Lake Central junior Frankie Verta finally relented. Now he’s reaping the rewards.
The 6-foot-2, 170-pound Verta, who is playing high school football for the first time, is the leading receiver for the Indians this season.
“I had expectations for myself, but nothing like this,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to go this well.”
Verta has 28 catches for 619 yards and seven touchdowns, all team highs for Lake Central (3-6), which will play at Duneland Athletic Conference champion Crown Point (9-0) in the Class 6A sectional semifinals on Friday.
Verta’s 74-yard touchdown catch was the tie-breaking score in the Indians’ 21-14 victory against Valparaiso in the regular-season finale that snapped an eight-game losing streak in the series dating to 2016.
“He’s been a pleasant surprise,” Lake Central coach Pete Koulianos said. “Good hands, athletic. He’s one of our big-play receivers, and he’s done a great job coming in and adapting to our offense and learning it within a short amount of time. You’re talking the summer and the spring a little bit too. He’s been a big part of what we’re trying to do here.”
Verta didn’t play football until seventh grade despite the accomplishments and influence of his father, Dave, a 1999 Whiting graduate who played linebacker, quarterback and wide receiver under Indiana Football Hall of Fame coach Jeff Cain and was an all-state selection in 1998.
Verta then decided not to play football during his first two years at Lake Central. Instead, he focused on baseball. A catcher, he has played for the freshman and junior varsity teams so far.
Dave Verta, who also scored 1,000 career points in basketball and played one season of football at Butler, is Whiting’s superintendent. He has also been Hammond Central’s principal, Clark’s principal, Clark’s athletic director and Clark’s football coach for five seasons from 2006 to 2010, among other positions.
“Frankie’s old man and I are close,” Koulianos said. “The Verta family is a football family. When I got here, I actually accidentally bumped into Frankie and said, ‘Hey, man, are you going to play football?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘I never heard of a Verta not playing football before.’
“He’s a baseball kid, so we kind of stayed on him throughout the year last year, and we finally convinced him to come out.”
Lake Central junior linebacker Brody Ramirez, who has 100 tackles this season, played a prominent part in that. His father, Mike Ramirez, a 1999 Clark graduate, is a 2017 Hammond Sports Hall of Fame inductee who was an all-state quarterback in 1998, scored 1,000 career points in basketball, and also excelled in baseball and track.
Mike Ramirez and Dave Verta were classmates until high school, and the families are close.
“This has been my dude since birth,” Brody Ramirez said of Frankie Verta. “Our dads are best friends. They played against each other — big rivals, Whiting versus Clark. I always go to his house. I call him Uncle Dave — he’s like an uncle to me.
“So this has been my dude since birth. This has been my guy. It’s been so nice. I told him to come back out last year, and he was debating. He was like, ‘I’m a baseball dude.’ I told him he’s fast, he has hands. It’s just nice having him back out there.”
Verta impressed from the outset.
“In the spring, first day of practice, he burned every DB we had,” Ramirez said. “It was kind of weird, I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Ramirez wasn’t the only one.
“It felt weird to be out there, but I had experience around the game,” Verta said. “I had a knowledge of the game, and my athleticism helps a lot.”
Now Verta views football as part of his future. He and Ramirez, who has been in consistent contact with Michigan State, took a game-day visit together to Western Michigan last month.
“I had a feeling for baseball,” Verta said. “I just sat out my freshman and sophomore year in football. Coach K since freshman year, he was on my back to get me out there. Brody, my ride-or-die, he’s been trying to get me out here the whole time.
“My dad pushed me a lot too. That was a big reason. I finally listened up. I got out there over the summer, and I really enjoyed it.”