B-C’s Luke Ferrell named Eagle-Gazette Defensive Player of the Year

CARROLL — Bloom-Carroll coach Wade Bartholomew calls outstanding defensive lineman Luke Ferrell the best football player he has ever coached.

It is easy to see why. The Bloom-Carroll football team has three core values they live by — relentless effort, accountability, and selflessness. Those three values describe Ferrell perfectly. He is not only an outstanding player, but his work ethic is second to none and he is a great teammate.

“Luke is one of the best high school football players I’ve ever watched play,” Bartholomew said. “He uses his hands so well and his relentless effort to the football is amazing, but the biggest thing Luke brings to the table is his pure selflessness. As dominating as he is defensively, I think he is more important from a team culture standpoint and helping us build that selflessness and that work ethic.”

For the second consecutive year, Ferrell is the 2021 Eagle-Gazette Defensive Player of the Year.

“Winning this award does mean a lot, but I wouldn’t have gotten this award without all my teammates,” Ferrell said. “They push me every day to be the player that I am. Even the scout players, they push me every day to be better. The seniors when I was a freshman, they pushed me and made me better. By winning this award, I feel like I am honoring all those people that got me here.”

Ferrell, who earned Mid-State League-Buckeye Division and Division IV Central District Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row, as well as earning All-Ohio honors as a sophomore and junior, leads the Bulldogs with 127 tackles, 31 tackles for loss, nine sacks, five forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

Ferrell spearheads a suffocating defense that has allowed a total of only nine points in the Bulldogs’ last five games, including three shutouts.

“Luke is the guy on our defense that sets the tone every single game,” Bartholomew said. “Teams try to double-team him, but they can’t, so you start to teams run away from him. He is a tone-setter and a playmaker for our defense.”

Ferrell said he goes into every game feeling like he has something to prove.

“To be honest, I feel like an underdog and I have to prove myself,” Ferrell said. “I always wanted to prove that I belong on the field, so I made sure I put in the work. I worked my butt off in the weight room to get where I am. I wanted to prove to myself that I could compete with other people. I wasn’t confident as a freshman and I wanted to gain that confidence and prove that I belong.

“When I’m on the field, I think of it as a brotherhood. All around you is your brothers, and you fight for them. Every time the ball is snapped, I think about my guys and I have to get to the ball so we can win the game. It’s not just me that cares about winning, it’s the whole team and I want to give them that.”

Ferrell, a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder, who has been a starter since his freshman year, is proud of how far the program has come during the last four years.

“What we have accomplished the last four years is insane and that is due to coach Bartholomew and our coaches,” Ferrell said. “The core values they have taught us has made us better players and better people. Before that, it was just a game and now it is a lifestyle.

“For me, I can never take a play off because it would be disrespectful for all the hard work I put in, it would be disrespectful to my teammates and disrespectful to the game,” Ferrell said.

Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on Twitter @twil2323.