Erik Shaver — When Coach Creighton talks about Wabash Football family, he is talking about the bonds that each and every player has created with blood, sweat, and pain shared in the off-season and on the practice field. While we are all brothers on the team, no bond is stronger than the one shared by the men in the trenches, the offensive line.

To understand how powerful a link is felt between guys from Indianapolis, Evansville, San Francisco, Iowa, Crawfordsville, and elsewhere, you need only to read some of the stories that we have shared.

We have numerous comedians and a few klutzes who always make sure that the entire line has a smile on their faces. When Coach Gilbert hosted an o-line get-together at his home and pool, his two boys and lovely wife met us with gallons of ice cream, hot brownies, cookie dough, and numerous other treats that make fat kids sing.

While the rest of the line was downing the sugary goodness, Tony Neymeiyer strutted up to the diving board, flexed like his idol Hulk Hogan, and ripped off his suit to reveal a Speedo. Needless to say, the entire yard erupted in laughter.†

A few weeks later, Skip Tokar invited all of us down to his home in Zionsville to do two things: eat and watch Colts football. The jokes kept coming, the laughter never stopped, and a few cows and pigs were sacrificed for a good cause. Runs to Dairylicous are common and the fabled “Bumblebee” have become a part of our Thursday war cry.

Just last week, the o-line decided to have a meal together at Old Town Buffet, a popular restaurant in Crawfordsville. When twenty, six-foot plus, 280-pound linemen squeezed though the doors, the owners went quite before sprinting to the kitchen to put a rush on more food. Together, the o-line must have collectively downed $300 of rice, ice cream, pork, crab, and chicken. The tab for our meal was $8 per man. Trust me, when the o-line puts its collective mind toward consuming massive amounts of food, people are going to lose money. Those poor folks did.

We have a vast cast of characters on the o-line. We have a center who was recognized as the best male choir and theater student when he was in high school. We have three future teachers and a future physical therapist on the line. We have a tackle that wants to become an archeologist. We have intelligent brothers who are going to make a name for themselves in the future.

The simple fact is that if we were to choose a single person to spend the night in a foxhole with, we would immediately choose the entire line. When practice ends and the team breaks for the night, we end with one word: family.

However, the o-line already knows that we are family. We know that on Saturday it is all going to come down to one common factor: us. We are the reason; the o-line is the reason. That is why we are so close. We know that if we want to win, we need to trust one another without a second thought. We are family. We are the offensive line.

Erik Shaver is a junior offensive lineman from Indianapolis, IN.