The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
JCU’s game at Ohio Northern canceled
John Carroll’s spring college football season is over after three games.
Citing COViD-19 protocols, the April 16 Ohio Athletic Conference game between John Carroll and Ohio Northern has been canceled.
The contest in Ada was a scheduled third-place OAC crossover game. JCU was the second-place team in the OAC’s East Division, and the Polar Bears were the runner-up to Heidelberg in the West Division.
The Blue Streaks’ spring season ends with a 2-1 mark that includes wins at home against crosstown rival Baldwin Wallace and Marietta, and a loss at Mount Union, which is scheduled to play visiting Heidelberg on April 16 in the OAC championship game.
For a player such as senior cornerback Joey Bates of Kirtland, he was hoping for one last college game to play. So were a small number of other seniors but COVID put an end to those hopes.
The elimination of the 2020 fall season prompted several JCU seniors to commit to extend their academics into the fall of 2021 for one last season of college football. An NCAA waiver allowed seniors this season the chance to play in the fall of 2021.
At JCU, that list includes the likes of quarterback and Mentor grad Jake Floriea, defensive back Tyshawn Jones of Euclid, linebacker Brian Robinson of Lake Catholic, defensive end Harrison Richardson of NDCL and others.
Bates and a few others wanted one last season in the spring. They got a portion of it, with three of five scheduled games played. Bates battled a hamstring injury during January and February practices, and recently returned to the lineup in JCU’s second spring game at Mount Union.
Senior twins Nick and Blake Herideen of Walsh Jesuit have been mainstays on the offensive line throughout their careers, but Nick is calling it a career after the spring. Blake is returning next fall. Wide receiver Antonio Dargaj of University is another senior who won’t return in the fall, plus a few more.
Bates — who made 61 career tackles and had two interceptions during his JCU career — is grateful for the time spent with this teammates beginning in early January throughout April.
“A normal season, we get about 50 practices,” said Bates. “Coach (Rick) Finotti said we had almost 60 this spring.”
Bates remembers the feeling the day after John Carroll’s regular-season finale win over Baldwin Wallace in 2019. The game ended in dramatic fashion with Floriea throwing a touchdown to Keyshawn Colmon in the game’s final second’s of a dramatic 17-10 victory.
The win gave the Blue Streaks a 9-1 record but a day later the team’s playoff hopes were crushed when they were denied an atlarge spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs.
“At that point, I thought my (playing) career was over,” said Bates. “But the game pulls you back. The guys pull you back. This spring has been so much fun with the guys.
“But the thing everyone learned during COVID is that any snap can be your last,” said Bates, who rushed for a Kirtland single-season record 1,933 rushing yards in leading the Hornets to a 2015 state championship.
Bates isn’t walking away from the game or JCU football. He will earn his undergrad degree in sports studies after this semester and then begins a two-year stint as a grad assistant.
He will also work toward earning a master’s degree in a counseling program to earn a license needed to work at the high-school level.
“I want to impact as many young kids’ lives in a positive way as possible,” he said. “And my heart is set on football. I can’t imagine not being around it.”