Unbeaten Stebbins shakes losing ways

Credit: MARC PENDLETON / STAFF

Credit: MARC PENDLETON / STAFF

There’s an unfamiliar feeling around Stebbins High School. Not since Jamal Robertson was running wild has Indians football generated this much uproar.

“The school atmosphere is totally different after a win,” standout senior running back Mason Dyer said. “Even around town, people will see you and say, ‘Hey, you play football for Stebbins; good job. You guys are doing great. Keep up the good job.’ It feels great.”

Of course it does. When a program has been stuck in the muck as long as Stebbins’ has been, wins are worth celebrating. That’s just what the Indians’ faithful has been doing through the first half of the regular season.

Stebbins (5-0) will try and extend its unbeaten run at Bellefontaine in today’s start of the Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Division play. Stebbins has never won a CBC divisional title and this will be its last shot: Both Stebbins and CBC Kenton rival Tippecanoe will jump to the realigned Greater Western Ohio Conference next fall.

This wasn’t designed as a final farewell statement by the Stebbins football program to the CBC, but it sure looks like it. Those five wins are the most for any Stebbins team in at least the last 15 losing seasons.

During that not-so-memorable run were five 0-10 teams, including three straight from 2007-09, and a couple of 1-9 efforts.

And there didn’t seem to be a lot of high expectations returning from last year’s squad. Stebbins was dismantled by Tippecanoe, Kenton Ridge and Springfield Shawnee in Weeks 8-10 and wobbled into the offseason at 3-7.

“I never thought we’d be 5-0, but I knew we had a few of the guys coming back who had really bought in and we were going to be able to do stuff,” Stebbins coach Trace Smitherman said. “I just didn’t have a full feel for what we had and it’s turned out we have guys in the right spots.”

That starts with Dyer and junior quarterback David Hickey, two go-to reasons that make the Indians’ triple-option hum. There’s also a dominant line and a shutdown defense.

That all adds up to Stebbins’ best team since Robertson was setting program records in the mid-1990s. Stebbins isn’t just winning; the Indians are making blowout statements much like CBC foes used to do to them. They’ve scored less than 48 points just once and have out-scored opponents a combined 233-50, tops in both CBC categories.

Dyer was called upon 28 times in last week’s 54-14 blitz of Graham. He was up to the task, rushing for a career-high 325 yards and a staggering six touchdowns. He leads the CBC with 809 rushing yards (8.8 average) and 11 TDs.

Hickey completes the dual threat, having rushed for 673 yards on just 56 carries (12.0), good for 10 scores.

“The triple (option) starts with the quarterback and David is doing a good job of getting his reads right and Mason runs hard,” Smitherman said. “When you have a strong fullback who does those things and the quarterback reads a little bit (the defense) has got to pick who they’re going to take. Everybody says there is one quarterback, one for dive and one for pitch. Well, that’s a great theory.”

To be sure, the most challenging part of the season awaits Stebbins, which will host Tecumseh in Week 7 and finish with that same trio that mauled the Indians last season. A Week 8 showdown at Tippecanoe (5-0) could be a battle of unbeatens.

Besides new found enthusiasm, the Indians also have generated playoff talk. Stebbins is one of the few area teams to not ever experience the postseason. This week Stebbins was No. 9 in the Division II, Region 6 computer rankings: the top eight advance.

“It feels awesome, but the next couple of weeks are going to get tougher and tougher,” said Dyer, who’s considering enlisting in the U.S. Air Force rather than try college football. “We’re guarding against looking ahead. We know we’ve got some big games down the road.”

• Trotwood-Madison (4-1) will begin defense of its annual GWOC North title at Sidney (4-1) today. Like Stebbins, the Yellow Jackets also have their win-starved town revved up and should pack Sidney Memorial Stadium at 30 & O Field. You read that correctly: The stadium is named after its 1968-70 teams that went a combined 30-0.

Sidney has lost only to unbeaten St. Marys Memorial (5-0) in the opener. Trotwood was stunned 36-33 in the final seconds at Centerville in Week 4.

• Springboro (4-1) is celebrating 50 years of Panthers football by hosting a reunion of all football alumni prior to today’s homecoming game against visiting Fairborn (1-4). Special recognition will go to the 1965 team.

Head coach Ryan Wilhite has had different members of Springboro’s past talk to the team this week: 1965-67 QB Ed Wade, brother Lennie and Kelly Norris (Springboro’s first coach), columnist Jeff Kirby, Springboro mayor and veteran assistant coach John Agenbroad and Jeff Kees, an All-Ohio linebacker on the 1969 team.

• Thurgood Marshall (2-3) has won two straight after losing to Miamisburg, Trotwood-Madison and Alter. All those teams are 4-1 and likely playoff bound.

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