Unstoppable…..Marion Local demonstrated just how good they’re capable of playing in Friday’s Div. VII Final, with no end in sight. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The high school football season came to a close with another triumphant statement by the Midwest Athletic Conference, and a demonstration that the best might be yet to come.
The term dynasty has come up on occasion this fall with appreciation for Marion Local, its 64 consecutive wins (and running), its 15 OHSAA state titles in football, and for the fact that no one, particularly other high school football coaches, can see an end in sight.
Particularly, that is, after coach Tim Goodwin said earlier this fall that with a younger staff of assistants taking over more responsibility, “I’m delegating more, and I like tinkering with things. I’m having fun.”
Even OHSAA assistant John Kronour said while handing Goodwin and the Flyers their latest trophy on Saturday, “They’re a dynasty.”
Twenty four hours later Coldwater reminded everyone that while they’re a few titles short of 15, they have eight of their own and a threat, like Marion, to keep winning them as long as Chip Otten and his staff are together. In winning his sixth state title, Otten plainly demonstrated with a 31-7 win over unbeaten and favored Kirtland that 2024 might be his best coaching performance in the 15 seasons he’s been the head coach at Coldwater.
He always has a play, knows just when to run that play, and his players execute it flawlessly, as they did on Saturday. Despite having a size disadvantage, Coldwater was clearly a tough matchup for Kirtland, who fell 1-2 in the all-time series between the two teams in the OHSAA finals.
Chip Otten has now won six state titles in his 15 seasons as head coach at Coldwater.
But it was my observation, and perhaps mine alone, that both Goodwin and Otten came to make a statement with their respective 74-0 and 31-7 wins.
Marion was clearly the better team over Jeromesville-Hillsdale, and clearly wanted to make a statement about the quality, top to bottom, of football in the Midwest Athletic Conference…or about how good Marion really could be on a given day. Having beaten Minster 21-7 just two weeks prior, there were some who questioned if that wasn’t, in fact, the Div.VII championship. So in the post-game press conference Friday Goodwin put an exclamation point on his 74-0 reminder.
“We had a goal when we came over this week to play really well because I thought these guys deserved to play well in this game,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve been here in this game a lot of times and there’s been some times when we haven’t played well. Sometimes it’s been a struggle. But today we put our best foot forward in front of football guys across the state.”
Adding: “There’s a lot of teams not as good as Minster that have won state titles. I’ve seen it, and some of my [past] teams weren’t as good as that Minster team this year.”
Otten is a different personality from Goodwin, but he, too, enjoys tinkering with the game in a manner that keeps it fun and interesting for the kids.
“We knew today that we would have to play to our advantages to win,” he said, post-game with a happy grin. “We were concerned about their physical stoutness, but we have a phrase called TED – toughness, effort, and discipline. And I do feel that those three things helped us win today.”
He could have added timing!
“I thought it was just the right time on short yardage (on their first touchdown). We had seen some tendencies on film. Their safety followed our receiver across the formation, Baylen (Blockberger) rode the option out, gave Miles a chance to make a play, and he took it to the house. It was just the right time to call it (the option).”
That, and the 55-yard bomb on a skinny post pattern in the second quarter where Blockberger went over the top to Cadin Obringer to set up Coldwater’s third score of the half – toughness…effort…and yeah, a little fun. Obringer, on the skinny post, beat two Kirtland defenders.
After covering high school football for nearly 25 years I’ve come to appreciate that only a handful of programs play the game in the manner of what Otten and Goodwin are doing at Coldwater and Marion Local. For years coaches have preached balance in football, leading Kirtland’s Tiger LaVerde to say after losing to Minster in 2014, “We’re accustomed to playing teams that throw because they have to, not teams that throw because they want to.”
Coldwater and Marion left nothing in the bag over the weekend, having fun and leaving some of those “football guys” to again ask afterwards, “What do they have coming back next year?”
Frankly, it doesn’t seem to matter. Not when you play your best!
The Difference In Shock…And Shocking
In the two days since Coldwater’s 31-7 win over Kirtland there has been disagreement over our use of the term ‘shock’ in the game story headline.
“That should have been reworded,” someone wrote on a Facebook post. “Kirtland got beaten badly.”
Another: “What’s so shocking about Coldwater winning?”
To be clear, if you read the text of the story we never claimed that it was a shock that Coldwater won. Rather, it was the margin of winning that was shocking. No one at the tournament expected to see Kirtland struggle like that in a state final game.
“Give credit to Coldwater,” said Kirtland coach Tiger LaVerde. “But we didn’t prepare to play like that, and I made some coaching decisions that didn’t help.”
Hence, the difference between shock…and shocking – semantics in high school football.
People Say The Funniest (?) Things…….
Many of you know that I grew up in Lawrence County, Ohio, outside of Ironton, and I still have a large contingent of family in the area.
So it came as no surprise Saturday when a man wearing an Ironton jacket asked me on the sideline, “Is your name Fulks?”
I nodded yes.
“I thought so. You look like one of them. Are you Dan’s brother?”
Now in Lawrence County, there are two people named Dan Fulks…my uncle, and my cousin.
“Which Dan?” I asked, assuming he knew the difference.
“Oh, the one that was married to Rena,” he answered, sizing me up.
“That’s my Uncle,” I assured him. “And he turned 90 this year.”
I’ve been away too long.
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