Hawks Athletics
Forest Hills Eastern High School
Boys Varsity Football
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13.0 years ago
FHE Varsity Football
The Hawks enter their seventh varsity football season in 2010 after going 5-5 in 2009. After a strong 5-0 start to the season last year including wins over Zeeland East and Caledonia, some key injuries caused the Hawks to finish with a .500 record. However with those key wins over larger class ‘A’ school that gave the Hawks additional MHSAA playoff points, they did make the playoffs again for the fourth time in six seasons. Coach Tim Gibson has lead the varsity Hawks since they started and their record of 26-23 over the past 5 years after going 1-8 their first year has been very solid. They have bounced between the being independent the first year to entering the OK Silver, then the OK Blue until finally landing in the very tough OK Gold the last couple of years. The OK Gold was the only OK division to send five teams to the playoffs last year.
The 2010 version of the Hawks will be an interesting and fun team to watch. Suiting up 36 guys this year, there have been some key changes on both the offense and on the defensive side of the ball due to trying to best utilize the skill set of this year’s team. The Hawks return seven players on offense and another seven players on defense that either started or played significant minutes last year. And some of those players are still only juniors as they played as sophomores last year.
The Hawks are led by senior QB/DB Spencer Elliott (6’0” 185) along with senior RB Jeshurun Washington (5’9” 165) and senior FB Jessie Greenert (5’10” 210). Both Elliott and Washington are very good runners and a threat to score every time they touch the football. Greenert runs with power and is a bruising big back to complement the outside speed game. The big guys up front that will be making the holes to run through are lead by three-year starter senior Joe Sukup (6’3” 230), senior Jay Glover (6’4” 235), senior Zach Barr (6’1” 220) and senior Jake Mansel (6’0” 200). Elliott and backup junior QB JoJo Stankowski (6’0” 175) will have many options to throw to on the outside including all-conference junior SE Dylan Banagis (6’3” 220), junior SE Quinton Morrow (6’4” 210) and the multi-purpose senior RB/SE Charlie Farmer (6’0” 170) that will also see some time in the backfield.
The Hawks defense should also be a fun group to watch as they also have a lot of speed on the defensive side of the ball. Leading the way on defense will be junior LB Nate Fatum (5’10” 175) who is a big hitter. Also junior LB Mark Lawson (6’2” 195) is a returning all-conference player that led the team last year in tackles. Senior LB/DL Rae Sneed brings a lot of experience as well and a tenacity that makes him tough to play against. It is likely that Elliott, Banagis, Greenert and Washington will also see a lot of time playing defense as well.
All in all this will be a fairly experienced, yet still young, Hawks varsity football team. They should be able to get up and down the field on offense and be able to put a lot of points on the board. The overall speed of the team is a strength. The defense hopes to be improved this year and should be able to limit the opposing teams to give the offense a chance to get the ball back. The Hawks open with back to back games against a couple of class ‘A’ schools again this year in Zeeland East and Cedar Springs. Then the Hawks get right into the heart of their OK Gold conference which will once again be one of the toughest conferences, top to bottom, in the state.
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