Hanover Central High School

Story by Rhyanna Morgan Ashton Verbish has spent all four years on the Hanover Central Football Team. He started playing football when he was five years old for the Hanover Jr. Wildcats Pop Warner team. He had a love for football because of the Legion of Boom Seattle Seahawks, wanting to be like Bam Bam Kam Chancellor. In his free time away from football, Ashton enjoys golfing. Playing a sport for twelve years may lead to eventually burning out or losing your love for the sport. However, Ashton says that his passion for football has never fizzled out. Since football is a very aggressive contact sport, he says the more your body takes a beating, the more it hurts. Pushing through the pain, Ashton says there is a lot of fire in his heart to play football. Even though Ashton has played football for most of his life, he is still learning new things every day. He says, “Football has taught me so much, and I feel like every day I’m still learning something new and growing as a player.” Pushing himself to be better every day, Ashton says that you’re the only person who can make things happen and make things change, so he believes that his biggest motivation is himself. After high school ends for Ashton, he says he wants to go to college and run his business, Safety Glow, which he started because he said he saw a real-world problem that needed real-world solution. When asked about Safety Glow, Ashton said, “I knew that I could come up with a product that could change many people’s lives and save many lives.” Everyone, including himself, believes that Safety Glow has the potential to go far in the business world, setting him up for a good spot in the future. When the time comes for Ashton to say goodbye, he was asked what he was going to miss the most about the team, and he said, “The brotherhood. The brotherhood is unmatched. No other team, no other program does it like Hanover Central Football. If you’re a freshman or a senior, we’re brothers, and we have each other’s back through thick and thin. There’s such a beautiful thing about that.” Before the year ends, a goal Ashton has for himself is to score one touchdown and get more playing time. As for the team, he says the biggest goal is always to make it to state. For future players, Ashton tells them, “Be there for your brothers. Always have their backs and lift each other up. If everyone is rowing the boat in the same direction, you can be unstoppable.”