After competing in Pennsylvania’s District 10 in the past, Conneaut’s football team will feel right at home playing in the Chagrin Valley Conference.
The Spartans were one of three teams to join the CVC for the 2023-2024 school year and Conneaut head coach Rocco Dobran is excited about his team’s future in the league.
“It’s great for our kids to be able to play county schools again,” said Conneaut coach Rocco Dobran. “I think our kids and the community are excited about it.”
Dobran explained the other CVC teams are unfamiliar to Conneaut. As a result, the program’s efforts have been toward self-improvement leading into their first season in the league.
“We haven’t played most of the (CVC) teams before,” Dobran said. “So, all we could do on our end is focus on ourselves and get better each and every day. Hopefully, that puts us in a good spot to compete with anybody.”
Teams in the CVC can expect the Spartans to line up in the spread on offense. Dobran explained that they will look to run the ball both with their running backs and quarterback behind a line which he considers a strength of the team.
“I’m excited about our offensive line,” Dobran said. “As well as they do is as good as we are going to be.”
Returning on the offensive line are Jaydon Anderson and Scotty Edwards. They will be looking to open holes for running back Wyatt Payne and protect quarterback Max Gleason, also returners from last year’s team.
On the defensive side, Conneaut runs a 3-4 base and plays a lot of cover-three in the secondary.
The Spartans lean on their linebackers to set the tone for the rest of the squad.
“Our linebackers were the heart and soul of our defense last year,” Dobran said.
Luckily for the Spartans, they will be returning three of their four backers from last year, as Bryce Spurlin, Ty Covill, and Ethan Osborne will all be back in the fall.
It will be up to the returning players to help their younger teammates get up to speed.
“It’s one of those years where we have a good senior class,” Dobran said. “It’s going to be the leadership of that class and how well they can get the young guys experienced quickly because there’s going to be a lot of them on the field.”
As for those young guys, kicker-turned-receiver was a name that Dobran said has had a strong offseason. Additionally, Dylan Philip and Gavin Nesbitt–who saw some time toward the end of last year–as well as Ryan Turner will look to fill the three vacancies on the O-line.
Dobran explained the team’s goals for the first year in the CVC is to compete for the conference title and make a deep playoff push. He also believes that the Spartans will be excited to rekindle some old rivalries.
“If I told the kids to make goals, they’d say win the conference, beat Edgewood, and beat Jefferson,” Dobran said. “I think that those teams would say the same thing back.”
