Line Leaders

This past summer, Hernando Christian Academy football coach David Raley was not sure whether he would have a football team this year.

A bevy of players from last year's team either decided not to play football or left the school.

But now, with his team having gone through the regular season with a 9-0 record and preparing to play Mt. Dora Bible School this Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Villages High School for the Sunshine State Athletic Conference title, Raley said the one key factor in all that happened this year was his offensive line.

"No, I didn't and the reason is I didn't think I would have to depend on them so much," said second-year Coach Raley when asked if he knew early on his line would be so good. "In the spring, I had good receivers, huge running backs, a good offensive line and a strong linebacker core. I had 40 kids. We had everything you needed to have for a good football team."

But that was in the spring. During the summer, 16 players left the program, leaving Raley with just his offensive line in tact.

"It was like when you trim a tree. It's got these beautiful branches, but when you cut them all the way, what you have left is this sturdy truck," Raley said. "For us, our offensive line has been the backbone of this team."

That offensive line, made up of tight end Garrett Mikkola, tackles Josh Romeo and Kevin Wilcher, guards Josh Westfall and Ben Clark and center Ethan Whitten, has helped make the Lions only the second team to go unbeaten in the regular season in Hernando County history.

The Lions average 35.3 points a game, 270 yards rushing and have gained more than 3,200 yards of total offense in nine games.

"We have good skills, our boys know what they're doing," said Raley. "Their fundamentals are better than anyone we play. We know if we can pound on them long enough, we could win."

With offensive line coach Tom Sandusky running the unit, he says his group has played beyond his expectations.

Sandusky, a native of Pennsylvania who came to HCA as a volunteer in the program's second year after reading a story in the paper about the Lions, said having such a smart group of players is a huge advantage.

"We have blocking rules that we follow on every play and because they are so smart, I've been able to put things in so we can pull and trap on almost every play," Sandusky said.

With a bunch of veterans, the Lions have a unit that makes Raley's job a lot easier.

"If you're knocking them nine or ten yards a play with each handoff, that's an incredible blessing," Raley said. "If we didn't have that, we would be doomed."

Raley then described what he thought of each lineman.

"Garrett Mikkola is a three-sport player who is close to 300 pounds and has incredible soft hands," Raley said. "He's a good blocker, has quick feet and he's my best receiver.

"Ben Clark is a fantastic kid. He plays guard for us but he played four games at tight end this year. His mom and dad are teachers here at HCA and he's a class kid.

"We call Josh Westfall Rocky because he's the rock that we built this on. He's someone who has been with us for years and the one kid we all think will become a CIA agent because he finds out everything about the next team we'll play. He's the leader of the offensive line and makes most of the blocking calls for them.

"Ethan Whitten is a solid center for us and he's the last kid remaining from when the program started five years ago. His mom and dad teach at the school and I don't think we've had one miss-snap all year because of him.

"Kevin Wilcher is probably the smartest person on the football team. He'll probably end up the valedictorian of the school. His dad played college football at West Virginia and Kevin just started playing ball. But over the summer he hit the weight room and came out and blew us away with his ability to knock people over.

"Josh Romeo is an exceptional athlete. He came to us along with David Rotteveel from Hudson and he would be my quarterback if anything happened to David. He's a pitcher in baseball and he wants to play soccer this year. Everybody loves him and he's the guy we depend on."

With this unit, the Lions are now one game from having a perfect season, and Coach Raley said they are the reason the Lions are in Saturday's title game.

"They are a smart group of kids, they are hard workers, they are intelligent and it allows us to do a lot of things," Raley said.

"It's like a story we've had all season. Coach Sandusky sometime during the game will tell me, 'They have nine guys in the box.' I then tell him, 'When they put 11 guys in there, we'll stop running the ball.'"