The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bay’s Gergye loves postseason madness
Placekicker and soccer star endures manic schedule — with joy
Slow, deliberate steps off the field.
That is what Bay junior Cade Gergye has been concentrating on.
No, he is not injured or slacking. He’s just exhausted. And he has earned the right to be as the kicker for the regional final-qualifying football
team and starting striker for the Division II state finalist soccer team.
But Gergye loves the exhaustion.
“I just have to wait until the season is over to feel it,” Gergye said. “I have a few games left in me, that much I know. It’s been a blast and I know I’m going to feel it once everything is over. Basketball might have to wait a bit.”
And Gergye has every right to be exhausted. Through 12 weeks of football, he has kicked 39 extra points and two
field goals for 45 points. He also handles the Rockets’ kickoffs.
On the pitch, Gergye has been just as effective. With a team-leading 22 goals, Gergye was the first Bay player to notch over 20 goals in a season in over 20 years. Add in his 13 assists, and the dualsport athlete has accounted for nearly 70 percent of the Rockets’ offense this season.
The exhaustion, though, is not all physical. The schedule of a two-sport athlete in the same season is always tough, but when both teams are making a postseason run at the same time, it can get downright hectic.
Consider the span of a week for Gergye from Nov. 3 to Nov. 10. After the Rockets football team topped Mansfield, 28-18, at Bay Memorial Stadium in a regional quarterfinal on Nov. 3, Gergye had to be at Mansfield Madison on Nov. 4 — a 76.5 mile trip — for a regional final showdown with Elida, a 4-1 Bay win. Then, he had to trek to Strongsville on Nov. 8 for a soccer state semifinal victory, 2-1, against Aurora. Two days later, he kicked three extra points in the football team’s 21-7 win over Padua in a regional semifinal played at North Royalton, then immediately after the game made the 120-mile trip down I-71 to MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus to join the soccer team before their state final showdown against Columbus St. Francis DeSales on Nov. 11.
On top of all that traveling, Gergye still had practices for both sports and had to find the time to do homework.
It’s a week that would make even the most stringent of schedules seem porous with time.
“It’s worth it,” Gergye said. “I’m tired. It’s long. But it’s worth it. To still be playing at this time in one sport would be amazing, but in two, it’s impossible to describe.”
But, even though the soccer team’s ride is over following a 4-0 state final defeat, Gergye is not the only one who has appreciated the uniqueness of the dual playoff run.
“It’s been really cool,” football coach Ron Rutt said following the team’s win over Padua. “A couple of times this week we’ve practiced on the turf in the stadium and we just kind of split the stadium in half, us on one side of the 50 and the soccer team on the other. We’ve just been cheering each other on, and the fact that we’re both still going is great.”
Soccer coach Bobby Dougherty agreed that the run the Rockets have made is made more memorable by the success of the other team, too.
“We’ve gone out on the field for practices and talked,” Dougherty said. “The coaches talk, the players talk and you can just tell that it’s a really special moment. It’s freezing cold as all get out, but you realize just how special it is, what is happening. Who’s to say that it will ever happen again? I hope it happens every year, but these kind of moments are ones we need to hold on to and remember.”
While the respective runs themselves have been fun, Rutt added that getting to watch one of his players succeed in both sports and experience something that may not happen again has been a treat. “Cade has been doing it all year long for a couple of years now,” Rutt said. “He’s a great kicker and one of the best players on the soccer team. He’s a great kid and I couldn’t be happier for him and what he’s doing.”
Now, with the soccer team’s journey completed Rutt said that there is only one more thing to do.
“Coach Dougherty and I kind of joke about how we’re going to make this the longest fall ever,” Rutt said. “They held up their end by making it to a state final, so now it’s our turn.”