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8/26/05
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Game of the Week: Glenville vs. Mentor
by Matt Natali
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<CENTER></CENTER>The start of the 2005 football season will be a bittersweet one for the Glenville Tarblooders. With high anticipation for the season and even higher expectations, Glenville will take the field Friday night against Mentor without
their mentor and head coach on the sidelines.
Ted Ginn, Sr. was hospitalized last week after a routine check up and subsequently underwent a surgical procedure. Ginn remains hospitalized awaiting test results from the operation and could miss the first several weeks of the season.
"Coach Ginn is like a father figure to many of our players," said interim head coach Matt Chinchar. "We are treating this like family and the players are handling it very well. I have used the expression 'Dad's Down' and we need to pull together and keep things going until he gets back on his feet.
"The staff has pulled together to keep things continuing the way they have been going," Chinchar continued. "We know what our expectations are and we know (coach Ginn) loves the kids and he wants us to keep up with the same things he would continue with. The kids have pulled together and worked hard. Their heads are up and their attitudes are up and they know Coach Ginn will be ok."
With the Tarblooders rallying around coach Ginn, they look to continue to build upon the success of last season's 12-2 finish behind a corps of some of the top players in the state.
"We have several starters back on offense but we lost a few on defense," said Chinchar. "Granted, we do have some talented athletes but, at this point, comparing this team and last year's team is way too early. The potential is there, but at this point in time we'll just have to wait and see how things develop and unfold."
Ranked No. 1 in the preseason ONN/JJ Huddle's Ohio High Power Poll, Glenville boasts a wealth of talented players returning from the state semifinal team of 2004.
At wide receiver and cornerback is Ray Small (
left, #13). On offense last season, Small had 10 receiving touchdowns and four picks from the cornerback position. He had a slight injury in the preseason, but Chinchar assured he will be ready to play against Mentor.
Quarterback Arvell Nelson is under center once again after passing for 1,600 yards and 13 touchdowns a season ago.
Also on the receiving end of Nelson is Daven Jones, a Wisconsin recruit, who was good for 461 receiving yards last season and reeled in six touchdowns.
Anchoring the Glenville defense is defensive end Robert Rose. Rose (left, #99), who stands in at 6-5, 240 pounds had nine sacks last season and will be giving offenses a lot of trouble in 2005.
According to Chinchar, the Tarblooders still have to refine some parts of their game before they can reach full potential of the talent they have,
"The preseason has come along ok," he said. "We have gotten our bumps and bruises like everyone else has. We have had some injuries to a couple of starters, but they should be alright for the Mentor game. So, we haven't been running on a full eight cylinders, but everyone has been practicing hard getting their timing back and their repetitions in."
Mentor, which barely missed the post season last year by finishing ninth in computer points in Region 1, is looking to avenge last year's 29-6 loss to Glenville in the season opener.
The Cardinals return 15 starters this season, however many of the players are juniors. These players have the experience from starting as sophomores last season, but still remain young.
"We are going to be a real solid football team," said Mentor head coach Steve Trivisonno. "Although we have a lot of younger kids, we have a lot of kids who are returning which should make it a pretty good, solid football team."
While the Cardinals might be young as a whole, they will be starting five seniors on the offense line this season. The experience of tackle Nick Spring, guard John Jewell, tackle James Garhma, guard Bill Hein, and center Mike Bastian up front will be the strength of the team.
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Mentor will use two quarterbacks in 2005
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With the graduation of quarterback Chris Jacquemain (Bowling Green), the strength up front will be especially important as junior quarterback Kellen Oleksak and sophomore quarterback Bart Tanski gain experience under center. Mentor will utilizes both signal callers this season.
"Both have had pretty good camps. We are going to let (Olesksak ) go first and then we'll bring in (Tanksi). Whichever kid is hot, he is going to stay and play" explained Trivisonno.
Catching passes from the young quarterbacks include Ryan Kolesar (30 rec.) and Bob Szabo (34 rec.) while junior running back Bill Deitman, who rushed for 840 yards last season, returns in the Cardinal backfield.
Defensively, Brady DeMell, Steve Matas and Fred Hale return to the line. DeMell and Hale both stand in a 6-3 while Mata is 6-5, so the Cardinals have some good size up front. All three started last season as sophomores, so their experience and size will be pivotal on the line.
At the linebacking positions, Mentor returns three of four starters, including Zach Aloisio who had 104 tackles last season as a junior.
Kicker Igor Ivelijic, who has already verballed to Akron, will be a strong special teams player.
"The goals here are very simple. We always have the goal to win the state championship and win the (Lake Erie League) championship," said Trivisonno. "Those are our goals every year and we are going to strive for those. We have kind of upped our schedule a little bit and made that a little tougher. We have a tough schedule, but we did that to prepare ourselves for the playoffs. Hopefully we can get through that ok and win enough to get into the playoffs."
Mentor's none conference schedule this season includes Glenville, Youngstown Ursuline, Solon, Cleveland St. Ignatius, and Massillon.
Both Glenville and Mentor are similar in that both run a spread, no huddle offense. So, both are familiar with the type of football each plays and neither will be surprised by anything come Friday night.
While Glenville and Mentor play the same style of football, each team utilizes different tools to execute Glenville has speed and athleticism while Mentor relies experience.
"Mentor tends to move the pocket in the passing game with a semi-roll sprint out to the right or left," said Chinchar. "They are a possession type of passing game with the receivers - short, high percentage type passes. They mix the pass and the run very well. They are very precise with their sprint out passing game out of the spread and they do a great job mixing up the run with that."
Some of the key matchups of the game include Mentor's offense line and and the ability to contain Rose. This is an intriguing match up between the experienced offensive line and the talented end Glenville boasts.
Mentor's linebackers are sure to bring pressure all night, so Nelson is liable to be rolling out of the pocket a lot.
The difference in the game could come down to the match up between Glenville's receivers and Mentor's secondary. Glenville's talented and speedy receivers will keep Mentor's secondary busy all night. Cornerbacks Ryan Dugan and Nate Wilson and strong safety Adam Mayse all have experience, but, again, all three are juniors.
"We are going to have to fall back so they don't run by us," Trivisonno laughed. "This is by far the most athletic team in the state of Ohio if not the country. I know there is somewhere between 13 and 18 Division I college players out there. For us, that is about 10 years worth. It is a tough one right off the bat, but we are going to show up and play hard and try to contain that speed.
"For us to win the game it is going to have to be a high scoring game," Trivisonno continued. "I don't know if we are going to be able to shut them down, so we are going to have to score along with them. They are so talented in their return games and offense. For us to win it is going to have to be one of those 35-34 type ball games."
Considering all circumstances, the Glenville-Mentor match up has the potential to be considerably closer than last season. With the off-field concerns surrounding Glenville and head coach Ted Ginn, Sr. coupled with Mentor's experience and determination to improve on last season's performance, this season opener could be closer than expected.
Kickoff is at 7:30 pm at Mentor High School.
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