High school football preview: Cliff Nicholson, Medina hitting reset button after disappointing 2024

The 2024 football season was not enjoyable for normally fun-loving Medina defensive lineman Cliff Nicholson. A nagging hip injury was partially responsible, but the real pain was caused by the Bees allowing a Medina County-high 36.3 points per game in a disappointing 2-9 season. Included were games of 51 (Wadsworth), 49 (Mentor, Strongsville), 47 (Perrysburg), 44 (Cleveland Heights) and 40 (Detroit Cass Tech) points. "My head space last year, it was hard for me to get over the fact we weren't winning," said the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Nicholson, a senior in his third year on the varsity. "We were getting embarrassed all year long. The year before (a 10-4 season that concluded with a Division I regional final loss to eventual state champion St. Edward) was some of the most fun I've had in sports. "I expect a better season this year. We've created a culture, starting in January in the weight room. We've created the standard that we have to show up and create energy and attitude every single day." Nicholson, who will play defensive end and shift to tackle at times, is no stranger to the weight room. He can bench press 315 pounds for three repetitions and his max squat is 505, which is in keeping with family tradition. His sister Ella, a 2025 Medina graduate who has excelled on the international weightlifting level, is hoping to qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. His mom Jeannine, a former swimmer at Bowling Green and currently a teacher at Norwayne Middle School, and dad Cliff II, a police officer in Medina Township, also are avid weightlifters. "It's ingrained in us," the 17-year-old Nicholson said. "Everybody in my family lifts every day." Nicholson, who will graduate with three letters in football and four in wrestling, was a state qualifier and All-Gazette choice in the latter as a junior, when he went 43-6 in the 285-pound weight class with a county-high 36 pins. He also qualified for state as a sophomore. "The wrestling mindset, the me vs. him mentality, is huge on the football field, especially for down linemen," Medina defensive coordinator Kevin Bowers said. "His leverage is great and he has the physical and mental toughness from wrestling. "He's everything you're looking for in a defensive lineman. He's as powerful as you'll see and he's a great kid. He finds fun and humor in everything that takes place, and he's unbelievable with kids. When we have our youth camps, he's got seven or eight kids hanging all over him." While sprinters on the track team are in no danger of losing their spots, Nicholson has good quickness in small spaces. That helped him record 44 tackles, four tackles for loss and 2½ sacks while earning honorable mention All-Gazette honors as a junior. As a sophomore, he had 48 tackles, 9½ tackles for loss, 5½ sacks and a forced fumble. Bigger and stronger but also quicker and more fluid than he was two years ago, Nicholson isn't concerned with his personal statistics. He just wants to help the defense get off the field, even when gambling coach Larry Laird goes for it on fourth down in Medina territory and the Bees fail to convert. "We need to steal possessions, get turnovers and make stops," Nicholson said. "Last year we held people for the first two downs, then on third down it all kind of crumbled. We need more three-and-outs and we need to keep the ball away from the red zone. "It's difficult, but our job is to pick up the offense (after a failed fourth down). We need to keep it together. Sometimes we don't, but Coach Laird will keep doing risky plays, so we need to make stops." Nicholson, who carries a 3.8 grade-point average and plans to major in exercise science, has drawn interest from Baldwin Wallace and John Carroll for football, the sport he plans to pursue in college. He also has another high school wrestling season remaining and hopes to get on the podium at state, a feat he said sister Ella would have accomplished had she pursued that sport in high school. "She's got a girly side, but if she focused and got angry, she'd be a killer," he said. "It's such a cool thing to have a sister become a world renown weightlifter, but she doesn't talk much about what she's done or what she's doing. Plus, I've got some gifts from her from her Nike contract, so I feel the love." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.