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Ursuline football means togetherness
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Larry Kempe, Ursuline Coach and his son Paul Kempe.
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URsuline football player Trevor Smith, left, and is father Ursuline coach Rollen Smith.
Ursuline Vs. Liberty Union
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By Joe Scalzo
Fathers, sons and brothers have been bonding during an unbeaten season.
YOUNGSTOWN — Larry Kempe has been coaching other parents’ children for 34 years at stops in Niles, Girard, Mathews, Leetonia and, for the past five years, as Ursuline’s defensive coordinator.
His oldest son, Paul, started roaming the sidelines at Niles as a waterboy when he was 4.
“I’ve been with him ever since,” said Paul, a sophomore quarterback for the Irish. “It’s good, but he’s tough on me. He’s probably tougher on me than he is on any of the other players.”
Today is Thanksgiving, a day to spend time with family. When Dan Reardon was hired at Ursuline five years ago, the program had a lot of talented players and a lot of success, but there was a sense it wasn’t a family, that it had changed since the days of Dick Angle.
“As a younger kid growing up, you knew the Ursuline players and you were always around them,” said Irish assistant Michael Frasco, a former All-Steel Valley player under Angle who graduated in 1994. “The seniors knew the seventh- and eighth-graders names. For four or five years, we had good players but it wasn’t what Ursuline was when I was here.
“Now it’s back to how it used to be. There’s a family atmosphere.”
Frasco should know. His younger brother, 2005 Ursuline graduate Andrew Frasco, is also an assistant for the Irish. Three Irish assistants have sons on the team. Another has a son on staff.
Donald Hall once wrote, “Baseball is fathers and sons. Football is brothers beating each other up in the backyard.”
At Ursuline, football is both. Through grueling practices under the August sun to this week’s practices in the snow, the Irish players and coaches have spent the last four months growing into a family.
But, in a few cases, they already were. Here are those stories.
Larry and Paul Kempe
Paul, who splits time at quarterback with junior Dawalyn Harper, has thrown for 800 yards this season for the Irish (14-0), who will play Findlay Liberty-Benton in Saturday’s Division V state final.
“I’m very proud of the way he’s stepped up and played for us as a sophomore,” Larry said. “He’s played his role the best he can and the offensive coaches have a lot of confidence in him.”
As Paul was being interviewed earlier this week, Reardon interrupted and yelled, “Why don’t you tell him where you got your athletic ability?”
Paul laughed.
“Everyone tells me I get my athletic ability from my mom,” he said. “He denies it.”
“In his day,” his dad yelled over, “his father was a player.”
As they did last year, Larry and Paul will spend the first part of Thanksgiving burning calories and the second half consuming them.
“We’re better off here than we are at home,” Larry said. “After we take care of business, we’ll go home.”
Michael and Andrew Frasco
Michael Frasco has been on the staff at Ursuline the past four years. He had a chance to coach under Jim Vivo a few years ago but turned it down because he wanted to watch his brother play.
“I wanted to be a fan,” Michael said.
After Andrew graduated, Reardon offered him a job coaching tight ends and the defensive line. By then, he was ready to come back. A year later, Andrew joined the staff after coaching for a season at North Catholic.
“It’s weird because I played for him for so long,” said Andrew, who coaches tight ends and safeties. “But now I get to coach with him. It’s a lot of fun.”
“We even take it home and talk about things away from the other coaches,” added Michael.
Rollen and Trevor Smith
Over the last 19 years, Rollen Smith has become an Ursuline staple, like Catholicism or green uniforms. The Wilson High graduate had a standout college career at Arkansas and spent four years in the NFL before he joined Angle.
His youngest son, Trevor, is a freshman for the Irish, while his oldest son, Rollen III, is 23.
“He’s a knucklehead,” Rollen said of Trevor. “He’s a typical freshman. Silly. Immature. I coach him, but I try to watch him at the same time.”
A few feet away, Trevor smiled and shook his head when he heard his dad’s comments.
“He tells me to stay humble, work hard and always be respectful,” Trevor said. “He’s a good mentor.”
Smith is the Director of Detention for the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center. He’s seen the worst side of teenagers, which is why he spends so much of his life trying to bring out their best side.
“It’s all about the kids because the kids are the future,” said Rollen, who coaches the running backs and cornerbacks. “It’s all about family. With family you’ve got to be hard on them, but love them at the same time.”
Bradly and Brad Turnbull
Brad Turnbull spent much of the 1990s as the defensive coordinator at Campbell Memorial where his son, Bradly, was a water boy. When Bradly started high school, Brad took a break from coaching so he could watch his son play.
“I wanted to enjoy it with my wife,” Brad said. “I wanted to be a parent, not a coach.”
After graduating from Ursuline in 2005, Bradly joined the Irish as a freshman coach that fall. Meanwhile, his father spent that season going to games and, in his words, feeling “kind of lost.”
“I had coached so long,” he said. “I missed it.”
Reardon offered him a job coaching inside linebackers and a chance to spend more time with his son. Bradly, who coaches linebackers and running backs for the freshman team, will graduate from YSU with a nursing major in the spring and plans to pursue anesthesiology.
“I look at it like, how many other fathers get the opportunity to spend time with their 22-year-old son?” Turnbull said. “I took advantage of the situation.
“It’s been great.”
Kevin Cylar Sr. and Kevin Jr.
Kevin Sr. was coaching track at Chaney a few years ago when he met Reardon, who was then the head track at Warren Harding. They spent miserable early-season track meets together, bonding under team tents, avoiding the rain and snow.
Two years ago, Kevin Sr. joined Reardon’s staff as a freshman coach, where he now coaches his oldest son, Kevin Jr.
“I’ve coached him since little league,” Cylar said. “He’s pretty much tired of hearing my voice now, so I let the other guys coach him.
“But it’s hard. Sometimes I have to say something to him like, ‘Why don’t you try doing it this way?’ ”
His son, who plays wide receiver and defensive back, said part of his motivation to succeed is to impress his father.
“I always want to do real good,” he said. “I try to see what he’s thinking and try to impress him.”
Kevin Sr. admits he’s not as knowledgeable as the other Irish coaches — “I’m still learning from these guys,” he said — but treasures the opportunity to be with his son — and the rest of the Irish coaches and players.
“It’s really like having another family,” he said. “Like being married, without the in-law thing. You can’t help but love all the guys. We know each other’s personal life and what’s going on, the ins and outs.
“I know I can go to any of these coaches for anything and they’d be there for me or my family. Credit Coach Reardon because he had the presence of mind to put us all together.”
scalzo@vindy.com