Buckeye Central fields five sets of gridiron brothers

• The Buckeye Central Bucks dress five sets of brothers on their football team.
• Grant Bishop enjoying the senior brother protection
• Brothers work to help each other learn from mistakes
• Loy’s helping each other learn the quarterback position

NEW WASHINGTON – Philadelphia is known as “The City of Brotherly Love”.

New Washington, thanks to Buckeye Central High School, could make a case for a change in the town slogan to, “The Town of Brotherly Love”.

The Buckeye Central Bucks dress five sets of brothers on their football team.

Younger brothers are known to annoy older brothers, but the older brothers can easily tell their younger sibling what to do and generally, they will listen. Unless the younger brother is bigger.

In the case of the Loy’s, Shook’s, Reed’s, Bishop’s and Hiler’s, the Loy brothers are the only set where the younger brother is shorter than the older. That made it pretty difficult when lining up for a group picture.

As the suggestion was taller in the back, shorter in the front, the older brothers stepped in and told the young guys to take a knee, and so they did, without much feed back.

So, Bucks fans, get used to these last names, if you are not already. The familiar last names will be a major part of the Bucks football future.

Grant and Max Loy are a pair of quarterbacks for the Bucks. Grant, a senior, is a well-established slinger who was among the league leaders in passing yards in 2014 and is looking to have a senior season that could land him a college offer.

He has a secret weapon in younger brother, sophomore Max.

“We both play quarterback and it is a position that takes a lot of work to be good at. There are so many options and it is nearly impossible to see them all,” Grant Loy said.

“As much as Max has learned from me, I have learned just as much from him because he can point out something that I may have missed. Or, he will tell me to look here or there on a certain play because he sees something.”

But, Max, Buckeye Central’s starting junior varsity quarterback, recognizes his brother as one of the top players at their shared positions and is taking advantage of his tutelage.

“It is nice to be able to turn to him when I need help with a formation or a certain play. I can always count on him to be able to suggest to me what to do,” Max said.

Grant is hoping to pass on a simple quality to his younger brother as he closes out his senior season.

“I just hope to teach him to be calm at quarterback,” Grant said. “That is the biggest quality I hope he takes from me.”

The Bucks have seen a Loy at quarterback since Grant’s freshman season when he got some snaps in as a frosh. Max will be looking to take control of the helm in place of his brother next year for two more seasons.

While the Loys may have physical features that are the same, they also have another unique quality that they share, their centers last names are Reed.

Trevor and Derek Reed both snap the football to a player named Loy. Trevor, a senior is the varsity starting center and Derek is the junior varsity starting snapper. And, again, they are both learning from each other.

“We play the same position so just like Grant and Max, we can learn from each other and teach each other the trick of the trade,” Trevor Reed said.

“Grant is my quarterback and Max is his (Derek) quarterback and both of our jobs are to protect those guys. I like playing alongside my brother and it is great because I can watch him play too on Saturday mornings.”

Derek, a sophomore, is keeping an eye on his older brother because of the respect that he has earned form him teammates over the past four years.

“It is nice to be able to look at a veteran leader that my brother is and have something to strive for. The best thing is he helps me improve every day because he has been through it already and he lets me know what I have to look forward to,” Derek said.

The offensive line contains another pair of brothers alongside the Reed’s.

Senior Quinton Hiler and freshman Zach Hiler both make their living in the trenches. The brothers are happy to be able to spend one high school season together.

“We are in the same unit,” Quinton said. “We really push each other to get better and make sure we work our hardest every day.

“We recognize each others mistakes and since we are brothers we can feel comfortable pointing them out and helping each other correct them.”

While they help each other correct mistakes, younger brother Zach is still afraid of letting his big brother down.

“I just do not want to get hurt making mistakes,” Zach said with a laugh. “Seriously, though I am learning so much from him about the position and about football.”

The Shook’s are also a senior, freshman combo. Senior Jaret is a tight end/defensive end and freshman Grant spends his time knocking heads with the linemen. They also like to help each other with correcting mistakes.

“It is great getting to play with my brother,” Jaret said. “It teaches me a lot about my game just as much as I teach him about his. We like to help clean up our mistakes and make each other better outside of practice time.”

Grant is happy to be able to have someone help him with his game.

“It is great to have him because I make a lot of mistakes,” Grant Shook said with a laugh from the crowd of teammates.

The Bishop’s make up the oddest combo of brothers of the group of five siblings. Senior Carter is a speedy wide receiver and freshman Grant Bishop spends his time under coach Jeff Niedermier in the offensive and defensive line group.

While they cannot learn much from each other about their specific positions, their lessons go deeper than just football.

“I am just glad I get the opportunity to teach Grant about what to expect in high school athletics,” Carter said. “I hope he learns how to do his best in any situation and always give everything he has.”

For Grant Bishop, he is enjoying the protection. While he is spending his time protecting the quarterback, he knows older brother Carter is protecting him as well.

“I am going to miss the protection he gives me from the seniors,” Grant Bishop said with a laugh. “He is a senior so the other seniors do not pick on me as much even though I am a freshman.”

“He has really taught me how to work hard and the value of selling out and doing whatever is necessary for the benefit of the team.”

While there may be five seniors leaving after the Bucks’ 2015 season, their last names will live on for another two or three years by their younger students/brothers.

jfurr@gannett.com

419-610-5034

Twitter: @JakeFurr11

Readers: Did you play a high school sport with your sibling? If so, we would like to know the benefits you experienced and how the relationship helped you be a better athlete. Send your responses to the TF Sports Writer, Jake Furr, at jfurr@gannett.com or call 419-610-5034. Your resopnses could be used for a future story about family and sports.