ADAM RAEDER
There were no girls.
Anywhere.
Coming from West Junior High School, that was the first thing Romel Dismuke noticed — couldn’t help but notice — about his new school, Cleveland’s Benedictine High School.
As he walked down the halls, there wasn’t a girl in sight.
“My school’s Catholic and an all-boy’s school,” Dismuke said. “It was hard to adjust, seeing nothing but guys when you walked in. It was kind of weird.”
It would have been harder for Dismuke to adjust, though, if it weren’t for football.
“It was kind of hard my freshman year to adjust,” Dismuke said. “But I love football, I always loved football. So it wasn’t too hard to adjust to that. I made friends really quick.”
And he made a name for himself. With one season left to play, Dismuke, who played all over the field for the Bengals, committed to continue his football career with the University of Cincinnati Bearcats.
“It’s always been one of my top choices,” Dismuke, who had offers from Pitt, Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green and Toledo, said. “It was a good feeling when I went down there, standing on the field, running on the field.”
An eighth-grade sports star, Dismuke left Ashtabula — and his friends — behind to move to Cleveland, where his dad, Phlenoid, lived.
The pair looked all over for a high school for Romel, looking at St. Edward and St. Ignatius before settling on Benedictine.
Phlenoid liked its strong reputation for academics. Romel liked that Benedictine, coached by former Madison coach Art Bortnick, had claimed the Division III state football crown the year before.
“I went to Benedictine and they treated me well there. ... I decided to go there and it really paid off,” Romel said. “I got a great education there. They really take it serious.”
That’s the same way Dismuke treats football.
And when he learned that he’d start his Bengals career on the freshman team, instead of playing JV or even varsity, Dismuke didn’t get down or throw a fit. He just went out and had fun.
“It wasn’t too hard. Our freshman team was great,” he said. “We dominated everybody we played. We lost one game our freshman year and it was to St. Ed’s.”
By the end of his freshman year, Dismuke was on varsity, anyway, getting moved up during Benedictine’s playoff run.
When his sophomore year rolled around, he was the starting strong safety and kick returner.
And that’s when he started showing up on Cincinnati’s radar.
“I think it was back when I was a sophomore, I know my head coach, he talked to Coach Molnar, their wide receivers coach. Coach Molnar, he came up to my school this last year and I gave him some highlight film. They liked my film, my personality, my attitude.”
But in the following year, Dismuke matured greatly. As a junior, he turned as much attention to his academics as he did his athletics, holding a 3.0 GPA his junior campaign, bringing his cumulative average up to 2.7, a sight important for prospective colleges.
“Romel, in the last year, matured both in the classroom and he put a lot of effort in the offseason — after his basketball — (into his athletics),” t Bortnick said. “He went to a (training) facility and put a lot of effort into it, and he went to a number of combines and one-day junior college visits. He performed very, very good. College assistants I talked to were very impressed with his effort, his maturity. As he goes into his senior year, his efforts really paid off.
“When he came to Benedictine as an incoming freshman, we saw the raw talent. But raw talent can never surface unless it’s given an opportunity to be matured and given perimeters where he had to find the discipline, the work involved, understanding his athletic ability won’t get him to the next level unless his school is improved.
“He did put the work in preparing for the college board test, so that he got his grades in line if a scholarship is offered to him. ... That maturity, he came a long way. Who knows if he stayed in Ashtabula if that ever came to the front.”
Dismuke also impressed with his versatility on the field, where has seen time at quarterback, wide receiver, running back and cornerback.
In fact, Bortnick still considers Dismuke’s performance in the first game of his junior season, when he started at quarterback against Norte Dame Cathedral Latin, as one of his very best.
Dismuke had never played quarterback before, but that didn’t stop him from running for two touchdowns and throwing for one more in the 28-7 triumph at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
“He had an outstanding game. ... His efforts were rewarded by being named MVP in the game,” Bortnick said. “For his first start at the quarterback position, that was quite an accomplishment.”
For now, the Bearcats plan on using him in their return game, though they see his true position as a defensive back.
Dismuke, who went to the state track meet as part of Benediction’s 400-meter relay, posted his personal-best time in the 40-yard dash at a summer camp with the Bearcats, running a 4.35. Dismuke also boasts a blistering time of 3.91 seconds in the shuttle drill, a drill most coaches value highly when evaluating a defensive back.
“If I do good in camp, I could possibly get some time at corner,” Dismuke said. “They also said, I didn’t know, they could also play me on offense.”
Dismuke has also been a key component of the Benedictine basketball team, playing at point guard and helping the Bengals to two straight Division II regional tournament appearances. He will set basketball aside for his senior year, though, to concentrate on football.
And the Bengals won’t ask Dismuke to be quite as versatile this season. With a strong returning class that boasts an experienced quarterback and great depth at running back, Dismuke will see most of his action on special teams and defense, where he’ll continue to start at cornerback, while being part of a running back rotation.
Even though Benedictine won’t be relying on Dismuke to carry the offensive load this season, Bortnick is convinced Dismuke could make a splash as a college runningback, should the Bearcats so choose.
“At the next level, if they keep him on the offensive side of the ball, he can carry the ball because he’s got tremendous speed and power,” Bortnick said.
But he’s proven to be just as much of a game-changer on the defensive side.
Taking on Cincinnati Elder late in his junior season, Dismuke, who was sidelined for the first half of that game along with two previous games with an injury, took the field in the second half and, on his first play, forced a fumble that helped spark the Bengals’ comeback attempt. Benedictine ended up losing by one score.
“My coach didn’t think I could play,” Dismuke, who recorded two interceptions and 40 tackles last season, said. “I kept telling him I felt a lot better. I had the trainer tape me up, took some Advil.”
But in the end, it was something that happened in track season, not football, that cemented his decision to head to the Queen City.
“It’s always been one of my top choices,” Dismuke said. “When I went to (the state) track meet, they’re the only school that sent me a paper that said, ‘Good luck,’ and the coaches, they all signed it.”
