Former GHS gridders make a big splash on collegiate scene

By JON KLEINKNECHT

Inquirer Sports Editor

sports@galioninquirer.com
Sev­eral for­mer Galion High School foot­ball play­ers — and two coaches — are hav­ing them­selves quite a sea­son so far at the col­le­giate level.

Car­tel Brooks (GHS class of 2010) is a junior tail­back at Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­sity. In a 56–2 thump­ing of Wilm­ing­ton last Sat­ur­day, Car­tel rushed for 227 yards and 3 touch­downs on 20 car­ries, includ­ing a 99-yard pay­dirt romp early in the sec­ond half. Those num­bers earned him Offen­sive Player of the Week hon­ors in the 10-school Ohio Ath­letic Conference.

Car­tel has an OAC-best 566 yards on the ground for the 3–0 Stu­dents Princes who have outscored their oppo­nents 144–9 and have yet to play a home game. The stand­out — who ran for 759 yards a year ago with 7 touch­downs, aver­ag­ing 9.1 yards per carry, and also returned 3 kick­offs for six-pointers — has an 8.8 yards-per-carry norm this season.

At Mount Union — also a mem­ber of the OAC — broth­ers Alex and Jack Nicholls have been key con­trib­u­tors in the 3–0 start of the Pur­ple Raiders.

Alex (GHS class of 2009) — a senior start­ing defen­sive back — has 7 tack­les and one bro­ken up pass on a defense that has pitched 2 shutouts and given up just 7 points.

Jack (GHS class of 2010) — a junior wide receiver — scored the first touch­down of his col­le­giate career via a 45-yard pass in last week’s 52–0 ham­mer­ing of Mari­etta. On the sea­son, he has caught 3 passes for 70 yards — an aver­age of 23.3 stripes per reception.

For­mer GHS head coach Lee Owens (GHS head coach 1983–86) is in his ninth year as the top man of the Ash­land Uni­ver­sity foot­ball pro­gram. The Eagles are nation­ally ranked in Divi­sion II hav­ing posted a 4–0 record to date. The 56-year-old Owens — who was only 29 when the Tigers won the Divi­sion II state cham­pi­onship in 1985 — has watched his team outscore its oppo­nents 133–59 this season.

Tom Stacy — who was an assis­tant coach for Owens at GHS — is in his sec­ond year of his sec­ond stint as an AU assistant.

Stacy arrived as Ash­land in 2004 with Owens and was AU’s offen­sive coor­di­na­tor. Since that time, he has served as the head coach at two high schools – sto­ried Mas­sil­lon and Green. At Mas­sil­lon, Stacy posted a 26–11 record in three years. In 2005, the Tigers were the Divi­sion I state runner-up with a 13–2 record. Stacy coached at Green from 2008-10.

From 1995–2003, Stacy was an assis­tant under Owens at the Uni­ver­sity of Akron. He was the quar­ter­backs coach and tutored two of the most suc­cess­ful quar­ter­backs in Zips his­tory – Char­lie Frye, who went on to play in the NFL, and Butchie Wash­ing­ton. Twelve years ago, Akron was co-champion of the Mid-American Con­fer­ence East­ern Division.

There’s yet another Galion con­nec­tion to Ash­land. Andrew Nicholls (GHS class of 2011) is a sopho­more wide receiver at AU. He is the cousin of Alex and Jack Nicholls.

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on Sep 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.