2019 GMC Football

Who wins the very competitive GMC this year after a wild offseason

  • Colerain

    Votes: 45 68.2%
  • Fairfield

    Votes: 2 3.0%
  • Hamilton

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lakota East

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lakota West

    Votes: 6 9.1%
  • Mason

    Votes: 3 4.5%
  • Middletown

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Oak Hills

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Princeton

    Votes: 10 15.2%
  • Sycamore

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    66
  • Poll closed .
'We've had enough' ... Bryant striving to lead Middletown to first winning football record since 2011

 
Check out 25 images from a recent Middletown football practice

 
Just wanted to know everyone's opinion on who will be the most improved team this year. I think it will be Middletown who has some talent on offense coming back and lost some close games last year. If they can learn how to finish games they might can get up to 5 wins this year
 
Just wanted to know everyone's opinion on who will be the most improved team this year. I think it will be Middletown who has some talent on offense coming back and lost some close games last year. If they can learn how to finish games they might can get up to 5 wins this year
Hamilton. With some good returner talent a new head coach
 
Every year... the same thing about Oak Hills joining a small school league just so their football team can win a couple extra games. Please stop with the lunacy. NO LEAGUE FULL OF D2 AND D3 SCHOOLS WILL INVITE ONE OF THE LARGEST SCHOOLS IN THE STATE TO DOMINATE THEM IN ALMOST EVERY SPORT. Your credibility goes down every time you bring up this ridiculous idea.
 
Every year... the same thing about Oak Hills joining a small school league just so their football team can win a couple extra games. Please stop with the lunacy. NO LEAGUE FULL OF D2 AND D3 SCHOOLS WILL INVITE ONE OF THE LARGEST SCHOOLS IN THE STATE TO DOMINATE THEM IN ALMOST EVERY SPORT. Your credibility goes down every time you bring up this ridiculous idea.
I agree it is absolutely ridiculous to suggest it. Whoever suggest it proves that his/her opinion is not to be taken serious.
 
Just wanted to know everyone's opinion on who will be the most improved team this year. I think it will be Middletown who has some talent on offense coming back and lost some close games last year. If they can learn how to finish games they might can get up to 5 wins this year

I'd like to see both Middletown and Hamilton see some success this year but especially the Middies. A lot of these players were in elementary school the last time the Middies were a factor in the GMC.

Definitely curious to see what Bolden can do at West.
 
Most improved should be Hamilton. It shouldn't be hard to win with all the talent they have, but something tells me it still will be. Still, they went 1-9 last year and it's easy to see them getting to something like 5-5, a 4-win improvement. They may not though.

Outside of that, I don't expect to see anybody with more than a 2-win increase. Princeton, on the field, was 6-4 last year. Not hard to see them going 8-2, which would be a 2-win improvement. It's also not hard to see similar 2-win improvements from Fairfield (7-3 to 9-1) or Sycamore (6-4 to 8-2) just from winning close games against other good teams. Lakota West could go from 4-6 to 6-4. I expect both Lakota East and Mason to win less this year.
 
I think the Colerain GMC run will end this year. Still lots of talent but I think the transition will be tougher than expected.
 
Heavy hearts in Cardinal Country.

Former Coach Don Colussi passed away on Tuesday of this week at the age of 81.

He was head coach in the 1980s and led the Cards to some upsets of Moeller. I believe was the last coach prior to the arrival of Kerry Coombs and was former coach Bolden's coach in high school?

Was also the long tenured coach of the baseball team and a nearly 40 year career English teacher at CHS.

Here is his obituary for anyone interested: https://www.charlesyoungfuneralhome.com/obituary/donald-colussi
 
I think you have to break the GMC down into tiers this season, with anybody being able to beat anybody on a given tier:

Elite

Colerain - Does everybody forget how much talent this team has? Deshawn Pace is the best returning defensive player in the league, they're going to be good on both lines with plenty of talent and experience returning, and I'm sure they will find good athletes to run their triple option. They aren't losing in the league.

Good

Princeton - Very good collection of top end talent being gathered, but also have some really good lesser known players like RB Thomas Boyd. The big question mark is will their coaching staff (and offensive and defensive schemes, playcalling, game management, etc.) be any better than the dumpster fire that it was last year? They also aren't going to be that deep, so any injuries to their top guys will hurt more.

Sycamore - Only lost 8 seniors from last years 6-4 team and everybody knows how good this staff is. I'm not sure there is a single FBS player on this team, but they have very good talent across all of the starting positions and should be the Sycamore team -with the fewest holes in quite some time. No depth as always, but don't count out Sycamore's ability to out-execute their opponents on both sides of the ball.

Fairfield - Jutahn McClain is the best offensive player in the league, and Ellis should be a good QB. Krause is a very good coach and they actually have decent talent back on defense.

Mediocre

Mason - The defense was the strength of their team last year, and only 2 starters return. The offensive core is back, but it was atrocious last year and Mason runs a very poor offensive scheme. Should have more depth than most, but just not enough top end talent and coaching to compete with the tiers above.

Lakota West - Yes, they aren't there yet. They were a complete dumpster fire on offense last year, and we have no idea what kind of offense Bolden is even going to run yet. If its the triple, top end talent isn't a necessity, but West also doesn't have the years of practice that the Colerain kids do running it. They do return 7 starters from a solid defense.

Meh

Lakota East - Only return 6 starters from last year's playoff team. They are solidly coached, but don't exactly have tremendous talent in the pipeline. They won't beat themselves, but their also not going to wow anybody.

Hamilton - They actually have a tremendous amount of offensive talent, with potentially 4 power five players at their offensive skill positions. For the love of all that we enjoy in football, can somebody make this a dynamic offense?

Bleh

Oak Hills - Will never have success in the GMC trying to chuck it around. Also can't play defense. Ever.

Middletown - Presumably, they will be better than they were last year.

I would put Lakota West in the GOOD category. Coach Cox had this year on his radar, The senior team is rich in talent and so is the Jr squad. I see an 8-2 season for the Firebirds, not sure how they handle the playoffs, they are looking good so far.
 
Still going to be Colerain who wins the conference. Seems people forget they return some really good talent on defense and those skill players on offense got snap last season as backups. They also have kids coming up from JV who I believe were apart of a 9-1 team last season including a wins over St. X and Fairfield. They will be just fine as long as Freddie plays the QB position well. I do know they have a very talented pro style QB they really like who will be a sophomore and may use him in some packages this season.
 
I agree it’s Colerains to lose, but West has Afari, Daved Jones Jr and picked up Daniel Caudill at QB from Moe. These seniors went 9-1 and juniors went 7-2-1 I believe. I feel Colerain has a tougher regular season schedule then West which could give West a leg up in the win-loss column. Very exciting season coming up.

It's conceivable that they could share the title since this happens to be the year they don't play in the conference slate.

Should have a better idea about West after weeks one and two as they face what could be a resurgent Lasalle and a Centerville team looking to put last year behind them.

Same with Colerain. If they come out 2-0 against Wayne and X I think it's fair to say they 'train is still on the tracks.

By the way-does anyone know if the GMC website is managed by a paid individual or a volunteer?

Most of the team schedules for football are still incomplete (don't know about the other sports).
 
BACK FOR MORE: Stephens working toward another huge season in Hamilton backfield

 
Stephens is a stud. Hamilton pretty much just needs to find a decent throwing quarterback that can hit some open receivers off play-action. That, unfortunately, was the huge problem last year. Sims-Marshall and Sowell should form a good receiving tandem if they could find that quarterback, but the QB may ultimately be one of them. They also should have a pretty good line. Sophomore Kaleb Johnson would provide depth in the backfield beyond Stephens as well. With a decent quarterback, Hamilton can get Stephens 25 carries per game and set teams up to gash them with the play-action pass. We'll see what kind of offense Mahon can install, but there are so many pieces in place for Hamilton to put up points.
 
By the way-does anyone know if the GMC website is managed by a paid individual or a volunteer?

Most of the team schedules for football are still incomplete (don't know about the other sports).

I think it is incumbent upon the coaches (or somebody in the athletic department) to upload the schedules onto the GMC website. Something tells me the coaches are a little busy to worry about that right now though.
 
Here is a look at the returning All-GMC players with their current class year.

First, let's take a look at the number of 1st team returners...

3231


Obviously, don't know if all of these kids are going to be back with these same schools. Colerain and Fairfield lead the way with 3 apiece including the 2018 Offensive AOY for the Indians in JuTahn McClain.

3232


Colerian and Fairfield once again lead the pack with FIVE returning 2nd teamers, however, they are joined by Big Blue also having 5 which puts Hamilton only having one less returning All-GMC player than the Indians and Cardinals. Interesting...

Here is your breakdown by school
3233


-CardinalsFan
 
That is what I thought as well. Aviator faithful??
Yep...his name was Drew Altemuehle. He didn't take a single snap in the Colerain game, which I found odd given his excellent performance the week before against Mason. Andrew Fehr ('21) would seem to be the next man in for Sycamore.

-CardinalsFan
 
Hamilton. With some good returner talent a new head coach
I went to see Turpin/Hamilton and I would like to retract my statement about Hamilton being the most improved in the GMC. Big Blue looked really bad. They have a ton of work to do. Someone mentioned that if Blue has a QB with any semblance of an arm the Blue offense could do damage. Unfortunately Blue doesnt have a a servicable QB at any level. I will disclose that the stud RB did not play, so maybe he could make that much of an impact. Turpin was a pretty good squad. The Spartan defense got more and more confident as the scrimmaged progressed. I can see Turpin growing into a D2 playoff team.
 
I went to see Turpin/Hamilton and I would like to retract my statement about Hamilton being the most improved in the GMC. Big Blue looked really bad. They have a ton of work to do. Someone mentioned that if Blue has a QB with any semblance of an arm the Blue offense could do damage. Unfortunately Blue doesnt have a a servicable QB at any level. I will disclose that the stud RB did not play, so maybe he could make that much of an impact. Turpin was a pretty good squad. The Spartan defense got more and more confident as the scrimmaged progressed. I can see Turpin growing into a D2 playoff team.
This is why I said Middletown. They have a second year coach that has established a system that showed some success last year. Middies lost a lot but was in 6 games that they could of won. Just sayin
 
I went to see Turpin/Hamilton and I would like to retract my statement about Hamilton being the most improved in the GMC. Big Blue looked really bad. They have a ton of work to do. Someone mentioned that if Blue has a QB with any semblance of an arm the Blue offense could do damage. Unfortunately Blue doesnt have a a servicable QB at any level. I will disclose that the stud RB did not play, so maybe he could make that much of an impact. Turpin was a pretty good squad. The Spartan defense got more and more confident as the scrimmaged progressed. I can see Turpin growing into a D2 playoff team.
To be fair to Hamilton, Turpin is expected to be the best team in the ECC.
 
Yep...his name was Drew Altemuehle. He didn't take a single snap in the Colerain game, which I found odd given his excellent performance the week before against Mason. Andrew Fehr ('21) would seem to be the next man in for Sycamore.

-CardinalsFan
Altemuehle’s arm was shot for most of last season and I don’t think it has recovered. Sycamore was going to start Fehr this season regardless (he’s a much better runner) and move Altemuehle to H-back. He didn’t like that and decided to transfer to Moeller. It is my understanding that he has a chance to start at Moeller.
 
On another note, last season was Sycamore’s worst rushing offense under Datillo by over 400 yards. He wants to get back to a dominant run game. Fehr, a junior, will remind many people of former Sycamore QB Kyle Sess.
 
To be fair to Hamilton, Turpin is expected to be the best team in the ECC.
I thought Turpin was ok. I did watch Kings/Winton Woods earlier in the day so I had other teams to compare them too. It is extremely hard to recognize what you are looking at in a scrimmage so I mainly look at the intensity of the kids. I attempt to decide who would win if it was a regular game. I think Kings beats Turpin. Turpin is extremely small on defense and Kings has power running game out of the spread they are trying to work. Of course it didnt work at all against Winton Woods because the WW nose tackles planted the Kings center at least 3 yards into the backfield every play.
Not to slam Hamilton more but their kicking game is going to be atrocious. When they were warming up they had two punters taking turns punting down to about 6 guys fielding punts. I assume the kids fielding were varsity, JV and freshmen returners. So the coach simulated snapped the football and the first punt went about 5 to 10 yards pass the LOS. I thought WTH? He must had just shanked it. Probably nervous. But all the punts were only about 30 yards. The placekicker struggled with extra point length kicks. I was sitting with a group of Hamilton suppoters. 3 female and a male. The man says that every other team in the GMC would beat Turpin and Hamilton is in trouble. Mahon has 3 weeks to get that trainwreck together. I guess its possible.
 
So will Hamilton and Middletown improve? Both have some skill players and good team speed. In both cases I think two of the issues are line play on both sides of the ball. Can the defenses be consistent and special teams not be a big negative? If line play is poor and the defense and special teams aren't improved they stay in bottom 4. If they do improve lock in Oak Hills for 10th with East and Mason dropping to lower tier. Also think the Aves may drop this year. They have had success with really good offense and at times smoke and mirrors, not sure if they will score enough points this year to remain a top tier team.
 
So will Hamilton and Middletown improve? Both have some skill players and good team speed. In both cases I think two of the issues are line play on both sides of the ball. Can the defenses be consistent and special teams not be a big negative? If line play is poor and the defense and special teams aren't improved they stay in bottom 4. If they do improve lock in Oak Hills for 10th with East and Mason dropping to lower tier. Also think the Aves may drop this year. They have had success with really good offense and at times smoke and mirrors, not sure if they will score enough points this year to remain a top tier team.

Line play is what makes teams good or bad, never the skill guys. The teams with the best lines win, period. People always want to hype the sexy positions like receivers, and stud RB, but it doesn't matter of your lines suck. Great lines make average and below average skill guys look like all stars.

Look at every successful team, always rock solid lines.
 
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