I told you!

In August, when the 2024 season was about to start, we started our preview section with the words, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

The past 10 weeks have delivered on that promise with major events and happenings that will forever remain in the News-Herald’s coverage.

“We are just days away from the start of the 2024 play-off season and we stand by our original prediction: You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Let’s summarize what we’ve seen so far:

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

• Mentor players vowed to avenge last season’s defeats and did so against St. Louis. They did it by beating Ignatius and Cleveland Heights. (The third, Riverside, is not on the program this year). The Cardinals play the Wildcats on Nov. 1, an opportunity to knock St. Ignatius out of the playoffs like they did against Mentor last year.

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

• Speaking of dealing with potentially devastating injuries, Kirtland lost quarterback Jake LaVerde in a Week 6 win over Fairview and is 4-0 since LaVerde’s injury, outscoring four opponents 165-17 and keeping no pace. He didn’t miss it.

• Chagrin Falls went 7-3 and qualified for the playoffs in a COVID-free year for the first time since 2013; and most of all

• Twenty-one — 21! – One of the 29 football schools in the region will begin postseason play starting this weekend.

There is also a lot of interesting information about the region’s players who made it to the postseason:

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

• Iker Amaro of Chardon moved to Geauga County from Mexico two years ago. He’s a nearly 4.0 student and is starting at receiver and safety for the Hilltoppers. This year he was elected team captain.

• Madison has a handful of entrepreneurs on her team. Kellan Schwartz has his own landscaping business. He employs two teammates to do mulching, tree planting and lawn care. Chase White also owns a lawn care business. They are both young. Senior Ben Amos buys and sells clothing, shoes and sporting goods on Ebay and Etsy.

• Every June, a group of Geneva football players practice “Safety Town” at Platt R. Spencer Elementary School. The purpose of this program is to educate students in the lowest grades about basic safety in society. Actors perform anti-bullying skits for kindergarten and first grade students. The program is assisted by Resource Officer Joe Cooper, who is also the middle school football coach.

• Theo Dengler The varsity senior is a two-way starter who is among the area leaders in sacks. He is a National Merit semifinalist working on an independent historical research project on Mary Magdeline’s iconography in early Christianity, exploring “the broad range of interpretations of her life constructed to reflect the values ​​of different Christian denominations at different times.” periods.”

• NDCL has five siblings on its team: Ryan and Robby Lipowski, Connor and Brendan Hernan, Brendan and Kellan Donnelly, Caiden and Jackson Kovacs and Jake and Sam Begovic. Moreover, the Lions have 11 players with older brothers who previously played in the program: Zach Bores (Greg Bores ’24), Carmen Cirino (Caleb Cirino ’24), Tobias Roach (Anthony Roach class ’24), Brayden Buell, (Burke Buell class ’24). 23), Collin O’Brien (Brendan O’Brien ’23, Triston O’Brien ’21), James Koenig (Jacob Koenig class ’22), Vance Marut (Cole Marut, ’22), Dylan Hoenigman (Dan Hoeningman, ’22). 20), Will Jacobson (Spencer Jacobson ’20), Angelo Tamburrino (Robert Tamburrino ’20), and James Nguyen (Johnny Nguyen ’20).

• Micah Linn of Mayfield is a junior who played as a goalie on the football team last year. He changed things up this year and is now a two-way starter on the varsity football team’s offensive and defensive lines.

• Hawken senior offensive tackle Manan Raina is a champion chess player who has won many chess tournaments.

• Noah Conley is a busy man on Friday nights. He is a senior offensive lineman at Mentor and is also a member of the Mentor marching band, performing at halftime.

When we add it all up, the 2024 football season has given us things we have never seen before, both from a team and individual perspective. With up to six weeks of postseason play remaining, we stand by the prediction we made in mid-August.

You haven’t seen anything yet!

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