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Plenty of questions surround youthful St. Ignatius
By CHRIS EASTERLING
In the end, it is a testament to what the St. Ignatius Wildcats have been over the last two decades that a 5-4 record and a first-round playoff exit would bring on such consternation among the Wildcat faithful and Cleveland-area pundits. Not that veteran Wildcat mentor Chuck Kyle is paying attention to such hand-wringing.
“I leave those sorts of things to other people or the news media to discuss,” said Kyle, who is 234-49-1 with nine state championships in his career at the school. “Of the four semifinalists (in the Division I playoffs in 2005), we played three of them (Massillon, St. Edward and Cincinnati St. Xavier). That’s not counting St. Joseph’s Prep out of Philadelphia, which only lost one game last year, or Mishawaka, which won its regional in Indiana. We had a significantly difficult schedule, but in the end, when the dust settled, we still made our 18th straight playoff appearance.
“We lost some close games that could have gone either way. It’s high school football. You’re playing some great teams who made some plays.”
One of those late losses came on Oct. 1, 2005, when the Massillon Tigers gained their first win in nine games against the Wildcats with a thrilling 29-26 victory at Parma’s Byers Field. The two teams will renew what has become an annual meeting this season on Friday, Sept. 29 when St. Ignatius pays a visit to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
In past years, the Wildcats would bring a team loaded with experience into their showdowns with the Tigers. Not this year, as Ignatius returns just three players who started in last year’s game against Massillon, and only a handful of players who started at all in 2005.
“There’s been years where we’ve had less returning starters,” Kyle said. “We’re fairly green, though. The thing is we have some key areas like quarterback and defensive line where it is still up in the air.”
For years the quarterback at St. Ignatius has been as high-profile a player as there was in Ohio high school football. Players such as Scott Mutryn, Tom Arth, Dave Ragone and the most recent holder of the position, the departed Rudy Kirbus.
However, when the Wildcats tee it up in the Aug. 25 opener against Boardman, chances are the player at the controls of the Ignatius offense won’t have much – if any – varsity experience. Kyle said the competition for the spot is still up in the air between senior Jared Roberts, juniors Pat Ryan and Matt Rosinski and sophomore Andrew Holland, although Roberts appears to have an edge.
“It’s still kind of a coin flip,” Kyle said. “But, in the end, I think you have to go with the senior because of his experience in the program.”
Whoever does land the quarterback spot will have an offensive line anchored by Division I recruit Kevin Koncelik. Koncelik stands 6-foot-4 and weighs almost 285 pounds.
“I think our offensive line is going to be good,” Kyle said. “Kevin is a good ballplayer. He’s very experienced from last year.”
Carrying the ball for the Wildcats will be a couple of speedy players in Ryan Mendelsohn and Matt Merletti. Both players were on the Ignatius track team, something Kyle said a number of players on the roster have in common.
“I think our overall team speed is going to be very good,” Kyle said. “I’m also the track coach, and I know we had a lot of football players on our track team as well. Our sprint group was young, and all of them are on the football team. That’s really encouraging.”
Ignatius’ receiving corps suffered a blow during the offseason when Ben Jurevicius – cousin of Browns receiver Joe Jurevicius – elected to focus more on his baseball career. The unit was already suffering from a number of graduation losses, including Notre Dame-bound Robby Parris.
“We did graduate a number of guys at that spot,” Kyle said. “But we have a committee of kids who have speed. It wouldn’t shock me if we rotated a lot of kids through there. All of them can run and catch pretty well. Right now, to say there’s one name that’s going to be a superstar, I don’t know if I can.”
Defensively, Ignatius returns a trio of starters in linebacker Patrick Hennessey, safety Bryan Sylvester and Merletti at cornerback. However, the rest of the defense is very young.
“We graduated all four of our defensive linemen, and I’m not sure at this moment who is going to step in there and fill those spots,” Kyle said. “I don’t know if we’ll be real big there. We’ll be quick, because I like our athleticism, but nothing huge. But we have to find out who those guys are going to be this year.”
As usual, St. Ignatius finds itself locked into a grueling schedule, albeit a nine-game slate. The Wildcats have home games against Cleveland John F. Kennedy, Mentor, Mishawaka (Ind.), Warren Harding and St. Edward, along with road games at Boardman, Buffalo (N.Y.) Canisius, Massillon and St. Xavier.
“We’re just going to play them and see what happens,” Kyle said. “That’s all you can do.”