Rosecrans readying for 2017 in new stadium, new league

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Bishop Rosecrans is preparing for the 2017 football season in which there will be a lot of changes for head coach Mark Johnston and his team.

The Bishops are opening a new stadium, as well as starting play in a new league. Rosecrans moves to the Mid-State League from the East Central Ohio League (ECOL) where they have been members since 2010.

“Well the change to the MSL for us is going to be a good one. We’re with a lot of parochial schools, versus public, and a lot of D-7 schools in football. So from a football standpoint it’s going to be a positive change for us. There are some teams that we’ve played in the past, and the familiarity is there, and some new teams so it will be an exciting change for us this year at Rosecrans,” said head football coach Mark Johnston.

Rosecrans is coming off a 7-3 season in which they fell in the first round of the playoffs to Waterford. They also lost some key talent in senior running back Aaron Gelkin, and senior do-it-aller Travis Johnston, who has taken his talents to Case Western. All three seniors that graduated in 2016 were All-Ohio players for the Bishops. Johnston was the school’s all-time leading tackler and second-leading rusher.

“You’re not going to replace him, we just hope to find a way to kind of offset some of what he did last year, and I think we’ve got some bodies that are ready to go, ready to step-up and take the challenge,” added Johnston.

Weight training and conditioning awaits Johnston’s team this week before two-a-days start on July 31st. He said that they’ve had a “liftathon” the past two days in which a couple weightlifting records were broken, and the team is working extremely hard to get ready for the season.

The team also took part in a couple of 7-on-7s which he said helped their skill-position players refine some of their skills and get a feel for where they need to be on the field.

“From a defensive side, we’re looking at positioning, where they are. Are they recognizing what they need to to recognize?  Offensively, kind of the same deal. We’re looking at routes, where do you want to sit down? Where do you want to go? What do you want to try and do? It’s not just a five-yard out, it’s where do you make yourself open.  So we learned a lot up at Northridge last week and then out at Muskingum earlier this week.”

Bishop Rosecrans opens their season on August 25th at home against Beallsville.