Yanuszewski cherishes underdog role for Campbell football

[Editor’s Note: This story also appears in the 2017 Football Prospectus.]

Greg Gush needed a reminder to find a set of shoulder pads for Ryan Yanuszewski.

The Campbell High School football coach did what anyone in the 21st century would to do to not forget something - he took a picture.

Gush still has the three-year old picture on his cell phone, as a reminder of a different kind. At the time, he was trying to remember to get a smaller set of pads for the then-incoming freshman.

Now, it's a reminder of how far Yanuszewski has come.

"I had to take a picture so I didn’t forget, but he was literally this little kid," Gush said. "When he first showed up, I didn’t even have equipment for him. He’s not a big guy now, but as a freshman, he was small. I knew he was a football player. There’s a huge difference between being on a football team and being a football player."

Despite his size, Yanuszewski stood out for what he was willing to do when he finally got those pads. While he didn't see the varsity field much as a freshman - that was 2014, when the Cougars won the Division III title - he got more action as a sophomore.

By the start of his junior year, Yanuszewski was a starter on both sides of the ball, and turned that opportunity into a spot on the D3 South all-conference first-team.

"I like being the underdog," Yanuszewski said. "People look at me and think he’s not going to do too much, and then I come out and show them. I was always smaller than everyone else, but always faster than everyone else."

While his speed might be Yanuszewski's top asset, Gush is impressed with the way he's able to continue to carry the ball over and over again from the running back position.

"His durability is remarkable to me," the coach said. "I’ve never seen him on the turf before and he’s a running back. He gets hit and he gets back up. He understands leverage, he understands when it’s time to pay out some punishment. He’s a smart football player."

Yanuszewski found his way into a game with the varsity during the 2014 season, and on his first play on defense, intercepted a pass. While he didn't get many other opportunities that year, he did take in what was going on around him.

"Being a part of the team that won a championship, looking up to the seniors, I learned a lot from the upperclassmen that year," he said. "I just took it the next season and said I wanted to be like that."

Now that he's one of just a handful of seniors for the Cougars, Yanuszewski has worked to pass down the experiences he gained in those early years of varsity football. That's something that Gush is grateful to have.

"It does start from the top on down," Gush said. "A lot of people say it starts with the coaching staff, and certainly what we do is important, but everyone is looking at those kids to see what you have to do to be a football player at Campbell. How am I supposed to carry myself? If you’ve got a guy like Ryan, he’s a calm, coolheaded guy, he knows people are looking at him. He’s able to keep his head.

"He takes the role of captain very seriously. He kills himself in the weight room. He does the right thing. He’s the perfect captain in my mind because I don’t have to worry about the decisions he makes."

Although he hopes to continue his playing career at the next level, Yanuszewski has just one goal in mind for this season, and believes his teammates are ready to take that next step.

"Winning enough of our first eight games to play a ninth game," he said of his expectations. "Everyone has put in a hundred percent and we’ve been pretty focused. All our seniors have been pushing the underclassmen. We’re underclass heavy. We’ve been making sure they know what it takes to be a champion."