This Griffith Team is Anything but Average

GRIFFITH -- When Gavin Edwards was a little boy, he was pretty average.
He played in the yard with his two brothers and rode his bike to the park with his four sisters. He was kind, nice and, well, ordinary.
Then something happened.
When Edwards entered seventh grade, his family moved from the south suburbs to Griffith. His mother decided it was time for him to stop playing around.
“You need to go out for football,” she told him. “You need to get out of the house.”
That was the beginning of average turning into exceptional.
“I was 5-foot-9, 200 pounds in the seventh grade,” said Edwards, now a 6-5, 320-pound offensive lineman who committed to play football at Northern Illinois on June 17. “I got knocked down on my first hit. But it didn’t keep me down. I was like, ‘Get up and let’s go.’”
The climb to the top, however, wasn’t immediate.
Griffith coach Phil Mason considered starting Edwards as a freshman and gave him an opportunity in a scrimmage against a talented Hobart team.
“On the first snap, I got driven back like four yards,” Edwards said with a smile. “But I had to just keep going.”
Mason ultimately elected to keep 15 talented ninth-graders together and let them develop. Four years later, the payoff is happening.
“We’ve got a (Class) 6A offensive line,” Mason said.
He isn’t exaggerating.
Grayson Verbich, a 6-5, 300-pounder, anchors the left side at tackle. Max Angel (6-2, 265) is at guard, with Shawn Mitchell (6-3, 350) at center and Stanley Lesko (6-4, 275) at right guard. Edwards lines up at right tackle, while Zavion Brown (6-2, 255) gives the Panthers another imposing presence at tight end.
The group’s development has been fueled in large part by work in the weight room.
Edwards can bench press 375 pounds, clean 315 and squat 515.
The eighth-ranked Panthers will put that strength to the test Friday night when they host Highland at The Boneyard in the season opener.
“When I first met Gavin, he was a kid who expected to play at the next level,” Mason said. “Those 15 kids we kept back four years ago — it’s been amazing watching them develop. The maturation of that group has been special to watch.”
Quarterback Ryan Bullion returns after throwing for big numbers last season. He has a massive group protecting him, along with plenty of talent around him.
Mason believes the pieces are in place for Griffith to make another run at the top.
“If we play well, we can reach our goals,” Mason said. “We can win another (GSSC) conference title. We can go undefeated in the regular season. Then we have a chance in what is going to be a very tough sectional.”
There is, indeed, a chance these Panthers can be much more than average.
When Edwards arrived in Griffith, he had no idea about the town’s love affair with football. He didn’t know who Les Thornton was. He had never heard of Russ Radtke. He didn’t understand what a Friday night in Griffith meant.
That changed during his sophomore season.
The Panthers went 9-2 that year and finished 9-2 again in 2025.
In 2023, most of this year’s seniors played junior varsity during Mason’s first season as head coach. The program struggled to a 3-7 record.
But the foundation was being built.
“That’s when I realized how big football is here, when we started winning,” Edwards said. “This town goes crazy on Friday nights. Our fans are great. They’re loud. It’s a lot of fun playing for them when they’re cheering for us.
“We really believe we can win state this year. We really believe that is possible.”
A kid who once needed his mother to push him out of the house to play football now stands 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds, committed to playing at the next level.
Average, it seems, was never going to last.

​By Steve Hanlon
Heartland Sports Network