“It’s been one of the best times in my life,” Abbott said. “We took everything we could get and we earned a lot. I couldn’t be more happy with our championship. Being just short of the playoffs was rough, but I don’t think I’d change anything about it.”
Lebanon coach Shawn Lamb said he’ll certainly miss Abbott, the Middletown Journal All-Area Offensive Player of the Year. And not just because of his gridiron skills.
Abbott is among the top students in his class. He wants to be an engineer He is considering places like Harvard for his next stop as a student and as a player.
“Aaron’s a sensational young man and such a hard worker,” Lamb said. “I’ve said this before, but he represents everything about Warrior football that we want out of a kid.”
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Abbott ran for 100-plus yards in nine straight games after opening with a 15-carry, 35-yard performance against Kings. He finished his prep career with 46 carries, five TDs and a school-record 351 yards against Springboro.
“We ran right down the field and scored on the first possession, and I think from that point we saw that our offensive line was great,” Abbott said. “They executed every single play. It probably wasn’t until halftime that I actually got touched before the secondary.”
His O-linemen throughout the year were R.J. Jurek, Tyler Johnson, Jake Barsala, Kris France, Eric Leichliter and Jacob Bennett. Joe Najdovski was the fullback, a position that Abbott manned the last two seasons.
Is he a power back? A speed back? Abbott said he’s a little bit of both.
“I can maybe hit a guy on one play, then outrun him on the next,” he said. “I try to stay balanced with a low center of gravity and I try to keep my knees up. We do drills every day that people think are kind of silly, high knees and all kinds of stuff, but it’s hard to tackle someone when you can’t grab their legs. I try to constantly be moving.”
Lamb describes him like this: “He’s very fast, he’s very deceptive, and he has a way of sliding through tackles like no other high school running back I’ve seen. His yards after contact are incredible, and he’s such a cerebral player. He understands everything going on out there.”
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