By John Raffel
Spence DeMull is one of the juniors who is expected to give the Ithaca Yellowjackets a spark in their drive for another Division 6 state football title.
The 6’3″, 165-pound wide receiver and safety was among the nine sophomores who played the entire 2013 season for the 14-0 state champions.
He admits that he didn’t see an extensive amount of playing time in 2013. “I was just up to get some experience on the varsity,” DeMull said. “I got to learn from Logan Hessbrook and Josh [Hafner] at receiver. It’s helped me a lot for this year. I got to watch Logan at safety, too. He helped me out at both positions.
DeMull is expecting to play at both positions, also.
Offensively, he expects to help the Yellowjackets significantly with the passing attack. “Catching the ball, my height and athleticism will help,” he said, adding that having the chance to work with teammates in 7-on-7s and other summer events helped him “learn the offense better.”
Ithaca has a new varsity quarterback for the first time in three years. Travis Smith is now at Wake Forest University, and his brother Jacob is taking the reins. DeMull expects a successful transition. “We’ve been playing receiver for Jake all the way through youth football and stuff,” he said. “It shouldn’t take that long.”
DeMull is hoping to use his strengths as a receiver to Ithaca’s advantage. “I can get open and have good hands,” he said, adding that the passing and running games should both be strong, despite the small number of returning players. “We have Dallas [Reeser] coming in. He’s a good running back.”
DeMull is confident that he can get the job done at safety, and he expressed confidence in his team’s passing defense and in its ability to anticipate where the ball is going.. “Our defense will be pretty strong this year,” he said. “Me and Jake at safeties, we learned a lot last year playing against Travis on scout defense.”
His brother is Sage DeMull, who was the kicker for the Yellowjackets his senior season. He’s now playing basketball at Northwood University.
In the 2012 state title win over Constantine, 37-27 , Sage booted four extra points and a 33-yard field goal. He averaged 37 yards on two punts and 53 yards on seven kickoffs.
An obvious question for Spence and other Yellowjackets is how much pressure is on their shoulders to repeat the 14-0 success of the last four teams.
“We try not to think about the pressure,” he replied. “We have to take it one game at a time and fight for the championship. We have a lot of talent on our team. We [hope] to make it five straight.”