actually learn how to find holes was probably in eighth grade. In seventh grade, I just went out, got the ball and tried to run as fast as I can get around everybody,” he added.
Pettway started playing when he was 5-yearsold for the Fallsburg Comet Pop Warner team. He participated in that program until sixth grade, then played modified at Ellenville before advancing to varsity as a sophomore.
“It came natural, but I knew if I wanted to get to the next level I’d have to work on it more,” he said, “to become the successful runner that I am right now.”