Springfield’s Zion Culbreth
SPRINGFIELD, PA — Zion Culbreth is built like a human speed bump. The Springfield (Delco) stubby 5-foot-8, 250-pound three-year starting defensive tackle has arms the size of most people’s legs. He can bench press an astounding 450 pounds.
He does the kind of selfless, nasty job few like to do on a football field. It comes with no bravado, hardly any stats, and unless you have a trained football eye, he is barely noticeable, until you notice the moving pile, which often finds Culbreth underneath.
He’s “Captain Congestion.” His job is to disrupt and makes obstacle piles on the field.
Springfield has one of the best defenses in the state—possibly the country. The Cougars have not been scored on since September 3—over two months ago. Springfield has pitched a school-record eight-straight shutouts, which spans 34-straight quarters, after the Cougars’ 35-0 victory over Kennett in the opening round of the PIAA District 1 Class 5A playoffs on Friday night.
Springfield, the No. 2 seed, is 10-0, while No. 15 seed Kennett fell to 5-6.
The defending District 1 5A champion Cougars will now host No. 7 seed Upper Perkiomen next week.
A big reason why Springfield is in this position is the play of Culbreth, who often takes on two or three blockers to free up the linebackers and defensive backs behind him to make tackles.
It is a thankless job, but the senior has done it now for three years. He was so eager to get started playing football at Springfield that he urged Cougars’ head coach Chris Britton if he could start working out with the team when he moved up from eighth grade.
“Zion is not in any of the papers, no highlight films, he plays the kind of role where the only people who love you is your mom, and us, all of us,” Britton said. “When we play him in our shade-odd look, he takes on double teams every play. Thank God he can bench a house. Zion is a rock in water, you’re going to have to detour, because he is not going to move. He keeps our linebackers protected, they love him.
“But that is our deal, we have a lot of players on this team that are ‘wes’ not ‘Is.’ Zion is a ‘we guy.’ No one on this team has 100 tackles, they do their jobs. Zion does the nasty work and he been doing it on both sides for three years. Any college would love to have Zion. For me, he makes my life easier. It all starts from him and what he does in the middle of the field. Zion is usually the strongest kid on the field, and he works at it. He came here the summer of eighth wanting to lift early with the team.”
Britton does not bring up the shutout streak. In fact, Britton makes the point that he would not have had his second and third team defense on the field—as he has done in the majority of the games this season—if the Cougars were that self-conscious about keeping the shutout streak alive.
Culbreth himself could care less. His only priority is to repeat as district champions. He is the starting right tackle on offense and starting defensive tackle, and nose tackle on defense.
What he does is demanding.
“I’ll put ice bags on my legs for about 30, 40 minutes after a game, because I’m running into someone every game, stuffing the run, trying to control each gap and trying to make sure teams bounce things outside for the linebackers,” Culbreth said. “Stats do not mean anything. Winning does. Everyone on this team sacrifices something. It’s why we won (the district championship last year). I wanted to work on my speed in the offseason, and technique, and make sure I knew every play on offense.”
Springfield was a state semifinalists last season. The Cougars lost to eventual state 5A champion Roman Catholic, now a 6A team.
“The attitude coming into this season was to make sure our focus was on the next game in front of us,” Culbreth said.
Springfield senior linebacker TJ Valletti, who scored twice, is certainly appreciative of Culbreth.
Culbreth makes his life easier.
“Zion definitely does, he takes on two or three blocks every time, and makes those big plays, like he did tonight for a fourth-down tackle for loss, and teams see that,” Valletti said. “People see his height and on film you see what he does, which is huge. He is really good at his job. He’s 100-percent one of the unsung heroes on this team.”
The Cougars made it look easy Friday night. They scored on their first five possessions, as 14 different players touched the ball.
Scoring Summary
Kennett (5-6) 0 0 0 0-0
Springfield (Delco) (10-0) 14 14 7 0-35
1st Quarter
Spr. – TJ Valletti 13 run (Zarel Suarez kick), 6:19
Spr. – Valletti 5 run (Suarez kick), 2:04
2nd Quarter
Spr. – John Hopkins 16 run (Suarez kick), 6:47
Spr. – Mason Becker 20 pass from Hopkins (Suarez kick), :17
3rd Quarter
Spr. – Jackson Sheffield 12 run (Suarez kick), 7:29
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball.