RAVENNA – For the second straight season, the Ravenna football team will host a home playoff game in the first round of Division 7 district play.
Part of what has driven the Bulldogs’ success over the past two seasons is the presence of senior quarterback Kyle Beebe, who has developed into one of the best QBs in the Muskegon area, despite having a surprisingly limited resume.
Through the nine-week regular season, Beebe completed 70 of 118 passes for 887 yards and nine touchdowns. He’s also contributed to the ground game, gaining 197 yards on 70 carries with six touchdowns for the 6-3 Bulldogs.
When looking at Beebe’s stats, you may be surprised to know he didn’t even play football as a freshman, and didn’t take over the varsity starting position full time until the middle of the 2020 season.
“It’s great to see,” said Ravenna head coach Justin Ego about his senior leader. “As a kid who didn’t play football as a freshman, he lacked that year. He played his sophomore year and then took over the quarterback position in the middle of last year.”
[1]Beebe has had some big games for the Bulldogs, who will host conference rival North Muskegon on Friday night in their Division 6 playoff opener.
It started in the first game of the season, when he threw a 90-yard touchdown pass to Drew Mabrito and an 18-yard scoring strike to Hunter Hogan, then added a one-yard TD run in the 21-20 victory over Beal City. He finished 11-fo-16 through the air for 188 yards.
In a 53-8 win over Mason County Central, Beebe completed 13 of 19 passes for 194 yards with two touchdowns. In a 63-6 win over Shelby, he threw touchdown passes of 22 and 62 yards and rushed for a 21-yard TD.
Beebe’s stats are also very impressive considering the amount of talent he has around him on offense. Unlike a lot of high school quarterbacks, he doesn’t have to gain the most yards or score the most points for the Bulldogs to be successful.
The Ravenna running game takes a lot of pressure off Beebe. Hunter Hogan is one of the area’s leading rushers with 695 yards and six touchdowns. Clay Schullo has 450 yards and seven touchdowns, and Thomas McCulough has 366 yards and four touchdowns.
But Beebe still has a big role to play as the conductor of the offense, a skill he has developed this season.
[2]“He’s kind of the guy in the middle,” said Ego about Beebe. “Guys kind of flock around him and follow his lead. The great thing out there is that he’s kind of telling guys where to line up. He can help them out and he can kind of echo it to them. It’s a lot of pressure, but he makes sure it’s all orchestrated right, and you can see it.”
That pressure is something Beebe said he actually enjoys.
“It takes a lot,” Beebe said. “It takes a lot of mental stuff to know what everyone has to do. We have a lot of guys who can make plays, though. I take a lot of responsibility and make sure everyone is lined up right.”
Beebe and Ego think the offense has come into its own this year thanks to a more normal offseason in 2021.
“I think myself and the team have improved a whole lot,” Beebe said. “Last year we couldn’t do a whole lot with COVID, but this year we started working every day through the summer and didn’t miss workouts. We wanted to be better for this season, and it’s made the improvement a lot easier, being able to be back with each other.”
Ego said ball placement on Beebe’s passes is his biggest personal improvement.
“He’s great with touch,” the coach said. “Coming into the season we worked on positioning the ball and getting it out quick. It’s something I really think he’s done better. He’s thrown catchable balls, and that’s an important thing for a quarterback. He’s accurate and he’s able to keep his eyes downfield while scrambling, because he’s always looking to make a play, which is important.”
[3]When Beebe and his Bulldog teammates take the field on Friday, they’ll be hosting a North Muskegon squad they beat 17-6 back on Oct. 8. Beebe and the offense had a relatively quiet game that week, largely because the North Muskegon defense did a good job of containing the Bulldogs.
“I think it’s really cool,” Beebe said about the rematch. “Usually in football, you don’t play a team twice. We can now see if we’ve improved and how much we’ve improved.”
Beebe admits Friday night’s playoff opener will be a little more special than it was in 2020.
“It’s very exciting,” he said. “Last year everyone made it and it just didn’t mean as much. But this year, we just know that we earned it. We get to play more and have a home game, which we weren’t really sure we would get.”
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