The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Trubisky has plenty of supporters at Mentor party
After the Browns made Myles Garrett the No. 1 overall selection, the draft party at Noah’s Event Venue learned of the trade the Bears made to acquire the second pick from San Francisco. Mentor’s Debbie Elkins heard Trey Wingo announce the deal on the ESPN broadcast, and hurried back into the main room at Noah’s Event Venue telling her husband Kevin, ‘I called it, I called it!’
Elkins didn’t predict the exact trade, but who the Bears would select with their first-round pick. After Chicago parted ways with Jay Cutler, she thought months ago the Bears’ backfield would be a perfect landing spot for former Mentor quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
Moments later, Roger Goodell proved Elkins’ hunch prescient and the crowd of 150-plus gathered to watch Trubisky’s moment erupted for a nearminute of raucous celebration.
Mentor athletic director Jeff Cassella said he was surprised to see Trubisky selected by the Bears, and thought they traded up to draft Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas. With recently-signed quarterback Mike Glennon in place and the opportunity to learn, he believes it’s a perfect fit.
As Trubisky begins his NFL career, Cassella and the Cardinals share in his achievement. “As athletic director and as the leader of the athletic department, this is what we strive for,” Cassella said. “We strive to get kids to represent our school, to represent our community, represent Mentor High School and our athletic program. Mitch is a perfect figurehead for that.”
The achievement is one the Mentor community feels is well-deserved for one of its favorite sons. Elkins’ husband, Kevin, played intramural sports against Mitchell’s father, Dave, during their days at Akron and, having known the family for so long, Trubisky’s accomplishment is one the Mentor community feels is well-deserved for one of its favorite sons.
“My husband and I were saying on the way here it’s just so good to see,” Elkins said. “They’re such a good family, good values. He’s always been a good kid. Nobody can think of anything bad to say about this kid.”
Trubisky’s No. 2 selection makes him the highestdrafted player from Northeast Ohio in recent memory. Cassella says Trubisky will be the first Mentor player in the NFL since offensive lineman Bob Hallen played from the Falcons and Chargers in the late 1990s through the mid-2000s.
Assistant basketball coaches Aaron May and Dave Kryz were on hand, watching a former player take the first step of his life as a professional football player. May was hopeful Trubisky would land in Cleveland, as were a pair of determined locals who sported custom-made Trubisky No. 10 Browns jerseys.
Trubisky was a rare Cardinal whose focus was undeterred by the sometimes fiery nature of head coach Bob Krizancic.
“He might be the only player in 11 years that stared Coach Krizancic in the face every pregame speech,” May said. “He listened, took in every word and was ready to go at every instance. He’s just a winner and a mature kid.”
Tickets cost $35 to attend the draft party at Noah’s, four miles away from where Trubisky played at Jerome T. Osborne Stadium. Entries to a 50/50 raffle cost $1 per ticket, or $5 for six, and a silent auction featured a football and Mentor jersey signed by Trubisky, and Ohio State picture signed by Jerry Lucas and Archie Griffin alongside tickets to Cavaliers and Indians game. Mentor also sold about 300 Trubisky T-shirts ranging from $15 to $30 in the weeks preceding the draft.
The proceeds go to the Mentor athletic department.
“The Trubiskys were terrific supporting us,” Cassella said. “All the silent auction stuff, all the stuff Mitch signed, he was just fantastic with all that. He said, ‘Do it, you guys got me where I was at.’ ”
Cassella says he couldn’t ask for a better person to represent the city of Mentor, a sentiment shared by May and many others on hand at Noah’s.
“He’s everything that a Mentor Cardinal is,” May said, “that you want in a son, in a player, somebody you want your daughters to marry.
“Everything it means to be a Mentor Cardinal.”