Lowell coach Keith Kilmer is glad that Joseph Rebesco found his way back to the family.
And Rebesco, in turn, is absolutely giddy about being the starting center for a team that will play East Central for the Class 4A state championship at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis.
A couple years ago, this was not a place Rebesco expected to be.
“I would’ve never imagined this,” said Rebesco, a 5-foot-8, 228-pound senior. “It’s all been a blur to me. I want to end this on the best note possible.”
Rebesco is what Kilmer calls the “last piece to the offensive line puzzle.”
It’s a piece the Red Devils might not have if baseball had worked out differently for Rebesco.
Rebesco was the typical Lowell kid when he was in grade and middle school, playing Pop Warner football and then for his junior high team.
For a couple years, he became the atypical Lowell athlete. After his eighth grade year and a summer playing travel baseball, Rebesco decided to go all in for baseball.
That meant giving up football.
Rebesco was in Kilmer’s physical education class as a freshman. When Kilmer saw him, he asked why Rebesco wasn’t at football practice.
Rebesco gave him the bad news.
“I just told him I was only playing baseball,” he said.
An unfortunate — but ultimately good — thing happened to Rebesco when he was a sophomore. He was cut from the baseball team.
That put football into play again.
A former offensive linemen in high school and at Franklin College, Kilmer knows a lineman when he sees one.
Rebesco always had a place on the team if he wanted to play. His brother, Dominic, played on the 2009 state runner-up team as a lineman.
When Rebesco showed up for his first weightlifting session for football, Kilmer looked at him and said, “It’s about time you got back here.”
It took Rebesco more than one full season to find his way onto the field as a regular.
It happened for Joseph against Morton on the second drive. Another center was having trouble with his snaps.
Rebesco got the call and Artman has started every game since.
Rebesco had played mostly guard until that game.
He liked his new spot.
“It just clicked for me,” he said. “It’s something I felt comfortable with right away.”
Said Kilmer: “Joe is just a big-hearted kid who is a bit undersized for that position. He has helped us steady our line.”
If there was one potential problem area for Lowell, which returned nine defensive starters and a variety of skilled offensive players, it was on the offensive line.
Inserting Rebesco at center helped solidify a group that, while perhaps not the best offensive line the Red Devils have had, was good enough.
Kilmer pointed out that this line has had to learn how to block for a spread offense as well as the power running game the Red Devils have always employed.
This is the first year Lowell has really used the spread extensively, though Kilmer said he has experimented with it the last few years.
It’s not easy to do both.
Last week, the Red Devils returned to their old ways when they ground out 270 rushing yards in a 21-7 win over Dwenger.
For Rebesco, playing for a state title is personal on a couple of levels.
He never thought about playing at Lucas Oil Stadium for a championship until last year and he has a chance to one-up his brother, who played on the state runner-up team that lost to Evansville Reitz in 2009. He wants to end the season right.
“I told him this was for bragging rights in the house,” Rebesco said.
Yes, that is important, too.
Twitter @MikeHuttonPT
