Akron East football relies on brotherhood as it navigates its way through the ups and downs

AKRON, Ohio - One look at the Akron East football record tells you that the Dragons are 5-1 overall and 1-0 in the Akron City Series after a 36-6 conference win over Akron North on Saturday at Joseph B. Yost Field at Ellet High School.

But not all 5-1 records are created equally.

The Dragons have been a resilient bunch as they jumped out to a 3-0 record to start the season after starting 0-3 last season.

The season began with a pair of 1-point wins as they defeated Youngstown Chaney 14-13 and Bedford 13-12.

While some weren’t impressed by wins of such a slim margin, those people might not have been aware what was happening within the program.

Just one day before the game against Chaney, senior Antenio “Teno” Louis was shot and killed in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood as he was on his way to practice. And then on the morning of the win over Bedford, players attended the funeral of their fallen teammate.

But East kept rolling along, as head coach Marques Hayes was equipped more than most to handle the situation. He has lost five players in his 12-year tenure as the head coach at East.

“It never gets easier dealing with it because you miss those guys, and you know they're part of your program,” Hayes said. “You see them all the time. You have relationships with them that are just bigger than football.”

But talking to teenagers about the loss of a teammate, a friend, a brother, is difficult. And when the news comes down as the coaches and players are on the practice field just 30 minutes after the head coach had talked to the player, it puts the coach in an impossible position.

“How do you even go about explaining that to your team,” Hayes said. “How do you bring them together and say ‘hey, this just happened, and by the way, I just talked to him 30 minutes ago.'

“You have to look at the rest of your guys and you see how they take it. And as adults, we can kind of compartmentalize things and try to keep the main thing, the main thing. But those kids, they're all emotional and they don't know how to do that. And you don't expect them to, and you don't want them to hold things in like that.”

It’s part of the reason Hayes was so proud of his team for the way they played in the season opening win.

“It was huge because our kids sometimes are not the best at controlling emotions,” Hayes said. “You're talking about literally 24 hours prior to playing, they have to deal with something as heartbreaking as that. But it's true that you're going to see what you have in a player when they have to look around and they have to see that things aren't going the way that it's supposed to go.”

The start to the season for the Dragons was important after the 0-3 start last year put East in a hole it had to climb out of as the playoffs approached. Because the Dragons won just two of their five out-of-conference games, they were the No. 16 seed in Division III, Region 9 and matched up with two-time defending state champion Chardon in the first round, a 42-15 loss.

No matter how they looked, Hayes was happy with the wins over Chaney and Bedford, both Division III schools, because of what it meant long-term. And he looked forward to a Week 3 game against Division I Elyria (that East ended up winning 35-0) with a chance to gain even more computer points.

“Getting wins early is crucial,” Hayes said after the win over Bedford. “You can kind of see how the season is going to go or how it can potentially play out and things like this week are huge. Next week is even bigger because you can get that 6.5 points (for a win in the computer rankings). I think what we're doing, it feels good right now.”

And then came the wake-up call for East, as they traveled just two miles down the road to take on Archbishop Hoban in Week 4. While East lost 39-0, the Dragons took many lessons out of that game.

“We lost the game, but we can look back at the game and we can say you know what, there were some things that maybe we could have did differently if we could execute it on a couple of things,” Hayes said. “But make no mistake, that was a great team that is stacked full of stud players.”

Playing against Hoban, who is currently ranked No. 3 in the SBLive Ohio Power 25, was a decision made by the coach and his staff after playing Hoban two years in a row in a scrimmage and the players wanting to play the game.

“Our team is willing to play anybody, we're not going to be afraid to play anybody,” Hayes said. “And the fact is, from a confidence standpoint, you have to understand that there's no reason that you don't deserve to be out there on that field playing those guys.”

From a football standpoint, playing Hoban showed the Dragons what they need to improve on as a team.

“We have to be more physical and run harder, because teams are going to come and try to stop the run,” East running back Ziaire Stevens said. “So we just have to play more physical ball and assignment football.”

East bounced back with a 20-8 win over Youngstown East and the City Series opener over North as they look to take back the City Series crown after losing it to Buchtel a season ago. 

East will travel to Buchtel on Saturday, October 7 at noon in a game that could be the de facto City Series championship game, one that the Griffins won last season 19-13. The two teams have split the last four meetings with East winning in 2020 and 2021 and Buchtel victorious in 2019 and last season. 

But Hayes is not letting his team think about that just yet, as the Dragons still have a game against Firestone next week.

“Every week, we tell guys our next opponent is the biggest game in the country because it is our next game,” Hayes said before the game against North on Saturday. “We treat it that way. We are not going to look past North and we sure aren’t going to look past Firestone.”

To say this has been a roller coaster of a season emotionally for the East Dragons football team would be an understatement.

“There are some obstacles that we have to go through,” Hayes said. “People ask me all the time when we are going to just enjoy the fruits of your labor. I tell them it's always labor. I have a coaching staff and people that are here for these kids. And that's what we're going to continue to do, we are going to be here for these kids.”

And while the team might have obstacles in its way, the brotherhood that has been cultivated by Hayes and his staff has kept the team together through thick and thin.

The closeness of the team was obvious to Stevens immediately. The running back, who is now a junior, was originally slated to attend Archbishop Hoban. But his two brothers - Kyaire and Deaire - played for Hayes at East and the younger brother tagged along for sessions in the weight room and decided to become a Dragon.

“It was just a different culture over here in that it's a family vibe,” said Stevens, who scored three touchdowns in the win over North on Saturday. “I stepped in the weightroom and everybody was welcoming me with open arms and it was like a brotherhood. So as long as we stay strong together, then sky's the limit.”

The Dragons have the guy in place to make sure the brotherhood stays strong within the program, as the east side of Akron is the only place for the head coach.

“I love this Dragon team, man,” Hayes said. “I have loved all of my years that I've been here. I tell people I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right here with these guys."

-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh