David Price has spent two years building the Lake Erie football program.
It hasn’t been easy. The Storm were 2-9 in Price’s first season of 2024, then 2-9 again last season.
There were growing pains along the way. With Year 3 almost here — LEC opens its season Sept. 5 at 3 p.m. at Jack Britt Stadium against St. Anselm from New Hampshire -— Price said it’s time to win.
“The amount of support here is unreal,” said Price following his team’s practice Sept. 1. “This place deserves a winner, and that’s been at the forefront the past three years. It’s time to win. It’s time to win now.”
Lake Erie football coach David Price celebrates after his team beat Post on a Hail Mary touchdown pass Sept. 14, 2024. (News-Herald file)
Price and his staff have instilled a “win the week” mentality of going 1-0. For a program that’s won just four games in two seasons, nothing would be sweeter than a 1-0 start.
“It’s time to figure out who this year’s team is going to be,” said Price. “… 1-0, momentum, getting off on the right foot is everything.”
First, the Storm need a quarterback to lead the offense. It’s been a three-player battle during the preseason among Jahmeir Spain from Cincinnati, Josh Takats of Perrysburg and Hunter Newell who hails from Indiana.
Price said the QBs have different traits.
Price on Spain: “He’s as athletic as it gets. He’s a little outside the box with his throwing angles but he makes it happen.”
Price on Takats: “He’s the ultimate leader. He knows the offense through and through. He can make all the throws.”
Price on Newell: “He’s a gunslinger. Love the moxie he comes with. In the time that he played last year, he had confidence in every throw that he made. Right or wrong or indifferent, he played with conviction.”
The trio of QBs are young. Spain is a redshirt freshman who didn’t see action in 2025. Takats is a sophomore who played in four games last season. Newell is a redshirt sophomore who started against Kentucky Wesleyan last season. In that game, he threw for 187 yards and a touchdowns and ran for 47 yards.
Price plans to announce LEC’s starting QB on Sept. 2.
Whoever is throwing the ball will have weapons, beginning with 6-foot-3 tight end and co-captain Devin Morgan, who made four starts in 2025 and led LEC in receiving yards with 313 on 21 receptions with three touchdowns.
Price and his staff are also high on a pair of 6-foot-3 wide receivers in Dalen Stovall from Stow and Jason Hewlett from Youngstown.
There’s also a veteran line on offense anchored by co-captain Joey Rozak of Wadsworth, and one that welcomes a sophomore at center in Jalen Joyce, who has the respect of his teammates as the other co-captain.
“Our mindset on offense, we’ve got to run the ball,” said Morgan. “In the past, we haven’t been able to do that successfully so I feel this year we’ve focused on being able to run the ball. Like Coach Price said, inside run. We do that every day, and I feel like our O-line is really locked in.”
Defensively, LEC will need to improve on allowing the 32 points per game it gave up on average. Price said the unit got bigger and faster, especially at linebacker, where 6-1, 237-pound co-captain Kemari Ward intends to bring toughness and physicality.
Ward is originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., and will be a graduate student in the fall.
“Toughness. Toughness,” said Ward, when asked what he will bring to the defense. “Just being where I’m from, Brooklyn, N.Y., everything’s about grit.”
Grit and toughness are never bad things to bring to a football game. Ward said he’s ready, and wants his teammates to follow on Sept. 5.
“Starting 1-0 is everything,” he said of the importance of the season opener. “The community needs it. They’ve been waiting for it. The school needs it. We as a brotherhood, the coaching staff, we all need it.”
Price also feels the buildup to the opener. For him, it goes beyond one game on LEC’s 2026 schedule. It’s about building, starting back in 2024, when he arrived in Painesville.
“This is a culmination of not just an off-season’s worth of work, it’s a culmination of three years worth of work,” said Price. “We’ve put the work in, the sweat equity has been put in, not just by me but our staff, our players, the administration. Everybody.”
LEC schedule
Sept. 5 Saint Anselm, 3 p.m.
Sept. 12 at Wheeling, 4 p.m.
Sept. 19 at Walsh, 7 p.m.
Sept. 26 Ohio Dominican, 6 p.m.
Oct. 3 Hillsdale, 1 p.m.
Oct. 10 at Kentucky Wesleyan, 4 p.m.
Oct. 17 Northwood, 2 p.m.
Oct. 24 Thomas More, 2 p.m.
Oct. 31 at Tiffin, noon
Nov. 7 at Findlay, noon
Nov. 14 Ashland, 2 p.m.