Foos-ball is alive and well in Attica

Blake Foos living up to big expectations as third All-Ohioan in family ATTICA -- Football runs through the veins of the Foos family. It's simply a fact. Growing up throwing the ball around in the yard, tackling each other ... Blake and his brother Mason on one team and oldest brother Chase on the other.The competitive fire was lit back then as most of the time the play would end up in fights, Chase said. Fast forward to Blake's senior season for Seneca East, him leading the Tigers out of the tunnel and Chase on the sideline, it's surely to be one last special ride for the Foos family. Blake, a three-sport athlete for SE, is a "football junkie" according to his coach Ed Phillips. "I don't wanna speak for him, but I think it's his favorite (sport)," he said. "I do know that he got some of it from watching his brothers. I would hear stories of him at home where he'd be out in the yard like playing catch with himself and throwing the ball up working on his tight spiral, things like that. It's because he wanted to be like his brothers and they set a pretty high standard and helped create a lot of excitement and left a pretty good legacy here. "I mean, obviously kudos to their parents because they've got three boys who've been all-Ohio football players. That's pretty good. But I know their parents live and breathe it too. Their mom's (Dana) a big part of all of our team meals and helping organize that. It's definitely a family affair."Oldest brother Chase was an all-Ohio QB in 2019 and middle brother Mason was an all-Ohio linebacker in 2021. Blake joined the all-Ohio family with a sensational 2022 season. Entering the season as a first-year starter, expectations were high for the third Foos, but he surely exceeded all of them. Blake threw for 2,187 yards and 22 touchdowns and added 1,159 yards rushing and 15 more TDs. He led the Northern 10 Athletic Conference in rushing and was second in passing. A combined 37 touchdowns earned him first-team all-Ohio in Division VI. Oh yeah, he also led the N10 in punting average at 38.7 yards per punt. "You know I'm not a big stat guy, but when I put together the stats at the end of the season and I just sat back and admired just how impressive he was," Phillips said. "But the thing about him is that he loves defense too and he's really the first quarterback I've had that's played a good amount on defense for us. He doesn't like it when we take him off the field. I think in the Fostoria game last year we lined him up at safety, at linebacker and then at end and he helped finish off that game with a strip sack."He just has such a high football IQ, he just loves football. He is constantly on Instagram watching drills or plays to try to understand and if we run a play in practice and we don't do it right, a lot of times we're running it again. He's a perfectionist and we see that in our whole team too trying to do things the right way. That stems from him — our QB."Chase, who led the Tigers to the Final Four in 2018, a N10 title in 2019 and was named Offensive Player of the Year that season, said he was pretty impressed by his little brother."It was a lot of fun to watch him put on a great show last year," he said. "I think he even got better as the season went on. He calmed down a bit too and then put up some big numbers. It was fun to watch."Chase got a front row seat to the show last season as he was a statistician for the Tigers. Besides keeping track of stats, older brother got to see and mentor Blake on things happening on the field. "I figured I was going to be going to the game anyways, so I thought I might as well go down there and help as much as I can" Chase said. "Coach Phillips said he'd be happy to have me down there, so that's how it went down. "On Friday night, if I'm seeing something or if (Blake) is wondering about something, it's nice because I've been there and seen it and know how to handle it and it's a lot easier seeing it from a different view when you're not on the field. I can just replay it from the Ipad and see what went wrong and then relay it to him. It's easier to see some things from the sidelines than actually being out there."Having Chase there to talk through things is invaluable for a young gunslinger. "Any time I do come off the field he'll pull up a play and point out anything that he saw and that helps me kind of digest what the defense is doing," Blake said. "I know against Fostoria that was huge, where he really helped. I was struggling that night and they were bringing a lot of pressure and it was only my second game starting. I wasn't really ready for that kind of pressure, but in the second half, I made some big throws when we needed and he really helped with that. It's nice because he's got a lot of experience and he's my brother. It means a lot you know."Phillips added: "It's neat because it's your brother. You know, and that's the way it should be when your brother comes and helps you out it makes it a family affair and they enjoy the moment," he said. "We had some special moments and a special season last year and that's something that they'll always have together."When asked what makes Blake similar or different than his brothers, Phillips sat back and reflected and then thought about how he is exactly the right mixture of both of them. "When you think of how Chase played on offense and then Mason on defense, I mean Mason kicked butt on defense," he said with a smile. "Defense was kind of his thing, and for Chase, he was a good trigger man and made some big throws when it mattered most. I think Blake saw both of them play and picked up some things that they're really good at and combined it with a second-to-nobody work ethic. "So he really is a bit of both of them and it's a tribute to them because they did it first and showed him the way. He was smart to pay attention and pick up on things and make it his own."There's the player fans see on the field and then there's the leader his teammates and coaches see day in and day out. Blake said his mentality is to do anything in his power to help his team win. He exemplified that last year throwing for scores, running for scores, pinning teams inside their own territory with punts and then making impact plays on defense. But it was a recent event in coach Phillip's life that really showed what kind of leader and person Blake really is. It's funneled to his teammates as well. "He had a grandparent pass away last year and I don't think he even missed a practice. And I told him if he needed to go it was fine, but he told me that this is what his grandparent would want him to do. And my mom just recently died and they organized a couple weeks ago that the whole team would show up to the funeral. He was the first one I saw come around the corner and then the rest of the team followed," Phillips said. "So you get trust in people for a lot of reasons and you know some kids will look for a day off because maybe there's a birthday party at eight O'clock or something, but he lives and breathes football. "He's just a great teammate and he cares about his teammates deeply. If they make a mistake, he's very unique because he'll go up and he'll demonstrate it like a coach. There were a couple times this week where I was gonna jump in and demonstrate something, but he's right there helping the kid."Blake echoed his coach's words when asked what he's looking to get out of his senior season. "Personally, I just want to be a good teammate and make sure my teammates respect me," he said. "I also want to be a better pocket passer as well. I feel like last year I struggled in the pocket sometimes, so I want to improve there and just have fun with my guys. "I'm also just more comfortable with the system, more comfortable in coaching the other players, the younger guys and trying to give off some of my knowledge I've gained these last two years."Then there's the relationship between the Foos brothers and the fans and the SE community. From the first Foos to the last, the Seneca East community has seen something special on Friday nights."It's been everything and meant everything to me to see the crowds here on Friday nights, there really is nothing like it," Blake said. "If you go somewhere else, it's just not the same. Attica has been awesome and it sucks that I only have 10 more games in front of these fans.Phillips added: "Everything I've been through with my mom recently (the team) has been my refuge, you know. When you have kids like that past and present that I know I can count on, it means so much to me and to the community," he said. "I mean, this is a special community and I think our crowd and student section is special. I know they're just one family that's a part of it, but they've made a lot of really good things happen around here in recent times."