NORTH RIDGEVILLE — A philosophy instilled in Jeff Riesen a long time ago by his father is still the basic concept he tries to instill in his players today.
“I’ve been coaching for 35 years and the first thing I learned from my father, who was a coach, and from other good coaches along the way, is that team concept,” Riesen said. “You have to have that team camaraderie, team unity and team morale. That will carry you a long way. The X’s and O’s are important, but the first thing I’m looking for in the two-a-days is cohesiveness. Team unity is the most important thing.”
If the Rangers are to improve on last year’s 7-3 record (4-3 West Shore Conference) they’ll need all the camaraderie they can get. With just 10 returning seniors, obviously underclassmen are going to be counted on to fill key roles.
So far, so good, according to Riesen, who said the seniors have taken the younger players under their wings.
“We seniors never had a big group, maybe nine or 10 members,” said defensive back Shane Friend, “but the freshmen won conference last year and the JVs won conference the last two years so we should do pretty well.”
If they do, Friend will likely have a hand in that success. The 6-foot-2, 192-pounder is a versatile player on both sides of the ball, having served the last two years as the backup quarterback while also earning the coaches’ designation as the “quarterback” of the defense.
He’s also one of the senior leaders, along with quarterback James Mees, running back Derek Lozano, wide receiver Nick Rogerson and offensive lineman John Howells.
“This season I want to see us do better than last year, improve on our record,” said the 6-0, 168-pound Rogerson. “Year after year you always want to improve. This could be a make-or-break year for us.”
“I think we’ll do well,” said the 6-5, 180-pound Mees, who takes over at quarterback after guiding the JV team the past two seasons. “We’ll have a decent season and make a run for conference championship and possibly win it.”
The offense should be solid. With a tall, rangy quarterback, a veteran running back, talented and speedy veteran wide receivers and a tight end who can catch the ball, look for the Rangers to spread the field.
“We’re not very big on the line, but we have a lot of good, skilled position players,” Mees said. “I think we could be the ‘sleeper’ team this year because of how athletic and skilled we are. If we mesh everything together we could surprise a lot of teams. We’ll find a way to make it all come together.”
Lozano (5-10, 188) believes this team will be good because of its good team chemistry, which you know brings a smile to Riesen’s face. After all, chemistry is a lot like camaraderie.
“Just working out with these guys since January, we’re really looking good and we’re meshing with the younger guys,” Lozano said. “That’s important to us because they’re going to be lining up next to us on Friday nights.”
A conference title, of course, will likely have to go through Rocky River and neighborhood rivals Avon and Midview, all teams the Rangers lost to a year ago.
Still, that is the goal, said the 6-2, 241-pound Howells.
“Anything less than a conference championship will be a disappointment this year,” he said.
Contact Ron Nenadal at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

NORTH RIDGEVILLE RANGERS

CONFERENCE: West Shore
2007 RECORD: 7-3
COACH: Jeff Riesen, third year (13-7)
RETURNING LETTERMAN: 17
RETURNING STARTERS: 10

By the numbers

20—Seniors graduated from last year’s team
 1— Returning offensive linemen
 5—Running backs that could carry the ball this season without a featured back

Fast fact

Walt Laveen and Lucky Varouh have 70 years of coaching at North Ridgeville between them. Laveen (offensive line) has coached since 1971 while Varouh (defense) started as the eighth-grade coach in 1975 (the same year Riesen started as varsity assistant) and moved to the varsity in 1980. Combined with Riesen’s 35 years, there’s a whole lot of experience on the sideline.

 

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