Staff file photo / Neel Madhavan. Warren JFK's Trevon Hall (60), Steven Thomas (8) and Anthony Georgalas (10) combine to tackle LaBrae's Owen Boone (6) during a contest on Sept. 7.

WARREN — Warren JFK isn’t used to losing seasons.

Yet, in 2023, Kennedy struggled to a 2-7 record in head coach Damon Buente’s first season leading the program.

With the Eagles in transition from the previous era, the growing pains were evident. With a young, inexperienced roster, numbers were low and injuries piled up. It was JFK’s first losing season since 2017 (4-7) and fewest number of wins in a season since it went 2-8 in 2014.

But after a 27-8 victory over Mogadore on Friday night, the Eagles have come out on the other side, as JFK improved its record this fall to 5-1 as Buente has returned the program to its winning ways.

“It’s been different in the sense that I learned from some of my mistakes in my first year,” Buente said. “But I think we have a much larger senior class. We have 15 seniors that have a lot of personality and a lot of enthusiasm, and I believe that the assistant coaches have done a remarkable job of making connections, building rapport, teaching and motivating. I think those two things feed off each other on a daily basis.”

The clearest indicator of how far JFK has come since last season are the results on the scoreboard.

A year ago, JFK lost to Mogadore, Garfield and Marlington by a combined score of 151-40.

The Eagles have flipped the script this season, as they’ve beaten those same three teams already this year by a combined total of 96-43.

“We’ve been able to have success because we have been physical at times during football games,” Buente said. “We have constantly been plagued with penalties, like a lot of teams out there, but I feel that we’ve played hard. I think when you play hard, you can make up for a lot of mistakes in terms of execution and whatnot because your effort and your will can overcome some of the $1 problems that you’re creating for yourself as a football player and coaching staff.”

JFK’s lone setback this season came in a tight, hard-fought contest against LaBrae on Sept. 7. The Eagles led the Vikings at halftime, but LaBrae rallied to score 10 unanswered points in the second half and held off JFK late.

Buente put that loss squarely on his own shoulders, and since then, JFK has won three games in a row.

“The only thing we really learned from LaBrae is that I need to be a better head coach — demand consistency and discipline and take those as non-negotiable,” Buente said. “There’s obviously things on every film, whether you win 50-0 or lose 50-0 technique-wise and execution-wise. But the only lesson we learned as a program is that I need to do a better job as a head coach getting these guys prepared to play four quarters of consistent, physical football.”

This season, JFK is older and significantly more experienced than it was last year, which has played a significant role in the team’s success.

Like Buente said, the Eagles have 15 seniors after having only three on the roster last season. The majority of those seniors were sophomores on the JFK team that finished as the 2022 Division VII state runner-up before the struggles of last season.

“Experience in anything for teenage boys is extraordinary,” Buente said. “For those boys that had success as freshmen and sophomores and then involved bumps and bruises as juniors, I think it showed them how difficult it is to win big football games. So having those guys back has brought a sense of calm to the rest of the room. They’re never too high, never too low, some of them. So we’re really fortunate to have their demeanors in our locker room.”

On offense, JFK has developed a multi-faceted identity. The Eagles have shown the ability to move the ball and score by leaning on the run game and by airing it out in the passing game.

Led by 342 yards and five touchdowns from Steven Thomas, JFK has three different players totalling over 250 rushing yards this season, including Freddy Bolchalk and Jaylen Murray.

In the passing game, Bolchalk has thrown for 678 yards and six touchdowns with his favorite targets being LaMarcus Provitt (366 yards), Marcus Komora (184 yards) and Noah Elser (168 yards).

“Offensively, we are going to go with what we feel is our best matchup, or matchups, and then we are always looking at mathematically how we’re spreading the defense out and where they are deficient in terms of alignment,” Buente said. “I guess the old saying is, ‘we go with the hot hand.’ If we feel we can run the ball and have success, we’ll do that. If we feel we can air it out, we’ll try to do that. I don’t care how we put points on the board, but we need to be efficient.”

Defensively, JFK has returned to its “Blue Storm” days after defensive coordinator Jordan Simmons returned to the program in the offseason.

As a result, the Eagles’ defense is giving up just 13.2 points per game so far this year.

Ian Odille leads JFK with 46 total tackles, while Mike Bartoe and Trevon Hall have combined for 12 tackles for loss. Murray has added 3.5 sacks and Komora has two interceptions.

“(Simmons) is the ultimate rapport builder, and more so than anything, he has his system and philosophy, but the foundation of (it) is that you have to play absolutely relentlessly for the brothers next to you to have success,” Buente said. “You can get a chalkboard and drop X’s and O’s all day long, but when you’re playing selflessly so someone that you care about can have success instead of you, I think that’s really how you can get a defense to play really fast and physical and selfless.”

The Eagles continue their season this week by hosting Portage Trail Conference foe Rootstown on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.