Valley Christian coming off

Division VII playoff berth

By Brian Dzenis

bdzenis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The theme for the senior class at Valley Christian this year is changing the culture.

A case can be made that the Eagles’ house is already in order coming off a Division VII playoff appearance under co-head coaches Jeff Hether and Jomont Ware, but changing mindsets isn’t something limited to looking inward.

Valley Christian, 5-6 last season, wants respect.

“I want it to be looked at as a respected school, as a feared opponent and as a noble competitor. I want Valley Christian to be looked at as a school that kids out of junior high want to come to,” senior safety Jordan Trowers said. “Ursuline and Mooney have this prestige with their name and I can see Valley Christian becoming that school and I’ll be proud to say I helped start that foundation.”

Should any team forget to respect the Eagles, there’s some uncommonly large players to put it back in place.

“We have some pretty big kids for a D-VII team,” Ware said. “They’ve taken their lumps last year. You see them and you should think they’re really really good, but they were raw in terms of game experience. Those lumps they took should help them this year.”

OFFENSE

It’s going to be difficult to find an opponent whom the Eagles have a size disadvantage against in the trenches. There’s 6-foot-6, 278-pound senior tackle Terrell Walker, 6-4, 280-pound junior tackle De’Mar Brown and sophomore guard Eric Davis, who is 6-4, 285 pounds and has already seen Michigan contact VC to inquire about him. Senior center Bryce Revis and junior guard Warren Harris round out the starting five. The 6-5 Milan Square, who is pursuing basketball as his college sport of choice, is competing with fellow senior Greg Murray to replace the graduated Marcus Roman at quarterback. Whomever doesn’t get the job will likely start at wide receiver.

“As long as I have a job on the team, that’s it,” Square said. “It doesn’t matter which one of us gets the job. We all just want to contribute to the team and help as much as we can.”

Senior Altwjuan Beck-Lindsay and sophomore Izaiah McKinley are expected to handle the running back duties. At wideout, the Eagles have depth and size. The 6-2 Trowers can help out at wideout. Senior Melvin Neail is a new addition to the team after the 6-4 athlete was previously just playing basketball and 6-3 senior Jaylen Brown is a returning player.

DEFENSE

The centerpiece of the Eagles’ defense is Trowers. The strong safety has offers from the Air Force Academy and Indiana State and if he has a big year, more offers are coming his way.

“There’s a lot of traffic. I get calls from Cornell about him. Cincinnati tells me they want to watch his senior year,” Ware said.

A 4.0 student, Trowers is described as someone with a football IQ so high, that it can sometimes be troublesome.

“He overthinks things and he’ll talk to kids and tell them what to do and I’ll have to explain to him how he should be talking to them,” Ware said. “He’s a really bright kid.”

Trowers will pair with Neail as safeties. Walker and Harris are the mainstays of the defensive line with the team’s o-linemen rotating in.

Beck-Lindsey, Brown, McKinley and Dorian Cox figure to get the linebacker reps in the team’s 4-3 defense.

Senior Damon Christian and sophomore Tyrone Lindsey will start at cornerback.

SPECIAL TEAMS

First there was Peyton. Then there was Logan. This year, meet Chloe Schnabl. The sophomore is the third female kicker in the school’s history following her older siblings. Sophomore Nasir Long will handle punts and kickoffs.