The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
FIRST OF MANY
South High School football players go through drills on the first day of fall football practice. It was the official first day of the high school football practice, July 30, with practices starting around Ohio.
Jeff Eckles wasn’t about to sugarcoat things on the first day of fall football practice with Kirtland on July 30.
The Hornets, along with every other team in Ohio, kicked off their season in the earlymorning hours with some calisthenics — and Eckles wasn’t about to let the Hornets’ players cut any corners.
“Do it right,” yelled the Kirtland assistant coach during a stretching exercise. “You know Marion Local’s doing it right.” Ouch. The last time the Hornets heard Marion Local’s name that loudly was Dec. 2 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium as the Flyers were presented the state championship trophy following a 34-11 throttling of the Hornets in the Division VI state title game.
Rest assured, the Kirtland players have not forgotten.
“At one point, they were up, 34-3, and had a running clock on us,” Kirtland senior running back Jake Neibecker said. “That’s something we’re used to doing to other teams. It was kind of a low point.”
To motivate themselves this offseason, the Hornets plastered the numbers “34-11” on the walls of their weight room.
A similar method is being used at Mentor, where the Cardinals took to the field for the first practice of the season July 30, nine months after absorbing a 56-28 loss to Pickerington Central in the Division I state title game.
The numbers “56-28” are displayed prominently in the Mentor weight room.
So for the Cardinals and Hornets, July 30 — the first day of fall practices — was the first day of what both teams hope is a season of retribution. Kirtland and Mentor hope to finish the job this December.
“State championship,” Mentor senior Luke Floriea of his team’s goal said.
“Nothing else,” said Mentor offensive lineman Ryan Jacoby, completing his teammates sentence for him.
Jacoby reaches back, tugs his shoulder pads and scratches the back of his neck trying to come up with words to describe what happened Dec. 1, 2017, when Mentor got outscored, 357, in the second half to lose by 28 points when the game was tied at halftime.
“It’s still living in my head. Every play. I remember it all,” the Ohio State recruit said. “It was a great atmosphere. We just couldn’t pull it off.”
Coach Steve Trivisonno has chronicled 140 days of workouts in the offseason in order to prepare for this season.
It’s been a while since Trivisonno watched the game film of Mentor’s loss
to Pickerington Central, but it’s safe to say he won’t forget the 369 yards rushing (at 7.0 yards per attempt) Central hung on his team last year.
“One of the things we’ve talked about is finding a way to shut down the running game,” he said. “We didn’t in the second half. The nice thing is we have nine of those guys back (on defense). That certainly helps.”
There are holes to fill, but every team has a few of those at the start of training camp. All but one (Floriea) of Mentor’s receivers graduated, running back Eli McDougal is gone, and sophomore Ian Kipp is the new man under center. At Mentor, goals don’t change.
“They know they didn’t get done what they wanted to, and they’re excited to get out there and try to win the whole thing,” Trivisonno said. “That’s the goal every year. Today is the first day of that quest.”
Kirtland is operating under the same modus operandi — July 30 was the first day of a mission. Early returns suggest LaVerde has a pretty good hand dealt to him.
The Kirtland offensive line — boasting Jack Bailey (6-3, 300), Khalid Alabsi (6-6, 310) and Austin Fulco (6-2, 245) — is the biggest
yet under LaVerde, and the Hornets also return 1,500yard rushers Joey Torok and Neibecker.
Quarterback Tommy Powers is coming off a junior year he lost to injury, but the defense returns most of its back seven.
“If we stay healthy and get a little better every day, the sky is the limit for these kids,” LaVerde said.
Kirtland won a pair of 7-on-7 competitions this offseason, one at the University of Pittsburgh and one at West Geauga. LaVerde said the most important thing at each was “seeing who wanted to compete and make plays when the game was on the line.”
Because last December in Canton, there weren’t enough plays made — not enough to warrant a state championship. That’s why he, Eckles and the rest of the staff aren’t about to let their players cut any corners this fall.
“If we want to raise a trophy at the end of the year, we have to raise our effort to their level,” LaVerde said of the Marion Local Flyers.
Nothing less is acceptable for the Hornets.
“Here at Kirtland, the standard is to get a state championship,” Torok said. “We don’t want anything less than a state championship.”