Rochester football’s future: Shaffer optimistic about Clark’s, offensive line’s future, but weight room participation must increase

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The state of Three Rivers Conference football might be at a crossroads.

Maconaquah went 10-1 and won the TRC, but they won almost entirely with seniors like Aiden Robinson, Marcell Sims, Nolan Tarrh and Jorden VanNess, so they figure to start next year with an unheralded crew.

Lewis Cass made a sectional final, but their quarterback and their top four rushers on offense are graduating as well as their top two tacklers on defense.

Northwestern has an accomplished quarterback in Colin Cook, but their leading rusher and four of their top five receivers are graduating. 

Peru is graduating their top two rushers. Manchester is graduating their quarterback and three of their top four rushers. Southwood has had four straight losing seasons. Whitko went 0-9. Wabash will have a new coach next year, and that is assuming that they will have enough players for a team.

Northfield, with precocious quarterback Logan Holmes and a running back group that includes Liam Clark, Briggs Baker and Cooper Good, could be one of the favorites after going 6-5.

So where does that leave Rochester?

The Zebras went 6-6 and earned a spot in the sectional final before their season ended with a 42-0 loss to No. 4 Eastside.

Quarterback Mitchell Clark will return, but his top three running backs in Kale Shotts, Trenton Meadows and Grant Holloway all graduate.

Shaffer wants to develop two fullbacks and “five or six” halfbacks for next year.

“That experience is going to be great for him this last year,” Rochester coach Isaac Shaffer said of Clark. “He now knows what he needs to work on in the offseason, whereas as a JV guy and as much success as he had at the JV level, you maybe don’t see those glaring things. Now he can go back and watch film and see the things he needs to work at. But Mitchell also understands that there are other guys on the roster that are going to try and get better, so he’s got to continue to get better himself because we have hungry guys behind him that want that spot. I expect him, he’ll be at every lift, he’ll get stronger, and he’ll make those improvements. And so it’s just a good position battle that we have. We have a lot of depth at the quarterback position. We’ve got some guys in line that are going to be great quarterbacks for us.”

The offensive line, which has produced a treasure trove of top linemen in the 2020s, including Marshall Fishback, Austin Rogers, Jesse Shriver, Brady Beck, Xavier Vance, Callen Ferverda, Declan Gard and Eli Swango, might need more of a fix.

Guards Gavin Pinder and Derek Wortley are expected back, but Shaffer will need to find two tackles and a center to replace the graduating Camden Susaraba, Ethan Bailey and Cailab Tyler. Top backups Trevor Coplen and Barrett Brown also graduate.

Shaffer said some current eighth-graders like Roman Coffing, Mason McLochlin and Isaiah Wheadon could be candidates to start next year as freshmen.

“Tackle is going to be the big concern for us this next year,” Shaffer said. “Now we have some eighth-graders that I have been watching throughout the season. I’ve been looking at their weight room numbers. Just their size alone, they have really good size for an eighth grade kid. There’s a chance they might be in the mix. We’ve got to see what happens with this offseason, but that’s going to be a big emphasis is figuring out who’s going to play tackle for us next year.”

Rochester will also lose two-way starter Liam Spence, who started at wide receiver and led the team in interceptions at cornerback.

The defense allowed 22.8 points per game, their most allowed per game in a season since 2020.

“I think the defensive line next year is going to be a lot more by committee than necessarily the four guys that we had in this last year,” Shaffer said. “We were pretty consistent with that as much as possible with Owen Lett and Aiden Wilson. But you did have guys like Derek Wortley and Gavin Pinder that got experience there. Cain Cortez is a guy that stands out on Monday nights (in JV games) as far as a d-lineman goes. He’s going to have to grow a lot more, but just a tough, scrappy kid. … We do think we have some depth there.”

A reason for hope, in an era where schools with declining enrollment are panning the waters hoping to find future talent, is that there are 34 kids playing football at the seventh and eight grade levels.

He said that the fifth and sixth grade combined teams and the third and fourth grade combined teams also had success.

Shaffer pointed out that in context, that is an exciting number given that there were only 37 kids in the program in grades 9-12.

“The future is bright as far as talent goes, but all that is is like energy,” Shaffer said. “There’s potential energy, and there’s kinetic. Are you just going to have potential energy or potential, or are you going to put in the work, and kinetic, that’s energy that’s moving, that’s being used. We want to have that kinetic energy, not that potential energy, where we’re wasting the talent that we have coming through here.”

But they all must get in the weight room to develop from potential to finished product. Ron Shaffer, Isaac’s father and predecessor, said that more games were won during the offseason than during the season itself.

Isaac Shaffer said there is a direct relationship between weight room participation and winning.

“I would say there is a direct correlation – about a 90 percent correlation – between the amount of guys on your football team that are 100 percent bought into the weight room is a complete reflection of what your football record is.

“We went 6-6 this year. I’m sure based on what I’m telling you you can guess how many guys we had committed to the weight room this offseason. 50 percent. We had 50 percent of our guys all in, which is better than some teams probably have. It’s not good enough if you want to win a sectional championship, if you want to win conference championships, if you want to win the Bell. You’ve got to be 100 percent all in. So that’s going to be our challenge this next year. We’ll be starting offseason weightlifting Monday, Wednesday and Friday when we get back from Thanksgiving break. And we’re even going to be bringing in seventh-graders that are only going to be eighth-graders next year. We have to get a weight room culture that we’ve had with different groups at times. … Until we do, we’re going to continue to get very close but never get over the hump of winning a sectional championship.”