One door closes, another door opens.

Last Friday my Highschool football career and my senior season ended with a loss to Maple Heights. Two years in a row we have made it to the State semi final game and two years in a row we have lost to the same team.  These last couple of days have been really tough on the fans of Lake Catholic, students, my teammates, and my coaches.  You can ask any player, coach, or fan at the game and they will tell you we didnt give up untill the very last second expired off the clock.  The best time of my life has been with my brothers and coaches on a fotoball field and I have made many memories that I will remeber for the rest of my life.  I want to thank all of the parents of the football players and the fans for all of the support you have gaven us this season.    I finally got a reality check early in the week when Florida called and told me that I will be fully moved into Gainesville on January 4th because the new semester starts on the 5th.  I only have 15 more days of highchool left in my life and there are both positves and negatives to the situation. I am really going to miss seeing all of my friends at school but moving down will benfit me incredibly in the long run. I am excited to go on my official visit to Florida next weekend and hangout with all of the other commits. My Offensive line coach (Coach Addazio) flew up to see me yesterday and we had a great time talking about what the future is going to be like. Coach Addazio is an amazing coach and I am happy I get to learn from one of the best for the next 5 years.  The head coach of Florida, Urban Meyer, is flying up to see me in a couple of weeks and I am pumped!

State Final four!!!

Last week's win against Ashland was one of the best wins I have ever been a part of.  We have never gone into halftime losing this season, but for some reason I wasn't nervous the slightest bit.  I knew what our team was capable of.  We just had to start playing up to our potential.  We finally got our offense rolling in the 2nd half with Richie Sanders having over 200 yards rushing in the game.  Shout out to Joe Ribeiro who came up with a huge sack in the 2nd half to change the momentum of the game.  I've never seen the coaching staff and my teammates more happy after a win than last Friday   Ashland is in the books and now its time to move on to State semis!!  We have another rematch from last year facing Maple Heights.  Last year we lost to Maple, but that was last year.  Lake Catholic and Maple Heights are both completely different teams this year.  Our team has put together a great game plan for containing their speed and we are ready to go!  STATE SEMIS BABY!!!  LESS GOOO!!!!

Round 3 of playoffs

After a huge win last week to an previously undefeated Warren Howland, this week we are having a rematch in our Round 3 game against the Ashland Arrows, the same team we played last year in Round 3.  Last year it was a high scoring shoot out where we were able to escape with the win by a field goal.  Ashland is going to be some what of a change-up for us this week because Ashland passes the ball 80% of the game.  Our defense is known for stopping the run first, so this will be a good test to see how good our defense really is. The defensive line has been working pass rush moves all week and there will be a competition on who can get the most sacks.  I'm ready for some sackage!!!!   I talked to Florida yesterday and everything is set for me to graduate and enroll early into Florida.  I will be moving down to start college classes and workout with the team in mid January.  I have also scheduled my official visit for after the season ends on December 10th.  A bunch of other commits are going down the same weekend so it should be a good weekend!   GO COUGARS! GO GATORS!

Team is fired up and ready to go

A couple of months ago, I officially committed to the University of Florida and ended my recruiting process. I chose Florida over Notre Dame, Boston College, Michigan State, Iowa, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

I took an unofficial visit to Gainesville, Fla., in August with my parents the week before I committed and absolutely loved the campus. During my visit, I toured the entire campus, watched practice, met the coaches, saw the locker room, walked in the Swamp (Florida’s Stadium), met with the strength coach, sat down with Steve Addazio (my position coach at Florida), and on top of all that spent the entire day with Urban Meyer, the head coach of Florida and an Ashtabula native.

I cannot say enough about Coach Meyer and his coaching staff. My commitment shortly after my visit tells you how comfortable I felt there. I am very happy I got to make my college commitment before my senior season.

After I committed, it felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders, and I no longer have any stress about my recruitment process. I am 100 percent committed to the Gators and will not be taking visits to any other colleges.

It is the second round in the postseason after an exciting victory in the first round vs. Kenston. Lake Catholic came ready to play and shut the Bombers out, 42-0, and now have a record of 11-1.

We play a very tough opponent on Friday against undefeated Warren Howland, who is a team very similar to us. They have a very good offensive line with a Division I running back who is only a sophomore.

My team has been studying every game they have played and we have put together a good strategy. The key to winning this game is winning the battle in the trenches. My team is fired up and we're ready to go!