A stellar senior season has led to Michael Bock being named as the 2024 winner of the Bill McGaffney Award.
“My senior season was really a surprise to me. With (quarterback) Aaron (Walters) coming up, I didn’t really expect honestly too much out of, I guess, trust or getting the ball as much as I did, but I’m very thankful for what I got and the opportunities I had,” Bock said. “As well as the fact that all of us have been playing together and playing through basically our entire lives and finishing our senior season the way we did, it was very great. I loved it.”
The running back finished his senior season with 1,763 yards on the gorund, which had him in the top five in Division IV, according to MaxPreps, and top 20 in the state, regardless of division.
Bock ran for 25 touchdowns and also had 294 receiving yards with a pair of receiving scores.
A four-year letter winner, Bock got his start for the Braves on defense.
“You use coach speak like the process, but that’s truly what it’s been. Micheal is a four-year letter winner because he played nose guard as a freshman,” LE coach Terry Holbert said. “We had limited depth there and he was quick, explosive and strong and that’s where we used him.”
He learned the varsity game behind a couple of strong running backs in 2022 McGaffney winner Blayton Reid and thousand-yard rusher Landon Thompson last season before earning the featured back spot this year.
“We’ve had great runners aside from those guys, but we’ve certainly been blessed over the last three years to have a senior/junior, senior/junior in the mix and now the position is kind of up for grabs,” Holbert said. “Michael did a tremendous job, and it was a lot of fun, from my position, to watch.”
Bock credits his success with trusting his teammates and the system.
“A lot of the thing was basically following the scheme and trusting my line,” he said. “That’s kind of what all it boils down to because we rep that all the time, and so trusting it, and, if it’s not there, kind of working my own little thing, that’s all I really needed as well as doing it time and time again, just shoving it down their throats.
“And I loved it — I loved every part of it.”
“He truly had the ability that at any time he touched the ball it could go,” Holbert said. “It didn’t matter what the call was or what the situation was.
“There was a swing pass against Fairfield Union that was clearly covered – two guys had a dead bead on him. He made a move and went 77 yards to the house. At any point in time, he’s got that play-making ability.”
Putting an exclamation point on the season was the Week 11 win over Philo, the first playoff win for Bock and his fellow seniors.
“Getting in the second round was really impactful for a lot of us,” he said. “A lot of our guys were there when we lost the first one with Cambridge (in 2022) and then the second one with Indian Valley (in 2023). So, the third one with us being seniors and finishing in the second round, when we haven’t seen that before, really meant a lot to us. So that was pretty special for us.”
Bock had 208 yards rushing in that game, the third time he eclipsed 200 yards in the season, with his career-high coming in Week 6 against Liberty Union when he ran for 282 yards. In all, he ran for more than 100 yards in nine of the Braves’ 12 games.
“In the plan for winning, No. 2 is you’ve got to be able to run the football,” Holbert said. “We had a really good quarterback, we had really good receivers, we had a good line but there comes a point in time to win a game you have to be able to run the football when the other team knows you’re running the football, and we could continuously do that with Michael.
“You work really hard as a coach to design schemes that are going to be successful, but part of being a great running back is within those there’s always going to be someone that is unblocked. The running back is always going to have make someone miss. And that’s not counting any other factors. Michael could turn a mistake or a bad play into something special.”
Bock was just a few yards shy of 100 in Logan Elm’s final regular season game at Hamilton Township but it was still a big game as it secured a piece of second-place in the league for the Braves.
“Well, second is not really what we wanted, but the fact that with Hamilton we fought very hard for that game, losing for a big portion of it,” Bock said. “I think a lot of us — I cried most of that game being completely honest. But for our last regular season game, pulling through like that, it meant a lot more than just statistics or anything like that.”
With his high school career complete, Bock’s plans are to continue with football at the college level.
But he knows his academics are the main thing and he plans to study finance as stocks have been an interest of his for a long time.
“I’m probably the only guy that brings a book into the locker room. It’s really weird,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to be as weird. I bring it in and everyone kind of swarms around you like a fly and I’m just sitting there.
“I read just for fun sometimes. I mean, certain books will definitely put me to sleep. But anything on money, anything that will get me to learn or anything that’s just interesting.”
Bock is the 12th Logan Elm player to win the McGaffney Award.
“It’s incredibly special,” Holbert said. “As you look throughout the history of the award, he’s the 40th recipient. Just add him to the list of special names and it’s a tremendous end to his career here at Logan Elm.”
McGaffney Award Winners
1985 — John Berry, Westfall
1986 — Sean White, Logan Elm
1987 — Shane Roese, Teays Valley
1988 — Bill Currence, Logan Elm
1989 — Lance Gibson, Westfall
1990 — Bill Davis, Westfall
1991 — Shawn Buescher, Westfall
1992 — Brian Dollison, Westfall
1993 — Greg Colburn, Westfall
1994 — Nate Hamman, Circleville
1995 — Billy Hamilton, Circleville
1996 — Lance Heath, Westfall
1997 — Brian Bigam, Circleville
1998 — Gavin Cupp, Logan Elm
1999 — Joe Lewis, Teays Valley
2000 — Matt Colopy, Logan Elm
2001 — Tyler Jenkins, Logan Elm
2002 — Aaron Palmer, Circleville
2003 — Brice Redman, Westfall
2004 — Wade Bartholomew, Westfall
2005 — Evan Blake, Logan Elm
2006 — Kevin Smith, Westfall
2007 — Drew Clanin, Circleville
2008 — D.J. Cain, Westfall
2009 — Johnnie Brown, Logan Elm
2010 — K.C. Hawkins, Circleville
2011 — Anthony Vagnier, Logan Elm
2012 — Trent Williamson, Westfall
2013 — David Burroughs, Circleville
2014 — Anthony Jones, Teays Valley
2015 — Drew Pennington, Teays Valley
2016 — Logan Holbert, Logan Elm
2017 — Brandon Coleman, Teays Valley
2018 — Taylor Robinson, Teays Valley
2019 — Tristan McDanel, Teays Valley
2020 — Conner Robinson, Logan Elm
2021 — Peyton Weiler, Teays Valley
2022 — Blayton Reid, Logan Elm
2023 — Bryce Wickline, Westfall
2024 — Michael Bock, Logan Elm
Award winners by school: Circleville (7), Logan Elm (12), Teays Valley (8), Westfall (13)
— Bill McGaffney was the longtime sports editor at the Circleville Herald.