Steve O’Donnell doesn’t know what he’ll do with himself when his son Mike graduates from Bonny Eagle High School next spring. First it was his older son Matt (Class of 2004), and now Mike.
O’Donnell can’t imagine how he’ll fill his afternoons and weekends with no more games to watch. In the fall there has been football, and then basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. It’s been like that for as long as O’Donnell can remember. Since the boys were old enough to be playing sports, he’s been in the stands watching.
No sense worrying yet, though. There are still games to be watched, one game in particular, actually.
On Saturday, Mike will attempt to do what Matt did last year: quarterback the Scots to the Class A state title. Bonny Eagle plays Mt. Blue at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium at 11 a.m.
O’Donnell knows his boys, knows what they’re capable of as athletes, so he’s not surprised that Mike has stepped comfortably into the rather large cleats left behind by Matt. Mike rushed for 195 yards and a score and passed for another touchdown in Bonny Eagle’s 27-7 Western Class A final win over Massabesic.
“Their hearts are unbelievable and they believe in themselves so much,” said O’Donnell. “Each one feeds off the other.”
By “feeds off the other” what O’Donnell really means is Mike and Matt compete against each other with the kind of vigor you’d expect from two natural-born athletes who are separated by just 16 months.
“(They) always challenge each other. It’s ‘I can do better than him,'” said O’Donnell. “In baseball they do the same thing. It’s ‘I can hit better than you.'”
When asked if Matt had any last-minute words of advice for him before Saturday’s game, Mike said, “Not really. You know, sometimes he’s not really my biggest fan. He’ll be my biggest critic, but it’s nothing personal it’s just to get me motivated.”
The bottom line is Matt wants to see Mike do well. He wants to see his alma mater make it two straight state titles. So, yeah, sometimes there are arguments. That’s what happens when two brothers – one who’s already been there, done that; the other who’s playing QB for the first time – talk football non-stop.
“We try to help each other, but we get in arguments a lot too,” said Matt, who is currently working full-time to save money for college. “If he does something wrong I’ll get on him about it, but it’s all in good fun.”
Over the summer, after Mike told coach Kevin Cooper that he wanted to switch from running back to quarterback, he leaned on Matt for help.
“I’ve never thrown a ball until this year,” said Mike. “So, I had to do everything I could to get myself ready.”
Mike studied his older brother’s game tapes from last season. “You can’t just focus on the things he did. You’ve got to look at everything and see how plays develop and when to be patient on stuff.”
Big bro has been paying attention. He’s been to every game this year and even though it probably pained him to admit it, he did say there are things that Mike does better than him.
“He doesn’t force the ball as much as I usually tried,” said Matt. “He’s smarter with his throws. I tried to force a lot of stuff, so he’s smarter with that.”
As far as Cooper is concerned, the two players have melded into one – and that’s a good thing.
“I think if you changed the jersey number from 20 to 12 you wouldn’t have noticed a difference,” he said. “Mike’s just come so far. First of all, it’s a very courageous act last year coming in saying he wanted to be the quarterback, stepping into Matt’s shoes. And all year long he’s just gotten better and better and better and better.
“He’s a very, very efficient quarterback. I think you judge quarterbacks by how many wins their team has and if you judge Mike O’Donnell by that then (he’s) pretty darn good.”
You won’t hear any complaints out of Dad – not until the games come to an end, anyway.
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