CZACK, SHIRILLA and SORNA SELECTED

By Dom DiPasqua/Staff Writer

Thursday night, May 15, 2014

BROADVIEW HEIGHTS – In the ultra-competitive series that is the East vs West in the annual Greater Cleveland High School Football Coaches Association All Star Game, for a team to have one player chosen to fly the flag for their respective side of the crooked river is something to rave about. To have two means you had some talented young men on your squad. But to have three teammates tabbed to wear your schools helmet and compete among the best in the city, well that’s a pretty big deal.

A trio of Brecksville-Broadview Heights football players, who will graduate in a few weeks, were chosen to represent the Bees in this years early summer classic. Colton Czack, Nick Shirilla and Eli Sorna will suit-up for the West team in Junes gridiron grudge match against the top senior player from the East side. “This is a great honor for all of them,” said veteran BBHHS head coach Jason Black.

The game will be played Friday night, June 13 at Finnie Stadium on the campus of Baldwin-Wallace University. Kickoff is at 7:00pm.

Truth be told at least a half-dozen other Bees could easily have joined their comrades in this elite group.

Star Power

Not only does Brecksville have three players in the contest they have two coaches as well. John Shirilla will be the West’s defensive coordinator. Mike Czack will be the teams linebacker coach. Talk about well-deserved. All coach’s Shirilla and Czack did was orchestrate the Bees best defensive team in school history last fall. Brecksville went 10-2 overall, swept through the Southwestern Conference and came within two points of winning a second-round Division II play-off game. Their defense was as stingy as Ebeneezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve.

The Wests head coach is James Jackson. Jackson is the defensive coordinator at Normandy and is the former head coach at Independence. Ironically Jackson followed Shirilla at Indy.

Colton Czack (6-2, 220) will play strong side linebacker. In his last regular season high school game Czack, he of the golden mane, registered 19 total tackles against Madison. Nick Shirilla (5-8, 155) will play free safety. Shirilla racked-up 60 total tackles from his DB position last fall while picking off three enemy aerials and breaking up four passes. Sorna (5-11, 210) will play on both sides of the line.  Sorna scored the Bees first defensive touchdown in eons last season when he alertly pounced on a fumbled snap at the goal line. He had 59 total hits and a knack for being around the ball, coming up with three fumble recoveries. All three players were Bee captains.

Records Fall Like Dominoes

Brecksville went 9-1 in the regular season. It was only the third time in 20 years that they accomplished that mark. The Bees shattered the school record for points in a single season by posting 354. That eclipsed the 295 points that the 2012 team tallied.

Shirilla and Czack’s miserly defense permitted a meager 97 points. On the other side of the ball Brecksville posted a single-game school record 53 points against Painesville Riverside in their first-ever home playoff win.

Coach Black Needs a Wheel Barrel

Jason Black is the last person who would make mention of this. That’s why nosy media types sniff this stuff out. For the 2013 campaign Black was named the Coach of The Year in; The Southwestern Conference, the Northeast Ohio District and earned the top honor by his peers in the GCHSFCA.

The Next Level

Graduating Bee seniors that will go on to play in college are; Colton Czack (Duquesne), Dan Duncan (Wilmington), Troy Lang (Baldwin-Wallace), Jay Rose (Hillsdale) and Timmy Tupa (Navy).

Tupa, who was a first-team All-Ohio quarterback, leaves for Annapolis the third week in June. Rose, whose incredible performance in the classroom was matched on the field, earned the opportunity to further his academic and football career at a prestigious Division II school in Michigan.

And Duncan seemed to have come out of nowhere last fall. His performance on the Bees defensive line was one to behold. The hulking, yet quick-to-smile tackle improved week after week. His play was one of the many reasons for Brecksville’s success.

Lang showed all the signs of being a good football player as a sophomore. He improved by leaps and bounds during his junior season and by the time the final horn sounded at Jerome T. Osborne Stadium in Mentor, Lang had solidified his place as one of the programs best defensive players in the last ten years. He flat out gave opposing quarterbacks nightmares.

The Future is Now

Bee players that have the opportunity to play at the college level and will be seniors come August are; Joe Dimitrijevs (5-10, 165), Joe Mandato (5-10, 175) and “G-Pat” Garrett Patterson (5-9, 135).

Joe-D will be a three-year starter. He will play linebacker and fullback for BBHHS come opening night. But what sets the soft-spoken Dimitrijevs apart is that he does his talking with the books. Joe-D has fashioned a 4.3 GPA and has recorded a 35 on his ACT. That has caught the attention of the Ivy League schools.

Mandato is another bruising linebacker-fullback and Patterson showed plenty of signs of brilliance in 2013. “G-Pat” was Beeville’s third leading receiver. He hauled in 16 passes for 225 yards and scored three touchdowns. Patterson had a solid game against Madison, making a key first down reception on the Bees final drive.

Talented sophomores this past year that will have 12 games of varsity experience under their red lids come August are; Tyler Tupa (6-1, 185), Nick Sokolowski (6-3, 235) and Danny Shirilla (5-11, 140).

Tupa is the third and last of three football playing and starring Tupa brothers. Eldest brother Tommy is a quarterback at Miami of Ohio. Tyler, hold on to your hat folks, may just be the best one of them all. He has already been contacted by the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Northwestern Pitt and Syracuse. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tupa, nicknamed “Roo”, is a versatile athlete that led the Bees in receiving last season and scored ten touchdowns. Not bad for  varsity rookie. He has been a beast in the weight room this off-season.

Sokolowski is a man-child that haunts opposing quarterbacks like a Freddie Kruger wearing number 58. Soko will be Brecksville’s top returning tackler. He is getting looks from Division I and Division I-AA schools.

Shirilla made a name for himself in the defensive backfield last fall. He notched 37 total tackles and came up with a trio of INT’s. On offense he spelled Timmy Tupa when games got out of hand, which they often did. Shirilla will see time at quarterback in 2014. He is a solid college prospect because of his athleticism, versatility, brain power and pedigree.

Those Bees Are Smart, Real Smart

Congratulations go out once again to Coach Black and his team for its performance in the classroom. The Bees have won the Academic All-Ohio award for the teams GPA during the 2013 season. Of the top 22 letter men who qualified, their average GPA was over a 4.0.

“This shows the true commitment to academic excellence. This also allows us to be successful on the field,” Black said. “We were one of 40 teams out of 715 across the state of Ohio to earn this award.”

Jay Rose, Nick Shirilla and Eli Sorna were three of 106 students, of over 35,000 that play high school football in Ohio, to earn individual Academic All-Ohio awards.

Jay Rose was honored at the National Football Foundation’s annual banquet back in March at La Centre in Westlake. It was the fourth consecutive year that the Bees have had a player recognized at this prestigious event. Other winners were; Matt Galland (2011), Kyle Graham (2012) and Mike Tyler (2013).

Galland is at Air Force. Graham is studying at CWRU and Tyler, who had a sensational spring game for the Cardinal, is at Stanford. He has four years of athletic eligibility remaining in Palo Alto.

Scouting The Opposition

Congratulations to Hudson’s Mitch Guadagni. The junior quarterback has verbally committed to Toledo. Gaudagni is 2-0 against the Bees as a starter. Brecksville hosts Guadagni’s Explorers in week three again this year. He threw for well over 2,000 yards and 22 touchdowns last season. And ran for over 900 more and seven tallies. Guadagni picked Toledo over Boston College, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Cincinnati. The Explorers return a loaded line-up this fall.

Coaching Changes

There were two coaching changes in the Southwestern Conference this off-season. Although one was hardly a change at all. Dave Dlugosz returns as the head man at the War Memorial in Avon Lake. He replaces Larry Laird, who has moved on to Strongsville to cover for Russ Jacques, whose contract was not renewed. Jacques in now on the staff at St. Edward.

Dlugosz led the Shoremen to a Division II state championship and too-many-to-count SWC titles in his first go-round at his alma mater. Last year he was on Laird’s staff as an assistant. When Laird opted for Mustang Country Dlugosz was the obvious man to reclaim his rightful position on the A-L sideline.

Amherst Steele decided not to retain Chad DiFranco. The Comets instead will go with Bill Fishleigh. Fishleigh is familiar with the circuit, having coached previously at Avon and Avon Lake. DiFranco, one of the games good guys, went 4-26 in his three seasons as the Comets head coach.

Lakewood, also on the Bees schedule again this year as a West Shore Conference cross-over opponent, has hired Mike Ribar to replace Ron Lewis. Lewis, who came to Lakewood from Rocky River, resigned in December after six seasons at the corner of Bunts and Madison. Lewis has since joined the coaching staff at B-W. Ribar is a 1985 Lakewood graduate. He was the Rangers freshmen football coach the past three years.

Ron Rutt takes over for Ryan Gorius at Bay. Rutt is a graduate of the school (2000). And an old familiar face returns to Fawcett Stadium in Canton. Thom McDaniels is back to coach the Bulldogs. He replaces Todd Filtz. McDaniel’s son, Josh, is on the coaching staff of the New England Patriots and was one of the first candidates interviewed for the Cleveland Browns job this past winter.

 

Please stay tuned to the Bees football website. The All-Star game will be reported and then it will be time to ramp-up coverage for the 2014 season. 

 

See You At The Bee Hive!

To contact: Ddipa67834@aol.com.

Follow the Lady Bees volleyball team on-line at: beesvolleyball.com. There is a fresh post on a college announcement.

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