Prep football: Fenwick-Lebanon features teacher vs. student

John Aregood is working to get his Fenwick High School football team a victory this week. But he’s admittedly a little conflicted about it.

Aregood will take his Falcons on the road to face Lebanon on Friday night in a matchup of 1-1 squads. He’ll also be squaring off with one of his former Franklin players, Warriors coach Shawn Lamb.

“He’s a guy I love to death,” Aregood said. “I’d rather not compete against people like that, especially him. He was an all-state player of the year for me as a quarterback. We were tight and have stayed tight.

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“We had a run of great quarterbacks at Franklin, but that kid was an amazing athlete and amazing teammate. He did a lot for our program.”

Lamb, a 1991 Franklin graduate who also coached under Aregood with the Wildcats, said Friday will be a bittersweet night for him as well.

“I’ve said this before: I got my passion for football from my father, but I got my passion for coaching football from John Aregood,” Lamb said. “Growing up, he was like a hero to me and someone that I looked up to. I still do today.

“Just being on the same playing field and coaching against him I think says a lot about how far I’ve come. You see kids that played for him at Franklin having opportunities to coach and many times being head coaches of successful programs.

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“I want to win every game I coach, but to have that much respect for the man across from you, I’m rooting for him not to lose. But we know that’s not the way the game is played.”

Adding to the evening for Aregood will be the venue, Lebanon’s James VanDeGrift Stadium. Aregood described VanDeGrift as “my coaching hero.”

The game itself will feature the Division I Warriors against the D-IV Falcons, with Lebanon junior quarterback Kyle Short throwing for 396 yards and three touchdowns in matchups against Kings (a 37-31 loss) and Loveland (a 21-14 win).

Fenwick is coming off a 12-0 loss to Belmont after rallying for a 35-27 Week 1 win over Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.

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“We’re not sure what we’ve got here,” Aregood said. “We came back like gangbusters against CHCA offensively, but didn’t play great defense. Against Belmont, we play great defense and just stink up the field offensively.”

Throw in several injuries and players dealing with sickness, and the Falcons could be considered a collective question mark. Yet Aregood said Fenwick has remained upbeat.

“Kids are resilient. They’ve got a lot of things going on … they just deal with stuff and move on,” Aregood said. “You expect kids to be down and out when they lose a game. I just don’t think kids are like that anymore. Maybe that’s good. When you’re like that, you live to be 100 instead of having a heart attack.”

Lamb is expecting to see an aggressive, hard-hitting Falcon squad Friday.

He said Lebanon played a great half and a terrible half in each of its first two games.

“If we can put four quarters together, we can be a good football team,” Lamb said. “But if we don’t, we’re going to be an average football team, and average isn’t good when you play our schedule.”

The Warriors are running a version of the spread offense and a 4-2-5 defense. It’s the first time in Lamb’s 13-year tenure that his team isn’t using a 3-3 stack approach on defense.

“We weren’t real happy the last couple years with how that was working,” Lamb said. “We decided to go to a four-man front to get people to the point of attack.”

Senior linebacker Zack Ball (5-11, 230), senior cornerback Jake Tewart (6-0, 180) and junior tackle Adam Creech (6-3, 250) are leading Lebanon defensively.


Friday’s game

What: Fenwick (1-1) at Lebanon (1-1), 7 p.m.

Where: James VanDeGrift Stadium, 160 Miller Road, Lebanon

Last year: Lebanon won 21-7

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