The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Middies return to field under new head coach
Beal on players during coronavirus pandemic: ‘The kids have handled it extraordinarily well’
Midview’s second football practice of the 2020 fall season saw both new and familiar faces roaming the field.
The most notable new face? Head coach Luke Beal, who replaces former head coach DJ Shaw, who led the Middies for six years before leaving the job this past offseason.
Beal has been a head coach before. But never has he had an offseason like this one thanks to the novel coronavirus. But after months of waiting and questioning whether or not his team would get to practice at all, Beal and company returned to some sense of normalcy.
“The kids have handled it extraordinarily well,” Beal said. “One thing about football players is that they’re creatures of habit, and they’re very routine oriented. So this year the routine has been constantly changing.
“The nice thing is that when we’ve been here and been able to work out and practice, it’s felt normal and it’s been a real positive. Because back in May we weren’t even sure if we would be practicing at all, so we’re just taking it one day at a time.”
The familiar faces include starting quarterback Ethan Surdock, whom Beal says has grown more confident in his first full offseason as the starting quarterback.
Surdock was named the Middies’ starter days before the team’s Week 1 matchup with Elyria a year ago. He made the most of that opportunity, posting 1,600 yards and 14 touchdowns in a season headlined by an upset over conference rival Olmsted Falls.
Then a sophomore, Surdock scored a last-second touchdown to push Midview over the Bulldogs, who were undefeated at the time. Now entering his junior campaign under a new head coach, Surdock is feeling confident locked in as the teams’ starter.
“It gives me more confidence and more time to prepare for being out there under the bright lights,” he said. “It was a lot different than going out there as a freshman. But now I know what to prepare for and I
have some more chemistry with my teammates.”
Despite the new head coach, the Middies’ offense hasn’t changed too much, still relying on misdirection and ball fakes to confuse opposing defenses. The major difference for Surdock has been the amount of under-center snaps he’s taken this offseason.
“We haven’t run a lot of under center, and I haven’t run it in probably six years. And now we’re under center,” he said. “So that’s a big change, but we’re adapting and we’re all open to this new offense and this new coaching staff.”
Defensively, the Middies have some familiar faces stepping up into bigger leadership roles after graduating two All-Ohio selections from a year ago.
On the front seven, seniors Preston Botos and Bryce Sanders have stepped up early in the offseason and made impressions on their coaches.
Botos was the third leading tackler for the Middies in 2019 with 78, while Sanders led the team with 14.5 tackles for loss. Both were excited to finally be back out on the field after a long hiatus.
“It’s nice to finally be back out here, we’re all very thankful that we’re allowed to come out here and practice,” Botos said. “I know some of the teams in our conference aren’t getting the same kinds of opportunities we are. So we are very grateful for that.”
In the final huddle of the morning practice, Beal stressed to his players the importance of the next two weeks of practice. Normally, the week of Aug. 9 would be a scrimmage week for the Middies.
Due to OHSAA and Ohio Board of Health rules, those aren’t allowed as of yet. So Beal will need to get creative, starting with two-a-days scheduled for Aug. 4.
Then comes the looming threat faced by a large swath of the Southwestern Conference that resides in Lorain County. SWC members Westlake, North Olmsted and Olmsted Falls have, at least for now, temporarily suspended athletics in accordance with a Cuyahoga County Board of Health recommendation.
Meaning the Middies could be left with holes in their schedule. Beal is conscious of what is going on, but is telling his players to just worry about what they can control.
“I hope the kids aren’t worried about those things, because really we can’t. We have to worry about what we can control,” he said. “But as a coach you can’t really say we aren’t thinking about those things. I don’t know if this season is going to be normal, but if we’re playing games under the lights I think that’s the best therapy for everybody.”