Dukes rebound thanks to belief and continuity

There’s something different about the Wellington football program, and it can be summed up in one word — continuity.

After last week’s 33-10 dismantling of Brookside, the Dukes are 3-2 overall and 1-1 in Lorain County League play. Not bad for a team that only won 10 games in the past five years, including a 1-19 record in the last two.

“This is the first time that this senior class has had the same head coach,” Rob Howells said. “When I took over last year, I was the third coach in three seasons.”

With those constant changes come problems with trust. It’s difficult to trust and believe in a new coach every year. It takes too much effort, and eventually, when the coach doesn’t return, it feels as if it were a wasted season. And then another new guy comes in and you have to do it all over again. And again.

Last year the Dukes went through that process and now that Howells is back, they are finally starting to trust and to believe — and win.

“What’s happening is just the familiarity with the kids and the trust and loyalty factor that goes into it, with everything we talk about and do,” said Howells, who assisted at North Ridgeville and Columbia before getting his first head job at Wellington. “We preach LEO, which stands for love each other. We want them to feel a brotherhood and a sense of ownership and leadership among coaches and players, like one big family.”

That’s all well and good. But there’s nothing like winning, which Wellington has done this season over Ashland Mapleton, New London and Brookside.

“I’ve got guys who are believing,” Howells said. “We’ve been able to get a couple wins, and now they believe they can do it.”

The Dukes average 31 points per game, with an offense that features running back Mason McClellan, quarterback Ben Higgins, wide receivers Jayden Skinner and Ty Moore, and tight end Nick Laposky. But even with that talent, Howells said he wasn’t sure what kind of success his team would have.

“I felt during the summer and after some of our scrimmages that we had a chance to be pretty good and could win some football games,” he said. “If we could start the right way and get some wins under our belts, who knows what it could roll into? But we’re a young team and we’re a small team, so to have these kids step up and to have guys rally around each other and buy in, it’s been great.”

Wellington has a huge test in front of it this week at Clearview. The Clippers are 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

“They do everything well,” Howells said. “They’re an established team. They have the history and the tradition. They run it, they throw it, they fly to the football defensively. They’re a big, fast, athletic football team.”

But even so, Wellington’s preparation for this key contest will be no different from any other week.

“We always take it week by week and day by day,” Howells said. “We just try to win our day and focus on

us. We need to make sure we do our job. Defensively doing our keys and reads and flowing to the football. Offensively limiting mistakes and turnovers. Just doing our job, our one-eleventh, we call it. If we do all that, hopefully we can come out of there with a team win.”

Wildcats’ momentum

It was about a year ago that things started turning around for the Keystone football team.

“We’re pretty confident right now,” coach Don Griswold said. “This confidence actually started a year ago. We’re playing Black River this week, and it all kind of started last year against Black River. We were 1-4 at the time and we were down by 18 at halftime, but we came back and won a shootout, 46-42. That momentum helped us finish the season 4-1 last year, and now we’re off to a 4-1 start this year.”

Now in his third year at the helm, Griswold said this season’s success is due to a combination of things — familiarity, experience, and lessons learned during last year’s challenging start.

“We’re starting to feel more comfortable — more comfortable with each other, with the schemes,” he said. “We had a lot of first-year starters last year. We also had a kind of meatgrinder schedule early last year. We took our bumps and bruises early, but once we got into league play, we started to have some success, and with success comes confidence.”

Keystone and Black River are tied atop the standings of the Lorain County League at 2-0. Griswold, who graduated from Keystone in 1995, said the new LCL feels more like a return to the way it used to be, with the only difference being Black River taking the place of Avon, which outgrew the league.

“Essentially, it’s the new old league,” he said. “I love it. From a football perspective, there is a lot of parity in the league. There’s a lot of really, really good men coaching. Virtually every coach in the league I know personally. I love the competition. I love the idea that we’re similar-sized schools and that we’re all going to experience the ebbs and flows of talent. I love everything about this league.”

The Wildcats appear to be in the driver’s seat with respect to the LCL, as they defeated preseason favorite Clearview two weeks ago, 26-20. In that game, senior quarterback Jacob Shackelford completed 11 of 17 passes for 122 yards and three touchdowns, all to his freshman brother, Ryne. The younger Shackelford scored the winning touchdown on a 6-yard screen pass with just over 2 minutes to play.

“Jacob and Ryne are dynamic,” Griswold said. “Jacob had a breakout season last year in his first year as full-time starter at quarterback. He rushed for about 1,200 yards and threw for about 1,000. Now, this year, we add Ryne, who competed in the middle school state track meet last year and won the 100, 200 and 400, so he’s fast, he’s dynamic. They’re fun to watch. We’re certainly blessed with those two.”

Similar to most coaches, Griswold is teaching his players to focus on the here and now and to ignore what could be in the future. Should the season continue as it has been, a playoff berth is a possibility. The Wildcats, whose 2014 appearance is the only playoff game in school history, are third in Division IV, Region 14.

“It’s out there,” Griswold said. “This team knows that it can accomplish some special things, some historical things in reference to Keystone High School. But we take things one game at a time and just try to get better each week. The talk this week is going to be about beating Black River, because the fact of the matter is that if we don’t take care of what we need to take care of, none of those things will matter the Saturday after our final game.”

Griswold said he’s looking forward to the Oct. 7 matchup with Black River, calling them a, “gritty, smashmouth team.” He said his team has to be prepared to face a Wing-T triple option offense that featured three runners who each gained more than 100 yards two weeks ago against Wellington.

“It’s an opponent that we admire and respect,” he said. “Keystone and Black River over the past 10 years have had some instant classic games. Last year was one of the most amazing games I’ve ever coach in. I expect it to be a slugfest. I expect big plays, I expect big defensive plays. It’s going to be a fun one, no doubt about it.”