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2008 St. Paul Flyer Football
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By MARK HAZELWOOD
NORWALK - It is commonly accepted at any
level of football that success on offense starts with the blocking of the
offensive line.
For the St. Paul Flyers, nothing more could be true over its 16-year
dominance in the
Firelands Conference and Division VI playoffs, as eight linemen
under head coach John
Livengood’s watch have produced All-Ohio honors over the past 13 seasons.
In this coming season, Livengood will return two senior captains at left
and right tackle that will enter their third season as starters in
Chris Doughty and
Shawn Hemenway.
Hemenway lists at 5-10, 235 pounds, while Doughty is a presence at 6-3,
295 pounds.
Hemenway was the FC offensive lineman of the year and a second team
All-Ohio selection in 2007 while Doughty earned honorable mention FC
despite missing three games with a knee injury. The duo will also team
with returning guards and classmates Scott Meyer and Clint Nickoli.
“They both became starters early in their sophomore years due to a couple
season-ending injuries we had at the time,” Livengood said of Hemenway and
Doughty. “So it’s nice to have kids that have been at this position that
have played pretty well the past two years.
“We have good size in Chris and Shawn at 235 moves very well, has real
good technique and is an aggressive player at the
line of scrimmage.
These are two guys that makes it nice to build a line around. Clint
and Scott rotated in at guard last year and they both started, so I feel
like really we have four starters back in terms of experience.”
Those four starters will return to block for another classmate in senior
Matt Wilde, who ran for 1,053 yards and 20 touchdowns on 191 attempts a
year ago at fullback while sharing touches with since graduated Joe
Graziani, who ran for 1,281 yards and 22 touchdowns on 142 attempts.
“It instills a lot of confidence into the line having those two back,”
Wilde said of Doughty and Hemenway. “Not taking anything away from the
other guys, but these two are proven and they can push the others and
teach them to be better. In the big picture we need the line to be strong
for me to do anything, so they are real important.”
Hemenway, who has the seventh best dead lift in program history at 545
pounds, was just as complimentary of Wilde.
“It’s really good to be able to have that much experience and be playing
for three years now with Chris,” he said. “But it’s also good to have a
running back like Matt that makes us look a lot better. The way he runs
with his quickness and strength, he’s a pretty good one.”
Doughty, who set a new St. Paul offseason lifting record by dead lifting
630lbs, also believes in the experience factor, but notes the 2008 season
is a clean slate for everyone.
“It’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s a lot of fun and its nice having
Shawn there at right tackle with me,” he said. “We have a lot of
experience between the two of us and Matt has a lot of experience from
running with Graziani a year ago and now he gets to take over.
We should be OK in terms of what we have coming back. We know that we have
the talent to do it, but at the same time it’s a new season and we have to
go out there and get work done.”
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