On Sept. 2, the Center Grove football team was 1-1 heading into its annual rivalry game with Carmel. The Trojans’ season could have gone in any direction.
With the two teams tied at 6-6 and 6:41 left on the clock, Center Grove’s offensive linemen opted to dominate.
Senior guard Nick Davis, who hadn’t played since being injured in the season-opening loss to Warren Central, entered the game and came together with his four linemates to lay waste to the Greyhounds’ defense.
The Trojans ran the ball 10 straight times for 80 yards on their march for the go-ahead touchdown en route to a 19-6 victory.
“We pride ourselves on trying to get the defense to quit by out-physicalling them and just being stronger-minded than them,” Davis said.
“We take pride in putting the games in our hands,” senior tackle Clay Hadley added, “so if we’re physical, the game will go our way.”
That has been the case all season long. Known for its ability to dominate on the ground, Center Grove has rushed for 3,566 yards (274.3 per game) and 49 touchdowns this season. The Trojans also have shown the ability to destroy the opposition via the passing game as well, scoring 14 more times through the air and averaging 16.3 yards per completion.
Offenses don’t put up those kinds of numbers without owning the trenches.
“They mean so much to me,” senior running back Titus McCoy said of the offensive linemen. “I can’t do any of this stuff without them or get any of these accolades. They do mean a lot, and they’re really the ones who should get the credit, not me.”
More often than not, offensive linemen don’t receive credit from the masses. They’re used to toiling in relative anonymity while the quarterbacks, receivers and running backs get the lion’s share of the glory.
Aside from teammates and coaches, few notice the work that the young men up front put in — usually, the only times a lineman’s name is mentioned on television or on the radio is if there’s been a holding penalty.
At Center Grove, though, the linemen are noticed.
“The cool thing about playing O-line around Center Grove is a lot of people do give you credit,” senior Dylan Bramlett said. “A lot of people do love you, they do support you in everything that you do — and they do know who you are.”
Part of that is due to how consistently well those players have performed. Some of it, though, is also the long, flowing hair that many in the group have been sporting.
Hadley, with his thick blond locks and beard, could pass as a stand-in for Thor in the next Avengers movie. His last haircut, he says, came the day after Center Grove won the state title last year — “I went and got a free haircut from Great Clips,” he recalled. “It was pretty cool.”
Davis and Bramlett have been growing their manes out for nearly as long.
“It’s just become kind of a signature,” Davis said. “When people in the community see us, they know that we’re O-line because of our long hair.”
“You go in a restaurant, people are like, ‘Whoa — he’s got long hair; we see him playing on Friday nights,’” Bramlett added. “That’s pretty cool, the way the community treats us and the way the people around here know who the O-line is.”
Not everyone on the line has let his hair wolf out, though. Center Bailey Smith, one of just a few clean-shaven lads in the group, says he tried growing his hair long last season.
“We decided that I didn’t look the best with long hair,” Smith said. “It wasn’t a very good situation.”
Regardless of hair length, they remain a cohesive unit on and off the field. Whether it’s encouraging one another during workouts, invading Subway together on Thursdays or demoralizing opposing defenses on Friday nights, Center Grove’s linemen are inseparable.
“It’s been pretty amazing,” Davis said. “Every year we just seem to get closer and closer and closer, and we’re all good friends. Our motto is ‘Brotherhood,’ and I would consider them my brothers, for sure.”
“It’s been great, just being with everybody every day,” Smith added. “You never forget all the stuff that you go through during the summer, and all of our tough workouts up on the hill. So all that stuff kind of pulls us together.”
