RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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MONROE – St. Mary Catholic Central won the 400-meter relay at the Division 3 state track and field finals last spring.
Three of those runners are members of the school’s football team this fall.
“We have a lot of speed,” Falcon coach Adam Kipf said as the Falcons held their first official practice for the 2006 season on Monday, Aug. 10.
Who is the fastest of the fast – brothers Cole and Brady Reinhardt or fellow relay member Vince Harris?
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“Probably Brady, but don’t tell Cole I said that,” Harris said with a laugh.
All three could be in the backfield at that same time, presenting lots of problems for opposing defenses.
“We’re a smaller team this year, but we have speed,” Cole Reinhardt said. “It should be a lot of fun.”
Harris noted that there is a difference between track speed and football speed.
“We’ve got to be mentally ready,” he said. “You can be fast, but you’ve got to play fast.”
Speed will be needed as SMCC deals with heavy graduation losses including four-year starters Brady Hines and Brock Cousino. Hines was the two-time Monroe County Region Defensive Player of the Year.
“They were amazing players,” SMCC lineman Grant Lewis said of Hines and Cousino. “It won’t be easy to replace them, but instead of one or two stars, we will have multiple stars.”
Kipf wishes his squad had more players. There are only 22 juniors and seniors on the current varsity roster.
“It’s scary if we have injuries, but I reminded my staff that only had 24 guys in 2018 and that was a pretty good team (9-3, District champions). We just have to deal with it. We’re not going to have anyone feeling sorry for us.”
SMCC won’t feel sorry for itself, either, despite not having a field of its own this season.
The Falcons lost their longtime home at Navarre Field when Monroe Public Schools sold the property in February. The stands and lights there have since been torn down.
SMCC will play two games at Gibraltar Carlson and one each at Ida and Erie Mason.
“We’ll take the bus everywhere,” Kipf said. “We’re not going to walk to Carlson.”
SMCC will treat the lack of a home field as just another hurdle to clear.
“We’ll try to mentally dominate wherever we can,” he said. “Like Coach Flint (assistant coach Brian Flint) said one time in the playoffs, ‘We’ll play on a volcano if we have to.’”
The Falcons changed some things this summer.
Instead of holding a camp at Newport St. Charles grade school, they spent three days at the University of Toledo.
“We wanted to do something special for the guys,” Kipf said. “The University of Toledo was an awesome host. We ate well there.”
For a lineman like Lewis, the food was a great selling point.
“They had a nice buffet, nothing better,” he said.
Well, perhaps the bonding was better than the food.
“It was an awesome experience,” Lewis said. “It was a lot different than other years. We got a lot closer, built a real brotherhood.”
“This is not our usual team,” Reinhardt added. “We seem a lot closer.”
“I am happy to be back with this team,” noted Harris. “We love being together.”
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Training camp report: SMCC needs speed to overcome low varsity numbers
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