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1983 Greater Cleveland Conference Champions: Brush Arc Football

Original Release: 12/4/2023

By Rick Bloom '80 (BHS Athletic Dept) & Kim Kingzett Behm '72

On a recent September evening when the Arcs hosted Bedford, a group of Brush alumni assembled at Korb Field. It was a special anniversary celebration for the Brush team of 1983.

40 years earlier, this group of student-athletes authored an athletic story that rose from the ashes of a 1-9 season from the year prior. So overlooked was this collection of Arcs that local media had labeled them as the "GCC's RODNEY DANGERFIELD" as they prepared for the Fall of 1983. And when they began the season at 0-3, it seemed as though the media predictions might have been correct!

However, this determined group of football friends, guided by new Head Coach Bill Kingzett and his staff changed the course of Brush football history. Many of the players on this '83 team had fathers who played Arc football for Coach Kingzett some 20+ years earlier. Thus, not only the team rallied but the community as well. The Arcs would run off 6 victories and notch a huge tie against perennial power Mentor to lock up a most improbable and unexpected GCC Championship. It was to be Brush's first football title in 26 years and started a 15 -game winning streak.

Led by captains Tom Schostek, Pat McHenry, and Bob Mormino, this ballclub had 3 All-GCC first-teamers and 2 second-team selections. Twenty alumni players attended this special eve on Friday 9/15 and were honored along with Coaches Kingzett and Trinetti.

When asked about their success, Tom Schostek said, we were "just a tight-knit group of guys who worked really hard and jelled as a team. No real superstars, no highly recruited players... a group of young men who had each other's backs both on and off the field, along with the valued support of their coaches."