Cole and Carson Elwood are a special subplot in this special 2018 season for Fox football.
For Cole, a safety and running back, this fall could be the last one for playing on the same team with his younger brother.
“Growing up, we’ve always been playing together, and having that experience, that brother experience on the field and off the field, it’s a good feeling,” said Carson, a junior outside linebacker and rover on the Warriors defense. “To be here for Cole for his senior year, it’s been a good experience. I love being there for him and seeing what he can do with his season.”
It’s the same situation for brothers Gavin and Noah McGinness, as senior Gavin, the Warriors quarterback and safety, takes the field in his final season with Noah, a junior outside linebacker and rover.
“It means a lot,” Gavin said. “Just growing up, dreaming about playing on Friday nights, I never thought I’d be able to start with my brother. It just makes everything more fun knowing your family is out there with you and you get to play alongside him. If he makes a big play, you get to hype each other up, and it just makes things more fun.”
Winning also makes things more fun, and Fox has been doing that at an unprecedented pace. With a 21-17 win at Marquette on Sept. 28, the Warriors improved to 6-0, the varsity team’s best start in half a century.
“We knew we had a lot of potential,” Carson said. “We wanted to maximize our roster as much as we could with the guys this year. We’re just looking to get better at every practice, keep the grind going, play hard every snap and just see what we can do out there.
“Being undefeated, it’s a great feeling, and it’s taken a long time to get here. We all have gone through a lot of tough practices, and it’s been hard, but I think we’ve done our best to get here and it’s paid off.”
The brother-power isn’t limited to the Elwoods and McGinnesses, either. Other siblings suiting up for the Warriors include Jake and Luke Pisoni, and Chase and Jake Waters.
“Family is one of the main quotes that the coaches always say,” Cole said. “Family, football and faith are definitely a big part of our program.”
The brotherhood strengthens a family dynamic on and off the field.
“We’ve got a lot of brothers on this team, but even with that, we’ve got brothers that aren’t by blood on this team, we’re just that close,” Cole said. “We always hang out with each other outside of school, outside of football, but when we’re on the field together, it’s the best time.”
Fox head coach Brent Tinker said it’s always been his goal to break down cliques within the building, to get more kids on the team, and then to break down cliques within the team, to get them to appreciate each other and come together.
“We definitely have the start of that, and I think sometimes a true friend is family,” Tinker said. “We’ve got a lot of really good friends on this team. They really do care about each other.”
For Gavin McGinness, there’s no question that team chemistry has played a huge role in the team’s success.
“We’re not fighting or anything, arguing during practice like past teams. So honestly, we’re a lot closer this year,” he said. “We get along with everybody, and everybody holds each other accountable. So I think this year, we’re just a lot closer, and it’s leading us to bigger things.”
Noah said it provides each player with extra incentive to give everything he has on every play.
“It’s a helpful thing, because we push each other past our abilities,” he said. “We make sure each one of us is working hard, make sure each one of us doesn’t take any plays off, making sure we do the best we can.”
The Warriors are led by a unique group of seniors with a special bond, going back to their days playing in the Jefferson County Youth Association under the watchful eyes of then-JCYA mentor Scott Neibert, now Fox’s offensive coordinator.
“This senior class, there’s just something different,” Cole said. “Nothing against the other senior classes that we’ve had the past few years, but you definitely notice something different when you walk into a room with these guys.”
Tinker said he knew this year’s team was going to be tight. Neibert’s youngest son, Bob Neibert, starts at running back – yet another family connection.
“Scott has been coaching these kids since they were 8, and I’ve known Scott now for about 10 years,” Tinker said. “I’d say half these seniors were ball boys and water boys growing up, so we’ve all known each other for quite some time.”
Now the Arnold area is swept up in Fox football fever.
“I think what you have in Arnold is a community who’s just waiting to get woken up, and you have that family mentality here. And I’ll tell you, what I feel like is it’s even expanded past the team,” Tinker said. “Our fans have traveled so well this year. I mean, there’s a lot of real friendship and real bonds even between our players and the kids in the stands. So I think Friday nights have been a real fun place to be around here, in the past few years especially. I think the friendship and the family mentality is helping us.”
For the brothers, they’re trying to soak up every bit of the excitement they can.
“Sometimes it is kind of a too-good-to-be true feeling, but at the same time, we worked real hard in the offseason, the whole team has,” Noah said. “We’ve had the blood, sweat and tears, we’ve never taken any days off, we’ve always worked to the best of our abilities, and we’re getting our reward.”
They hope the rewards keep coming well past the end of the regular season.
“Being undefeated right now, it’s making senior year a lot more fun,” Gavin said. “We’re just hoping to keep it up and make a run into the playoffs.”