GRAND BLANC, MI — The hype is there for Grand Blanc quarterback Tre'von Avery.
He can run. He can throw. He can make it all happen on the football field as he showed during his first year under center last year. But now that all eyes are on him, he’s caught the attention of MLive and was placed on its High School Football Player of the Year Watch List, what about those around him?
What about his weapons?
“Oh man,” Avery said last week as football practice got underway. “I have different receivers I like to give the ball to at different times.”
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Let’s start with senior receiver Matt Mastromatteo. He and Avery go back to freshman year when the two played together on Grand Blanc’s freshman football team. Avery was quarterback, Mastromatteo receiver.
“I’m a third-down guy,” Mastromatteo said. “They rely on me a lot for those types of catches.”
Mastromatteo had 21 catches for 254 yards last season behind graduating seniors Brandon Scott and Justin Rabidoux, including a six-catch, 130-yard game in a win last September against Livonia Churchill.
Scott and Rabidoux are gone now, leaving Mastromatteo, senior Andrew Blakemore (two catches, 45 yards) — Avery’s “speed guy, for when I need the extra yards” — and junior Blake Witnauer the new options.
“It’s hard, because I have different receivers I like to give the ball to at different times,” Avery said. “I can throw the ball to anybody and be successful. It’s great having receivers like that.”
Then there’s the Grand Blanc running attack, a tad inexperienced but ready to break out. Seniors DeSean Brown and Jermaine Thomas will likely share a bulk of the carries, with Brown scoring three touchdowns in three games last season for the Bobcats.
Having the dual-threat Avery behind center, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound all-around back said, opens up the offense and makes it easier for him to make plays, too.
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“It gives us the option for pitches, fakes and to fool the defense,” Brown said. “I enjoy it because it gives me a different background — I can go block somebody else or run the ball.”
Delaney welcomed back Pat Dochenetz, a 2007 Grand Blanc graduate and former football player at Ohio Northern, this year to coach the offensive line, which welcomes back four of its five starters from last year. For Avery and his weapons to be successful, it starts up front.
“He’s a good quarterback,” Mastromatteo said. “He’s a really good defensive back as well. he’s quick, he’s shifty, he’s got good moves and breaks a lot of kids’ ankles."
Aaron McMann covers sports at The Flint Journal. Contact him at amcmann@mlive.com; follow him on Twitter @AaronMcMann.
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