By Grant Pepper
Bob Olwin laughed.
Those who know Olwin know that this is rare, especially in a football context. But the former Ada head coach, who just announced his retirement last week, was asked a question.
“Did Aaron Everhart ever get tired?”
Chuckles came in thick and heavy through the phone, and the response was delayed: “Sometimes.”
The answer was honest, but still a little shocking. After all, the Ada senior did almost everything for the Bulldogs last season. Here’s what a typical Ada football game looked like: Everhart would start on defense at safety. As one of the team’s leading tacklers, he would make a stop or corral an interception. But he wouldn’t come off the field.
Lining up at running back, he would either streak to the sideline for a pass or take the ball on a handoff. He would occasionally slide to a receiver slot, where he would slice through the secondary down after down, running risky cross routes or funneling out to the flat.
After he scored a touchdown (he caught nine of them last year and ran for seven), he would stay on the field to kick the extra point. Then, he would stay on the field to kick the ball off. And, oh, you guessed it, he’d be back on the field for defense.
“It just kind of grew to where I was never off the field,” Everhart says now, laughing.
Everhart, listed at 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, was the only player to have four positions listed by his name on the team’s roster: running back, defensive back, kicker and punter. They could have listed five, he was a receiver too. It appears they just ran out of room.
Over the last four years, Everhart acquired more and more responsibilities on the football field. He was everywhere, all at once. But over the last few months, he’s had to decide where to go next.
As it turns out, he won’t have to go far. Next year, Aaron Everhart will be attending Ohio Northern University, where he plans to continue his football career while studying criminal justice.
For the hometown kid, the decision was as easy as an extra point. Line it up and knock it in.
Choosing ONU
Everhart, who chose Ohio Northern about month ago, said that his decision came down to two schools: ONU and Wilmington.
Everhart believes that he will come into college as a kicker, despite playing five different positions during his senior year of high school. Kicking has long been Everhart’s calling card, as he’s been drilling crunch-time field goals and knocking in extra points since his freshman year.
While many high school football teams struggle to find someone who can get the ball off the ground, Everhart could do that and more (his career long field goal was 39 yards). He was a luxury, especially at the Div. VII level.
And he only got better as time passed. Olwin would often opt to take his 31-point-per-game offense off the field in short-yardage situations to let Everhart kick. Might as well get the guaranteed points, he thought.
While Everhart took multiple visits to Wilmington, who has won just three games in the last five years, the senior also had his eyes on Ohio Northern. He had known head coach Dean Paul nearly his whole life, as Paul was involved with the Ada youth football program (his son, Bryce, is two years younger than Aaron). Paul runs Ohio Northern’s special teams unit, which Everhart noted was a bonus.
The senior was also swayed by the academic opportunities that ONU presented. He met with criminal justice professors and walked away impressed, certain that this was the right fit.
But the most important factor was location. While Wilmington was two hours South, ONU was effectively in Everhart’s backyard. Going to Northern meant that Everhart would be able to stay close to home, which he holds near and dear to his heart. His family’s roots in Hardin County run generations deep, as his parents and grandparents were raised in the area as well.
His father, Kent, is the president of Everhart Trucking, LLC, located just behind the Wilson Football Factory. His mother, Dee, works for the family business as well, and his 25 year-old brother, Austin, recently got his CDL so he could start driving. Aaron’s uncle, Keith, is the Hardin County sheriff.
“We’re all very family-oriented,” Everhart said. “Everyone’s always been around and it just kind of feels like home.”
When it came time to decide on a college, Everhart looked long and hard at both schools. But in the end, the decision was clear.
“Wilmington needed a kicker really bad, but ONU overall just seemed like a better fit for me,” Everhart said. “Coach Paul kind of pushed me over the edge and I decided to pull the trigger on ONU.”
‘The first one to finish’
This past year, Everhart worked in the family business as well. He did office work while his dad and brother drove trucks and his mom “pretty much ran everything.”
While he talks glowingly about his family, Everhart is also knowingly breaching unchartered territory.
Most of his immediate family started college, but didn’t finish. Before his mother could begin taking classes, her brother passed away and she pulled out. After his father spent a year at Ohio Northern, he tore his rotator cuff playing baseball and decided to come home. His brother attended Findlay for a year “and decided college wasn’t really for him, so he hopped in a truck just like my dad,” according to Everhart.
“So, I guess I’m trying to be the first one to finish,” he said.
Everhart is driven by his desire to follow his uncle’s path in law enforcement. He isn’t sure exactly what he wants to do with a criminal justice degree just yet, but he says becoming a state trooper has crossed his mind.
He says that “just being able to keep my community safe” is where his passion lies, and serving in law enforcement “is just a different way to give back to your community.”
Over the next four years, Everhart hopes to not only have success in the classroom, but also on the gridiron. He says that the football aspect might take some time, and that he’s willing to put the work in to get there. This makes sense when considering the trajectory of his high school career, as he went from just kicking to doing nearly everything over the span of four years.
“Coming in as a freshman, I’m just going to come in and compete,” Everhart said. “Take pointers from the guys older than me and try to make them better. Hopefully they can make me better.”
Even as a high school senior, Everhart sees the long-term benefits of sticking with the game.
“Football is always teaching you how to be a better leader and how to ‘man up’ and accept when you mess up,” Everhart said. “I just want to play football. It’s always been a part of my life and I want to keep it in my life as long as I can. I don’t want any regrets with not playing it, so I’m going to do it for as long as I can.”
The hometown duo
When it came down to decision time about a month back, Everhart felt some external pressure. It was from his quarterback, who had made his own commitment about a week before.
“Seth committed, and then he was kind of nagging on me to make a decision,” Everhart said, chuckling.
Seth Conley, who had set the Ada High School records for career passing touchdowns and completions, committed to Ohio Northern and wanted Everhart to come along for the ride. The two had been friends nearly their whole lives, after all. Well, sort of. Things got off to a rocky start.
It was back in fifth grade when they first met.
Everhart was sitting with his cousin, Trent Joliff, awaiting the start of youth football practice. That’s when their coach introduced Conley, who would be a new member of the team. He had just moved to Ada from Upper Scioto Valley, a rival school district just 10 minutes down the road.
The cousins stewed. Who does this kid think he is?
“We were kind of looking at Seth like, ‘I don’t know if he can play,’” Everhart recalls.
Aaron and Trent were young kids in a small town, where you don’t just walk onto the team without having to prove yourself. Joliff soon offered a solution.
“All right, I’ll hit him as hard as I can and see what he’s got.”
After all, it was fifth grade football. A man’s game.
During practice, Joliff found his opportunity. He wound up and hit Conley with all his might, but Conley hit back just as hard. When there was a break in the action, Joliff returned to give Everhart the report: “The kid can play.”
“And it just kind of started from there,” Everhart says now, laughing.
From that point on, the two would spend countless hours together. When they weren’t on the football field, they were playing Madden or joking about who could read defensive coverages better. They spent the bulk of their childhoods side-by-side, through the exhilarating wins and the heartbreaking losses, and last September, they stood with their parents at the 50-yard line on Senior Night.
They celebrated what had been, although neither one knew what lay ahead.
Six months later, Everhart told Conley that he’d made his decision. The kid who once bristled at the arrival of the newcomer, only letting him in after he proved himself, would choose to accompany him to the next level.
The two hometown kids, who began in different places but could only get this far together, would be on the same sideline again next fall. Four more years in the village that raised them.
To hear Aaron Everhart talk about his decision to come to Ohio Northern, tune into WONB 94.9 FM on Friday at 8:30 a.m. for this week’s edition of ‘The Pep Talk’ with Grant Pepper. You can also listen online at wonb.net.
Follow Grant Pepper on Twitter: @GrantPepper
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