BELLBROOK — If high school fantasy football were a thing, Seth Borondy would likely be the area’s version of Carolina Panthers star Christian McCaffery: A likely top-3 pick as a running back and receiver.
Two games into the season, the Bellbrook junior running back has been Mr. Versatile for the 2-0 Golden Eagles, who visit Valley View Friday in an uber-important Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division battle of unbeatens.
Borondy — who played sparingly while stuck behind a pair of 1,000-yard rushers as a freshman and then shared time with senior JR McCormick last year — is atop the Southwestern Buckeye League in rushing (276 yards) and scoring (36 points), while ranking second in all-purpose yards (373) and sixth in receiving yards (97).
Combine his rush attempts and receptions and the 5-foot-11, 160-pound Borondy averages 9.3 yards per touch.
That’s good.
“He’s a dual threat,” Coach Jeff Jenkins said. “He’s a kind that we can definitely throw to out of the backfield. He’s got good length, good size, good speed. It makes him a difficult guy to cover.”
Waynesville and Franklin — Bellbrook’s first two opponents — can attest to that. In a season-opening 48-0 laugher over Waynesville, Borondy had 146 yards on just 14 carries, and added four catches for 81 yards and three touchdowns. Last week in a 34-0 pasting of Franklin, he ran 21 times for 130 yards and three scores. He also had a 16-yard catch.
“We’re off to a really good start,” Borondy said, focusing on the team and not himself. “We’ve got a lot of juniors and seniors back. Our O-line is way faster. They’re pretty small but they’re fast and their technique is pretty good. We just put a lot of work in the off-season.”
Borondy’s training regimen included visits to Black Sheep Performance in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash. Run by Cincinnati native Patrick Coyne, who was the No. 2 QB in Ohio coming out of Badin High School in Hamilton in 2011, Borondy and teammate Brayden Turner honed their skills and answered the challenge from Jenkins, who pushed the team to get better.
“It helped me a lot,” said Borondy, who ran for 683 yards and 11 TDs last year, turning it on in the final three games when he had 334 rushing yards after missing a pair of games due to injury. “Working on agility, lateral quickness. It helped a lot. I also was working at home, up at the field.”
Jenkins is happy with the results.
“I can’t argue with the success he’s had thus far,” Jenkins said. “You could tell there’s some natural talent there. I think he wasn’t physically ready as a freshman. He needed a solid year in the weight room before he could hit the varsity field and stay on it.”
Jenkins thinks Borondy could stay on the field right into college.
“Seth’s an elite talent,” Jenkins said. “If he continues to mentally and physically progress as an athlete, he could be a Division-I scholarship player.”
But for now, Borondy is focused on the task at hand, trying to help his team win three in a row against Valley View.
“They have a lot of really good corners, safeties,” he said. “My mindset is just going to be the same thing going into each game. Run hard. I’m looking to get better.”
And that’s not just a fantasy.
