The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Kirtland football, girls soccer are winners at the dinner table, too
The Kirtland football and girls soccer teams apparently aren’t just good at their respective sports.
They’re also pretty good at making award-winning videos.
Because of their participation in the Nick Chubb Chipotle Challenge, a contest encompassing all of Northeast Ohio, the Hornets’ football and girls soccer teams were among the winners of the contest that awards free Chipotle burritos for the rest of the season to the contest’s five winners.
The football team and girls soccer team will get free Chipotle one day per week for the rest of the season, which in both team’s case goes quite a while since both are the reigning state champions in their respective sports.
“It’s amazing,” said senior football player Vince Debeljak, who produced the football team’s contestwinning entry. “We didn’t expect to win. The deadline was midnight on Aug. 30 and we submitted ours at 11:50 p.m. It’s awesome that we won it.”
Under the contest rules, teams were asked to submit a video on Instagram, TikTok or Twitter explaining why Chipotle should sponsor their team. The videos were judged on originality, creativity and Chipotle fandom.
Sixteen counties were eligible for the five free sponsorships.
Kirtland boasted two of them.
“It’s cool,” said senior All-Ohio soccer player Erika Zschuppe. “We had fun with it. We probably spent a couple days just planning
it out. We put it together in like two hours.”
While Debeljak produced the football team’s video entry, Mentor student Sam Lynch produced the clip from the girls soccer team.
As per the team rules, the winnings are capped at 30 burritos per week. That’s
not as huge of a problem for the girls soccer team as it is for the 65-member football team.
“That’s 30 meals to be given out each week for 15 weeks,” Debeljak said. “So this means that seniors and starters will be the ones getting the food. If all
goes accordingly, I believe it could start this week. Coach LaVerde has been in contact with chipotle arranging exact specifications.”
LaVerde praised his team for its originality in the contest.
“How about that? It’s that crazy?” he said with a laugh. “These kids go to Chipotle at least 2-3 times a week after practice. They’ve been doing it for years, probably ever since I got here in 2006. As often as they go there, it’s funny how now they’re going to be sponsoring food for us.”
Debeljak is an aficionado of producing such videos, having taken a Photoshop and video editing class at Kirtland and now taking a class in mixing and mastering music at Lakeland Community College.
“I took all the footage we shot and went to the computer and edited it,” he said. “After practice on Friday, I checked my phone and saw the DM from Chipotle telling
me we had won. The whole locker room was screaming.”
Teammate and fellow lineman George Prusock was fired up.
“Man, you can’t beat that. Free Chipotle,” he said. “We all go almost every day in the summer anyway. It was super cool since we put it together on such short notice and ended up winning.”
Free burritos for the remainder of the season might be an issue for Kirtland’s strength and conditioning coach Ray Sullivan, who laughed at the notion of extra conditioning to run off the food.
“We always preach ‘eat’ to the boys, and what better food than chicken and rice?” Sullivan said. “They feed the beast to keep their strength. I freaking love it!”
The Hornets’ football team is 2-0 and will host West Geauga in the CVC Chagrin Division opener on Sept. 10. The girls soccer team is 2-0-1.