Building a bond
GROVE CITY — Sam Mowrey is less concerned with the Xs and Os and more concerned with the Ps and Qs.
The first-year Grove City High head football coach wants to build character before anything else.
That meant forming a leadership council that is seven players strong. That meant a larger focus on camaraderie and teamwork.
“We spent a lot of time in the offseason working on character development,” said Mowrey, who served as an assistant coach under Jeff Bell, who retired from coaching after 17 years on the Eagles’ sideline. “We have a group of seniors and a couple of underclassmen in a leadership program that we put together. They had to apply for it and be accepted to the program and you can already see the dividends.”
The Eagles are a close group and Mowrey hopes that will help the team avoid the late-game problems that dogged them last season.
Grove City lost five of its last seven games in 2013, including a 28-7 playoff setback to Northwestern that concluded a 5-5 campaign. It was one of the most disappointing seasons in what had been more than a decade of dominance.
“Our biggest focus is to be a team,” Mowrey said. “That’s something we’ve struggled with at times and playing full games. We struggled with finishing games last year. Every day is attitude, effort and giving everything you have when you are out here.”
Senior Jared Graham, entering his third season as the starting quarterback, will have the reigns of a new no-huddle, up-tempo offense that is a 180 from the attacks run by Bell.
Graham, who bulked up to 200 pounds in the offseason, is also one of the team leaders.
“It taught us how to lead when maybe people didn’t know how to in the past,” Graham said. “Now we are leading in a constructive way and that makes it exciting for all the other players.”
Even though the Eagles lost running back Foster Reznor, who rushed for 913 yards and 12 touchdowns last season, there are plenty of skilled athletes waiting in the wings.
Tanner Lucido, D’Andre Byers and Cordell Sanders figure to get carries at running back, along with Graham at quarterback. Graham has rushed for 721 yards and 11 touchdowns in his first two years.
“We definitely have a few people who we want to get the ball more, and I’m sure people will find that out quickly,” Mowrey said. “But we want to get more people involved.”
The offensive line has just one returning starter, Ian Craig. But the numbers in the mix up front are significant.
“We’re out of linemen jerseys,” Mowrey said. “We don’t have any more numbers to give linemen, which is great. We just don’t have a lot of experienced linemen. We’re probably looking at four sophomores starting.”
But the new offense may make that learning curve a little less steep.
“We’re just trying to get people on people,” Mowrey said. “If we can get five scrappy kids up front, we feel like we’ll be alright.”
While the offense has been completely overhauled, the defense will remain largely unchanged.
That will help in the transition between Bell and Mowrey, who is also a teacher in the school district.
“It’s really been smooth,” Mowrey said. “The basic framework of our program hasn’t changed. It’s not a radical difference in our philosophy or attitude. It’s sort of what had been established here and we’re building off that.”
