When the Jamesville-DeWitt football team looks around and sees all the glory attained by other sports programs at its school, it has to wonder if, or when, it will ever happen for them.
The 2015-16 school year alone featured two state champions at J-D (in girls basketball and boys lacrosse) and another (girls soccer) that reached the state final, along with a wide assortment of Section III individual and team champions in other sports.
Meanwhile, the Red Rams have not won a football sectional title since 1997, and only has one finals appearance this millennium, in 2012. But there are signs that the 19-year title drought just might end this fall.
For one thing, J-D, boasting a young roster, went 5-2 last fall in the regular season before a first-round sectional playoff defeat to Indian River. From that team, nine starters return on offense, including quarterback Josh Kowalczyk, but that’s just the starting point.
The Rams have also managed to pull in top athletes from other well-established J-D programs, such as Terrance Echols, Trey Greene, Rahmel Smith from basketball, plus Matt Cappelletti, Luke Smith and Scottie O’Brien from the baseball program. From the state championship boys lacrosse team, Casey Platenik has returned to football this fall.
All of this, said J-D head coach Eric Ormond, is augmented by a hunger for current players to match the glories of the program’s past.
“There is a football tradition here,” said Ormond. “A lot of people want to see a successful program and these kids want to make that happen.”
J-D’s “flexbone” offense, which is mostly a running attack, could change quite a bit this fall. Kowalczyk said much of his off-season was spent working on timing with his group of wide receivers, along with speed drills to make him more dangerous when running out of the pocket.
And those receivers, put together, make for an exciting group. Jai Benson returns, as does Greene and Echols, but it doesn’t stop there, since Cappelletti and Platenik, both of whom are first-year varsity players, are also expected to line up wide and give Kowalczyk even more throwing options.
Even J-D’s pair of running backs, Mike Anderson and Luke Smith, could find themselves catching passes as much as taking handoffs, a sign that J-D intends to spread things out and dare opponents to cover all of the athletes heading toward them at full speed. Jake Wright and Eli Williams serve as “H-backs”.
They work behind an offensive line with four returning starters and more size than Ormond has ever enjoyed from his front, which, with all of its experience, has to worry less about chemistry and technique than with conditioning.
Ben Fleet, at 260 pounds, is at center, flanked at guard by Morgan Betsey (300 pounds) and LaVaj Kearse (270 pounds). Steve Baker (200 pounds) is back at tackle, with Nick Crossett, already a starter at linebacker, joining the line at the tackle spot.
The Rams typically run a 3-5 defense with five linebackers. And J-D has plenty of proven talent at that linebacker spot, where Echols and Crossett are both three-year starters, with Wright and Williams also returning. Cappelletti, a hard hitter on the baseball diamond, gets a chance to hit in a different manner at linebacker, too.
Two more three-year starters are in the secondary, with Greene at cornerback and Matt Paul at safety. They’re joined by Luke Smith at the other corner spot as Othman El Hindi, at end, anchors a solid line that includes Kearse and Corey Rinaldi,
One big difference from 2015 is the schedule. Instead of starting with a month of road games, J-D, following Friday’s opener at Carthage, is home for three straight, including key Class A American division showdowns with Fulton (Sept. 16) and East Syracuse Minoa (Sept. 23).
All told, the Rams supposed to have four home games, though the last of them is in doubt because Oswego, who was set to visit on Oct. 14, decided to only field a JV team this season. Ormond said that, if a game can’t be schedule, he’ll treat that “bye” week as a chance to prepare for the playoff games ahead, should J-D get there.
Even with all the depth on hand (there’s 35 players on the roster), Ormond said that J-D’s chances still hinge as much on keeping everyone injury-free.
Ormond cited the 2014 season, where the Rams’ top running back, Rasheed Baker, got injured in a first-round playoff win and wasn’t available for the semifinals, a defeat to eventual state champion Indian River.
Two years later, J-D has the parts to make a long-awaited championship push. Keeping them all on the field may determine whether that push is successful.
