Robiskies win, then move on
Mark Koestner 10/05/2004
It was a good weekend for the Robiskie family. The best one this fall, in fact, football-wise.
But as of Monday, it was just any other weekend.
That's how this football family does things. Always has.
Brian and Andrew Robiskie helped the Chagrin Falls Tigers to a victory at Perry last Friday, Brian with two touchdown catches and Andrew, a center, with blocks that helped spring Tigers backs for 369 rushing yards.
Terry Robiskie, the Browns' offensive coordinator, was there to watch his sons play, as he always is. Brian and Andrew returned the favor on Sunday and were there as the Browns beat the Washington Redskins, 17-13.
It was the first time this season both the Tigers and the Browns won on the same weekend.
That was victory twice over for Brian, who works part-time as an equipment guy for the Browns. It was as good as football gets for Cynthia Robiskie, who on the same weekend had a pair of sons and a husband who were victors. It was a weekend filled with football sweetness for a family sweet on football.
It was also quickly forgotten.
Monday came, which for Terry meant it was time to focus on the Central Division rival Pittsburgh Steelers. For Brian and Andrew, it meant forgetting Perry and turning their attention toward Chagrin Valley Conference foe Orange.
Win, celebrate, get back to work.
That's how this football family does things. Always has.
"It just starts over again the next Friday," Brian said.
It might seem unfair. An extra special weekend deserves to be relished more than other weekends. But that business-as-usual approach has always worked for the Robiskies, and it's got to work both ways. Win or lose.
It's why, after ugly, back-to-back losses to Dallas and the New York Giants, only the Redskins mattered to Terry. It's why Brian and Andrew didn't get too down over a heartbreaking overtime loss to University earlier this season or why a bitter, 7-3 loss to Youngstown Liberty wasn't bitter for very long.
It's why you won't see Brian dancing after he catches a touchdown pass or sulking after he drops one. And don't write it off to Brian being a "typical coach's son." There are plenty of coach's sons who dance and sulk.
Brian is a big-time college recruit, looking at schools such as Ohio State, Miami (Fla.) and USC, but he is grounded, friendly and mature. He was mature as a sophomore, when not yet 16, he was a starter at Chagrin. Part of the maturity, being able to deftly handle the ups and downs of the game, comes from being his father's son. Brian has inherited athleticism and learned the pragmatism.
The latter is especially handy this fall. It has not gone unnoticed by Brian that his father's promotion to offensive coordinator has meant sharper criticism.
He knows what they say on radio talk shows. Brian knows there are fans in the stands blaming his dad when the offense doesn't move the ball. He knows what the Internet message boards say, and he's even encountered fellow students who take out their frustrations on the offensive coordinator's kid.
It's a down that goes with the up, but that doesn't change the way you go about your work.
"You can't get caught up with everything," said Brian. "My dad's been doing this for 20 years now, and that's how he approaches it. That's how I try to approach it, and I think that's how we approach it at Chagrin Falls."
Brian is not without his own detractors. The recruiting "experts" sometimes wonder if he's fast enough to play receiver at a big-time college. There are whispers, too, that he is being recruited so heavily because of his father's well-known name. Both are ridiculous - one needs only to go see him play to know it - but if they bother Brian, you wouldn't know that, either.
It's doubtful the father is sitting his sons down and diagramming how to handle criticism or conduct oneself the way he might diagram a pass route or a pass protection. But the lessons are sinking in. It's as obvious as a Monday without celebration.
"You go on to the next thing," Brian said.
That's the way this football family does things.
Always has.
