Marquette’s senior leadership helping younger players contribute

Blayden Cassel is a big and gifted man, his 210 pounds on a 6-foot-3 frame blessed with speed [the IESA 200-meter dash state champion in seventh grade] and power [the IESA runner-up in the shot put in eighth grade].

But he also is a young man. One who entered his freshman year at Marquette Academy in August with little experience at the high school level for football.

That’s where the rest of the Crusaders come in. Their combined effort has taken the Crusaders from a miserable Week 1 loss to a second-round playoff contest at Galena at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve come a long way since that first game, and I think it’s because of the culture we have, the good kids we have and the coaches that help them every step,” Marquette coach Tom Jobst said.”

Cassel has contributed mightily to a successful Marquette season as a tight end and one of its leading receivers and as a defensive end one of its top tacklers. He is one of several freshmen and sophomores – including fellow starters such as sophomore center Alex Schaefer and freshman defensive back Connor Baker – to contribute, thanks to the leadership of the senior class.

“They’re always there to help,” said Cassel, who had played just a little junior league football in Joliet prior to this year. “If I have a question about something out on the field the coaches aren’t there to ask, so I ask Gut [senior Payton Gutierrez] or Anthony [Couch, the quarterback/defensive back], and they’d help me out. They’re great captains.

“It’s great to know that if I don’t understand something, I have someone there to ask, a lot of guys. It’s helped me build a bond with them that gets better every time we take the field. It’s something I want to do for the next guys.”

There are 10 seniors on this year’s Crusaders – Gutierrez, Keaton Davis, Nolan DeMink, Sean Kath, Rush Keefer, Sam Mitre, Jaxon Rix, Adrian Schaefer, Tommy Stafford and Tommy Walsh – who have benefitted from the upperclassmen during their younger days and are paying it forward.

“It was done for me when I first came to the program,” senior two-way lineman and placekicker Sam Mitre said. “For me, it was [Beau and Brady Ewers] showing me the ropes, how to play, how to be a good teammate, how to do right by each other. They were the leaders my freshman year, and I looked up to them, and what I learned from them, I’ve never forgotten.

“Whatever it is, even about being in the right spot for a play or making the right steps, you help them out when they ask … and this year’s group, guys like Alex, Blayden, Connor, are doing really well.”

Freshman defensive back Connor Baker, who has the advantage of having junior older brother Marcus Baker on hand for advice, agreed.

“When I first came in, the [older] players were showing me what to do, how to do it, where to be,” he said. “It’s nice having my brother there, too, but all the veteran guys are willing to help you out. It feels good to know that, to have people help me out, so once I’m older and more experienced, I’ll help the younger kids out.”

As his program is now in its 12th straight postseason, Jobst feels good about the culture he and his assistants have built over the years and the way the kids have responded to it.

“I think that’s not only a strength of this senior class, but of all the upperclassmen in our program every year, all the way through,” Jobst said. “Our players just want to have the guys on the field who can do the best job. It doesn’t matter how old he is. If he’s working hard and doing his job, they’re all for him.

“The players teach players as much as coaches teach players, and what the young guys are learning now from us coaches and their teammates is what they’ll pass down to the nest group. Work ethic, lifting weights, focusing on their job, everything.

“It all gets passed down to the next group, and they do a pretty good job of policing each other and keeping everyone working hard.”