"Best in Show!"

Randy Greenwood #32—Lake Catholic High School

It’s not a question of what can he do, with Randy it’s what can’t he do. The answer is NOT MUCH. In 2007 Randy performed excellently at each position he played. Primarily a running back and defensive back, he also saw time at wideout and quarterback. Oh yeah, he was also the team’s punter. The Cougars’ “Mr. Everything” put together a season with over 1,200 yards rushing and leading his team to the Region 9 Championship while being named to several all-star teams. Though the season ended one game shy of the state title game, Randy displayed a true never say die attitude all season long, especially in the playoffs. Missing the first game of the playoffs, he helped key the Cougar attack on both sides of the ball from that point on. Week 8 of the regular season saw Randy earn the “Shut Up and Play the Game!” GameDay MVP and by season’s end into the playoffs he was named the first ever winner of D1’s newly trademarked “Northeast Ohio High School Player of the Year” narrowly beating out Rossi Santo from Kirtland and Dan Goodrum from VASJ. Accolades and awards aren’t something new for the junior baller, who was even named All-Ohio his sophomore year, although a state title is the ultimate goal for this young standout.



It runs in the family
Randy isn’t the only talented athlete in the family. His brother Aramis is a sophomore at Fairport and he is also showing signs of “standout efforts” on the field. We’ll look forward to watching him develop his junior and senior years as well.

Giving back
Randy was also part of the high school contingent that came out to demonstrate speed and agility skills drills for the youth football players at The Edge President’s Day Youth Football Camp. These young kids look up to the older players and it’s great to see them get to share the field with some of the players they read about in the papers or watch play on the weekends.



The Lake Catholic Cougars have a strong group of returning players that should make another strong run in the North Coast League and go deep into the playoffs. We can only wait with anticipation and see, but one thing is for sure. Randy Greenwood will play a major part in that effort on both sides of the ball and on special teams his senior year.

VASJ Grad goes the Distance !

Dan Goodrum #33—Villa Angela-St.Joseph


The 2007 season saw Dan used more on the defensive side of the ball, however when given the opportunity to run the ball, he averaged over 7.6 yards per carry out of the backfield. When he doesn’t get the ball, he doesn’t complain. You’ll see him pick up the blitz, nail his blocks and when he does have the ball he can hit the hole fluid and strong. He played injury free leading his team in sacks with 11 ½ on the season at defensive end being named 1st Team All-Conference North Coast League 2007, 1st Team News Herald All-Stars and Honorable Mention All-Ohio. Dan also received our "Shut Up and Play the Game!" GameDay Player of the Week for week 3 and was 2nd runner up for Northeast Ohio Player of the Year behind Lake Catholic's Randy Greenwood and Kirtland's Rossi Santo. In addition to the sacks Dan recorded 52 tackles, 18 solo. Forced 1 fumble and recovered one for a touchdown. He also has tremendous lateral speed and quickness running a 4.20 twice in the 20 yard shuttle and a 4.55 in the 40 yard dash.



A physically and genetically gifted multi-sport athlete at 6' 205 pounds, when you see him play it’s like watching a seasoned veteran play every down. If you had to pick three words to describe his play on both sides of the ball, FLUID, STRONG AND RELENTLESS, but just like we’ve mentioned before with other players, what stands out with Danny is his HEART. A true team leader.

Away from the football field, the senior from VASJ is just as dedicated to family and school. Without these, football wouldn’t happen. With his wonderful parents and family strongly behind him, Dan works very hard to make the best of each opportunity on and off of the football field.

What the future holds

The start of 2008 saw Dan “Big Impact” Goodrum receive a tremendous scholarship from Lake Erie College joining a host of talented northeast Ohio players eager to help put the surging Storm on the map in NCAA Division-II. Head Coach Mark McNellie sees Danny as a very potent weapon in the arsenal he is assembling over in Painesville.




Giving back to area youth

Dan was very eager to join other area standouts Randy Greenwood (Lake Catholic), Mike Hounshell (NDCL-Lake Erie), Alex Gedeon (Hudson-Harvard), Andre Laney (Twinsburg-Eastern Michigan) and several others on President’s Day to demonstrate speed and agility skills to the 100+ youngsters in attendance at the youth football camp held at The Edge. Best of luck to Dan and the rest of the class of 2008 and D1 members that will be taking their games to the next level and earning a great college education.

Meet the D1 Girls

You may have heard of them. Some of you may have even seen them or met them at a D1 event or tailgate party. The D1 Girls, Laura and Samantha. We are very honored to have had the opportunity to have them be a part of our company. They truly do help to brighten up the football landscape. The girls take part in the marketing and public relations side of D1 Football. Whether we are attending a clinic, hosting a combine or football event or throwing a tailgate party, Sam and Laura have been there to help us out. A good example is the Ultimate Football Combine, where the girls are mainly responsible for the check-in and character evaluation of the athletes. Last year we kicked off the season at The Charity Game series at Browns’ Stadium with a blowout tailgate party and the D1 Girls made our presence known throughout the stadium-wide parties handing out D1 information and meeting with area players and fans in attendance.


Laura and Samantha at The 2007 Reebok Coaches Clinic in Columbus


The D1 Girls with VASJ standouts Dan Goodrum and Ra'Mone Billings at the 2007 Charity Game at Browns Stadium

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Sam (VASJ grad) and Laura (Richmond Heights grad) both attend The Ohio State University. Samantha is also an accomplished singer/songwriter starting out on a promising career in music and just put out her first CD! She even fired up a set of tunes for everyone in the rain at the Charity Game last season at a D1 tailgate party. Sam is majoring in psychology and will earn her BA this year and will then work on adding an Associates degree in sign language after graduating this year and she ultimately hopes to become an interpreter. Samantha helped lead VASJ to a state title in volleyball her sophomore year in high school.


Samantha performing on stage

Laura is also working on her B.A. in psychology and will graduate from OSU in 2009. She plans on working in human resources specializing in recruitment after school, but you never know. Laura is a pretty good athlete herself and also plays a mean game of volleyball. She really enjoys hanging out with her friends too!!

Laura
Samantha

Sorry guys, they are both in relationships but are still a lot of fun to be around. We’ll miss Sam at the June UFC event because she’ll be in concert that weekend in Springfield, Ohio with country stars John Michael Montgomery and Darryl Worley. What a great honor that will be for her. We’re hoping to get Laura to the event like she was last year and who knows...we may even bust out with some new “D1 Girl recruits.”

Student Athletes Taking the Next Step

All of us at D1 Football are very proud of the student athletes we’ve had the honor and privilege to work with over the past couple years. We are entering our 3rd year of operations and we’re starting to really see some results of the hard work we’ve put in as well as the work the kids and their parents put forth also. Last year we saw 7 players make their move to college football. This season we will see more than a dozen student athletes take their games to the next level and play college football while getting excellent educations. We will get to see a handful of them close to home as NDCL’s Michael Hounshell, VASJ’s Dan Goodrum and Nick Viola have accepted scholarship offers to attend Division II Lake Erie College in Painesville. Among the others are Hudson’s Alex Gedeon who received an academic scholarship to Harvard and will play in Division I. We have three BIG friends at Lake Catholic, Chad Hounshell (Central Florida), Joe Gaglione (Iowa) and Dave Plungas (Albany), that will all be making the leap to Division I college football. Andre Laney from Twinsburg will be playing football at Eastern Michigan in the MAC and Kenston’s John Behm is off to D-I FCS Davidson. Euclid stud Devon Jennings will be a big play threat at Ashland this season too.

These are just a few of the players we’ve had the great experience of working with over past few years that have made the most, so far, of their football experience and get to take it up a notch. There will be more announcements and we’ll have them for you. The road doesn’t get easier for these kids and they know that. It hasn’t been easy to get this far. We have seen in them that they have what it takes and they know what it takes on and off the field to be the best they can. We look forward to seeing them play in college and we’re proud to have made any difference, no matter how big or small, in them getting the most out of their football experiences.

D1 FOOTBALL - WE ARE WATCHING YOU!