Can Hoover repeat last year’s success? Don’t bet against it

August, 2004

Todd Porter, Canton Repository

NORTH CANTON -- What happened last year at Hoover High School can’t be repeated.

Or can it?

A year ago, Hoover High School head football coach Don Hertler Jr. didn’t know what to expect. The Vikings were depleted by graduation. They had no Division I college football prospects. And their schedule was tougher.

What they did at Hoover was run the regular-season table and produce the school’s first 10-0 season since 1975.

A year later, Hertler is saying the same things about this year’s team. He doesn’t know what to expect.

Is the coach crying wolf or just hiding something?

Maybe neither.

The most rewarding part of the 2003 season, Hertler said, wasn’t so much the 10-0 record. It was watching a group of players come together, mature, care for one another and play as a team.

“Last year, we had great team chemistry,” said Hertler, whose team finished 11-1 with a loss in the Division I regional semifinals. “We’re trying to develop a personality. People think you have carryover from one year to the next when it comes to personality and chemistry, and you do a little, but every team is different. You have to find that part of your team and identify guys who are going to carry your team when it gets tough. You have to identify roles?

Last season, the Vikings began to meld after the Week 2 game against Buchtel. Hoover won, 14-7, thanks to a touchdown pass from Sam Cerreta to Brian Drukenbrod with eight seconds left.

If things had turned out differently that night, who knows what kind of season it would have been?

One game, one will to win changed the complexion of a season and a team.

“It’s always important to find a way to win that first close, tough game,” Hertler said. “Sometimes, you lose those close ones early, and you’ve got to bounce back from it. Last year, going 10-0, we were surprised, but our kids seem to surprise us a lot of years. The bar of expectations keeps being raised. Last year was last year. This is this year.”

The difference is easy: No one will allow Hoover to sneak up on them. Ten opponents are looking for revenge.

“Last year’s team kind of snuck up on people,” Hertler said. “This year’s team won’t have that opportunity, even though we have less guys back this year than a year ago.”

Hertler is still looking for the players to become leaders. Last year, Cerreta emerged early. Running back and linebacker Alex Ramsey at times carried his team to victories.

Cerreta and Ramsey are gone.

Someone else has to carry that burden of leadership.

There are candidates.

Quarterbacks Jason Foote and Sean Kostelnik are possibilities. Wide receiver Nathan Logan could be the answer. Or Joe Pope, Grant Keeney, Kyle Adams, Jordan Jeffords or John Bertsch.

“The most enjoyable part of coaching is seeing kids mature and come together over a season,” Hertler said. “You win with seniors ... We’ve got to have a good senior class who wants to win and are willing to sacrifice for each other. ... We’ll have to build on our strengths and find out what those are.”

Foote is a solid passer. He transferred to Hoover from Perry after his parents build a house in the district.

But Kostelnik is good, too. Hertler said he is toying with the idea of running plays in with the QBs.

He didn’t laugh. He was serious.

Most of this year’s starters were role players last year. If the Vikings are going to come close to duplicating their success, this team’s seniors better have taken notes.

“It helps they were around that team, only if they learned from it,” Hertler said. “These kids are extremely hungry to get their opportunity on Friday nights. All we are going to ask them to do is play together.”

That’s the standard that has been set.

At Hoover, that standard isn’t measured in yards gained or points scored. It’s measured by desire and will.

Can they live up to it?

“We’re gonna find out,” Hertler said.

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