Team Within the Team: No surprise here — Batavia linebackers live to hit people

At the place they like to call Linebacker U, Monday’s football practice featured a defensive scheme that included one defensive lineman and six linebackers up front in the box.

Sometimes, they’ll go with a linebacker at safety.

“We’re putting as many linebackers on the field as we can when we need the speed,” said veteran Batavia High School defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Matt Holm, a Class of 1987 Bulldogs linebacker.

Who’s to question alignments and personnel from a program that, led by head coach Dennis Piron, has made the playoffs 15 straight years with two state titles?

It’s clear Batavia’s linebackers share a trait common with linebackers everywhere. They enjoy physical contact.

“A linebacker mentality,” Holm said.

“The biggest thing that is preached throughout being a linebacker is you’ve got to be physical when you play linebacker,” said Tony Minnec, a team co-captain like fellow senior linebacker Nick Jansey.

Though they play inside in Batavia’s 3-4 base defense, Minnec is the “middle” linebacker while Jansey plays the weak side, the “hitter.”

They’re the Bulldogs’ top two tacklers, which is how you draw it up on defense. Minnec has made 21 tackles for loss to lead the club; Jansey is second with 12.

“You can’t not take on blocks, you have to run through blocks, run through people. That helps set up the entire defense to make plays,” Minnec said.

“I feel like that’s the biggest attribute that makes Batavia have great linebackers throughout, because Coach Holm really teaches us the core principles. He gets all our footwork down and teaches us to be physical.”

The players Holm seeks to play the position are relatively tall, and lengthy. Athletic, with some heft but not so much that it slows them down rushing the quarterback, tracking a ball carrier, containing the edge, or dropping into pass coverage.

Batavia linebackers such as Jansey, Minnec, junior Jack Brown and sophomores Donovan Connell and Gavin McKelvie all are listed as at least 6-foot-1, 195 pounds — but no heavier than Minnec’s rostered weight of 215.

Holm said McKelvie at 6-1 can dunk a basketball from a standing start. Connell, at about 6-5, can make a quarterback’s life rough when he gets his hands up.

“I love outside linebacker,” Connell said. “You kind of, like, have a little more freedom moving around and also being able to bring pressure to the quarterback.”

At 8-2 and on a five-game winning streak, Batavia hasn’t allowed more than 13 points since its 24-21 win over Geneva in Week 6.

Part of this process is integrating younger players into the rotation. They now “are all catching up and playing at a high level,” Holm said.

Speed is different from quickness, the coach said. Quickness is a function of practice, confidence and trust that, after more than 10 weeks of this, they know what they’re doing and can react without thinking.

McKelvie, for example, didn’t play linebacker in youth football. Beginning as a freshman he’s learned on the job.

“I’ve learned a lot about my reads and my keys, stuff like that,” said McKelvie, also a long snapper.

To quickly differentiate between run and pass, McKelvie looks at how the offensive tackle comes off the ball.

“It’s how our coach taught us,” he said.

Jansey has had several teachers — Batavia coaches, and family members. One brother, Michael, played linebacker at Northwestern. Another, Tyler, just shifted to fullback from linebacker at Wisconsin.

“Just over time they’ve helped me develop my footwork, my reads, everything about linebacker, and it’s just really helped me develop as a player,” said Nick Jansey, whose blitzes have caused a team-high 7 sacks.

Brown, whose older brother, Ben, is a former Batavia linebacker, continues to learn from players like Jansey, and now likewise guides the sophomores.

Brown also followed Jansey’s scoop-and-score in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs against Hoffman Estates with his own 50-yard fumble return for touchdown.

“It was just surreal,” Jack Brown said. “I just see the ball on the ground. I see my teammates are making plays for me. I had to respond and do the same thing.”