Given his current status as teacher and coach, it's reasonable to assume Brian Colatruglio had a more than satisfactory start to his educative life even back to his kindergarten days.
Plays well with others. Follows instructions. Knows how to skip.
Check, check and check.
Willing to share. Oops.
Well, there's probably no such thing as a 4.0 kindergarten student anyhow.
That sharing part sometimes is a little tough for Columbian's head football coach. The latest example came moments after the Tornadoes bounced Sandusky 40-14 to run their record to 9-0 and claim at least a co-championship in the Northern Ohio League.
"We finished our home season 5-0 and we're 9-0 on the season. That gives us a chance to do something pretty special - go 10-0," Colatruglio said. "That's only been done once in school history and we want to join that 1987 team and finish this thing off.
"The co-championship, that's nice," he said. "But honestly, we don't want to share it. Our motivation is there - we want to have this championship all to ourselves. We've put ourselves in position to play a really big game in week 10."
That comes Friday night at Norwalk. The Truckers might have had a chance at a piece of the title, but they fell to 7-2 overall and 2-2 in the league when Willard blanked them 24-0 Friday. Bellevue (8-1, 3-1), which whipped Shelby and travels to Sandusky this week, is the only other team with a shot.
But they are all looking up to Columbian, the state's third-ranked Division II team in the latest Associated Press poll.
On a night when veteran coach Steve Gilbert was the man of the hour, Tornado backs Ryan Lynch and Jack Jacoby were players of the night.
Gilbert, the school's all-time winningest coach with a 137-44 mark over 17 years, was honored at halftime. Lynch scored four touchdowns while Jacoby ran for 192 yards and added two scores to occupy center field the rest of the evening.
But not right away.
The Blue Streaks challenged Columbian with a loaded defensive front and limited the Tornadoes to 12 yards and no first downs in a scoreless first period.
"They play a different defense than anything you see at any other time," Colatruglio said. "They put nine guys on the line of scrimmage and they bring everybody. They did a nice job with it and it took us some time to pick our way into what they were doing.
"But with Ryan blocking and Jack running, we have a lot of answers if that's the way you want to play."
On the first play of the second period, it was Lynch running - he broke the front line and raced 34 yards for the game's first score.
That was the first of several big plays for the Tornadoes, who piled up 333 total yards.
Jacoby broke off a 60-yard run to the Sandusky 18 on TC's next series. Lynch then went 17 before powering in from the 1 for a 13-0 edge with 7:30 left in the half.
The Streaks narrowed it to 13-7 on quarterback Andrew Barnum's 4-yard run. That closed a 67-yard drive that included Barnum's 25-yard pass to Brandon Stegall and a 32-yarder to Lucas Will.
"We did a lot of good things tonight, but they hit us with some big plays," Sandusky coach Mike Franklin said.
For instance, Jacoby went 8 and 12 yards and then hit a 20-yarder for a touchdown to give Columbian a 20-7 edge at the half.
"There's a reason they're the No. 3 team in the state," Franklin said. "They showed they can make big plays when they have to and Jacoby, he's a tough one. No one's stopped him yet."
Lynch picked off a Barnum pass to give Columbian the ball on the Streak 18 to start the second half. Jacoby went the distance on the first snap for a 27-7 edge.
Ja'Vion Moore was seemingly stopped twice on the kickoff, but eventually broke free for an 89-yard touchdown return to pull the Streaks back to 27-14 with 9:37 still to play in the third period.
But the Tornadoes put it away with a pair of fourth-quarter scores.
First, Michael Rohrbach hit Lynch with a 12-yard scoring pass. Lynch closed his big night with a 16-yard TD run when Columbian went 58 yards in five plays to seal it.
On the defensive side, the Tornadoes limited Sandusky to 28 rushing yards on 26 tries. Though Barnum did have 154 yards passing, he was intercepted three times with Nate Hoyda and Tanner Fisher joining Lynch with picks.
So Columbian is on the brink of regular-season perfection, matching the effort of coach John Tomaszewski's 1987 club. The Tornadoes won a United Press International poll championship that year.
"To win every game, that's a hard thing to do," Colatruglio said. "It's something that comes from playing well, but you also have to have some things go right for you and maybe even get a few breaks. We've worked hard to put ourselves in position and we're going to go after it.
"And the other thing is we're a little selfish," he said. "The NOL, we don't want to share."
