Most times, the most unsung heroes of a football team are the guys who have to work the hardest — the offensive lines.

    This is most certainly the case for the Caesar Rodney High School football team’s group.

    They hardly ever get their names into the newspapers, don’t really show up in the box scores and rarely make that dazzling play that leaves spectators speechless.

    Despite the lack of fanfare, though, these guys are what help make an offense on a football team function.

    Without them, players like quarterback John Sclesky, and running backs Duron Harmon and Malcolm Yowk would never have the room to make the plays that have helped lead the Riders to an 8-1 record so far this season.

    “It doesn’t really matter,” senior right guard John Rigby said of the lack of public attention. “The backs on our team give us credit not matter what. They come up to us after the game, pat us on the back and thank us.

    “As long as we get the win it doesn’t matter.”

    “We’re a team,” added senior tight end Wendell Flamer. “Every person has their responsibilities and we all know what we have to do as a team to come away with a W.”

    Senior right guard Pete DeMarreau, junior tight end Phillip Lewis, senior left guard David Gorski, sophomore right tackle Michael Eberhardt, senior center Erich Gillespie and senior left tackle Nick Smith, along with Rigby and Flamer, round out the offensive line.

    Gillespie said he’s not really concerned if the fans, the students or the media appreciate what he and his line mates do. He knows his teammates don’t take it for granted, and that is the important thing.

    “They appreciate what we do for them and we appreciate what they do for us,” he said. “It’s a team thing.”

Hard work creates results

    The eight rotating linemen have contributed this season to a CR offense that has lost only once, and is averaging 35 points per game.

    The secret to the group’s success this season, Gillespie said, is actually no secret at all: everything they have achieved is a result of hard work.

    “We worked really hard in the off-season, then in the preseason,” Gillespie said. “Everybody worked hard, and you can see that in how we play.”

    Flamer added to that, crediting the team’s coaches for helping get them to where they need to be every day in practice.

    “I think we work the hardest in practice at linemen,” he said. “There are only eight of us here.”

    Rigby said without that tremendous work ethic, the line would not perform at a respectable level. The group is not as large in size as other lines in the state, but working on using speed has leveled out that disadvantage.

    “We’re not big,” Rigby said, noting the players average 6 feet in height and weigh an average of 212 pounds. “But we come out everyday and we run hard. We run our hardest and we get low and hit as hard as we can, and holes open up for us.”

    Everything after the hole opens up, Eberhardt said, is in the hands of the ball carrier, and those players have not disappointed this season.

    “We seem to spring the holes and they just go,” he said. “And they’re pretty hard to bring down.”

Short memories

    A goal every week for the Rider line, Gorski said, is to forget about the previous week’s win and start focusing on the upcoming game.

    That means improving in areas where the line had been good and correcting mistakes they made.

    “Every week we put the last win behind us and we’re looking toward the next game, because every week it’s a new challenge,” Gorski said. “We need to get better as a team and grow to work towards the next win.”

    Gillespie agreed with his teammate and said improving does not just come from work on the field, but how they prepare off the field as well.

    “Every week we need to recognize that we need to improve,” he said. “We need to watch film, because when we do that we can see what we’re doing wrong and right, and that’s why we can improve week by week.

    “We’ve done that and we’ve come a long way from the start of the season.”

Still much to be done

    CR has had an impressive season through its first nine games. They’ve beaten many of the top teams in the state and have a chance at taking the Henlopen Conference championship.

    Flamer said the hard work has helped the team get better, but the squad itself has not gotten the results it wants yet.

    “I don’t think we’ve done anything yet because the playoffs aren’t here,” he said. “We just have to keep working hard every practice.”

    The offensive line is a veteran group, Flamer said, and that should fuel them to perform better in this year’s tournament (the Riders were ousted in the first round of 2007’s tourney).

    “As seniors, I think we [have something to prove],” he said. “We started the season off 8-0 and we need to finish hard.”

    “It’s a very experienced line, and we’ve been together for a long time,” Gillespie added. “Because of that we’re like a family, and I think that’s really helped us this year.”

    Gorski agreed that the hot start for CR is meaningless without results in the tournament.

    “It’s all about finishing,” he said. “This year, we’re making an effort to finish strong.”

    As the youngest player in a group of veterans, Eberhardt, who his fellow line mates affectionately refer to as their little brother, wants his teammates to graduate victorious.

    “I’m the younger kid in this crowd and I want to send these guys off with a great season to remember,” he said.

    The team and group of offensive linemen know what is expected of them in the tournament this year, Rigby said. And because of that, expectations are high.

    “A lot of us have siblings that played here, or family members and stuff like that,” he said. “We just owe it to them and to the whole town, because last year they expected us to do well and we came up short.

    “This year we owe it to everyone to bring home the championship.”

Email Brian Citino at brian.citino@doverpost.com