High school football 2024: Clearview's Cy Christensen ready for leadership role

SHEFFIELD TWP. — For the first two years of his career at Clearview, Cy Christensen was more of the quiet type of teammate. He preferred to lead by example from the quarterback position while the previous two senior classes established themselves as vocal leaders. Now as a junior, Christensen is being asked to take that next step in his evolution at quarterback and merge his physical talents with the vocal leadership required to bring along a young receiving corps that lost four seniors from last year's playoff team. "I've been starting since I was a freshman, just getting the experience," Christensen said. "Since I'm an older guy now, we've got a couple younger guys up now, and they're learning the plays. It's good to be teaching them. "Just for the past few years, I've had a lot of experience. I'm definitely a lot better at reading the defenses, making better reads and just making better throws. My freshman year, I didn't have a lot of confidence, but last year, I gained my confidence and it turned out great." Last season, Christensen completed 190 of his 295 attempts (64.4 percent) for 2,372 yards and 23 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. He passed for at least 200 yards in seven of the Clippers' 13 games, including a season-best 300 yards on 20 completions against Lakewood. Christensen passed for multiple touchdowns nine times, including a season-high four TD throws in a 56-0 win over Oberlin last September. Those numbers have Clearview coach Mike Collier "expecting greatness" from his junior quarterback. "That's kind of been his forte," Collier said of Christensen's knack for making plays. "He's really stepped up. Starting as a freshman, he's done great wonders for his experience level and his ability to see things. He's a student of the game. It's great having him out there. It's like having an extra coach on the offensive side of the ball there. "Even this year, we've asked him to be a more vocal leader. He's kind of been the young guy in the group the past couple of years, but now we expect him to lead by example. He knows what we expect as coaches. He knows the effort and attitude that we expect on the football field as well, so he's kind of been echoing that. He's more of a lead-by-example kind of guy, but when he speaks up, I think his teammates listen." Having teammates that listen will be a key for Christensen and the Clippers to experience success. After graduating those four top receivers, Clearview is breaking in several athletes who played only junior varsity last year. However, throughout the offseason, Christensen led workouts with his new receivers to get them up to speed on the varsity plans as quickly as possible while developing chemistry at the same time. "Practice makes perfect," Christensen said. "We'd have a two-hour practice, so just throwing and then lifting. We'd stay like 30 minutes after and just keep practicing." Admittedly, Christensen is more focused on team success instead of individual achievements, but the two are not mutually exclusive. Christensen not only led the Clippers back to the playoffs after a two-year absence, but also gave the Clearview fans plenty to cheer about during the postseason. Christensen helped the Clippers defeat Berkshire in the first round and then upset third-seeded Norwayne on the road to advance to the Division V, Region 17 semifinals. "Oh, yeah, it was great last year," Christensen said. "Clearview's been down for a couple years before that, but it was great to have a great season last year and just bring it on to this year. We had a great team last year. Not just in practice, but outside of practice we were with each other. We were having fun and we just had fun all last year. "It's a big step. You just have to have a great game, make sure all your teammates are on the right level, make sure they're playing great and make sure everything's going well." Before Christensen and the Clippers can think about the postseason this year, there is the matter of competing for the Lorain County League championship. Last season, only seven points were the difference between winning the conference and finishing second as the Clippers did to Columbia. Both teams had a 6-1 league record. However, Columbia defeated Clearview 20-13 at home to win the conference per league bylaws. With the Raiders making the trip to Clearview this year, Christensen is looking to take advantage of playing in front of the home crowd and giving them reason to cheer early and often. "Last year, it all came down to that one game," Christensen said. "We fell short, so it's going to come down this year to one big game and we have to come up big on that one. "We were away last year, and it was still a big crowd, but this year, we're home. We have our home-field advantage. We have a great field, great fans." Contact Matt Florjancic at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.