JOE-D PLAYS FOOTBALL “DOWN UNDER”
By Dom DiPasqua/Staff Writer
Tuesday night, July 21, 2015
BROADVIEW HEIGHTS – So you’re sitting in class. It’s a typical day in April. The weather outside the window is trying to be spring-like, but it just isn’t happening. You’re a good student and your focus is where it should be, on the teacher. You are then notified that a letter addressed to you is in the office.
Fast forward ten weeks.
You’ve just taken a 14-hour flight that has turned into a 16-hour odyssey due to a delay. When your feet finally hit the pavement and you take a breath of fresh air you find yourself in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia.
How does one get from the hallowed halls of Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School to a seaside resort at the other end of the world?
It has been said that this guy is a brand unto himself. This is where the legend of Joe-D grows even larger.
Joe Dimitrijevs figured he probably played his last football game on November 7, 2014. On that chilly night in Madison he pulled off his game jersey for what, in all likelihood, would be the final time.
Then that letter arrived. And Dimitrijevs was in for a trip and an experience of a lifetime.
Joe-D was invited to play in the 2015 Down Under Bowl. All he had to do was get to Surfer’s Paradise. Why he was one of a select group of American high school football players to participate even Dimitrijevs himself is not sure. But he is glad he was.
Dimitrijevs, a 5-11, 185-pound linebacker and running back, played for the USA “White Team”. A mix of high school football players from mostly the Midwest region. Guys were from; Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. There was even a player from Wyoming on his team.
It all happened very fast. After traveling from Cleveland to Dallas to L.A., and finally across the Pacific Ocean to Brisbane, he found himself back on the football field – once again.
“I got off the plane, got lunch and went to practice,” Dimitrijevs said this evening while seated at the conference table in the Bees football coaches office. “The first day we just wore helmets. The second day helmets and pads. And the third day we played.”
He Came Home a Winner
The White Team won two games in “Surfer’s”, as Aussies call it. And it was good old-fashioned American football, using National High School Federation rules, and with coaches from the states. Dimitrijevs’ coach was Dave Larkin, a high school coach in Michigan.
The first game was played July 2nd. Joe-D spent the Fourth of July in the Land Down Under. The second, the championship tilt, was contested on July 5th. The same day the U.S. Women’s soccer team throttled Japan in Vancouver to win the World Cup.
“All the guys on our team were from the United States except two guys who were from Australia. They were a little older. I did well considering we only had two practices. On offense I played wing back and I did catch two passes, which was more than I caught last season,” Dimitrijevs said with a laugh.
For the record Joe-D did not catch a pass last fall, his senior year with the Bees. But he did run it and run it well he did, especially late in the season when a rash of season-ending ankle injuries decimated the teams running back depth.
On defense, from his linebacker position, Dimitrijevs, a captain, had a stellar campaign. He intercepted three passes and earned first-team All-Southwestern Conference and second-team All-District honors.
In the classroom Joe-D finished high school with a 4.4 GPA. He is off to Ohio State in about a month. And he is a model citizen off the field, which in all probability played a part as to how and why that letter arrived back in April.
New Teammates
There was only one other player from Ohio on his team, a young man from Urichsville Claymont. “I met one kid in the Cleveland airport. One in the Dallas airport, and the rest I didn’t meet until we got to Australia,” said Dimitrijevs.
Here’s the kicker. Joe-D traveled solo.
While in Australia it wasn’t all football. “Surfer’s Paradise is pretty touristy. It’s a vacation spot. We went to the beach a lot when we weren’t playing. One day we went to The Great Barrier Reef. I went snorkeling and saw some real cool fish, very colorful. I didn’t see any sharks however I did see some sea turtles. And it was freezing,” Dimitrijevs said of the Pacific Oceans water temperature. “Another day we went to a wildlife sanctuary. That was pretty cool. I got to hold a Koala.”
On the field football action was the way Joe-D prefers it. “The first game was like an all-star game. But the championship game felt like playing in a conference championship. Things got chippy. Guys were scrapping,” said Dimitrijevs. “It was a nice stadium, and there weren’t a lot of fans except for parents. The field was artificial turf that was more than ten years old.”
Well-Traveled
This wasn’t Dimitrijevs’ first trip out of the country. “In my junior year I went on a mission trip to Honduras with St. Basil’s,” Joe-D said.
Dimitrijevs, 18, was not only away from home, but a world away for 12 days. His return trip took him from Brisbane to Sydney, to Honolulu. Then to Dallas and eventually he landed at Hopkins. There was, however, a detour about halfway through the return trip. “On the way home we stopped in Hawaii for a few days. That was our vacation. Up until then it was all business,” said a tanned and well-rested Dimitrijevs.
It’s not likely that a college professor will ask students what they did on their summer vacation on the first day of classes at OSU. But if one does it would be difficult to top Joe-D’s once-in-a-lifetime experience. “I definitely met a lot of cool people,” said Joe-D.
And what was it like to put the pads on again and bang heads in an international bowl game in a country where people refer to friends as mates and see kangaroos eating from their rose gardens on a regular basis? “I pretty much came to terms that I was done with football. So it was great to play two more games,” Dimitrijevs said. “The highlight was the football. It was definitely exciting to play football again. I really missed it. I didn’t realize how much fun it was.”
Well-Grounded
The world was Joe-D’s oyster this year, and even though his travels took him to the far reaches of the globe his heart never left, nor will it, the area just outside the coaches office. “My best memory of playing for the Bees … Once at two-a-days, between practices, we were listening to music and we started chucking food at each other over the wall. It got pretty intense,” Joe-D said.
Dimitrijevs played three years of varsity football and also ran hurdles and pole vaulted for the Bees in the spring. But this past spring – and summer – are ones he will remember for the rest of his life. And it is all because of the letter that arrived that day in April? “It was from the Down Under Sports organization and it said I was invited. I couldn’t pass it up,” said Dimitrijevs with a smile.
The Place … Surfer’s Paradise, Australia is a suburb of Gold Coast City in Queensland, on the Pacific Ocean. It’s population is a touch over 20,000. The city has a impressive skyline of gleaming glass buildings and high-rise apartments. Its’ wide surf beaches are its calling card. On an average day over 20,000 visitors flock to the place. Once a year the city hosts “Schoolies Week”, the Australian version of spring break. And for good reason. The temperature, on a cool day, is 63 degrees. The average high is 77.
The Event … The Down Under Bowl was played for the 25th time this year. The event was established in 1989 “to promote gridiron (American football) to the people of New Zealand and Australia,” according to the organizations website. In addition to being an outstanding student and solid citizen, how good of a football player do you have to be in order to receive an invitation to play in the Down Under Bowl? Jake “The Snake” Plummer and Ahman Green are alumnus.
G’day mate.
See You At The Bee Hive!
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