'13 Team Preview: Clinton-Massie Falcons
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
Last year was the greatest year in Clinton-Massie football history as they won the Division IV State championship, and this year, those same expectations are back for the team located in Clarksville.
The Falcons, who have made the playoffs 11 consecutive seasons, defeated St. Clairsville, 46-36 at Canton Fawcett Stadium to win their first football state title. Now, with the '13 season on the horizon, and with some core players returning from that championship team, the Falcons are looking to make another run at the feat.
Coming off their 15-0 season, the Falcons have five returning starters on offense and four on defense. For the total, CM will suit up 20 seniors.
On offense, the returning starters are seniors Bayle Wolf (running back), AJ Avery (right guard), Kyle Aubrey (right tackle), Austin Florea (tight end) and Dylan Rose (split end).
Speaking of Wolf (6-1, 195), in the state title game, the now-senior running back rushed for 220 yards on 24 carries and four touchdowns. He totaled five TDs in the game (a state final record), as he had a 36-yard reception for a score. For the '12 season, Wolf totaled 2,059 yards and 41 touchdowns. His sophomore year, he was one of three CM backs to carry the ball for over 1,000 yards with 1,390 and 31 TDs.
"Having (Bayle) back there kind of opens up things for other players," CM head coach Dan McSurley said. "It opens up things for our passing game. It opens up things for our fullback. When you have that type of player, certainly we could give him the ball 25 times a game, but really, we don't want to do that.
"We want to utilize and bring a lot of other players in. Having that type of kid opens up things for your other players."
Even with an All-Ohio running back returning to the team and being defending state champions, McSurley said there is a lot of competition on the team this season this summer.
"I just think the kids are real competitive. This senior class obviously is very competitive, and they want to make sure that they etch their name in stone and leave the legacy the previous senior class did," McSurley said. "It's just basically carrying on the tradition and keeping the program going forward."
Back at fullback is Kelson Gauden, and also playing fullback is Jared Halley. Also back is Chayse Wolf. Another player looked at to run the ball this season is Zach Santoro, who is also the backup quarterback.
"We feel real confident about our fullback position," McSurley said. "Chayse is very talented, both running and receiving."
Replacing two-year starting quarterback Tyler Uetrecht will be sophomore Hunter Fentress.
"He throws a real nice ball," McSurley said. "It's just basically developing him and being able to run the option and just kind of do what we did last year. You try to just not make him the focus. He's more of just a role player. You certainly don't want to put pressure on a 10th grader, so we want to try to keep the pressure off of him, let him grow on our offense.
"We don't want him to do a whole lot, obviously. We're a triple-option team. It all starts with him, but he's been doing this since he was in peewee, so it's not all of a sudden he's learning how to do this for the first time. He's been doing this for years and years and years."
As the Falcons scored a record-breaking 822 points last season, becoming the first team in Ohio high school football history to score over 800 points in a season, they are adding new members to their offensive line due to graduation.
"I think we might be a little quicker, maybe a little more athletic in the offensive line," McSurley said. "We're just going to try to keep the momentum, keep everything from last year on into this season."
With the Falcons, the seven-time South Central Ohio League champions, their main objective this summer is competition to replace the vacant spots left from last season. McSurley said having the competition exposes their weaknesses, which is a good thing.
"I think you're exposed a little bit to where your weaknesses are," McSurley said. "When you go two-platoon, you can really find out where you're weak, and you can focus on that. It allows us to just kind of hone in on your soft spots and hopefully gives you an opportunity to be a more complete balanced team overall. I think that's the advantage."
[[In-content Ad]]
The longtime CM coach continued to speak about how the competition helps his club, especially with a two-platoon team.
"Without a question [the competition helps]," McSurley said. "You get some real competitive practices [with a two-platoon]. Your offensive line benefits because they have to go against better players.
"Your defensive line's benefitting because they're having to go against the offensive line. I think the overall competitiveness of the team improves if you're able to go two-platoon."
With the competition comes leadership, and McSurley spoke of this year's senior class.
"I think the main thing is just leadership," he said. "When you have a class like that, the leadership, to me, is the biggest thing. If we can develop leadership in this senior class, things ought to go hand in hand. I think that talent-wise, it's there, but it's whether or not we're going to have the same type of leadership.
The defense for the Falcons seems to be where their focus lies before the season begins on Saturday, Aug. 31 against Blanchester.
Two linebackers the Falcons are looking to are Halley and Gauden.
"Right now we're kind of a work in progress [on defense]," McSurley said. "Those two guys really solidify the linebacker core with Santoro and [Chayse] Wolf, at outside linebackers, but I think really our strong suit is in our secondary."
The CM secondary consists of Bayle Wolf at strong safety, Isiah Stiverson, Zach Santoro, Josh Loud and Devin Salley.
"These guys are all very talented kids," the head coach said. "We feel real strong in the secondary."
Sanburn and Florea are set to play at defensive end, while the reigning Division IV State champions are working on trying to find some different players for the inside nose and tackle.
"Obviously, our goal is to be a two-platoon team," McSurley said. "That's where we're at right now (before the season). We want to have a separate offense and a separate defense, maybe with a couple exceptions, but for the most part, that's what we're trying to do right now. We'll see where it all pans out."
CM's schedule is improved this season as they have the mainstays in Waynesville, Jonathan Alder and Miami Trace, but they have added Chillicothe and a week five game against Columbus DeSales, a game that will be played in Columbus.
"We've got kind of a rivalry with Jonathan Alder. They're one of the stronger teams out of Columbus," McSurley said. "Then we get an opportunity to play Columbus DeSales. They're a storied tradition. They've got six state titles, and we're going to go up to their place and play them. That should be kind of a marquee game in the state, so we're excited about it.
"You'd like to think that your team is ready to make that run. Computer points are huge, and if we can get that win (against their top opponents), that's going to be just huge points.
"It kind of gets your team in a position to go deep in the playoffs. Win or lose – obviously we're looking to win that game (at DeSales) – it still gets your team ready when you see that kind of competition. It gets you ready for the end of the season."
The Falcons, who have made the playoffs 11 consecutive seasons, defeated St. Clairsville, 46-36 at Canton Fawcett Stadium to win their first football state title. Now, with the '13 season on the horizon, and with some core players returning from that championship team, the Falcons are looking to make another run at the feat.
Coming off their 15-0 season, the Falcons have five returning starters on offense and four on defense. For the total, CM will suit up 20 seniors.
On offense, the returning starters are seniors Bayle Wolf (running back), AJ Avery (right guard), Kyle Aubrey (right tackle), Austin Florea (tight end) and Dylan Rose (split end).
Speaking of Wolf (6-1, 195), in the state title game, the now-senior running back rushed for 220 yards on 24 carries and four touchdowns. He totaled five TDs in the game (a state final record), as he had a 36-yard reception for a score. For the '12 season, Wolf totaled 2,059 yards and 41 touchdowns. His sophomore year, he was one of three CM backs to carry the ball for over 1,000 yards with 1,390 and 31 TDs.
"Having (Bayle) back there kind of opens up things for other players," CM head coach Dan McSurley said. "It opens up things for our passing game. It opens up things for our fullback. When you have that type of player, certainly we could give him the ball 25 times a game, but really, we don't want to do that.
"We want to utilize and bring a lot of other players in. Having that type of kid opens up things for your other players."
Even with an All-Ohio running back returning to the team and being defending state champions, McSurley said there is a lot of competition on the team this season this summer.
"I just think the kids are real competitive. This senior class obviously is very competitive, and they want to make sure that they etch their name in stone and leave the legacy the previous senior class did," McSurley said. "It's just basically carrying on the tradition and keeping the program going forward."
Back at fullback is Kelson Gauden, and also playing fullback is Jared Halley. Also back is Chayse Wolf. Another player looked at to run the ball this season is Zach Santoro, who is also the backup quarterback.
"We feel real confident about our fullback position," McSurley said. "Chayse is very talented, both running and receiving."
Replacing two-year starting quarterback Tyler Uetrecht will be sophomore Hunter Fentress.
"He throws a real nice ball," McSurley said. "It's just basically developing him and being able to run the option and just kind of do what we did last year. You try to just not make him the focus. He's more of just a role player. You certainly don't want to put pressure on a 10th grader, so we want to try to keep the pressure off of him, let him grow on our offense.
"We don't want him to do a whole lot, obviously. We're a triple-option team. It all starts with him, but he's been doing this since he was in peewee, so it's not all of a sudden he's learning how to do this for the first time. He's been doing this for years and years and years."
As the Falcons scored a record-breaking 822 points last season, becoming the first team in Ohio high school football history to score over 800 points in a season, they are adding new members to their offensive line due to graduation.
"I think we might be a little quicker, maybe a little more athletic in the offensive line," McSurley said. "We're just going to try to keep the momentum, keep everything from last year on into this season."
With the Falcons, the seven-time South Central Ohio League champions, their main objective this summer is competition to replace the vacant spots left from last season. McSurley said having the competition exposes their weaknesses, which is a good thing.
"I think you're exposed a little bit to where your weaknesses are," McSurley said. "When you go two-platoon, you can really find out where you're weak, and you can focus on that. It allows us to just kind of hone in on your soft spots and hopefully gives you an opportunity to be a more complete balanced team overall. I think that's the advantage."
[[In-content Ad]]
The longtime CM coach continued to speak about how the competition helps his club, especially with a two-platoon team.
"Without a question [the competition helps]," McSurley said. "You get some real competitive practices [with a two-platoon]. Your offensive line benefits because they have to go against better players.
"Your defensive line's benefitting because they're having to go against the offensive line. I think the overall competitiveness of the team improves if you're able to go two-platoon."
With the competition comes leadership, and McSurley spoke of this year's senior class.
"I think the main thing is just leadership," he said. "When you have a class like that, the leadership, to me, is the biggest thing. If we can develop leadership in this senior class, things ought to go hand in hand. I think that talent-wise, it's there, but it's whether or not we're going to have the same type of leadership.
The defense for the Falcons seems to be where their focus lies before the season begins on Saturday, Aug. 31 against Blanchester.
Two linebackers the Falcons are looking to are Halley and Gauden.
"Right now we're kind of a work in progress [on defense]," McSurley said. "Those two guys really solidify the linebacker core with Santoro and [Chayse] Wolf, at outside linebackers, but I think really our strong suit is in our secondary."
The CM secondary consists of Bayle Wolf at strong safety, Isiah Stiverson, Zach Santoro, Josh Loud and Devin Salley.
"These guys are all very talented kids," the head coach said. "We feel real strong in the secondary."
Sanburn and Florea are set to play at defensive end, while the reigning Division IV State champions are working on trying to find some different players for the inside nose and tackle.
"Obviously, our goal is to be a two-platoon team," McSurley said. "That's where we're at right now (before the season). We want to have a separate offense and a separate defense, maybe with a couple exceptions, but for the most part, that's what we're trying to do right now. We'll see where it all pans out."
CM's schedule is improved this season as they have the mainstays in Waynesville, Jonathan Alder and Miami Trace, but they have added Chillicothe and a week five game against Columbus DeSales, a game that will be played in Columbus.
"We've got kind of a rivalry with Jonathan Alder. They're one of the stronger teams out of Columbus," McSurley said. "Then we get an opportunity to play Columbus DeSales. They're a storied tradition. They've got six state titles, and we're going to go up to their place and play them. That should be kind of a marquee game in the state, so we're excited about it.
"You'd like to think that your team is ready to make that run. Computer points are huge, and if we can get that win (against their top opponents), that's going to be just huge points.
"It kind of gets your team in a position to go deep in the playoffs. Win or lose – obviously we're looking to win that game (at DeSales) – it still gets your team ready when you see that kind of competition. It gets you ready for the end of the season."