Southington teammates rally around cancer survivor

SOUTHINGTON, Ohio (WKBN) — Southington Chalker moved to an eight-man football team in 2023 and the 2024 season is the school’s first full season with the changes.

“Win, I want to win, like bad,” said junior quarterback Tanner Kelson. “Winning, I want to win, that’s really it.”

Southington has a roster of 19 players for the 2024 season. Wildcats head coach Justin Kren said with his roster, it was a perfect opportunity to move to an eight-man team.

“They realize that last year we competed, it was fun for them to actually be in on a competitive team again, where we compete for wins,” Kren said. “That opened up a lot of their eyes and a lot of the guys are bought in. Our seniors are ready to go, our captains are ready to go.”

In 2023, Southington did not play a full season and had an overall record of (4-2). In 2024, Southington is now fully recognized in Ohio as an eight-man team in the Northern 8 Conference.

“We were wanting to win a state championship,” said sophomore linebacker Tegun Noble. “That’s really what we want because if we get it all together, we have the ability to compete for state.”

Southington joins Sebring as the only schools in the Valley to play eight-man football and be in the Northern 8 Conference.

Coach Kren said the only downfall of the eight-man system is if injuries pile up.

“We do have a couple of injuries, one of our captains, Colton Levensky, he ended up getting diagnosed with kidney cancer,” Kren said. “He had his kidney removed Friday, he’s actually sitting right over here right now.”

Sophomore fullback Colton Levensky said the night of Sept. 3 he found urine in his blood and went to St. Joseph Warren Hospital. There, doctors found something in his kidney which an MRI revealed was a tumor.

“The MRI showed that I had a 3.2 centimeter tumor in my kidney,” Levensky said. “The surgeon that’s going to do my surgery said it was most likely cancerous. So we took it out and there was actually two tumors in one kidney.”

Doctors at Akron Children’s Hospital took out Levensky’s kidney Friday morning, Sept. 6. He said his family has not received the pathology yet, but doctors said the tumors were cancerous.

“Yes, I’m going for sure, coming back next season,” said Levensky. “It just sucks what happened on Sept. 4, it was horrible news and I was devastated, but it never kept my mind from the goal I wanted.”

Southington players and coaches all said the 2024 season is for Levensky.

“Because he’s our team, our player, our guy, we love him,” Kelson said.

“We stick together and we could accomplish a lot if we work together,” Noble said.

“It was a big blow to us, not only as a team but as a family,” Kren said. “One of your brothers is hurt right now. It’s a big thing for them to step up and make this season a success for him.”

Levensky said doctors told him he will be ready to play football next season. He said he can already visualize walking onto the field for Week One 2025.

“I’m going to be a little bit emotional, haven’t been on the football field or playing for a whole season,” Levensky said. “I’m going to take it to heart and I’m going to play my heart out. I’m going to take it as a boost and use it positively, play my heart out and hopefully win us that game.”

Southington is currently (0-1) with a loss at home in Week One to the Maryland Orioles.

The Wildcats play next at Toledo Christian Saturday at 6 p.m.

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