Pirates making quick transition to football

PERKINS TWP. — For some of Perkins' top athletes, breaks are few and far between. It's a little more than six weeks until the high school football season kicks off, and the Pirates are making up for lost time. The summer football calendar for Ohio football teams started May 15, but Perkins' baseball team won a state championship June 14 — the final day of the spring sports season. "July really just started for us," Perkins coach Jalen Santoro said Tuesday. "We had Fourth of July week off. It's been a different summer for a good reason with the baseball team playing till the middle of June. We feel like we're a little behind where we've normally been, but the guys are doing a good job getting caught up." This is the second straight year that the Perkins baseball team played on the last day of the spring sports season. "Moving forward, we're planning on our baseball team playing into the summer and we're gonna modify our schedule a little bit to fit that," Santoro said. "We've gotta find a way to get our stuff installed and at the same time keep these guys fresh because they haven't had a break since they've been in high school. "Basketball makes the final four and baseball wins the whole thing. Look at wrestling, too, they have guys going to state. Sports run into each other. Honestly, I feel bad for these kids at times because they never get a break." Fall sports practice officially begins August 1. Football teams must complete five acclimation days before full contact begins. "We can start our five acclimation days, I believe, next week," Santoro said. "We'll use those in the third week of July and get ready for camp." The Pirates return plenty of top-level talent from last year, when they finished 9-4 after a slow start. Perkins, which has won a total of 54 games over the last five seasons, is expected to once again be one of the top teams in Division IV, in part because of some talented newcomers. Quarterback Grant Kuhnle and wide receiver/defensive back Dante Shipp Jr. were on the field Tuesday at Firelands Health Stadium for what turned into an intrasquad scrimmage after Keystone could not make it for a scheduled 7-on-7 event. Kuhnle and Shipp, who played at St. Paul and Sandusky, respectively, last year, also are among a handful of football players who were on the baseball team. Kuhnle will be a senior when the Pirates kick off the season at home August 21 against Villa Angela-St. Joseph. "He's a smart kid and is picking up what we're installing," Santoro said. "We try to keep everything simple, but he understands our schematics and lingo already. Today, we were doing some things that were brand new for him and I thought he did a really good job. We threw some things at him on the fly. My biggest thing is to go see him compete." Depending on who lines up on defense in practice, Kuhnle could be facing a secondary filled with future NCAA Division I talent. "We gotta lot of Division I talent on the other side of the ball," Kuhnle said. "I feel like half the time I'm throwing there's nothing's open and I've gotta force a ball where I don't want to throw it. Throwing against guys like Dante, Kaden (Legando) and Bryce (Davie) is tough, but iron sharpens iron. We go against the best every day in practice so it's definitely making our offense better, too." Davie, Legando and Shipp — who grew up in the Perkins district — will be major targets for Kuhnle. Connor Smith, Paul Keys, Logan Wadsworth and Fred Taylor are other receivers who will get targets. "We can just put guys wherever we want and they'll make plays," Kuhnle said. "It's been going good. We've been working on timing with the receivers. Going from one sport straight into the other is definitely hard, but I'm enjoying it and we're working hard every day." Shipp — a standout three-sport athlete who already has 10 college football offers heading into his junior year — is happy to be playing at Perkins. "It was an easy transition because these are all my friends and we love sports," he said. "It's been a fun summer." Davie, another three-sport standout who was Perkins' leadoff batter and center fielder in baseball, has been through a swift transition before. "We had a late start last year, too," he said. "I felt like last year it took us a little bit to get into it, but this year we've been rolling. We've got team chemistry and our grade is pretty close." Even though Kuhnle is new to Perkins' football team, he's no stranger to Davie and many of the Pirates. "I see a lot of great things for Kuhnle," Davie said. "We go way back to playing basketball together on an AAU team. We've always had that chemistry. He throws a really good ball and I think he'll be a good addition to this team."