High school football: Buckeye's Troy McCann runs like his hair's on fire

Troy McCann owns a full head of long, curly, dark brown hair that often falls over his eyes, sports a mustache and beard and is capable of a piercing glare when he wants to look mean. A well-muscled and defined 5-foot-9, 201 pounds, the Buckeye senior running back, who rushed for 289 yards and six touchdowns despite sitting the final 20:21 of his team's 49-21 season-opening win over Cloverleaf, also can bench press 365 pounds, squat 500, throw the shot put 41 feet and run 100 meters in 11.3 seconds. The 18-year-old McCann, who started getting facial hair when he was in sixth grade, shaved for the first time as a seventh-grader and is now in his fourth year on the Bucks varsity, is easily the oldest-looking player on Buckeye's roster. "For the eight years I've known him, he's always looked older," right guard and close friend Jack Swank said. "If I didn't know him and looked at him right now, I'd say he was 25 or 26 years old. "He looks like an old, scary dude, I'll tell you that. We kid him a bit, but I tend not to mess around with Troy a lot. He's a scary person." Truth be told, McCann is a nice person, and Swank's admiration for his friend and teammate was clearly evident in the tone of his voice. For his part, McCann, knowing his appearance can be intimidating, whether meeting fellow students, working as a line cook at P.J. Marley's, lifting in the weight room or studying with friends to maintain his 3.5 grade-point average, goes out of his way to put others at ease. "I definitely feel like someone people are afraid to talk to if they don't know who I am or my personality," he said. "I wouldn't say I'm outgoing, but I'm approachable. I'll definitely have a good time with friends." Put a football in his hands and McCann, who didn't know how curly his hair was until he grew it out as a sixth-grader, transforms into another person. He runs hard, angry and determined, making him the kind of tailback who can get 2 yards on fourth-and-1 or, with 4.64-second speed in the 40-yard dash, bust a long TD run at any moment. "He plays hard," Swank said. "He will lower his shoulder pads and take somebody out, so it's a pretty rough running style. Blocking for him, if there's not a hole there, he makes a hole by running people over. It's really nice to have a running back who can take over a game by making holes for himself, but for the most part he's got some pretty nice holes to run through. "He can break it out for a long run or run people over for 3 yards and carry five defenders with him. He's a multi-use guy." As the Bucks (1-0) prepare for a non-league home game tonight against Amherst (1-0), McCann has rushed for 3,226 career yards, meaning he needs 1,148 yards to break the school record set by Ron Brant from 1977-79. With 264 career points, he needs 101 to break the school mark set by Cory Reisner from 2005-08. "I would describe myself as a power back," said McCann, who set Buckeye a season record with 1,865 yards rushing while scoring 116 points as a junior. "I'm not scared to hit people and run through people. "I like feeling in control of the game and being able to set the pace for the team. I definitely feel like I'm more of a second-half kind of guy. I get that second wind of energy." McCann didn't need that in Week 1 vs. Cloverleaf. Having already scored touchdowns of 3, 25, 1, 5, 43 and 47 yards on 24 carries, he left the game for good with 10:21 left in the third period. It sounds crazy, but at that point McCann was on pace to rush for 501 yards and 10 TDs had he played the entire game, though a running clock probably would have altered those numbers significantly. Dustin Supan's school record of 306 yards rushing, set on Oct. 21, 2005 at Brookside, easily could have been shattered — the Medina County mark of 376 set by Wadsworth's Dru Jones on Oct. 5, 2007 at Green also could have went by the wayside — but McCann, who became the first Buckeye player to rush for six TDs in a game, had no problem with coming out. "I really don't care about records," he said. "They've always been just a benefit to winning as a team." After the game, the first thing McCann did was give credit to his offensive line of Victor Sevchenko, Curtis Gunkelman, Kyle Landes, Swank and Ben Lazar, as well as tight end Trey Widenmeyer. "They're the biggest part of it," he said. "It's 80% them and 20% me." Originally a right guard, McCann knows the value of a good line. Having made the transition to running back in the fourth grade, he worked hard to improve his cuts and field vision, while the speed and strength were always there. "I've always been a bigger build, muscular kid," he said. "I feel like I could run the ball 40 times if that's what the team needed." Other than rushing for 2,000 yards as a senior, McCann's goals for this season revolve around the team. He wants the Bucks to go 10-0, win the Cleveland West Conference and make a long Division III playoff run. If Buckeye does all that, the likable young man whose newspaper headshot makes him look mean and scary to some — part gangster, part 1980s rock star — will have had a lot to do with it. "I've gotten that a few times from my parents and grandparents," McCann said of his icy glare in his football headshot. "I was always told you're not supposed to look happy on the field. You're supposed to look mean." McCann, who would like to play D-I or D-II college football if a scholarship opportunity presents itself, already has a backup plan if it does not. He will enter the service, though he's still choosing between the Unites States Marine Corps and U.S. Army. If he goes that route, he'll have to shave every day, something he would have had to do for several years had he not grown a beard in high school. "I get a few comments every week, especially at work," McCann said of his older appearance. "A couple of times last year people asked me my age and I said, 'Oh, I'm 17.' One couple said, 'No way' and asked to see my driver's license." Seventeen or 27, looks are deceiving when it comes to McCann's personality off the field. "You can be intimidated by the curly, long hair and beard and all that," Bucks tight end/defensive end Widenmeyer said. "We talk to him a lot about it, but we all think it's kind of funny. He looks really scary and all that, but he's actually a really nice kid." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.