Life in the football trenches is not for everyone.
While linemen are rarely noticed unless they make a mistake, the bottom line is no team is successful without excellent work by the big guys up front.
Saturday night, No. 1 James Monroe will battle No. 2 Williamstown for the Class A state football title at Wheeling Island Stadium.
The Mavericks have earned that opportunity thanks in large part to band of young men that are not exactly what you would consider household names.
It is a group of young men that have allowed familiar names like Cooper Ridgeway, Braydie Carr, Layton Dowdy, Eli Allen, Chaz Boggs, Nicklas Pitzer and Owen Jackson to fill up the stat sheet and build an undefeated resume this year on the gridiron.
“It takes a special breed to know that you are not going to get the adulation or the press quite often because of where you are playing,” James Monroe head coach John Mustain said. “Yet you keep going out there and continue to work hard, do your job each day and try to get better. It is definitely a huge plus when you have kids that are willing to take on that role.”
Jeffrey Jones has held down the left tackle position for the Mavericks, while Ashton Evans plays left guard. Jacob Hall is the center with Jacob Proffitt at right guard and Brady Baker at right tackle.
Those five guys have worked in unison with three other key members.
Jackson Phipps has been extremely versatile playing various positions, while a pair of sophomores, Cole Ballengee and Gavin French have been key contributors to make the James Monroe offense a lethal weapon this year.
“We have even taken Granger Gore, who was a blocking back last year and put him in at guard,” Mustain said. “It’s hard to get recognition for those guys. Everybody wants to talk about how many yards this one has rushing or how many yards this one has receiving or passing.”
Heading into the football season this year, the Mavericks were coming off a quarterfinal playoff run last year and held high hopes of another trip to the postseason.
However, concerns existed and the offensive line was one of them with the loss of two quality players to graduation.
“If you asked us, as coaches, coming into the season, I think all of us would have said the offensive line was a concern,” Mustain said. “We felt really good about our defense this season, but we had some let downs on the offesnive fronts last year.”
A 41-point effort in the opening game against Sherman sparked excitement, but was tempered with a 6-0 win at Pendleton County the following week.
Coming off a bye two weeks later though, the Mavericks’ machine started to hit on all cylinders. With the defense slamming the door on opposing offenses, the boys up front started paving the way for some big numbers.
“There is a certain amount of chemistry that they have learned as the year has progressed,” Mustain said. “They have learned to communicate better, but I think a lot of it boils down to determination.”
Over the final eight games of the regular season, James Monroe average over 36 points per game. It is a trend that has continued through three playoff games as well.
The price of success for the Plowboys up front has come with some tough love. To their credit, the young men have bought in to the tough coaching and worked each week to get better.
“We will sit and watch film on Monday and you feel kind of bad for those kids because we really pick it apart,” Mustain said. “I am sure they are sitting there thinking, my gosh coach, we just scored 40-some points and shut the other team out, what are we doing this for.”
“That is part of what our role is,” Mustain went on to say. “We want them to be as good as they possibly can be, so we will look at those things and be critical. They do an excellent job of handling that. I know that everyone of them wants to get better and they are willing to take that on.”
Tough love and hard work have yielded big success so far and helped James Monroe silence the doubters.
Now the young men up front have one more test to pass.
Saturday night, all of Monroe County hopes all of their hard work comes together to yield the first ever football state championship title at James Monroe High School.
