Garrett Gronowski hasn’t caught many breaks during his Avon football career. Then again, he rarely takes a break. The senior can haul in a touchdown pass from star quarterback Ryan O’Rourke on one play, line up for the extra point on the next, run down the field on the ensuing kickoff and then run to the back of the defense to fill his free safety position.
“He’s clearly our team’s MVP,” Eagles coach Mike Elder said as the team got ready for tonight’s Division III regional final against Big Walnut at Ashland Community Stadium. “Because Ryan O’Rourke and (standout running back) Marquis Harrell play offense, but Garrett plays everywhere.”
Gronowski, who is
6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, wants to be on the field as much as possible. While that’s partly because he wants to make as many plays as possible to help the Eagles win, it’s also because of a bad break that cost him his entire junior season.
“I tore my labrum during two-a-days last year,” Gronowski said. “I was so disappointed, and I’m sure a lot of other people were, too. We didn’t have a great season last year and that hurt me even more, knowing that I could have been out there helping them.
“I’ve put in a lot of hard work to come back from my shoulder surgery and it means a lot to me that the team is doing so good this year.”
Gronoswki has quietly hauled in 40 passes for 665 yards (16.6 per catch) and nine touchdowns, and carried the ball another 16 times for 120 yards (7.5 per rush).
But it’s his work on the defensive side of the ball that has Division I college coaches drooling. Gronowski was second on the team during the regular season with 77 tackles, and has already received a scholarship offer from Air Force.
“I wouldn’t say that would be my first choice because I don’t really see myself as a military guy,” he said. “A couple other schools have been talking to me, so we’ll see what happens in the offseason. Right now I’m just focused on beating Big Walnut.”
The other schools on his short list — which may change, said Elder, after schools get a look at this season’s body of work — include Boston College, Iowa State, Northwestern and Colorado. Elder said Gronowski’s being recruited as a strong safety, but thinks many schools may want him to eventually move to outside linebacker.
That he’s only been offered one scholarship so far doesn’t come as a surprise to Gronowski.
“I knew with me missing my junior year that I’d probably have to go through the long process of it,” he said. “I don’t mind it and it hasn’t been too distracting. I just want to stay focused. After football I can sit down and, hopefully, get offers and focus on that.”
Gronowski hauled in one of Avon’s two touchdown passes in a 13-6 regional semifinal victory over Tiffin Columbian last weekend, but his defense has been a big factor in both the Eagles’ playoff wins.
“Anytime you have a kid like Garrett playing free safety, with his speed and athleticism, it’s going to be hard for a team to break a long run,” Elder said. “If you look at Defiance and you watch those films, their kid had a tremendous game against us. But some of those gains, where he got 8 or 9 yards, Garrett would come up and stop him right in his tracks and put a big hit on the kid. In other games for Defiance, those were 50-yard touchdown runs.”
It was Gronowski’s touchdown-saving tackle of Tiffin Columbian quarterback Ethan Kagy that may have earned the Eagles a trip to tonight’s regional championship game.
“Their quarterback breaks outside and Garrett chases him down from the other side of the field,” Elder said. “That kid’s a MAC (Mid-American Conference) player. He’s a scholarship player and on the 4-by-100 meter track team. So Garrett chased him down and saved the big play.
“We’ve been kind of bend-don’t-break (on defense), but without Garrett we’d have broken plenty of times.”
Gronowski began playing organized football in seventh grade, but had already fallen in love with the sport many years earlier.
“I had always followed the NFL and college football since I was little,” he said. “I play fantasy football and my favorite video game is Madden. … Really my life is football.
“I also play basketball and baseball, but I don’t have a love for them like I do for football. There’s just nothing better than playing on a Friday night. There’s no better experience than going out there with all your buddies and just playing football.”
Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com.

TONIGHT

WHO: Avon vs. Big Walnut
WHAT: Division III, Region 10 championship
TIME: 7:30
WHERE: Ashland Community Stadium
TV/RADIO: WEOL 930-AM, WOBL 1320-AM
 

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