The eyes have it: Louisville defenders look the part

LOUISVILLE  Jake Adkins grew up going to Louisville High School football games and seeing the Leopard players wearing makeup beneath their helmets.

Eye black was everywhere. Multiple designs and sizes.

“I just knew it was really cool,” said Adkins, a senior linebacker for the Leopards. “I looked up to those older guys, and I knew I wanted to be like them someday.”

Someday is now. Adkins slathers the glare-reducing stuff on with pride. He will do so again Friday as Louisville (4-0, 1-0) hosts Northwest (2-2, 0-1) at 7 p.m.

It’s a tradition that started seven years ago with just a few linebackers but has grown to include every starter on defense and some top subs.

“We’re not complete without it,” senior lineman Joe Poyser said. “It makes us closer as a unit — 11 as one.

“And we cake it on, baby. My brothers were linebackers, Bill and Marcus, and when they saw it this year, they said that we put on three times as much as they did.”

The ritual of wearing eye black has become a signature tradition at Louisville — though reserved for the defense alone.

“It shows everybody they are a unit,” said Louisville head coach Paul Farrah, whose team is ranked No. 1 in the latest Associated Press Ohio Division II poll. “It’s a very special privilege to put that on. But ... that means you’ve got to go out there and perform.”

Former Louisville quarterback and defensive back Drew Kuhn, The Repository’s Stark County Player of the Year in 2005, said it began as an attempt to intimidate opponents, but it has grown.

“Now, it’s a tribute to the players who’ve gone before you,” Kuhn said.

LOOKING FOR AN EDGE

Former Louisville defensive ends Adam Burris and Brian Jones are credited with starting it.

Seniors on the 2002 Louisville team, Burris and Jones were inspired by former NFL defensive lineman John Randle and the pro wrestling tag team The Headbangers.

“I talked to Burris after the Hoban game two weeks ago,” said Curtis Elsass, the Leopards’ star tailback and linebacker on the 2002 team who also was The Repository’s Stark County Player of the Year that season. “I told him, ‘You created a monster.’ He laughed and said, ‘I guess so.’ ”

As a defensive line assistant on the current Louisville team, Burris gets to see his legacy up close every Friday night. As a player, he looked at the makeup as a mental advantage.

“Brian and I were mild-mannered,” Burris said. “But we couldn’t play (defensive end) that way. I was 6-(foot)-2, 180 (pounds). I needed an edge.”

“It wasn’t so much war paint as it was my way of saying, ‘I’m not the biggest, but I’m finding a way to get into the backfield,’ ” said Jones, who also weighed 180 when he played.

Whatever the inspiration, it worked. Louisville allowed just 114 points during 11 straight wins that season before losing in the second round of the playoffs.

“We were both a little off (the wall),” Burris said. “We didn’t have a mirror in our locker room. We used to sneak into the referees’ room. They had a mirror.”

That was with just two players putting on the black. Now?

“There’s a mirror in the players’ locker room,” Burris said. “It’s like having a bunch of girls in the washroom at prom in there.”

Louisville linebacker Hunter Potts can take the joke from his coach. Opponents don’t laugh, though, when he delivers one of his crushing hits.

“It means a lot to the defense, because it’s been going on a long time,” Potts said. “It’s one of our favorite things to do. ... It’s been great to carry it on.”

EVERYONE WANTS IN

Players who start on offense only have asked about joining in. The answer is no. This is a right reserved for the defense, though all seniors can partake on Senior Night.

There’s no stopping fans, though. One glance into the Louisville football crowd on any given Friday, and you might have a flashback to a KISS concert.

“You see it everywhere,” said Greg Beatty, owner of Beatty’s Sport Shop in Louisville. “High school players. Little Leopards. Kids in the stands. We go through two cases a week, 24 (tubes) to a case.”

The eye black comes in a lipstick-like container and costs $3.95.

Adults, for the most part, don’t get it. Louisville Athletics Director Rich Venuto and former Leopards football coach Rick Crislip just shrug their shoulders.

“I’ve had other ADs say, ‘What’s up with the makeup?’ ” Venuto said. “It’s something the kids do. It doesn’t cause any harm. That’s the way I see it.”

“We didn’t do that,” Crislip said. “But if that’s the worst thing our kids are doing, we’re in pretty good shape. If they think they play better with it on, then let them wear it.”

There’s no set pattern or rules to how eye black is applied. It’s up to the individual.

“Each kid usually has a different (design),” Farrah said. “I remember Blake Ruffing. He had teardrops. I asked him why. He said, ‘I’m gonna make them cry.’

“Kuhnie (Drew Kuhn), he wore a Batman mask. Austin Powers, Superman. Kuhn was one of the most mild-mannered kids. But when he put that (eye black) on, he changed. He was one of the best who’s played for me.”

Some coaches don’t like that stuff. Farrah?

He’s got Kuhn, in eye black, as his screensaver.