The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
This year’s Hornets want to be historic
Players want school’s fourth state title and to be best of the best
Everybody wants to be the best.
When football camps across the area opened July 31 to prepare for the 2018 season, teams set goals to be the best they can be.
At Kirtland, there’s a high bar not only to advance to the state final four, but to win it.
But this year’s Kirtland team has another goal in mind. It’s not only chasing greatness on the state level, but they’re also chasing greatness in their own backyard.
Three times have the Hornets brought home a state championship — 2011, 2013 and 2015. But as the Hornets prepare to kick off their 2018 campaign Aug. 24 against visiting Chagrin Falls, a handful of players admitted that their goal isn’t only to win the Division VI state championship that eluded them last year, but maybe even etch their names in the annals of Kirtland lore as the best Hornets team ever.
“Yeah, we want to be the best team Kirtland has ever had,” senior two-way starter Joey Torok said. “We have to work hard every day if we want to achieve that.
“To be the most dominating team, we want to win every game. There have been a lot of really good teams here, so it’s hard to know who is best. But we want to be that team.”
The candidates for the title of Kirtland’s best are plentiful, including:
• The 2011 team, Kirtland’s first championship season, which ended 15-0 with a 28-7 win over Coldwater in the Division V championship game.
• The 2013 team, which also went 15-0 and ended with a 44-16 bludgeoning of Wayne Trace in the Division VI title bout.
• The 2015 team, which lost a rare regular-season game to Grand Valley in Week 2, only to run off 13 wins in a row for the state crown, capping the season with a 22-20 win over Marion Local.
• Even the 2008 team is in the conversation a 12-1 squad that lost to eventual state champion Youngstown Ursuline, 1817, in the final minutes of the game.
“That’s the ultimate goal — 15-0,” said All-Ohio tackle Jack Bailey (6-3, 305). “We’ve got to focus on one of them at a time. We can’t just think 15-0 happens. We’ve got to go. Every team we have to treat as great, just like they’re as good as us.”
It’s not too tough for the Hornets to find motivation for their chase of history. All they have to do is think back to Dec. 2, 2017, when they looked up at the clock at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton at the 34-3 on the scoreboard and the running clock eventual state champion Marion Local had hung on the proud Hornets.
Kirtland eventually lost, 34-11, but the sting was — and still is — there.
“I don’t think you forget something like that, a running clock,” senior Jake Neibecker said. “That’s something we’ll always remember and hold to ourselves. That was our motivation in the offseason.”
It was an offseason that started Dec. 3 — the very next day after the humbling loss to Marion Local.
Instead of staying in bed licking their wounds, the Hornets were back in the weight room.
“All we knew is if we wanted to get back, we had to get after it right away,” Neibecker said. “The work in the weight room never stopped.”
“Honestly,” Torok said, “this team can be as good as it wants to be.”
There is plenty to like about the 2018 Hornets, including 23 letterwinners on the 71-person roster.
Neibecker and Torok, a pair of second-team AllOhioans, return to a backfield where they combined for 3,000 yards rushing and 34 touchdowns in limited duty — because Kirtland had so many lopsided scores last year.
The offensive line, anchored by Bailey and Kalid Alabsi (6-6, 315) is the biggest in school history, averaging 266 pounds across the front five.
And the introduction of senior Tommy Powers at quarterback gives the Hornets a passing dimension they haven’t had in a while, if ever. There’s even a spread-formation, shotgun package in this year’s Kirtland playbook.
“I, uh ... you know ... wow. I don’t know,” said Bailey when asked how he would draw up a defensive game plan to defend his team’s offense. “I’m not sure you can.”
Then on the defensive side of the ball, defensive coordinator Ryan Beeler has a slew of returners as well, including active linebacker Ethan Jernejcic and ball-hawking corners Torok and Dominic Capretta (seven interceptions last year).
How much talent does Kirtland have returning?
Among the short list of holes needed to be filled this year were long-snapper and punter.
This just in: A team that averages 40 points per game doesn’t punt often anyway.
But the Hornets aren’t taking any chances on their quest to hang a fourth state championship banner in the rafters of the gymnasium.
“Absolutely, we get every team’s best shot,” Bailey said.
Every Kirtland player has memories of spending Friday nights at Rogers Field watching their heroes
before them.
Neibecker grins thinking about his early days watching Christian Hauber, Damon Washington and Paul Guhde lead the Hornets to prominence. The next season, Hauber, Washington and Scott Eilerman led the Hornets to the first state title in school history over Coldwater.
Alabsi said he’ll never forget the inspiration set forth watching Canon Schroeder in the dismantling of Wayne Trace in the 2013 game.
The bar is set high in Kirtland. All those great teams provide motivation for this year’s squad.
“I just want us to reach our full potential and be the best we can be,” Alabsi said.
Any path to the state championship is acceptable. Torok pointed out he was a freshman when the Hornets lost to Grand Valley and remembers Evan Madden telling his teammates, “It’s not over. We can still win it all.” And they did. But the 2018 goal is set: Win them all and be the best in Kirtland program history.
“That’s the ultimate goal,” Torok said. “We want the state championship, so nothing is as important as that. That is where the bar is set.”