Coldwater’s defense brings down Valley View quarterback Brody Gibbs during Friday overtime season opening win. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
If high school football could be like what we saw on opening night for the rest of the season…the questions about what we’re teaching young people about hard work and competition would be hard for anyone to question. And that’s just the beginning of what I saw over the weekend.
There were no negative reader responses this weekend pertaining to our Friday coverage of some great high school football. And truly, how could you find fault with either what we covered or what we, or anyone, wrote?
Frankly, what astounds me is that more local coverage wasn’t devoted to the Coldwater-Valley View game, given the results of last year’s game (a Coldwater shutout) and the great tradition of Valley View football. The people in Germantown are proud people, and they should be. Once upon a time Jay Niswonger showed them how good it felt to be proud of their kids and their accomplishments. And last Friday’s game was as good as money can buy for high school football in 2025.
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And these words about coaches. You can’t handle joy, or heartbreak, any better publicly than Matt King, the coach at Valley View, and Chip Otten did, post-game. And I’m telling you…it’s hard to coach in these days and times.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
It’s hard to represent your kids, your school, and your community with what you say in a way that makes everyone happy. And in some cases, anyone. Frankly, it’s hard for coaches to teach kids the values of work, and disappointment, and even how to win…and not have someone unhappy, if even just one.
But I talked with four different coaches over the weekend who both won, and lost, and all were unwavering over the values that their kids absorbed from opening night.
“We have good kids,” one said, a term you hear thrown about loosely these days, and again, for the sake of keeping people happy. But I’ve known this man for a lot of years. And he meant what he said, just as he means it when he calls someone out.
And if you’re a parent, what a blessing for your child, for you, your school, and your community…to have a man (or woman) like that.
And think of those who are not so blessed, and how different it must be.
To those who go too far over a football game…..
There has been so much made of Saturday’s opening game with the University of Texas that it simply makes some people go off the rails. I’m talking about the people who get paid (I assume) to say and write things that move people to listen, read, and respond.
Doesn’t have to be true, it just has to move someone’s needle.
The hype actually detracts from the core values you hold for institutions like Ohio State and Texas. It seriously makes you question the priorities of people who would spend $5,000 for a pair of tickets to watch it in person. And worst of all, you question at some point if the people pumping out the rat poison (as Nick Saban called it) are even (or ever) telling the truth. It makes you tired.
“The disparity between the talent at Ohio State and Texas is so great that off the record, analysts are claiming that Saturday’s game will be the worst mismatch in the history of marquee network opening games.” – Facebook
For instance, at 4 am last Friday night I was posting game story URLs on Facebook when I ran across a post from some Texas partisan, who wrote with very professional wording: “The disparity between the talent at Ohio State and Texas is so great that off the record, analysts are claiming that Saturday’s game with be the worst mismatch in the history of marquee network opening games.” I didn’t click, and I didn’t read. In a lot of cases that’s why people write things like that, true or not. Nor did I share it with anyone.
But when the hype for a football game gets to the point where you post unsubstantiated crap that has no journalistic value, it simply takes the flavor out of something so long anticipated…for more of the right reasons.
Press Pros has been criticized for years for not covering Ohio State football recruiting. And in the early days people criticized our coverage of small-school football because those schools did not have Division I college prospects.
But those schools did have readership, and people who appreciate coverage for the sake of coverage, regardless if Jimmy and Johnny never played another down after high school. They were just happy to see kids competing and having a good time.
And sadly, we can all remember some of the names that were unrealistically hyped as Ohio State recruits that never lasted…may not have lettered…and were never heard from again after their freshman year. But it didn’t seem to matter.
The next year brought a new class, new meat, and new rumors to spread by those with a laptop, wearing a tank top, and posting from the basement…euphoric over a dozen hits they got on Facebook and Twitter. That’s what I thought of when I read: “The disparity between the talent at Ohio State and Texas is so great that off the record, analysts are claiming that Saturday’s game will be the worst mismatch in the history of marquee network opening games.”
All of the basement Paul Finebaums…who wish those words were their’s.
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To the Hartings, the Davidsons, and sponsors of last week’s PBA events…..
If you didn’t take the time to attend either the Professional Bowling Tour’s Kremer Roofing Classic at Community Lanes last week, or the Bowlerstore.com Classic at Coldwater this past weekend, I want to acknowledge the quality, the enjoyment, and the pride in representation of community that the Hartings family in Coldwater, and the Davidson family in Minster brought to their respective communities.
In both cases 75 of the best professional bowlers in the world showed up to put on a show, the kind you usually see on Sundays on Fox Sports, and seldom live. The interaction between those professional athletes and people in the community reminded you, in some cases, of the best examples of house guests coming to visit, and being made to feel welcome.
The facilities were sparkling, the hospitality for bowling fans was nothing short of first class, and no one went home saying that they didn’t have a good time.
And…it was FREE!
It takes a year of work to put something like that together, and it takes some very generous and civic-minded sponsors who value community and a quality experience over the bottom line….to make it FREE. There was no shortage of that kind of community leadership.
To the Hartings family, to Doug and Lori Davidson, Michael and Erika…Press Pros was proud to be part of the media coverage, and a welcomed guest.
Thank you!
Host of the tournament, the Hartings family, along with Doug, Lori, Michael and Erika Davidson of Bowlerstore.com, present the winner’s check to 2025 tournament winner Drew Lloyd.
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