What is the ‘worst possible news’ a high school football player can get? That they’re needed up front
There’s a question that makes high school football coaches sweat, one most players would rather run from than answer.
Will you ditch your skill position for a more physically grueling, less flashy job?
“The majority of the time, it’s either ‘no,’ is their response back to me, or you might as well kill their family pet in front of them,” Butler coach Eric Christy said. “You might as well have told the worst possible news you could ever (pass) to a kid. They look at you mortified.”
Karns City coach Joe Sherwin admitted he gets “super nervous” to approach a player about it. He wouldn’t have liked to hear it had he’d been in their shoes, either.
“They’re hesitant at first, usually,” second-year Moniteau coach Clay Kohlmeyer said. “Then they realize after they do it, they kinda get down in the dumps ... because they’re just getting manhandled, and it’s like, ‘Hey, you gotta work on your technique. You’ve gotta work on this, and everything will come together.’
“Our smallest guys on the line are definitely our hardest workers.”
A decade ago, the ideal blocker mold passed through Butler. Marching to the line at “6-(foot-)3, 6-4, 260 pounds,” Christy said, Jake Kradel looked and played the part for the Golden Tornado before making 46 starts at Pitt. He’s certainly the exception lately — not just at Butler, but at other schools within the county, as well.
A 6-foot, 225-pound frame is a more realistic ask, but Christy has “maybe one” current lineman who fits that bill. Sherwin’s standard is about the same — not big enough to be lumbering, but not small enough to not be able to move other guys. Karns City rosters two linemen who weigh at least 225 pounds.
Kohlmeyer tabs 240-250 pounds as his preferred frame, yet only two of the Warriors’ blockers tip the scales that much, and his biggest — senior offensive tackle Braden Beachem — is dealing with an injury that will likely cut into his season.
A short drive down the road, one unnamed Karns City player is transitioning to pave the way up front for the Gremlins this upcoming campaign.
“If we had other linemen, he would definitely be playing one of the skill positions,” Sherwin said.
Along with guard, Bryan Hazlet played some quarterback in junior high, too. Now a Moniteau junior, he headed over to join the offensive line during the first practice of his freshman season, even though positions weren’t spoken for.
He’d been bigger than his peers when he played youth football, “so it just felt right in the moment,” said Hazlet, now 5-foot-10 and 210 pounds.
You don’t have to pull out your calculator to understand nearly half of a team’s starters on both sides of the ball put their hands in the dirt, more if you drop tight ends and fullbacks into the same bucket, which Christy does.
“I always tell the guys, ‘Whoever’s here is your team. So of the guys here, who can go put their hand down and be a lineman?’” Christy said. “Everyone just starts eyeballing each other and seeing what can happen. When it comes down to it, most guys — if they’re team guys — will go, ‘Yeah, sure, whatever.’ Even Beau (Burchett, now playing at Edinboro), Jordan (Vicari), those guys didn’t wanna go there.
“We’re trying to build that up to be something where it’s something a little more positive.”
Christy played quarterback for the majority of his gridiron career, but as a sixth-grader he had a brief stint at guard. The experience gave him an understanding for what the big — or in today’s case, not so big — guys do.
“And then I appreciated, playing quarterback, what they went through,” Christy said. “At the youth level, I think all the kids who play BAMFL (Butler Area Midget Football League) should have to play the line.”
Vicari, a senior who’s bulked up from 215 pounds at this time last season to now hovering around 240, was one of those young players. He played center in youth football before transitioning to middle linebacker, edge rusher and fullback at higher levels. Vicari had a feeling his coaches would want him to move back to where he used to play.
“It’s definitely something I wasn’t clearly looking forward to,” Vicari said. “But, obviously, you’ve gotta do whatever you can to help this team succeed, for sure.”
Marker strokes on a whiteboard don’t account for size.
“(In) 11-on-11, you put them on paper, you put them together (and say), ‘This guy’s going to put the right angle down to that one, this guy’s gonna climb there,’” Christy said. “Well that’s all great on paper, but when you’ve got the circle blocking the ‘X,’ and the circle is 5-foot-9, 165 pounds, and the ‘X’ is 6-foot-3, 224 pounds, you can’t use one circle. You’ve gotta use two circles to block that.”
Kohlmeyer emphasizes building endurance. Working against bigger competition means his linemen can wear out quicker. Giving up size also means strength, grit and sound technique are key.
“I feel like David (up against) Goliath,” Vicari said. “I’ve gotta bring everything I can. I’m undersized, but I’m gonna be aggressive as I can ... and try to do whatever I can to block the guys that are bigger than me.”
“The hard work and determination in me is very, very thick,” Hazlet said. “I don’t miss practice. That’s just how I am. I think being consistent in the weight room throughout the offseason and things like that, wanting to be there matters more than size.”
Kohlmeyer’s staff is also helping to teach blocking schemes with college teams’ film as the example.
“Bryan, we’ve got him at guard so he can pull (and) maybe get some blocks where people don’t see him coming so it’s easier for him,” Kohlmeyer said. “A lot of double teams, too. We’re doing a lot of double teams this year.”
“I can’t ask a smaller offensive lineman to go straight across from a 250-pound (defensive tackle) and be successful,” Sherwin said. “If it’s a position where maybe he could chip a guy and get to the second level, or if he could pull on a sweep or pull on a long trap or something like that, those are things I think a kid like that would be successful in.”
Sherwin will also mix and match depending on the play, meaning a player might line up at guard one snap before kicking out to tackle the next.
Ideally, health permits and strategy flourishes. Vicari is aware that neither is at all a guarantee.
“Knock on wood, but if I were to get hurt this season, if I look behind me, there’s nobody to take my spot,” Vicari said. “We don’t have enough people in our position. That could be our biggest problem.”
