High school football preview: At school and on the field, Vermilion's Evan Kuhns likes big numbers

VERMILION — Evan Kuhns enjoys mathematics so much he is considering a career working with numbers in the financial industry, but the Vermilion Sailors senior All-Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division running back also recognizes how numbers have impacted his football career for the better.As part of a carry share last year for the Sailors, Kuhns was one of three players to have more than 100 regular-season carries, and he was the most productive, gaining 849 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns with only two fumbles. Additionally, Kuhns caught six passes for 186 yards and one score, making him a 6.3 yards-per-carry rusher and a receiving threat who averaged 31.0 yards per catch."I like it," Kuhns said of the divided workload. "I think it keeps me fresh, and it also keeps the defense on their toes. They never know who to expect getting the ball. I think it actually helps me get more yards. If I'm splitting carries with someone else, I'll be able to catch them when they are expecting something else."I think I'm going to be splitting carries again. We have a new running back, Zack Werth. He played freshman year, and then, played soccer his past two years, but he came back. He's a pretty good back, and I think he'll catch a lot of teams by surprise. Definitely, I'm still going to be splitting carries, but I'll probably see a few more carries than previous years."Despite having to share the workload, Kuhns experienced marked improvements in every major rushing category between his sophomore and junior seasons.Year-over-year, he had more carries, yards, yards per game and per attempt and doubled his rushing touchdowns from five to 10."I think a big part of it was just development as a team," Kuhns said. "We just got older, the O-line got older. I was getting better blocks. We had bigger guys up there, so I think it just was a team development thing."While Kuhns attributed his success to everyone on the field doing their 1/11th of the responsibility, play in and play out, Vermilion coach Bill DiFucci was quick to credit his running back for putting in the work required to take a step forward after a strong showing his sophomore year."He's a lightning bolt," DiFucci said. "He's a patient runner, but he's got the burst, he's got the speed, he's got the strength. He can catch a ball on the backfield. He's a very, very talented back. We're fortunate here, and we have been since I took over to have a great stable of running backs. It's something that we believe in. When we talk about running the football, it is making sure that that running back room is developed and is built well. Evan does a great job of leading that running back room for us and leading by example."Teams are going to start to narrow their focus a little bit on Evan because of how dynamic he is, and that's where the other backs have to contribute and lean on him, and he's going to challenge them. They do a great job out here on the field of pushing each other and making sure that it's not a one-pony show."The carry share strategy worked wonders for the Sailors last year as the team experienced a year of firsts and achieved many of the goals set out by their leaders.First, in Week Two, the Sailors earned a victory over the Firelands Falcons, to whom they had lost every year for more than a decade. Then they earned a second-place finish in the rugged Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division and had enough computer points to be rewarded with a home playoff game for the first time in school history.In that home game against River Valley, the Sailors posted a 37-21 win, their first-ever postseason victory.Kuhns and his senior teammates have made calculations of their own and want to continue the success so it becomes an expectation rather than a statistical anomaly. They want to beat Firelands again and make their own postseason run one to remember."I think we need to use that as motivation to reach that same standard, kind of set a new standard in this program and not be the doormat year after year," Kuhns said. "I think we need to build off that and keep climbing and to not just settle for being average. We kind of need to stay hungry and reach for that next step."I would like to be remembered for just hard work and just being there to help everybody, even the younger players develop. I just want to be remembered as a leader and just a team player and kind of a building block of this program to boost us to where we need to be."