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Kick start: Fitch’s Sheely to YSU
AUSTINTOWN
Austintown Fitch senior Nick Sheely was beginning to get worried.
It was the eve of National Signing Day and the kicking specialist was still without a school to kick for next season.
That was until he finally got the phone call he’d been waiting for from his hometown school on Tuesday.
“I was doing a lot of running today between Coach [Phil] Annarella’s office and class,” Sheely said. “I guess Coach [Ron] Stoops and Coach [Eric] Wolford were seeing what they could put together.”
Then, with the school day winding down, the stress turned to relief when Youngstown State officially offered Sheely a scholarship to play football there.
It turned out it was well worth the wait.
“It was getting a little bit stressful, but I’m excited to stay home and kick for the Penguins,” he said.
Sheely is the first, and likely only, local player to join Youngstown State as part of this year’s recruiting class when the verbal commitments become signed national letters of intent today.
Sheely said conversations with the YSU coaches began before last season but had become more frequent over the last couple of months.
“He’s a tremendous young man,” Annarella said. “They’re getting a young man who can do all three things — he can kickoff, he can punt, and he can kick field goals — and he does them all very well.”
A member of the soccer team at Fitch as well, Sheely said he felt he had his best season kicking this past year with the Falcons.
It didn’t hurt that Fitch finished with its first undefeated regular season in school history before getting knocked out of the playoffs in a Division I state quarterfinal game to St. Edwards.
“The big thing about Nick is he attended offseason weight lifting and offseason conditioning before last season,” Annarella said. “You know he didn’t just strut out onto the field on Friday’s and kick for us. He was a part of the team and really had a great relationship with his teammates.”
Sheely may find himself in a favorable situation to contribute in at least one of the three special teams areas when he enrolls in school early this June.
The Penguins appear to be set at kicker with Joey Cejudo assuming the field goal duties once again for his senior year.
However the loss of all-conference punter and kickoff specialist Nick Liste to graduation has left an opening that Sheely hopes he can fill.
“I’m gonna get in there early for summer classes and start working with the long snapper [Nathan Gibbs],” Sheely said. “Liste left some pretty big shoes to fill, but hopefully I can begin to do that.”
In addition to the open competition at YSU, Sheely liked the idea of staying close to home. He said it’ll be nice to have his “Falcons Family” around even if a member of his other family wasn’t thrilled.
“I don’t think my sister was too happy when I told here I’ll be sticking around,” Sheely said with a laugh. “She wants me out of the house.”