With position switch, coaching change, Ligonier Valley grad Christian Jablonski ready for senior season with Lehigh

A little over a year ago, after a spring workout, Christian Jablonski walked off the field convinced he had seen his last game action for the Lehigh football team.

The workout was light — no pads were involved — and the Ligonier Valley graduate had been executing his techniques against only thin air. But the then-rising junior was making the transition from defensive to offensive line, where he hadn’t played since high school, and he was sure he bombed.

“I was getting ready to tell my parents not to come to any of the games because I’ll be pouring water,” Jablonski said.

The Mountain Hawks coaching staff felt differently, and Jablonski started all 11 games during the 2022 season: nine at right tackle and two at right guard.

Now, Jablonski (6-foot-4, 285 pounds) enters his senior season firmly entrenched on the right side of the Lehigh O-line. With a full year at the position under his belt, he said he is light years ahead of where he was at this time last season.

He admitted he had a few misgivings about the move initially. Then-coach Tom Gilmore called him into his office to ask about possibly switching to offense, and he told Jablonski to take a couple of days to think about it. Jablonski immediately called his high school coach, Roger Beitel, to discuss the matter.

“He kind of explained to me that I needed to make the decision that was best for the team and not for me,” Jablonski said. “I figured since the coaches wanted me to move positions, it was best for the team, so after that I called my coach and told him I was ready to switch over.

“I believe I have a higher ceiling with O-line, and I believe I’m more of a better fit at O-line.”

So he set to work learning new mechanics and new terminology, leaning on the team’s veteran offensive linemen, including fellow WPIAL product George Padezanin (Montour). He also had the added challenge of coming off a shoulder injury that cut his sophomore season in half. Jablonski said, in retrospect, the shoulder injury might have been a blessing in disguise because it forced him to work that much harder on his blocking skills.

Still, it took some time for him to get comfortable. He said it wasn’t until the ninth game of the season, against Holy Cross, that it felt like everything finally clicked.

“After our bye week, I was able to sit down with my coach at the time, and we went through some of my best plays and some of my worst plays,” Jablonski said. “Just slowly walked through what I could improve on. I believe just having a week to process it and know what I should pinpoint going into the next week … I felt like I played the best at Holy Cross.”

The week off also gave him the chance to rest a nagging knee injury, which he said also helped.

“I would say I did better than what I expected,” he said in assessing his overall performance. “The bar was pretty low. … I’m not too disappointed in how I played, but I’m not entirely satisfied.”

As the 2023 season dawns, Jablonski faces another challenge: impressing a new coaching staff.

Gilmore and the Mountain Hawks parted ways after the team’s 2-9 season, and former Yale assistant Kevin Cahill was brought in as the new coach. Cahill was hired Dec. 19, so he had the winter and full spring to get a look at what he would inherit at Lehigh.

Cahill said he immediately was impressed by Jablonski’s work ethic and magnetic personality. The new coach also said he believes Jablonski is just scratching the surface of his talent as an offensive lineman.

While Jablonski doesn’t possess the prototypical low-center-of-gravity build, Cahill said there is room for him to grow physically as well as refine his techniques. Jablonski’s length, Cahill said, enables him to get into opposing defensive linemen quicker.

The trick now is to put on a few pounds and “anchor down” his frame to improve his leverage.

“He’s a long, athletic kid,” Cahill said. “You would sign him up as a tight end if you could. He gets into trouble sometimes, but he finds a way to get out of it, too. He’s got strength. I think he’s an intriguing kid because I think he’s got a tremendous upside. I don’t think he’s close to maxing out anytime soon.”

Cahill said he doesn’t envision Jablonski straying from the right side of the line, and he will lean on him and the other program veterans to ease the transition for him and his coaching staff.

Jablonski said he has been happy with what Cahill has tried to do with the program even in just a few months. Once he got over the initial jolt of the departure of the coaches who had recruited him, Jablonski said he recognized the need for the change.

The Mountain Hawks were 5-20 over the previous three seasons, including the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and they haven’t been above .500 in the Patriot League since 2017.

“It brings a lot of excitement to the program,” he said about the change. “I believe it’s a much-needed fresh breath of air. (Cahill) has a very process-based approach. … There is urgency. We do want to win games. But it’s very cool just seeing how (the coaches) explain things, the way they integrate the schemes. It’s a much more professional approach than what we’re used to.”

As Jablonski looks ahead to his senior season — he also will use his fifth “covid year” of eligibility in 2024 — he also can look back at how far he has come. Those thoughts of pouring water on the bench? He can laugh about them now.

Instead he thinks about contributing a Patriot League title.

“I’ll take a team goal over a personal goal any day,” he said. “I would love to be an all-Patriot League performer … (but) if we come together and we play to our potential, we can win the Patriot League championship. I’m more concerned about that than anything else.”