The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
JCU football battling frigid conditions
Excitement is in the air for the John Carroll football team, but so is frigid, bone-chilling temperatures.
Spring football — by definition — it is currently not.
Coach Rick Finotti and his Blue Streaks just completed “Phase 1” of their return to the gridiron for spring football. It’s been a while — late November 2019 — since JCU played a football game, a dramatic 17-10 win over crosstown rival Baldwin Wallace to finish a 9-1 season.
The Yellow Jackets will be the same opponent when the Blue Streaks open their five-game spring season March 12 at Don Shula Stadium. No matter the elements that night for a 7 p.m. kickoff, it’s unlikely they will be unlike anything like the Blue Streaks are currently enduring. The good news is they should be ready for anything that night.
Finotti’s “Phase 1” of practice — from the first week of January to the first week of February — consisted of the team and coaches reacquainting themselves, and slowly bringing the program back up to speed from a football and academic perspective.
It’s also consisted of bundling up and staving off brutal conditions that includes recent wind chills in the teens and single-digits.
“It’s been pretty bad, but we’re getting through it,” said Finotti on Zoom.
“Phase 2” will entail preparations for the season-opener. The team would be wise to double up extra layers of long johns, under shirts, hats, gloves and whatever else as the bitter cold won’t go away. It’s nothing like Finotti has had to prepare for during his previous stops as a Mayfield assistant, head coach at St. Edward, and assistant at the University of Michigan.
Per JCU athletic department rules:
• If the weather dips to 1 degree or below, practice is cancelled. That hasn’t happened — yet.
• Temperature between 25 and 16 degrees (or the equivalent of wind chill) mandates no more than 60 minutes of activity followed by a 15-minute warmup period. That has occurred in the past week, said Finotti.
Per COVID-19 protocols, JCU practices are split groups with one on the field at 6 a.m., and the other at 3 p.m. Those for the 6 a.m. practices of late are truly feeling the bitterness of recent wind chills.
“When you’re out there in the morning, and it’s cold and dark, it forces you to lock in. We have a motto, ‘Some do, some don’t.’ … I think (the cold is) going to make you tougher,” said Finotti. “I remember when I was working construction as an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kid on these big jobs, you’re out there for eight hours a day. It does make you tougher. There’s no doubt about it.”
On the flip side, it’s not unusual for conditions during a traditional August camp to reach temperatures in the 90s and sometimes 100s (with the heat index). While the extremes of both can be dangerous, bitter cold conditions can be somewhat controlled for a football team.
“You just come in and warm up,” said Finotti. “When you’re in that heat, you can’t escape it. It affects your body differently. The difference with (the cold), every hit, every tackle, every bump and bruise, it’s magnified. It hurts that much more.”
Some of the biggest issues with the cold are quarterbacks and receivers handling and gripping the ball. It only takes a short while for fingers and fingertips to be affected. Enter senior quarterback and Mentor graduate Jake Floriea, who will be under center this spring and in the fall of 2021.
“Once we’re out there running around, you have to just forget about it,” said Floriea, who accounted for more than 2,000 yards and 20-plus touchdowns in 2019, his first year as JCU’s starter.
That 2019 season ended almost 15 months ago. Floriea and his teammates have been counting down the days for a return to the game they love. Bitter conditions or not, they are determined to make the most of it.
“It’s hard to complain (about the cold) when we’re finally out there,” said Floriea. “If you ask me now, I’ll say those hot summer days (are worse) because right now I’m grateful for every practice we get.”