The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)

Welo eager to lead new Benedictin­e era

- By Nate Barnes nbarnes@news-herald.com @NateBarnes_ on Twitter

Benedictin­e’s football players and coaching staff gathered in the Bengals’ weight room after another sweaty, mid-August practice.

Carter Welo stepped into the middle of the room and silenced the hum of postpracti­ce chatter as he projected “Up here, real quick.”

The brief meeting wasn’t a strategy session, or pep talk, just a reminder about the team’s fundraisin­g efforts through cookie dough sales. But Welo had the attention of his players, and he’s had it since almost the minute Benedictin­e hired him to replace Joe Schaefer in March.

After Schaefer won 36 games and a state title in three seasons, he left to take a quality control position at the University of Maryland on D.J. Durkin’s staff. While the pressure to fill the stead vacated by the purveyor of a 25-game win streak may turn potential candidates away, the expectatio­n to win drew Welo to the job.

“Here, we get it,” Welo said. “We’re expected to win. The kids know in the offseason you’re expected to work out.”

Welo said he wondered how his players would acclimate to a new head coach, and how long it might take for the players to buy in to the direction of a new coach.

Those concerns seem flighty in hindsight, as Welo soon learned Benedictin­e’s high standards manifest even without a coach.

“When you get a good program like this, there’s things that run itself,” Welo said. “The accountabi­lity, I don’t have to come in here and be a dictator, the expectatio­n of the summer lifts. I’m not reinventin­g the wheel saying ‘you guys got to be here every day.’ Those kids knew before I came in, in the summer. They were committed to four days a week in the summer.”

Welo is aware of Benedictin­e’s tradition from his time playing on St. Ignatius’ 2001 Division I state title team, and later for John Carroll. He spent the last six years at Notre Dame College, most recently as running backs coach and special teams coordinato­r, and is a familiar face to some players as he recruited at Benedictin­e for the Falcons.

Between his experience in the game and what the players have seen of Welo so far, it’s been easy for them to place their faith in him to maintain the Bengals’ recent standard and even elevate the program.

“He believes in us,” senior Donovan Corlew said. “He believes in what this team can do, win a state championsh­ip and he makes sure everybody does their part and stays accounted for.”

Corlew, who returns to start at right tackle this season, is part of a leadership core eager to move into a new season after the 2015 season ended with a onepoint loss to Toledo Central Catholic in the playoffs. Behind him, DeCavilon Reese enters his last season as a Bengal after rushing for 1,000 yards in each of his last two seasons.

From what he’s seen, Welo can help Reese compile a senior season that will cement his legacy as one of Benedictin­e’s best and put him in position to play at a high level in college.

“If you just watch him and focus on what he’s saying, he knows what he’s talking about,” Reese said. “You can trust people like that.”

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