In no way can the Cazenovia football team ever match the magic of 2015 – a perfect season, 13 consecutive wins and a first-ever state championship.
Yet when practices for the 2016 season commenced on Aug. 15, there, again, stood more than 35 players hard at work, inspired by what has gone before, but determined to carve their own legacy.
Doing so is a tall order. Even if Cazenovia hadn’t exited the Carrier Dome last November with the state title in hand, it would have needed to deal with the departure of a stellar senior class.
Gone are quarterback Jake Shaffner, top running back T.J. Connellan, defensive leader Kevin Frega and all-around sensation Cole Willard, not to mention the likes of Brenden Whalen, Shawn Cunningham, Dustin Hammond and Paul McLaughlin. Shaffner, Connellan, Willard, Frega, Whalen and Hammond each were All-State selections.
However, plenty of talent still remains for second-year head coach Jay Steinhorst. And for those returning players, it isn’t difficult to pinpoint the reason why they think the Lakers will keep winning, both in the Section III Class B ranks, and perhaps beyond.
“It’s our tradition,” said lineman Connor Westfall. “We try to do our best every single time and keep a positive attitude no matter what, keeping our heads high.”
Steinhorst concurred with that sentiment. “The kids, parents and community buy into the culture,” he said. “That’s the key.”
Legacy or not, there are new faces at key spots all over the field, including at quarterback, where Shaffner proved such a strong and capable leader.
Still, no single player takes all the snaps in Cazenovia’s multi-faceted attack. Though Matt Regan has seen most of the time under center during practices, Anthony Vecchiarelli is in the mix, too, as is Austin Enders, who is the team’s most intriguing player.
Enders tore a knee ligament in last September’s opener against Amsterdam and missed the rest of the season. Still, when the outgoing captains (Shaffner, Connellan, Frega and Hammond) voted on captains for 2016, Enders got the honor, along with Westfall.
On offense, the 5-foot-11, 225-pound Enders could play quarterback. Or he could run in the backfield with a rotation that includes Vecchiarelli and Cody Thorp. Or he could even start at center, if the Lakers need him there.
By far, the toughest task for Cazenovia is replacing a line where Hammond, Cunningham, Frega and Whalen dominated the line of scrimmage. The good news is that Will Kmetz and Jack Eldred have varsity experience, and the likes of Dan Kent are ready to step in, too.
Since the Lakers normally don’t use a tight end, wide receivers take on multiple roles. That’s especially true of Ben Nichols, who anchors a corps that includes Matt McLaughlin, a late-season call-up in 2015, and Nate Morgan.
Always a cornerstone of Cazenovia’s success, the defensive unit will center around Enders, who at middle linebacker must try and replicate Frega’s production, tackling ability and emotional energy. Having Thorp and Vecchiarelli flank Enders at the outside linebacker spots will help.
Westfall, at defensive tackle, and Nichols, at defensive end, gives the Lakers valuable experience on the front four, while the depth is supplied by Kmetz, Kent and Sam Mabee. With Vechiarrelli’s move to linebacker, Brice Basic gets a turn in the secondary, joining McLaughlin, Regan, Clay Fox and Anders Hansen. Regan is expected to take kicks and punts after Willard did a masterful job with both last fall.
Steinhorst said the schedule will make his team “learn a lot about ourselves” in the first three weeks of a schedule where, with eight teams in Class B East, every game is a league contest.
Following Saturday’s opener against Mexico at the Dome in the Kickoff Classic, Cazenovia has a rematch of the 2015 sectional final with Vernon-Verona-Sherrill and then, on Sept. 17, hosts Utica-Notre Dame, the reigning sectional Class C champions moved up this fall.
According to Enders, the most difficult thing to replicate from 2015 is that team’s chemistry.
“Last year, our whole team clicked,” said Enders. “Everyone trusted each other. It was a brotherhood.”
Through off-season lifting sessions and camps at Syracuse University and Chittenango, the current players have attempted to maintain that special bond. Whether it works or not will start to reveal itself against Mexico – on the same Dome turf where Cazenovia wants the season to end again.
At the same time, though, Steinhorst cautions against placing unreasonable expectations on this particular group of Lakers.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on them,” said Steinhorst. “We need to find our own identity and our own success.”
