Willie Guyton will be starting at wide receiver for the Edgewood football team when the season kicks off Friday.
Then, at halftime, he’ll be starting at snare drum for the Warriors marching band.
Nathan Cameron and JR Crooks will also be no-shows at the halftime locker room get-together because they’re busy with the band. Cameron plays the sousaphone, while Crooks is with the percussion team.
Cameron was a part of the Ashtabula County Honors Band this summer, a first-year assembly of local high school musicians.
Toby Register plays on the offensive line, but this summer he has to be at Chipotle at 6 a.m. four days a week for work.
He’s also involved in Boy Scouts and is currently working towards an Eagle badge, the highest honor a scout can receive.
JJ DuFour has stayed busy getting ready to go back under center, but he also took time to work with youths as a 4-H counselor at a summer camp.
For the Edgewood football team, diversity is a term not limited to guys that can play more than one position on the field, but it’s about players who are busy getting ready for life with a variety of activities other than sports.
About half a dozen Edgewood players are in the marching band, which caused them to miss a week of practice for summer band camp.
Others balance football with volunteer opportunities as well full-time jobs during the summer and will continue to work part-time during the school year.
Does it interfere with their abilities as football players?
“It can be tiring,” said Crooks, who is working full-time as a custodian at Kingsville Elementary School this summer. “It’s tough. You got to get up, you got to go to work. I want money, so…”
For a lot of kids, it’d be easy to say the workforce could wait, but Register said that’s not what life is about.
“Our coach talks to us about getting up at 6 a.m. on days when you really don’t want to, especially after five hours of practice the night before,” he said. “But, going in to provide for your family, that’s something you have to do as a man, and I’m already doing it.”
Guyton said his work and music interest does not directly relate to his pass-catching ability, but he is acquiring skills that help him with football and all areas of life.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I think it honestly helps just learning to deal with people and talking to customers. Developing work ethic, understanding what it takes to go in and work those long shifts.”
As for the team itself, Edgewood bounced back from a dreadful 2024 season by going 6-4 last fall and qualifying for the state playoffs. They fell to Norton 63-13 in a D-IV, Region 13 first-round contest.
The team lost a talented senior class that included six players receiving opportunities to play college football this fall.
The expectation, however, is to continue to move forward and be more competitive in the postseason.
Taking the next step will require a lot of work and a lot of focus.
Coach Olajuwon Cooper said knowing his players are getting exposure to other facets of life is something he relishes, even if it pulls them away from the practice field from time to time.
“Heck yeah,” the coach said. “We take great pride in our kids knowing this just isn’t about football. It is imperative that you understand they like other things besides football. We don’t just talk about those things, but we support them doing those things.”
Many of these players are scheduled to play both offensively and defensively.
On the line are juniors LJ Shelott and James Guyton at defensive end and Sharpe, nose tackle.
Seniors Paul Siler II and Crooks are anticipated to patrol the middle at linebacker, while Cameron is at outside backer.
The secondary will consist of seniors Willie Guyton, Jasiah Pope, Zaiden Fox and DuFour.
Register and senior Zavyer Ward Jones, middle linebacker; juniors Hunter Kister and Jeffrey Carrick, both defensive end and sophomores Logan Johnson and Logan Levin, both nose tackles, are slated to see significant time on defense.