Believe it: The new high school football quarterback factory is Willoughby South, where Ray Russ seeks to become the Rebels' fifth straight All-Ohioan.
View full sizeQuarterback Ray Russ has thrown 17 touchdown passes without an interception for 4-0 Willoughby South this season.WILLOUGHBY, Ohio — OK, high school football fans, let's play word association. Ready?
First words: All-Ohio quarterback.
Response: St. Ignatius.
Right?
Well, there are no wrong answers, but there is a new correct one: Willoughby South. As in, what school is on the verge of producing its fifth consecutive All-Ohio quarterback?
Willoughby South?
Now, you're learning!
While no one will confuse South's football tradition with that of 10-time state champion St. Ignatius, when it comes to quarterbacks, the Rebels under coach Matt Duffy have few peers in recent years.
It goes like this:
D.J. Delande was All-Ohio in 2002, and he preceded two-year starter Nick Lester (All-Ohio 2004), who preceded Dan Whalen (All-Ohio 2005), who preceded three-year starter Patrick Nicely (All-Ohio 2008), who preceded current second-year starter Ray Russ.
All Russ has done this season is throw 17 touchdown passes and no interceptions for the 4-0 Rebels, who tonight play a highly anticipated nonleague game at Mentor (1-3). South is averaging 56 points per game.
Russ (6-0, 180) is as good as any of his predecessors. He's not as big as Nicely, and doesn't run like Delande and Lester. Russ doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve like Whalen.
Russ offers a steely grasp of both his emotions and South's complicated spread offense, and he has a strong, accurate arm.
View full sizeFormer Willoughby South quarterback Patrick Nicely is now the starter at the University of Akron."I think his poise is outstanding," said former South and Case Western Reserve coach Jim Chapman, a highly regarded offensive coach. "He stays calm, cool and collected, and he's so accurate. To me, that's the important thing. He's a quarterback who can throw long well."
In some ways, Russ resembles former Mentor quarterback Bart Tanski, the 2007 Mr. Football winner. In fact, Russ grew up in Mentor. Back then, baseball was his focus until the family moved to Willoughby Hills before his seventh-grade year and he tried out for the middle school football team.
Russ didn't know it at the time, but he moved to a good town for quarterbacks. Besides his four predecessors, South's quarterback tradition goes way back. Chapman's South teams in the 1960s and '70s featured five All-Ohio QBs: Rich Kirbus, who played at Louisville; Tim Morris (Cincinnati), Dan Kipp (Miami of Ohio), Doug Kytta and Pat Snee (Yale). The Willoughby area also was home for St. Joseph star Elvis Grbac (Michigan and the NFL) and Rudy Kirbus (St. Ignatius and John Carroll).
At South, they are fond of comparing Russ to Whalen, who went on to stardom at Case. Both are undersized, brainy and bold in the pocket.
"I met Ray his sophomore year and I could tell from the beginning he had a lot of physical skills like mine. He can move when he has to and he can throw," Whalen said. "I see a lot of myself in him. I see a guy who puts in time off the field, during football season and the following summer. He's got a command of the offense and [teammates] respect him."
Russ won the starting job the summer of his junior year in 2009, after Nicely had gone on to Akron on scholarship. Russ had big shoes to fill.
Days before his first start, Duffy handed him an envelope with his name on it. Inside was a two-page letter from Whalen, then the senior starter at Case.
"He told me how to carry myself and how to lead, and now that I look back on it, that letter means so much to me because it set me up for the whole season. It gave me a lot of confidence," Russ said.
Russ and Whalen are close, and Whalen is leading the charge to recruit Russ to Case. Russ has a 3.9 grade-point average. In fact, Whalen teases Russ that he has to stop having five-touchdown games (he's had three) because he's going to wind up with a Division I or II offer and turn down Case. Several Division I and II colleges have contacted Russ, but no offers have been made.
Russ and Whalen both say Duffy is the reason for South's quarterback success. Duffy was an assistant during Delande's senior season, and became head coach the following year when Lester took over. Besides being head coach, Duffy is the team's quarterbacks coach. South is 55-25 in Duffy's seven-plus seasons. The Rebels are ranked No. 5 in The Plain Dealer Top 25 poll and 11th in the Division I state poll.
Duffy never played quarterback. He was a wide receiver at Mayfield and Ashland University. At Ashland, his receivers coach was offensive guru Stan Jefferson, who now is Ohio State's director of player development. Jefferson left Ashland to take the head coaching job at Mansfield Senior, and Duffy soon followed, coaching and learning under Jefferson for six years.
"I have always been intrigued by the quarterback position and have gone and talked to every human being about the position and schemes," Duffy said.
Duffy spends hours virtually year round with his quarterbacks reviewing tapes and teaching schemes.
"We work so much off the field in the film room and in the classroom, bouncing ideas off each other," Russ said. "The system makes it a lot of fun for the quarterback reading checks. The quarterback has to know just as much as the coaches."
Russ and Duffy usually aren't alone during those skull sessions. Often with them is backup quarterback and heir apparent Casey Klicman, a 6-0 sophomore who also is Duffy's nephew. Rebel camp insiders say he is the next big thing.
"He has more knowledge of the quarterback position than any sophomore in South history," said Russ, who promises to keep in contact after he graduates.
So, it would seem, the tradition continues.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: twarsinskey@plaind.com, 216-999-4661