Archbishop Hoban High School announced Wednesday that seven seniors signed national letters of intent to continue their academic and athletic careers in college.

The seven student-athletes are:

- Alexis Becker, women’s soccer, Edinboro
- Taylor Bolender, gymnastics, Central Michigan
- Madison Kaser, women’s soccer, Akron
- LaTroy Lewis, football, Tennessee
- Maria Libertin, women’s soccer, Xavier
- Greg McMullen, football, Nebraska
- Colleen Rosen, women’s soccer, Ursuline

Archbishop Hoban High School hired Bob Mosher to lead the Knights softball team for the 2012 season.

Mosher coached softball at East from 1997-2006, leading the team to five consecutive City Series playoff appearances, two City Series championship games and a Division II sectional championship in 2005. Mosher was also named City Series Coach of the Year in 2005.

“Bob comes to us very qualified and highly recommended,” Hoban Director of Athletics Michael Del Medico said. “His love and knowledge of the game was quite evident to us during the interview process.”

Mosher most recently was a varsity assistant at Mogadore High School.

“Anytime you get the chance to coach a program as storied as Hoban’s has been, that is what coaching is all about,” Mosher said. “I had the good fortune to work with great kids and adults at East and Mogadore and I’m looking forward to continuing at Hoban.”

Archbishop Hoban junior basketball player DeAllen Jackson is likely out for the remainder of the season, according to Knights coach T.K. Griffith.

Jackson fractured a bone near his eye on Saturday afternoon following an accident at home. He is still recovering at Akron Children’s Hospital after surgery to insert a dissolve-able plastic piece and to repair the fracture and muscle damage in the eye area.

Jackson was leading Hoban (8-3) in scoring this season, averaging 16.4 points per game. He made 70 percent of his free throws and 44 percent of his field goals.

“I feel terrible for this kid,” Griffith said. “He loves basketball and is crushed.”

Akron native Tyrell Sutton is returning to the National Football League.

Sutton, 25, signed a reserve/future contract to play running back for the Seattle Seahawks. He said the deal is for two years and gets him back in football after sitting out this past season.

“I am so excited to be back in the game,” Sutton said by telephone from Charlotte. “I know what it is like to be unemployed and I never want to be in that situation again.”

Sutton, a 2005 Archbishop Hoban High School graduate and a 2009 Northwestern University graduate, played two seasons for the Carolina Panthers.

Sutton played 16 games for the Panthers between 2009 and 2010 with one start. He rushed for 139 yards on 25 carries, had 18 receptions for 132 yards, gained 332 yard on 16 kickoff returns and contributed nine tackles on special teams.

The Panthers released Sutton following the 2011 training camp.

“I was doing whatever I could to stay in shape, such as running and lifting,” Sutton said.

Sutton, 5-foot-7 and 215 pounds, said he had a tryout with the Seahawks in December.

Archbishop Hoban defensive end LaTroy Lewis lost his season doing one of the things he does best – getting after the ball.

The senior and University of Tennessee recruit said he was going after a fumble midway through the third quarter in his team’s loss against Cleveland Benedictine when he broke the fifth metatarsal in his left foot.

“I kept asking the doctor what it was,” he said right after the injury happened. “After I got to the hospital I found out. I didn’t know how to react.”

And with that, a promising season for the Knights continues to go wrong.

The Knights are now 0-2 and have lost one of the best players in the state in Lewis, who had started the season extremely well. In the season’s first game, Gonzaga College High School felt Lewis’ presence as he had a couple of sacks, several tackles for losses and a forced fumble.

“I was having another good game,” Lewis said of this past week.

Lewis said that he has received nothing but support from the University of Tennessee coaching staff.

“They had a few players with it,” Lewis said. “They recovered quite well. They just told me to get stronger and be well.”

Hoban now has to try to replace one of its best players. Coach Ralph Orsini said the team will miss Lewis because of his play and his intangibles.

“His leadership on the field is really going to be missed,”  he said.  “There is no other LaTroy Lewis.”

Orsini said the Knights will try to replace Lewis by using different players with different strengths.  But what he and Lewis lament is the fact that this could have been a special year for the defensive end along with his bookend partner and close friend Greg McMullen.

“We have two special defensive ends, and they have only been able to play together three quarters,” Orsini said.

It will likely force McMullen to shoulder more of the burden, but considering his two sacks and three tackles for losses against Benedictine, it doesn’t seem as if that will be a problem.

“Greg can handle it,” Lewis said.

“I think Greg will use this as motivation to honor LaTroy,” Orsini said.

Walsh Jesuit can finally compete for a league championship in every sport.

The high school, which was founded in 1965, joined the North Coast League for this school year and will take part in the Blue Division against rival Archbishop Hoban.

Chardon Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, Mentor Lake Catholic and Parma Padua are other co-ed schools in the NCL Blue Division. Cleveland Benedictine participates as an all boys school and Cleveland Heights Beaumont is a member as an all girls school.

“As far as opponents and so forth, there is really no change for us on our schedule because we generally schedule the other schools in our division,” Walsh Jesuit football coach Gerry Rardin said. “Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin is the only one we didn’t play last year that is now in our division, but we have played them in past years.”

Rardin said this will be the first school year that each Warriors team can play for a league championship.

“I am looking forward to the additional thing that a league race could bring,” Rardin said. “Whatever team wins the North Coast League football championship is a pretty good team and is going to make the state playoffs. I would assume. I cannot see a league champion from this league not make it. Making the state playoffs is the No. 1 goal for sure.

“We are new to it. The kids aren’t talking a lot about it, but I think they will get more excited about as we get closer to it.”

Rardin said the Walsh football team competed in the Inter-County Conference in the early 1980s with Canton Central Catholic, St. Vincent-St. Mary and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Warriors baseball coach Chris Kaczmar helped form the Cuyahoga River Baseball Conference in the late 1990s. The CRBC currently includes Walsh, St. V-M, Cleveland St. Ignatius, Lakewood St. Edward, Gates Mills Gilmour Academy and Hunting Valley University School.

“I think everyone is approaching the North Coast League with an open mind and I think in the long run everyone will really like it,” Rardin said.

The NCL White Division features Cleveland Central Catholic, Parma Heights Holy Name, Warren John F. Kennedy, Bedford St. Peter Chanel, Garfield Heights Trinity and Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph.

In other league news, Nordonia is a full member of the Suburban League this year. Barberton and Northwest are independent schools.

Ohio.com and the Akron Beacon Journal have learned that Hoban defensive end LaTroy Lewis gave the University of Tennessee a verbal commitment to play for the Volunteers as a member of the class of 2012.

The Vols have been very active in Northeast Ohio, recently offering Copley running back Aregeros Turner this week.

Archbishop Hoban recently named assistant coach Tom O’Neil as its boys track and field coach.

O’Neil guided North from 1994 to 2010, and was City Series Track and Field Coach of the Year nine times — 1995, ’96, ’99, 2000, ’03, ’05 and ’07-09.

He also was the Vikings’ football coach in 1995-2007.

O’Neil replaces Dave Arbogast, who stepped down in early June but plans to remain involved in Hoban athletics in various roles.

With teammate and fellow defensive end Greg McMullen having announced his decision for college, the other prize recruit, LaTroy Lewis, is left to make his decision.

Ohio State recruited both players, but neither will attend school there.  Call it the Tressel effect, but  McMullen chose Nebraska and Lewis told the Beacon Journal that he’s narrowed his choices to Tennessee and Notre Dame.