Key Ross dates
Saturday — Home scrimmage against Kings, 10 a.m.
Aug. 24 — Road scrimmage against Glen Este, 7 p.m.
Aug. 30 — Season opener at Goshen, 7:30 p.m.
Power football is expected to be the impetus for Ross High School this season.
The Rams have a small college-sized offensive line and the desire to run behind it, and eighth-year coach Brian Butts hopes that foundation will lead RHS to its first-ever playoff win.
“When it gets tough, it’s Terry Malone football,” said Butts, giving a nod to the former Badin coach. “It’s safe to say we’re going to line up and run the football and throw it when we feel like having fun. Any tough situation, we’re going to get in a double-tight full house and bang you. We’re not going to try to smoke-and-mirror you anymore.”
Butts said the I-formation will be Ross’ primary alignment, and senior Andrew Dunn is back after leading the Rams’ ground attack last year with 847 yards on 146 carries. Senior quarterback Blake Ballard should give the offensive unit more versatility.
But look for plenty of straight-ahead strength with a line that averages 6-foot-2 and 263 pounds. Junior tackle Simon Stepaniak (6-4, 271) isn’t the biggest guy up front, but he’s the most highly regarded — he’s got scholarship offers from Indiana, Toledo, Ohio and Bowling Green.
“At the end of last season, we were able to run the football on anybody,” said Butts, whose squad won its last four contests to finish 6-4. “We think we’re a playoff team, and we think we can make some noise, so we’ve got to be able to do multiple things.
“The biggest surprise this summer has been Blake Ballard throwing the football. He’s throwing 100 percent better than we thought he would. That makes us almost scary on offense. We’re not one-handed now.”
Ross has moved down a spot to Division III in the new seven-division format. Of course, Trotwood-Madison is now D-III as well, and T-M bashed the Rams 53-7 in a D-II playoff game in 2011.
Ross is 0-6 in the postseason over the last 20 years, going 0-3 in D-II (1993, 2009, 2011) and 0-3 in D-III (1995, 1997, 2001).
“We were a very small D-II school. Now we’re a very big D-III, so we like that,” Butts said. “I feel very good about this team. We feel like we’ve got some parts we haven’t had in a long time.”
Butts’ concern is depth. The Rams have 47 varsity players, and that number doesn’t include two juniors who may miss the season with injuries — cornerback-wide receiver David Haynes (neck) and fullback-outside linebacker Dalton Jones (back).
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