Time flies in high school football
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It is the beginning of the end for high school football seniors.
Their last season kicks off tonight with Lisbon and Leetonia playing in the Spaghetti Bowl. All the other local teams play Friday night.
"Every year you see the seniors, it's their last game," East Palestine senior running back Peyton Rutledge said. "You shake their hand and hug them. It's like, I've got years. Then every year creeps up on you. At the end of last year, it was like dang, it's my turn now."
"It feels like I just walked in here as a freshman," Lisbon senior quarterback Grant Minor said. "It feels like just yesterday I walked through that (locker room) door for the first time that at this point I've probably walked through a hundred times."
"I can remember just yesterday being a freshman," United senior linebacker M'Kyan Haynes said. "Now it's crazy, I've got to be a senior and lead a team."
Being a senior means more leadership responsibilities.
"It's been great to slip into that leadership opportunity and try to bring the young guys along," Crestview senior lineman Shane Bacon said. "It's really exciting and an honor to be placed in this captain's role."
"I'm a captain again this year, but I think more people look up to me than they did the last couple of years," Leetonia senior receiver Brayden Gainey said.
Younger players look up to the seniors, who have to take the lead.
"It feels like people look up to you a lot more when you're a senior," Columbiana senior lineman Kolin Pasco said. "There are a lot more expectations are on you. You feel like you have higher expectations among the coaches."
"That's the role of being a leader," Rutledge said. "They've got to look up to you and you have to prove that you can.
"This isn't my first year leading. I've had great coaches teaching me how to win."
The same with United, which has one of its biggest senior classes in recent years with 14.
"We have a big senior class, we have a lot of leaders," Haynes said. "We kind of all look at each other. We have our captains, but everyone is pretty equal on every single level. We look at each other and grow.
"We have younger guys just as good as our seniors and just as good as leaders as our seniors."
For now, the seniors are getting ready to kick off the first game of their final high school season.
"It's a blessing," Minor said. "I'm thankful to have come this far and been in such a great program with such great coaches and players and teammates. It's such a good culture here at Lisbon and I'm just thankful for my time spent here. I'm excited."
"It's a little bit more sentimental every game," Bacon said. "It's the last time we're playing these teams. A little different, but the same Crestview. We're just looking to get the job done every week."
The Rebels are coming off a 10-0 regular season, but lost most of their skilled position starters to graduation.
"We know in the locker room there are going to be high expectations for us," Bacon said. "But we're just taking it one day at a time, one game at a time.
"I know how hard this team works. We're ready to have it pay off for us."
Opponents will be trying to pay back the Rebels this season.
"There were some teams looking to get us back last year," Bacon said. "There will always be a target on your back from somebody. So we've just got to play our football and not worry about the outside stuff."
GAME NOTES
• Wellsville senior linebacker Eric Dowling is playing his first season of football.
"It was my last year, so I figured I'd come out and try," he said.
He's been learning a lot.
"I've been trying to understand it the best I can," he said.
• Columbiana is trying to get off to a fast start, which hasn't happened for a while.
The Clippers have lost 12 of their last 13 non-league games over five seasons.
"Columbiana is kind of infamous for starting out slow the last few years," Pasco said. "But I think this year, since we're returning a lot of guys, we already have that connection, I think we'll be able to come out of the gate firing."
The last time the Clippers started 3-0 was in 2011 when they won their first six games.
"I think we look pretty good and I'm excited to see what we can do," Pasco said. "We're returning most of our players, so I'm hoping we can make something out of it."
Columbiana has started 3-0 in seven of Bob Spaite's 32 seasons as head coach, including his first one in 1994.
• Leetonia snapped a 30-game losing streak by opening last season with two straight victories.
"Last year we started 2-0," Gainey said. "Then we had a rough part of our season. We had some problems, but we fixed them. Then played pretty well the rest of the way."
The Bears won two of their last four games to wrap up a 4-6 season. They had four wins in their previous 41 games.
• The Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference expect to interesting with front-runners United, Columbiana and East Palestine returning a lot of their top players.
"I'm looking forward to the East Palestine game," Pasco said. "The rivalry is always there. I'm looking forward to playing United. I think it's going to be a dogfight and I'm excited to see who comes out on top."
• New East Palestine head coach Rick Shepas returns to head coaching after 12 seasons in high school and 12 seasons in college. He said nothing has surprised him.
"It's almost like the movie 'Hoosiers,'" Shepas said. "I'm Gene Hackman. I'm an older, experienced guy coming in from college. You have different changes taking place. They resist early, but we finished strong."