Trying to lift the weight off its shoulders

Captains Kyle Kurtz and Trent Ringle discuss what it has been like trying to play through weighty expectations, a coaching change among other off the field issues while trying to have a winning season in the 2007 cover story.

NORWALK - When a program hasn't tasted a winning season in going on 30 years, it can be a rough and vicious cycle to play through for four seasons.

Perhaps no senior class throughout the tough three decades since 1977 realize that more than the 2007 seniors. It was a class that dominated foes and took names for three years before reaching the varsity level. They quickly grew the label as "the class" that was going to do it...and then some. The expectations rolled in from right and left...and when a top-flight quarterback transferred over from St. Paul, it was going to be the difference maker.

But it hasn't happened. But it is a class, however, that for all intents and purposes has fallen apart...and there are only 10 more games in their collective careers to try and pick up the pieces.

"No one is as bad as they say they are, and no one is as good as they say they are," senior quarterback and third-year starter Kyle Kurtz said. "We are obviously living proof of that."

The class first started to turn heads in seventh grade, as the team won all of its games to have an unbeaten season. But it was only seventh grade...the excitement was somewhat weathered. In eighth grade the team continued to throttle teams and only lost to Shelby while tying Willard...expectations were now on the rise.

As freshmen, the group of 23 players continued to dismantle the opposition, including scoring close to 50 points on Tiffin Columbian among others. Kurtz had transferred over to Norwalk from St. Paul for high school and only enhanced the group's overall talent, as he would later start a varsity game as a freshman. With a roster size in the 20's for the class, the expectations by the time they were to be juniors and seniors had reached enormous levels...even playoff levels for some as the team's lone loss again came at the hands of Shelby.

As if expectations could grow no further, they did after the 2004 varsity team finished 5-5 with two heart-breaking fourth quarter losses to Huron and Willard, again cementing another season without six wins or more at NHS. But as has always been the case, another curveball was thrown in the direction of Trucker football...and the program was again starting over.

After five seasons, Jordan Horowitz resigned at the end of 2004 with the fifth-most wins in program history and former Crestline coach Jeff Cole was hired. With him he brought new philosophies with some Power-I type formations and a 3-5 defense. With 16 seniors graduated off the 2004 squad and just 13 upperclassmen total, the vaunted class of 2007-08 was going to be spoon-fed to the varsity schedule while learning a new system.

Although they showed signs, the class was now sophomores and simply not ready for the demands of a varsity schedule in the Sandusky Bay Conference and Northern Ohio League. Not by a long shot. The team struggled to a 2-8 record and beat a pair of teams that combined for just three wins total in Galion and Upper Sandusky.

In fact, it took a 7-0 win against the Rams at home just to host Galion in week 10 without having an 0-9 record. The team finished 28th out of 29 teams in its region, ahead of only winless Firelands. The team was not competitive in its losses...and according to Kurtz, the locker room was in shambles while adjusting to the new coach, which made for some contentious times.

"I think just about everybody in the locker room looked up to Coach Horowitz so much and respected him as a person and a coach," he said. "And when Cole came in, I think a lot of seniors and people that knew Horowitz were kind of like, 'who is this guy and what is he trying to change everything for?' I thought Horowitz had his system started and in place, and we had to change it up and that was something we all obviously had to adjust to."

In the 2006 season, it got a little better, but not by much. The team started 0-5 and again wasn't competitive...it was the fourth time in five seasons a Norwalk team had started the season winless at the halfway point. The team then exploded for a 41-17 win over Upper Sandusky in week six and surprised most of the league with a 28-22 upset win at home in week eight over Fostoria. That set up a matchup with the 2-6 Truckers traveling to Willard to take on a 2-6 Flashes team that had been struggling mightily, including a 56-0 loss to bitter rival Shelby.

It was the perfect time for the core of juniors to make its move...if the team won a game at beatable Willard, they would be in position for a 4-6 season with a win over Galion in week 10 and close the season with a three-game winning streak AND have a winning NOL record at 4-3, which would surely put them in the top half. But it didn't happen...in fact, it never came close to happening. Willard won going away, 30-7 and the team did rebound to handle Galion on the road 30-0 in the finale to finish 3-7 overall and 20th in their respective region.

The closest loss in the past two seasons was a double-digit 25-13 setback at Edison in the 2005 opener. But the two seasons of 5-15 football haven't necessarily humbled the group, but have certainly opened it's collective eyes to the reality of the situation.

"There has been a lot of talk about playoffs, yet alone a winning season by a lot of us guys," third-year starting running back Trent Ringle admitted. "The past two years have been a reality check in some ways. We overlooked how big and fast all the other teams were and having to play four quarters both ways against those guys. You go from being bigger and stronger or equal at least to everyone else in eighth and ninth grade and then your thrown in with varsity players as a sophomore and everyone is not only bigger, but two years older physically and mentally."

Kurtz has put up solid numbers in two varsity seasons as the quarterback, completing 51 percent of his passes for 2,836 yards with 19 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. Meanwhile, Ringle and the running game have somewhat struggled, as he has ran for 816 yards and seven touchdowns in his two varsity seasons, but has also only averaged just 9.3 carries per game.

Despite the above average stats put up by Kurtz, the senior also admitted the past two seasons took it's toll on the overall love of the game.

"It's been rough...real rough," he said. "It made football not fun. It makes you not want to play anymore...but it also makes you want to work a little harder every day and see if we can possibly pull off some wins this year. We are looking to make up for it all this year. "

But before Kurtz and Ringle and the rest of the class could even begin to make up for it all as seniors, more drama and outside conflicts began to again seep into the program...and there was and is nothing the two captains or anyone else can do about it at this point...except play on.

After going 8-1 as freshmen with 23 players, Kurtz, Ringle and the rest of the senior class took the field for the annual team pictures. But something was missing. Actually, a lot was missing. While lining up for a group senior portrait, it was obvious.

There are now just TEN seniors left from a group of dominating 23 players just three years earlier.

"I could have never dreamed that would happen," Ringle said as his words began to trail off while shaking his head in disbelief. "Not at all...not at all."

But it has happened. The logical question in looking back and reflecting, where did they all go?

"I think a lot of it is just because you work so hard for such a long time," Kurtz said. "And to not see it pay off is very frustrating. And then you've got people at school kind of making fun of you for playing for a Norwalk football team that sucks. Why would you play for them? Why go to school for eight hours and then on to practice for three hours only to get pounded on a Friday night? You go to schools like Bellevue, Columbian, Monroeville, St. Paul, and on and on...they get praised and lauded for being on the football team. Here, it's almost like your an outcast."

But more troubling news began to surface late in the 2006-07 school year...two more third-year starters were in danger of not being on the team in the coming fall. Wide Receiver Spencer Krebs, who has caught 60 passes for 650 yards in two seasons, was possibly going to be attending Huron High School for his senior year as his family looks to move to the city. He is, however, on the roster and staying with the program because the family's Norwalk house did not sell in time on the open market to warrant a school switch.

But the snake bitten class couldn't avoid another casualty. Yet another third-year starter, linebacker/fullback Josh Cook, a two-time all-league selection with 92 tackles and over 400 rushing yards in 2006, was ruled academically ineligible for his senior season and will not be with the team when they take the field at Edison Friday night.

"It was tough to go through that situation with Spencer and not knowing if he'd be with us or not," Kurtz said. "Not only is he a key player for us, but we are all such close friends. That was a very trying time I think for all of us and it was a great relief and a pick-me-up to know that he was going to stay here with us where he belongs. But the key loss of Josh is not going to set us back at all. It's already forgotten, we've moved on and have replaced him on the field."

The lack of seniors also brings up another key factor for the team, one that Kurtz has seen all to well.

"What is always the problem at Norwalk? No depth," he said. "I remember Tyler Freriks (first team NOL tight end) gets his hand stepped on in practice his senior year (2004) and breaks it...then there is nobody to replace him. Trent Ringle breaks his hand last week...Drew (Williams) has been a big loss and hasn't been able to stay healthy, but this year we have no choice but to believe he will stay healthy. He's worked hard and done everything he needs to and he is OK mentally and physically."

Ringle knows what his self and teammates simply cannot do in 2007 that they have done in the past.

"No turnovers...we can't give up the ball," he said. "We've done that way too many times the past two years. I think our starters physically have caught up and I think we're there. Our line has finally gotten there and I don't know if anyone knows but they were putting up bigger numbers in the weight room than they've ever been. They are opening holes, blocking better, and that's where it all starts."

With all the large expectations that some believe haven't been fulfilled, is the team prepared for what can happen as the season approaches and do-or-die time nears?

"I think it would be a disappointment, a huge disappointment to not win more games than we lose," Ringle said. "We've worked harder and coach (Cole) has pushed us harder this year than he has in the past. He knows we have a good team here and we have to work as hard as we can to get what we want."

But whether it is fair or not, the reality remains few outside the team walls believe the turnaround can happen...the Truckers were a solid choice for the fifth-sixth slot in the NOL preseason voting along with Willard. So why should anyone believe that the past two seasons and the losses haven't been beaten into the once heralded class? Why should they believe they can double their win total in one offseason?

"We are more like a family because us ten guys are as close as can be," Ringle said. "We work hard, we push each other, we're leaders, we do what we need to on and off the field...

Which is quite possibly the first time ever, even in the face of smaller numbers, that the group in actuality is on the same page. These are the ten seniors that wanted to be there in the end. All of them standing tall in the face of adversity...together.