By TOM WILLIAMS

August 25, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBIANA

In his 20th season as Columbiana High’s head football coach, Bob Spaite’s major task is replacing key players who have graduated.

“This is one of those years where we’ve got [only] four [starters] back on offense and three on defense,” Spaite said. “We lost some key players, guys who were a major part of our program for three years.

“Brandon Hacker jumps out at you,” said Spaite, who retired from teaching and as athletic director in June. “Britton Steiginga was hugely exciting.

“We had a host of others who really had good careers, were part of some really good football teams, some really good wins.”

Hacker and Steiginga were the Clippers’ Thunder and Lightning on offense, earning Inter Tri-County League, Northeastern district and state honors.

“You can never actually replace a player like Hacker,” said senior Steve Kurilla, an offensive lineman and inside linebacker. “He was the hardest worker of everybody on the team.

“We’ve just got to try being like him working as hard as he did and pull along the underclassmen because we’re really going to need them this year.”

Spaite isn’t ready to hang up his whistle.

“In 35 years of teaching and 40 years of coaching, I have never ever felt like I had to go to work,” he said. “And as long as I still feel this way, I’m going to stay with it.”

OFFENSE

Experience is lacking here.

“We have a very small group of seniors,” Spaite said, referring to his seven seniors. “There are a lot of question marks.”

Kurilla will be one of the tackles. Also back on the offensive line are senior Dillon Randolph and sophomore Jacob Hupp at guard.

Spaite said Eamon Eavers and Dillon Ferraro are competing for time at wide receiver.

Chris Durk, R.J. Rankin and Mike Tiller will see time in the Clippers’ backfield.

DEFENSE

Tiller has shifted from linebacker to defensive end where he’ll be joined by returning starters Mike Buzzard and John Cramer.

Kurilla and Hupp return at linebacker while the defensive backfield will be staffed by newcomers.

OUTLOOK

After a year away, Columbiana is back in the Inter Tri-County League Tier One. Southern also moved up while Jackson-Milton and Mineral Ridge were moved to Tier Two.

“As for the league, that’s just an adventure,” Spaite said. “The way we’ve structured our league is interesting.

“The 16 teams we have, I think, are 16 pretty good football teams. Sometimes, some years, some are really, really up. Right now, Crestview is really riding the wave.

“Western Reserve has been really riding the wave. A couple of years ago, it was South Range and McDonald. We’ve all had our moments.”

Kurilla agrees.

“Honestly, the lower tier, in my opinion, was just as hard as the upper tier,” Kurilla said. “The upper tier, we don’t really know that much about [those] teams because we skipped a year. We’ll see how it goes.”