It was a high school football season like no other.

I told you so!

Back in August, when the 2024 season was set to kick off, we began our preview section with the words, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The past 10 weeks have delivered on that promise, with highlights and events that will forever go down in News-Herald history.

With the 2024 playoff season just days away, we’ll stick with our original prediction: “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Let’s recap what we’ve seen so far:

• Three area teams finished the regular season a perfect 10-0 — Mentor, Lake Catholic and Kirtland. All three enter postseason play as the top teams in the state according to the Associated Press poll.

• The mentor players vowed to avenge last season’s losses and did so by beating St. Ignatius and Cleveland Heights. (The third, “Riverside,” is not on the schedule this year). The Cardinals will play the Wildcats on Nov. 1, giving them the opportunity to oust St. Ignatius from the playoffs as they did to Mentor last year.

• VASJ has a 1,000-yard rusher, and it’s not Bo Jackson, the Ohio State kicker who injured his knee in the first quarter of the Vikings’ Week 4 win over Kenston and didn’t (and won’t) return. In his absence, TJ Moore rushed for over 1,000 yards.

• Speaking of overcoming potentially catastrophic injuries, Kirtland lost quarterback Jake LaVerde in a Week 6 win over Fairview and didn’t miss a beat, going 4-0 and outscoring those four opponents 165-17 since LaVerde was injured.

• Chagrin Falls went 7-3 and made the playoffs in a non-Covid-19 year for the first time since 2013; and to top it all off

• Twenty one – 21! — The region’s 29 high school football schools will begin postseason play starting this weekend.

There are also many interesting facts about the region’s players making it to the postseason, such as:

• Jake Evans of Chagrin Falls earned Eagle Scout status earlier this week. His service project was to create maps of South Russell Park.

• Chardon player Iker Amaro moved to Geauga County from Mexico two years ago. He is a nearly 4.0 student and starts at wide receiver and defensive back for the Hilltoppers. This year he was chosen as team captain.

• There are several entrepreneurs on Madison’s team. Kellan Schwartz has his own landscaping business. He employs two of his teammates to mulch, plant trees, and maintain lawns. Chase White also does lawn care. Both are juniors. Sr. Ben Amos buys and sells clothing, shoes and sporting goods on Ebay and Etsy.

• Every June, a group of Geneva football players runs a “Safety Town” at Platt R. Spencer Elementary School. This program is designed to teach elementary school students the basics of community safety. Players act out anti-bullying skits for kindergarteners and first graders. The program is assisted by resource specialist Joe Cooper, who is also a high school football coach.

• Theo Dengler is a varsity graduate and two-way starter who ranks among the area leaders in sacks. He is a National Merit Award semi-finalist and is working on an independent historical research project on the iconography of Mary Magdelene in early Christianity to examine “the wide range of interpretations of her life that have been shaped to reflect the values ​​of different Christian sects at different times.” periods.”

• There are five pairs of brothers on the NDCL team – Ryan and Robbie Lipovsky, Connor and Brendan Hernan, Brendan and Kellan Donnelly, Kayden and Jackson Kovacs, and Jake and Sam Begovich. On top of that, the Lions have 11 players who had older brothers who previously played in the program – Zach Bores (Greg Bores ’24), Carmen Sirino (Caleb Sirino ’24), Tobias Roach (Anthony Roach’s class, 24 years old), Braden. Buell (Burke Buell ’23), Colleen O’Brien (Brendan O’Brien ’23, Triston O’Brien ’21), James Koenig (Jacob Koenig ’22), Vance Marut (Cole Marut ’23) 22), Dylan Hoeningman (Dan Hoeningman ’20), Will Jacobson (Spencer Jacobson ’20), Angelo Tamburrino (Robert Tamburrino ’20) and James Nguyen (Johnny Nguyen ’20).

• Mayfield’s Micah Lynn is a junior who played goalie for the varsity soccer team last year. This year he turned things around and is now a two-way starter on the varsity football team on the offensive and defensive lines.

• Hoken senior attacker Manan Raina is a chess champion who has won several chess tournaments.

• Noah Conley is a busy guy on Friday nights. He is a senior offensive lineman at Mentor and is also a member of the Mentor Marching Band and performs at halftime.

Add it all up, and—from both a team and individual perspective—the 2024 football season has given us something we’ve never seen before. And with six more weeks of postseason play remaining, we’re sticking with the forecast we made back in mid-August.

You haven’t seen anything yet!

Kampf can be reached at [email protected]; via X to @NHPreps and @JKampf_NH