Bay wide receiver Brian Harrell hauls in a pass during a practice session Monday. The Rockets open the 2008 season Friday night at Orange. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Rockets, area teams set to open 2008 grid season
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published Aug. 20, 2008

The moment all high school football fans have been waiting for is finally here.

The 2008 high school football season kicks off this Friday night with all of the Westshore teams in action. Olmsted Falls, picked by area media as one of the Top 25 teams in the Greater Cleveland area, travels to Toledo St. Francis, while North Olmsted, also hoping to contend for the Southwestern Conference crown, stays home to take on Valley Forge.

In other area games, Westlake opens at home against North Ridgeville, while Rocky River begins the Rick Adams era with a trip to Medina Highland. At Fairview, two more new head coaches get their first games under their belts as Dave Latkovic’s Warriors host Dave Geye’s Lutheran West Longhorns.

The Bay Rockets take to the road as well with a trip to the east side when they take on Orange. Veteran coach Mike Peregord begins his second season as the head coach of the Rockets and is hoping to improve on last year’s 1-9 mark.

“We’re going to go as far as our offensive and defensive lines take us,” said Peregord last weekend. “I think we learned a lot of things and found some depth there in our scrimmage last Friday against Southview. We found some kids that should be able to help us, but then again there were some kids who didn’t step up.

“We’ve progressed, but right now I’m not really sure how much. I don’t think we’ll really know that until we get into our season,” he said.

Peregord and his staff are certain to find out more this Friday night when they have their full complement of players. The Rockets fell to Southview, 28-0, in that scrimmage, with 15 players not participating. Four were held out because of injury, and 11 were held out due to “team rules violations,” according to Peregord.

“If it would have been a regular season game, the players we held out due to injury probably could have played,” he said. “The others will be ready to go as well, but I’m not sure having them last Friday would have made a big difference or not.

“We did not play well, but we’re not going to use those players being out as an excuse,” said Peregord.

“Southview’s overall team speed presented a problem for us all night. Speed like that isn’t something we can duplicate in practice, and I don’t think we were mentally prepared for that.”

Bay’s inexperience showed, said Peregord, with several younger players getting playing opportunity.

“For one thing, I don’t think we’ll see a team on our schedule with that kind of speed,” he said. “Even their linemen were quick. When you don’t have a lot of varsity experience, you don’t really get the idea of the speed you need to play at that level.”

The lines will be the key for the Rockets since seven skill positions players return from last year’s team. Overall, 12 starters return, with only six of them seniors.

Those seniors are wide receiver/linebacker Brian Boss (6-0, 175), running back/defensive lineman Evan Mutch (6-0, 180), running back/linebacker Zak LaCure (5-10, 175), quarterback/defensive back Brendan Rehor (5-10, 165), wide receiver/defensive back Hunter Liptrap (6-0, 175) and wide receiver/linebacker Brian Harrell (6-3, 190).

Junior running back/defnsive back Owen Dalton (5-11, 165) returns, as well as fellow junior linemen Harlen Page (6-3, 230) and Andrew Stylski (6-4, 245). Three sophomore linemen return in Jake Johnston (6-2, 245), Conner O’Doherty (6-0, 200) and Jack Kendrick (6-2, 270).

While the Rockets will have a youthful look, Peregord isn’t keen on calling it a rebuilding year.

“I hate to use that term because the previous two head coaches are excellent coaches,” said Peregord. “They did a fine job here, and I learned from each of them. But as a head coach, you have your way of doing things that might be different, and I’m no different in that regard.

“We’ve started building this season from the bottom up,” he said. “For example, we revamped our weight program. I think our younger players, our juniors and sophomores, have bought into that and have improved. We also ran a speed camp this summer on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“And we’ve tried to make our players more accountable. We do a lot of motivational things, and there are no excuses for missing practice. We don’t punish by running them, but we do reward the players who participate in all of the required workouts.

“We’re trying to set a tone here,” said Peregord. “We’re trying to get back to the way it was 15 years or so ago when Bay went 8-2, 8-2 and was beating all of the teams in the Southwestern Conference.

“Our numbers are good, and the kids who have stayed with it are the one who really want to play football. They’re committed to it. We have our core players who make excuses to be at football practice. The kids who dropped out were pretty much the ones who hadn’t played before,” he said.

In all, Peregord feels like the program is on its way back to the winning ways of the past.

“We’ve got a higher percentage of kids committed to the game than we had last year,” he said. “And our younger players have become more and more committed as we go along. I think that’s going to play huge dividends for us down the road. I think it will have a ripple effect down through the lower levels of the program.”