As a former captain and two-way standout for Saint Ignatius High School who went on to further his education and football career for The Ohio State University, Ryan Franzinger ’02 has a firm grasp on every element of the game, both on and off the field.

And, as both a head junior varsity and assistant varsity coach, and the Assistant to the Dean of Students Rory Hennessey ’78 at Saint Ignatius, Coach Franzinger appreciates the unlimited and surprising potential that always accompanies youth.

That pleasantly surprising potential and progress came to the fore this fall for Coach Franzinger’s junior varsity team.

A group of young men who will be the first to tell you that they struggled as freshmen, the Wildcats’ jayvees bounced back and finished 7-3 this season by winning six of their last seven games, including an impressive 14-6 victory over St. Xavier’s junior varsity in Cincinnati.

No, their season didn’t end the way they had hoped – a loss to a very talented St. Edward junior varsity on a cold, windy and rainy Saturday morning at Wasmer Field.

However, as Coach Franzinger emphasized throughout the season, when you talk about the 2012 Saint Ignatius junior varsity you speak in terms of progress.

“Congratulations to St. Ed, they really played well,” Coach Franzinger said after the Eagles’ jayvees, behind quarterback Kyle Shurmur, running back Andrew Dowell and defensive back Mike Walsh, defeated the Wildcats, 25-0.

“They took advantage of mistakes and they forced mistakes on our part,” Coach Franzinger continued. “After the game, I looked at it in two ways. I looked at today and then I looked at the season, and I think the season is much more bright than today. Today, we made costly mistakes. The special units turned it over, we threw interceptions, we fumbled and we didn’t tackle very well.

“But those kids (the ‘Cats’ sophomores) are now varsity players,” said Coach Franzinger. “They worked hard throughout the season and they worked hard in the offseason. Give credit to Mr. Joe Eynon, our strength coach. He works hard with our kids and I am confident that for the next two years they’ll contribute to this (varsity) program and do well.

“You can’t always look at the quantity, you look at the quality of a football player and I think the quality has improved,” Coach Franzinger continued. “And I told the kids, that’s a by-product of your work (the 6 of 7 wins). We weren’t in there doing things for them. You have to work on your own and they did that with Mr. Eynon. You don’t get better just by time passing, you have to work.

“As Woody Hayes always said, you get better or you get worse, you don’t stay the same. And I think our kids got better.”

*On a personal note, I would like to THANK Coach Franzinger and his staff, Athletic Director Rory Fitzpatrick ’88, the entire Saint Ignatius Administration and all of the players from the 2012 Wildcats junior varsity football team and their families, for the privilege to cover and report on the JV ‘Cats.

If Coach Hayes was still with us, I would tell him a story about a group of young men on West 30th and Lorain Avenue who truly got better as each day went on.