By Mr. Eddie Dwyer, Copyright Credit August 2016
Cleveland, Ohio - As they went through Tuesday afternoon's practice on Wasmer Field, the 2016 Varsity Football Wildcats were all business.
There was no need for any extra encouragement, no hollering or verbal shots.
Simply put, Saint Ignatius knows what lies ahead in Friday's 7 PM season opener versus the host Normandy Invaders on Byers Field in Parma's Robert M. Boulton Stadium.
It's a case of going out, establishing the superiority, keeping the first team sharp and then playing the second and third units for the majority of the night on Ridge Road and Day Drive.
Once that is taken care of, the focus will turn to one of the biggest games of the season, the Week 2 matchup with the Mentor Cardinals on September 3 at 7 PM, also on Byers Field.
The Football 'Cats have lost three consecutive games to the Cardinals - a 2013 playoff encounter on a frigid night at Byers Field, a regular season setback at Byers Field in 2014 and the 63-56 regular season shootout at the OK Corral last fall, aka Mentor's Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium.
But we'll get back to that next week.
As for the always big-hearted, we'll step to the plate Normandy Invaders, the past six seasons have produced little or no success.
After a 1-9 fall in 2010, the Invaders were 3-7 in 2011, 2-8 in 2012 and 0-10 in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Normandy's last victory on the Varsity level came in Week 9 of 2012, a 12-7 triumph over Valley Forge. The Invaders will enter Friday night's matchup with Saint Ignatius on a 31-game losing streak.
It wasn't that long ago when Normandy was a major player in the OHSAA Division II football playoffs.
In the fall of 2007, the Invaders, behind the play of All-Ohio senior two-way standout Russ Galeti and gifted sophomore Jake Squirek, advanced to the third round of the playoffs before losing a hard-fought game to an outstanding Mayfield team, 12-7.
Galeti is the son of former longtime television and radio sports personality Chuck Galeti and Squirek is the son of former Cuyahoga Heights, Illinois and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders linebacker Jack Squirek, who made one of the biggest plays in Super Bowl history - an interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl VXIII versus the Washington Redskins. Jack found himself on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Normandy also qualified for the football playoffs in 2005, 2004 and 1981. The Invaders followed their highly successful 2007 season with 5-5 efforts in both 2008 and 2009.
They say if there's a will, there's a way. And Normandy certainly has plenty of will. The Invaders face an all-too-familiar concern, however, a lack of depth.
Formerly a member of the Northeast Ohio Conference, Normandy joined Parma Senior, Valley Forge, Holy Name, Rocky River, Bay and Elyria Catholic in forming the Great Lakes Conference in 2015.
Friday will mark only the second time that the Invaders and the Wildcats are meeting on the Varsity gridiron. In last year's season opener at Byers Field, Saint Ignatius, going to its bench early and often, defeated Normandy, 63-7. It marked the third time since 2002 that the 'Cats surpassed 60 points in a game.
In 2007, Saint Ignatius defeated Buffalo Canisius, 64-0, and in 2002, Brian Hoyer (now with the Chicago Bears), current Wildcats Wide Receivers Coach Josiah "Juice" Kedzior and Company dominated Fremont Ross, 63-14.
In 1988, the 'Cats defeated Cleveland John F. Kennedy, 75-0. Current Saint Ignatius Quarterbacks Coach Jim Cahill will recall that night. However, the following week the Wildcats won a heart-pounder over Valley Forge, 14-3. Can you say Pickens to Friend? Just a little trivia from Saint Ignatius' first of a record 11 Division I State Championship seasons.
COACH CHUCK KYLE ON THE 2016 NORMANDY INVADERS
"Their kids play hard," said the area's most successful high school coach and the most successful Division I Coach in all of Northeast Ohio.
"We exchanged scrimmage films and their kids definitely play hard and their coaches are working hard to get their program over that hump. And sometimes that's hard to do. They play a good schedule. How do you solve that (six consecutive tough seasons)? You just keep working hard and keep the faith, and I think they're doing that. So that's a lot of credit to them.
"We have a great relationship with the Parma athletic people and it's great that we have this relationship, where we can use Byers Field the way we do," continued the man who moved from Munster, Indiana and spent much of his youth growing up in Parma. Coach Kyle is a member of the Parma Sports Hall of Fame. It's (Byers Field) a great high school stadium and for our fans I think it's easy to get to, from the West Side and the East Side.
"We like to play a lot of guys this time of the year, because we need to develop depth, get the guys out there and get some work done," Coach Kyle said. "Yeah, there's a first team. There is no doubt about that. But we need to get some of the other guys on that field to help with the depth. In the scrimmage against Canton McKinley (Thursday night of last week), the first team played well. I think all of the kids realized, however, when we got to the second and third groups there were some mistakes made.
"So we worked on cleaning those up this week and now those guys (the second and third units) want to get on that field and play. So that's what we're going to plan on doing."