By Mark Gregory
@Hear_The_Beard
Ke’Von Johnson
OFFENSE
While the Joliet Catholic Academy offense had a lot of senior firepower a season ago, the backups to those seniors were young and did not see a lot of playing time. Entering this season, there is a lot of inexperience for the Hillmen. One player who did play a lot is junior running back Ke’von Johnson, who rushed for 973 yards, averaging 9.6 a carry, after filling in for the injured Harry Davis. He ran for 12 touchdowns and caught three more scores.
“It is Ke’Von,” said JCA coach Dan Sharp. “He is the guy that had a lot of playing time last year when Harry went down and he comes in kind of like in a senior position as far as leadership and understanding offense, even though he is only a junior. He is very special and a tremendous athlete in space and we need to get him the ball where he can do some things. We will hang our hat on Ke’Von this year for sure.”
Playing alongside Johnson will be sophomores Keenan Hailey and Nick Iannantone sharing time at fullback. The right halfback will be junior Simon Grashoff, who will move from tight end to fill the spot until junior Mike Butler recovers from a knee injury. Another JCA returner that saw some time last year is senior quarterback Pat Roth, who filled in for Cade Earl when he went down early in last season.
“We are very excited about him,” Sharp said. “He has a quick release and a strong arm and is very heady and a very smart kid.”
The offensive line is also young this season.
“On the line, junior Shane Raber is the lone returner,” Sharp said. “We may even have two sophomores playing and that is unusual.”
DEFENSE
The Hilltoppers are just as young on the defensive side of the ball as they are on offense. Senior safeties Jack Duffy and Pat Tippet are the two returners for the Hilltoppers starting in the same spots as last year. The one senior leader on the line is Andrew Hartsell, who was moved from linebacker to defensive end, while senior Clay Briscoe and sophomore Fernando Chavez will patrol the linebacker position.
“The other spots on the line are kind of unknowns,” Sharp said. “I was joking with the coaches that come Friday, we are going to put these young guys out there and it is the first time they will be put in that position in a varsity game, so we will find out.”
OUTLOOK
With youth and inexperience, Sharp knows there are not a lot of eyes on JCA this season.
“This team is not buried under a mountain of expectations like last year’s team or many of the teams we have had in the past,” he said. “There are not a people looking at us, so I know it is cliché, but we really are going to focus one rep, one game at a time. We are dealing with so many unknowns, that we are just trying to get better one drill, one rep at a time. The one thing we will not lack is effort. We have tough kids that practice hard, so what we lack in experience, they will make up in effort.
“Even if we take some lumps this year, it will just help these young kids and I think we have enough senior leadership that they can help these young kids along and win enough to get in the playoffs. Believe me, the few seniors we have out there are doing a lot.”