CAIDYN MCELHANEY

COLUMBIANA — A case could be made that the 2025 Crestview football team had the best regular season out of any Rebel team in school history.

The team outscored its opponents 405 to 90 in going 10-0 and capturing the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Gray Division. Only the 2012 team managed to put together an undefeated regular season.

The seniors on the 2025 felt how things turned around over the course of their high school career as the team went from four wins as freshman to five as sophomores and then up to eight as juniors.

“We were just a team,” Caidyn McElhaney said. “We hung out together. We did everything as a team. Even though there were only nine seniors, we were really close and we all were pretty in sync on the field.”

Three of the Rebels class of 2026 will be on the field for the Ohio team when the Penn-Ohio Stateline Classic kicks off at 7 p.m. on June 18 at Geneva College.

“The season was a lot better than what we expected when we started,” offensive lineman Brody Hoon said. “It was pretty cool to win the league and we got a first round bye in the playoffs.”

The Rebels were eliminated from the Div. VI playoffs in a 34-0 loss to Sugarcreek Garaway.

“We were kind of underprepared,” Hoon said.

But one game doesn’t make a career.

Hoon said he learned to push himself as he got older in order to have more on field success.

“I definitely started hitting the weight room a lot harder as I got older,” Hoon said. “I wish I would have started when I was younger.”

Mikey Proctor had 101 carries and 738 rushing yards for the Rebels along with nine rushing touchdowns.

“Without the coaches pushing us, we have nothing,” Proctor said. “It was trust, all in and grit. Those three terms are how we turned it around here.”

McElhaney will be going to Geneva College in the fall to hopefully play safety.

With the Rebels in 2025, he also took on an expanded offensive role and had 15 catches for 379 yards and four touchdowns.

“I didn’t really play offense until my senior year,” McElhaney said.

On the first day of Penn-Ohio game practice, McElhaney was thrilled to see one of his future college teammates there in West Branch’s Grady Close.

“It will be fun to practice with him and you know have four more years of games with him,” McElhaney said. “As soon as we started taking pictures we talked about.”

The Rebels on Team Ohio all say they’re excited to see what the rest of the team has to offer because they only got to play against kids from United and Western Reserve on this year’s roster due to the team’s placement in the MVAC.

“We played against mostly teams from up North,” McElhaney said.

Even though the graduated Rebels are moving on, they understand what a difficult time Crestview faces in the future as the MVAC Gray Division will mostly disperse to other leagues after this coming school year.

“We’d like to play teams from around here,” McElhaney said. “It does suck driving 50 minutes to any game. I’d like more rivalries and stuff.”

“It kind of shocked me when I first heard about (the MVAC teams leaving), but I know wherever Crestview goes, they’ll compete and give it all they have,” Proctor said.

NOTES

• Hoon said as soon as he turns 18, he’s going to turn his attention to welding. Right now he works as a general laborer.

• Proctor is going after a four-year degree in mechanical engineering from Youngstown State. He said he plans to coach junior high football starting in the summer.

• Team Ohio likely used the Rebels’ indoor practice facility during what was a week with a lot of forecasted rain and storms.

“We did some walkthroughs in there during the season,” Hoon said. “It’s nice to have. It would be nicer if it was bigger, but it’s nice for what it is.”

Hoon said they could only work on the run game in there.

BRODY HOON

MIKEY PROCTOR