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2015 Bucks
The 2015 Bucks went 10-1 overall and 7-0 in the PAC under 3rd year Coach Mark Pinzone. They made the Division III Playoffs for the 7th time, but bowed out in the first round with a 35-28 triple overtime loss to the West Geauga Wolverines. Assistant Coaches were Bill Turner, Joe Yarwood, Rich Nowak, Tom Fasko, Britt Musal, Jesse Dooling, Jared Kaderbek and Ricky Manco. They scored 459 points and gave up 104.
Senior QB Nate Polidori was 66 for 110 for 1,168 yards with 19 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Polidori also had 115 carries for 663 yards and 8 TDs. Senior Trevor Thome was both the leading receiver and leading rusher. He had 30 receptions for 444 yards and 7 touchdowns. He added 121 carries for 978 yards and 19 TDs to those stats. He finished as the leader in points with 176, followed by Senior Nate Scott (57 for 474 yards rushing & 4 for 107 yards receiving) with 66 and Polidori with 62. Senior Justin Lowry was the 2nd leading receiver with 17 catches for 378 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Kicker Richard Gatt was 47 for 56 on extra points and 0 for 1 on field goals for 47 points. Elijah Kupetz 4 of 6 on extra points on the season.
2015 Buckeye Football Team Awards
Gazette Football MVP For 2015 Is Trevor Thome
Gazette Football MVP For 2015 Trevor Thome
By ALBERT GRINDLE The Gazette Now a Buckeye senior, Thome had already learned life lessons by the time he was in kindergarten most his age don’t realize until their 20s. There is never room for laziness, ego or shortcuts because farming, and in particular dairy farming, requires old-fashioned hard work to survive. The cows don’t milk themselves, the crops don’t harvest themselves and broken machinery doesn’t fix itself. Thome’s maturity is why so many adults associated with Buckeye proudly say he’s the All-American kid. There’s never a trace of hesitation in that claim, either, because, as one his old coaches put it, “Everybody loves Trevor.” Football is Thome’s outlet, a game he can enjoy with his closest friends and forget about the cows, forget about the chores and forget about the long hours.
Playing on Edwin Steingass Field under the lights of Friday night was a euphoric feeling he will always cherish. And my, oh my, could he play the game. Using those lessons learned on the farm — work, pride, toughness, humbleness, initiative — the soft-spoken Thome was the emotional rock of a Bucks team that went 10-0 in the regular season and, above all else, represented York, Liverpool and Litchfield townships with class. There may never again be a Gazette MVP like Thome, as almost all of the dairy farms that once dotted the Medina County landscape have been sold off into housing developments. “I’ve never played with somebody who just wants it so bad,” best friend and All-Ohio quarterback Nathan Polidori said. “Everybody knows he’s grown up on a farm, and that’s the way he’s been raised. He’s got great parents (Jason and Shannon), that’s why. “We both have that mentality that you’re going to have to drag us off the field before we’re done. Even in the West Geauga game (a triple-overtime loss in the playoffs), he was hobbling around and sticking through it for three more quarters and three more overtimes after (hurting his hip).” Never did the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Thome consider leaving the field, often forcing his battered and bruised body to arise from the turf before trainers could reach him. He said his teammates would have done the same, but someone still had to show them that pain is temporary and glory lasts forever.
Asked what makes him that way, Thome naturally pointed toward his family’s 250-acre, 60-cow operation in York Township. He’s been chased by a territorial 1,800-pound bull, so he’s not afraid of a blitzing 200-pound linebacker. He’s torn clothing on barbed wire, had gloves freeze to metal barn gates, stepped into potholes hidden by manure and corralled escaped cows, so he doesn’t sweat the small stuff and, in turn, never loses his composure. He’s survived stacking 50-pound hay bales in a 100-degree barn loft, so he’s not afraid of hard work without complaint. He’s been driving John Deere 4440, 4430 and 4630 tractors that, even at 35 years old, are worth more than a gently used Cadillac, so he’s never been concerned with expensive, materialistic things. Above all else, he’s been kicked by an ornery heifer, cut his hands while working on equipment and lost a finger as a toddler in a hay elevator accident, so he can tolerate pain at an extraordinary level. “You definitely have to be a hard-working guy and a hard-working person that is capable of going through adversity,” said Thome, who expressed gratitude that his parents do almost all of the milking twice per day so that he and his younger sister Tayla have time for a relatively normal social life.
“Like fixing things when they go wrong, not putting them off, that kind of stuff. “I’d say there’s a lot of similarities (between farming and football), especially starting in the summer with two-a-days getting up early, going to two practices, going home and doing it all over again.” When the time came to slip on his brown, white and orange No. 22 jersey, Thome was in his element. Expectations were through the roof in August when the senior-laden Bucks hit the practice field. A third straight Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division championship was an afterthought because a 10-0 regular season and, the ultimate goal, the first playoff victory in school history were the only acceptable accomplishments.
Coach Mark Pinzone’s team was confident because they had players like Thome, whose nonexistent ego and love for his teammates were unconditional. Already the reigning PAC Offensive Player of the Year with a 280-pound bench press and 320-pound squat — numbers comparable to NFL players his size — Thome kept his eyes on doing whatever the team needed to reach those goals. So he again took handoffs at halfback and pounded between the tackles. He again lined up in the tight slot to run jet sweeps. He again split out wide and blew by defenders for pass receptions from his boy Polidori. He again flew all over the field at safety, stopping opposing ball carriers dead in their tracks a mere nanosecond after they thought they had a breakaway touchdown.
Despite missing eight fourth quarters because of lopsided scores, Thome had 978 rushing yards, 444 receiving yards, 259 return yards and school records for touchdowns (29) and points (176). The Division III second-team All-Ohioan had six touchdowns on seven first-half touches against Fairview and averaged 10.5 yards on 160 touches for the season. When his career ended with that epic 35-28 playoff loss to West Geauga — he had 145 yards from scrimmage, a touchdown and an interception despite the first-half hip injury — Thome became the first player in county history with 2,000 yards rushing (2,400), 1,000 yards receiving (1,304) and 300 points (336). “It was fun,” Thome said. “It was a heckuva ride and it’s disappointing we didn’t come out on top in Week 11, but tons of memories were made and relationships that are definitely going to last a lifetime.
I’m definitely glad I was able to be a part of this team.” Thome’s next team won’t be located far from home, as the four-year starter decided being a preferred walk-on slot receiver at D-I Marshall wasn’t more appealing than being a potential starter for D-III superpower Mount Union. Neither the T’s have been crossed nor the I’s dotted, but Thome really isn’t looking at anyone else besides the Purple Raiders. No matter how successful Thome becomes at the next level, however, he’ll always have a place in his heart for Buckeye. “Buckeye football has definitely changed me a little bit,” he said. “It made me realize the importance of different types of things, like family. “It was awesome. If I could go back to do it 1,000 times over again, I would.” Why? Because the Bucks work hard, play hard and always, always, always … stick together.
2015 Gazette Coach of the Year Mark Pinzone
Bucks Pinzone Named Browns High School 'Coach of the Year'
CLEVELAND — Mark Pinzone picked up more hardware Sunday, as the Buckeye football coach was named the Cleveland Browns 2015 High School Coach of the Year.
Pinzone topped nine other finalists for the award. The 45-year-old was honored at halftime of Cleveland’s 24-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers with Bucks players Trevor Thome, Nathan Scott, Brad Calta and Jalin Brock and 9-year-old son Anthony at his side.
Along with Pinzone’s award, the Buckeye football program was presented with a $4,000 check from the Cleveland Browns Foundation. The Bucks also received an additional $2,000 for Pinzone being a finalist.
“The (players) snuck up behind me,” Pinzone said. “They kept it from me. I guess they found about it last week some time, but I thought I was just going on the field with those other (nine finalists). Athletic director Glen (Reisner) told me today there were another 10 (Buckeye players) at that game, but they were in the stands because only four kids can go on the field.
“The money is very nice. I’m real happy for Buckeye. That’s $6,000 Buckeye football is getting.” Buckeye finished 10-0 in the regular season for the second time school history (2005), won its third consecutive Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division championship and qualified for the Division III playoffs for the third straight year.
Pinzone is the two-time reigning Gazette Coach of the Year. He also was Northeast Inland D-III Coach of the Year in 2014. The Cleveland Browns High School Coach of the Year award is based on overall body of work during the regular season. Only schools that played in a Cleveland Browns High School Game of the Week — selected by online fan voting — are eligible.
Other finalists were Dan Boardman (St. Vincent-St. Mary), Lou Cirino (West Geauga), Shawn Dodd (Eastlake North), Luke Durbin (North Ridgeville), Andrew Mooney (Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin), Ron Rutt (Bay), D.J. Shaw (Midview), Steve Trivisonno (Mentor) and Josh Wells (Rocky River).
