The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘All Triv’ team yields memories for coach
Best-of-the-best led Mentor to 209 victories in Trivisonno’s tenure
A 23-year run as head coach of the Mentor football program provided a treasure chest full of memories.
A 23-year run as head coach of the Mentor football program provided a treasure chest full of memories for former head coach Steve Trivisonno.
Piling up 209 career victories, leading his team to the playoffs 16 times and putting four silver state runner-up awards into the trophy case at his alma mater meant for a phenomenal career for Trivisonno, who stepped down after the 2019 season.
It also meant he had some great players to work with. How great?
Well, The News-Herald has made an attempt to put together an “All-Triv” team, a starting lineup on both sides of the ball for what is, for all intents and purposes, an allstar team of players Trivisonno coached while head coach at Mentor.
It should be noted that Trivisonno didn’t pick the team. But he did comment on each position when contacted by The News-Herald.
Here is the All-Triv team by position:
QUARTERBACK » Mitch Trubisky.
IN THE MIX » Bart Tanski, Thom Abbott, Conner Krizancic, Tadas Tatarunas, Ian Kipp.
TRIV’S TAKE » “That one had to be easy for you. But really, how ‘bout a Mr. Football (Tanski) doesn’t make it? In regard to Mitch, what he did and how he did it was incredible. To win the games he won — big games — was incredible. Special
player, special person.”
RUNNING BACK » Matt Lieb, Brian Trobel
IN THE MIX » David Krofcheck, Billy Deitmen
TRIV’S TAKE » “Lieb was a phenomenal player, that complete guy who never had to be taken off the field. He could run, block, come out of the backfield. Lieb was complete, boy. Brian was that gifted athlete who could fly.”
RECEIVER » Brandon Fritts, Conner Krizancic
IN THE MIX » Eddie Daugherty, Luke Floriea, Greg Godic, Brandon James, Cameron Kavan, Logan Shea
TRIV’S TAKE » Brandon and Conner — inside and outside. Conner was AllOhio in two different positions (receiver and quarterback) and before that we brought him up to play DB as a freshman. Brandon could just dominate a game. I remember that Ed’s game his junior year, he just yelled at us, “Throw me the ball.”
TIGHT END » Jason Caldwell
IN THE MIX » Terry Stenger
TRIV’S TAKE » “We didn’t use a tight end very much. Just a few occasions. But Jason went on to play at Ohio State. He was a big, strong athlete who was also a shot and discus standout, too.”
OFFENSIVE LINE » Ryan Jacoby, Nick Samac, Brady Demell, Rob Warren, Brad Bednar
IN THE MIX » Mitch Morrison, Andrew Hart, Brandon Short, Hunter Colao
TRIV’S TAKE » “Wow, what a group. You’ve got Ohio State, Michigan State, Navy, Bowling Green and Miami. That’s a major-college offensive line. They’re all talented, smart guys.”
ATHLETE » Luke Floriea
IN THE MIX » Eddie Daugherty
TRIV’S TAKE » “You coulda gone with either Luke or Eddie and been fine.”
KICKER » Kevin Harper
IN THE MIX » Tomislav Derezic, Igor Iveljic, Zedenko Sulc
TRIV’S TAKE » “How about the kickers we’ve had? Think about that. I get going with Harper. He had a state record for field goals and went on to play at Pitt. We’ve had some great ones.”
DEFENSIVE END » Noah Potter, Ben Pike
IN THE MIX » Tom Mitchell, Brenan Vernon
TRIV’S TAKE » “Can you imagine having Noah on one end and Ben on the other? Good luck blocking that.”
DEFENSIVE TACKLE » Nico Lautanen, Tom Strobel
IN THE MIX » Kent Berger, Fred Hale, Alex Glantiz
TRIV’S TAKE » “Nico was one of the best we ever had. The kid got off the ball and couldn’t be blocked. Tom could play at tackle or end. A big, strong kid who made plays wherever you put him.”
INSIDE LINEBACKER » Paul Burger, Tom Brew
IN THE MIX » Adam Mayse,
Mike Crissinger
TRIV’S TAKE » “Those two played on the same team. Think about that. That 2002 team was loaded. Paul was a rock-solid machine. Brew was fast, tough and probably as smart of a football player as you’ll ever want to have.”
OUTSIDE LINEBACKER » Chad Mayse, Kurt Laseak
IN THE MIX » Mike Brey, Tom Enright, Anthony Frate
TRIV’S TAKE » “Whoa! Mayse and Laseak? Chad went to West Virginia. Unbelievable athlete. I’ll never forget our 7-on-7 with Strongsville, Chad went up and picked one and (Strongsville coach) Russ Jacques yells to his quarterback, ‘Hey, great throw. You can do that against anybody we play — just not him.’”
CORNERBACK » Marc Walton, Nate Wilson
IN THE MIX » Ryan Dugan, Jeff Geffert, Scott Goodwin, Noah Gladish
TRIV’S TAKE » “Marc is one of the best cover corners we ever had. Wilson went down Week 8 of our championship run in 06. We lost him and Brandon Mack that year. He was a good one.”
SAFETY » Tony Martucci, Angelo DiFranco
IN THE MIX » Cody Warren, Brandon Mack, Tim Moore
TRIV’S TAKE » “Think about this — they played together. They were on that 02 defense with Mayse, Burger and Brew. Most dominating defense we’ve ever had — by far.”
PUNTER » Noah Garrett
IN THE MIX » Mike Muzic, Angelo DiFranco
TRIV’S TAKE » “I don’t know if Noah was the fastest player on the team that year, but he was close. He was a great athlete. We just found him out as a punter — dumb luck. It was like, ‘Son, you’re a full-time punter now.’”
After discussing the players The News-Herald chose for the All-Triv team, Trivisonno dared to dream what it would have been like to play a season with that lineup. He granted any big-time program in Ohio would like that opportunity, such as St. Edward and St. Ignatius, but admitted he would have taken his chances with the aforementioned squad.
“Oh my gosh, you wouldn’t even pretend to play a season with a team like that,” he said with a laugh. “What a great group of kids over 23 years. Every one of them was a big-time football player who did so many things and did them well.”
Trivisonno paused and let out a deep sigh when doing the math in his head and realizing the age of some of those players, where they are now in their careers and lives.
He counts those memories, and continued friendships with those players, as blessings.
“You doing this team brought back a lot of memories; a lot of stories,” he said. “Shoot, Tom Brew turned 35 the other day! I’m amazed how lucky we were here at Mentor over the years to have the kids we did.”
Kampf can be reached via email at JKampf@News-Herald.com; On Twitter @NHPreps and @ JKBuckeyes