We can guarantee that you’ll be hearing more from the fearsome-foursome that has developed along the offensive line at Sunlake High School in the future. For now, we caught up with one-half of the crew that are best friends off the field, and eat-your-heart-out competitors whenever in each others’ company on-or-off the field. They are all members of the Class of 2016 and look to continue the new standard that’s been set in Pasco County these past few years. Two of them are Xecutives invites, while the other two are nothing short of quality at their positions as well. They are Joey Russum, Bryce Cooley, Logan “Chubs” Berryman and Leo Baez. Here now are Russum and Cooley in their own words and like we said, stick around. You’ll be hearing from all four at once in the not-so-distant future.
Both Russum and Cooley acknowledge some pretty humble beginnings for their prep careers. They both represent the norm, rather than the exception when it comes to the thousands of ballers that put the helmets and pads on. Both guys have camped and acknowledge that without the pads off and the technique focused upon plus some good-ole-fashioned hard work and chemistry that was cultivated and developed by some pretty darn good coaches, that this game wouldn’t be offering the kinds of opportunities that are being presented at this moment.
“They’ve (the offseason camps) helped me with my footwork and technique, because when the pads are on I’m really worried about hitting more,” said Russum. The 5-foot-11, 280-pounder acknowledges that the camps aren’t the only thing of course that are helping. It also takes some proper guidance from the coaching staff. “I think it comes from our O-line coach–Coach Smith since we’ve all been together for a couple years now.”
Cooley agrees when asked if he sees it the same as Russum regarding that coaching.
“Coach Smith definitely has had the most influence in our development. Some of us have gone from nothing to everything and Coach Smith’s been one of the biggest parts of that process. He just a great coach to begin with, I mean, we have a great coaching staff from top to bottom. They’re not really our coaches. They’re a little more than that because they come to all our camps and we know we can rely on them more than just as members of a team.”
One thing that’s interesting is that Cooley and Russum haven’t been doing this for very long at this kind of level. They talked about the process they went through and how this success came to happen to them.
“Chubs started as sophomore, then Me and Cooley got moved up from JV and Leo was more of a defensive guy as a sophomore. Last year was out first year together as one unit,” said Russum. “Freshman year I didn’t play at all basically and sophomore season not as much. Then last season was when I got to play and get the work. I never had the size where I could just walk out on the field and take a spot. I had to wait for that spot to open with senior graduating so nothing is guaranteed. I just had to keep working every single day.”
Cooley’s path wasn’t that much different. He didn’t even begin his football career until after his first season on campus.
“I didn’t even think about putting the pads on until my sophomore year. Those three played together their freshman year and my sophomore year I played tight end.” But how or better yet what caused Cooley to actually decide to start this journey?
“It was actually quite a few things. My freshman year I had Leo and Chubs and few other football players in my class and every single Friday they would come into class with their football jerseys on and I would just kinda see them and then I started getting motivated. I moved in with my Dad and then he said to me that within a few months, I’d be playing football. And then once I hit the weight room my freshman year and then got into all of that I just fell in love with the sport.”
Where does the aforementioned chemistry come into play? Well, this is where things get fun. This is where the teenage or even truly-human side starts to expose itself and where you begin to find out what really makes this unit tick as one heartbeat.
“We’re all friends. We all go over to each houses everyday, we all have nearly the same classes together, all we do is just talk about football. After practice all we do is talk about our blocks,” said Russum. That’s really not all they talk about, though. These boys really are like a band of brothers when it comes to how they spend their free time. It’s a kind of chemistry that’s needed when you’re working in concert in those trenches and sometimes without the ability to verbally communicate on the fly.
“We literally do every thing together. If you see one of us, you’re gonna see all of us. We try to always think of the approach that if he scratches my back, I scratch his. There’s a real a brotherhood on that offensive line.” said Cooley.
What Cooley goes on to describe is then closely resembled to scenes played out across America throughout generations when you get boys in a room that are trying to prove their worth. Or as we like to call it, the “try-not-to-break-anything-including-your-bodies” approach combined with a “who’s gonna pay for that?” with a “let’s hug it out over a large pizza or couple of steaks” conclusion.
“One thing we all have in common is that we strive for that competition. We all love it. We’ll sit there and hangout at each others’ houses and start going at 1-on-1’s right there inside the house. You’ll see me come home looking like bloody murder and it’s because I’ve been at one of their houses and we’ve been competing and trying to block each other in the living room. We all love the fact that we can go at each other like that and it just gets us prepared for when someone else calls one of us out.”
But wait, there’s more.
“Russum’s definitely the redneck of the crew.” Cooley says matter-of-factly. “Leo and Chubs and I will just hangout. We mostly always go to Russum’s house and Joey’s dad will ask Leo and Joey not to wrestle and break stuff and I mean, the four of us will be hanging out and those two will be sitting on the couch and just look at each other and me and Chubs would just yell out don’t do it. Next thing you know things are flying. Chubs and I don’t understand it at all.”
The boys combined for 72 pancake blocks last season. Berryman aka “Chubs” along with Russum had 22 a-piece, Cooley posted 15, while Baez put up 13 en route to the Seahawks going 9-3 although their season ended in the second round of the playoffs to Gainesville. Cooley talked where the motivation came from to make sure these happen as often as possible.
“My Dad calls it asses and elbows, but I love the pancakes. No matter when or what it is I’ll just look up in the stands and he’ll just be pointing to his butt and his elbows. It’s nice to be able to stand over someone after you’ve just destroyed them; not in some sort of bad way but it’s just nice to see the finished product of what you’ve been working on.”
That kind of approach to feasting on pancakes had earned the crew some titles like, “bullies” and whatnot. Whether the pads are on or off, whether it’s at camps or during the regular season, they welcome the labels. “We like the target on our back. We like that.” said Russum. What about the possibility of all four of them playing together on the next level?
“Yeah, ‘we’ve talked about that a couple times.” said Russum.
“Honestly the nicest thing about this offensive line all jokes aside and playing around, is that, we can all look at each other and just communicate on the field what needs to happen. We may be best friends off the field, but when it’s on the field, even in practice it’s go time. We don’t have time to be friends when we’re out there working. It doesn’t matter how good of friends you are, it’s all serious.”
That seriousness shows when the boys are asked about their teammate Xavier Johnson, who is in a doctor-induced coma stemming from an accident earlier this year.
“Xavier is one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met. When I heard the news, I dropped everything I was doing and was there at the hospital trying to be there for my teammate.” said Cooley. Russum says the team plans on wearing stickers on their helmets and that Johnson will never be too far from their hearts and minds when they take the field. The Seahawks will travel to East Lake for their Fall Classic which is sure to be one of the marquee match-ups in the entire Tampa Bay Area.