“If we come out here this week and prep the right way with the right work ethic, then Fridays take care of themselves. If we don’t win it wasn’t meant to be. If we do win it means we did enough to get that done.” – Covington coach Austin Morgan. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Beleaguered by numbers, Covid, youth, and the unexpected over five years, coach Austin Morgan and Covington football is suddenly 8-3, relevant again, and the object of attention inside, and out, at Covington.
Covington, OH – It is the shiny new object in Covington, Ohio.
What, you say? Shiny…new…Covington?
Buccaneer football, long a staple of consistency in Miami County and Division VI football, is suddenly 8-3 with a winning playoff game over Huntington High School (Chillicothe) last weekend to its credit.
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Suddenly, you ask? Weren’t they once the beasts of the Cross County Conference, that football juggernaut that later became the foundation of the Western Ohio Athletic Conference?
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It’s true. They were, compiling an overall record from 1999 through 2013 of 151 wins against 26 losses…under coaches Ted Peacock, Kevin Finfrock, and Dave Miller. Good guys…winning football…a community legacy.
But then the unthinkable – athlete cycles, coaching change, some .500 seasons before coach Ty Cates would again achieve double digit wins in 2016 (11) and 2019 (10). Eventually they became a charter member of the reconstituted Three Rivers Conference in 2021.
And then Covid, and another coaching change after the 2020 season with Austin Morgan taking over the reins after 5-5 in Cates’ final year; and daily press conferences from the current candidate for governor warning that it wasn’t safe to play football if you weren’t six feet away from the player next to you. It was known as the ‘C’ gap, and difficult to imagine. Forced to play with a diminished roster and inexperience, Morgan, a former assistant with Geron Stokes at Minster, won 1 game in 2021…and lost 9.
The seasons that followed were a struggle. The Buccs were winless in 2023 with a roster of mostly inexperienced underclassmen, 3-7 in 2024, and then rebounded last year to win five of their final six games, finishing 5-6 after a 48-0 loss to Coldwater in a first-round playoff game. The prospects for 2026 were 50-50 with Morgan relying on all those underclassmen coming of age in his fifth season. The results have been fortifying.
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After beating Arcanum in Week 1 (a future playoff team), they lost three of their next four to three more playoff teams – New Bremen, Graham, and Riverside. Their lone win during that stretch was against Miami East (9-1) on a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. But since…the Buccaneers reeled off five straight wins to close out the regular season, and last Friday night knocked Huntington out in a first-round playoff game, 35-20 – six straight wins and their longest win streak since eight straight in 2019.
Now 8-3 entering Week 2 of the playoffs and a date with Cincinnati Deer Park on Friday, they are, indeed, the shiny new object in Covington.
Senior quarterback Landin Cassel is a four-year starter and leads the Three Rivers Conference in rushing (1,154 yards).
“That’s quite a compliment,” said Morgan following Monday’s practice in the gathering gloom and rain. “But you have to like our 16 seniors because they all played varsity football as freshmen (2023) and got their teeth knocked in…and still came back for more the next year. I can’t imagine how tough they were to do that, because a lot of kids would have quit and walked away. But they didn’t. They stuck with it and now they’re four-year varsity starters, and you don’t see many kids who can say that. That experience has helped a lot.”
The roster is still underwhelming in numbers, at the most maybe 35 kids when everyone’s healthy. And Morgan faces a significant reset next year when he has to replace those 16 seniors.
“Some would say that,” he contends. “But we’ll return three lineman and Rider Robbins has gotten a lot of reps at quarterback. He could probably step in for Landin (Cassel) now if we needed him to. The loss of that senior leadership will hurt a little bit, but we have a lot of guys who’ve learned a lot from them already.”
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His manner and his practices have a not-so-surprising resemblance to his chief coaching mentor, former Minster, Dublin Coffman, and the present head coach at Urbana, Geron Stokes. Morgan was a member of Stokes’ staff at Minster prior to Covington and exhibits many of the same attitudes and mannerisms…right down the shirts with the word ‘relentless’ stenciled across the front. Stokes is currently wearing those shirts at Urbana, and speaks volumes in his respect for the progress Morgan is now making at Covington. And in his third coaching position over the past decade, is undertaking a similar challenge with rebuilding Urbana. The Hillclimbers are also 8-3 after after last week’s playoff win over Clinton-Massie.
“He’s committed,” says mentor and Urbana coach Geron Stokes. “He’s patient, he learns quickly, and he communicates well with the kids. He’ll be fine at Covington.”
“He’s committed, man,” says Stokes. “He’s patient, he learns quickly, and he communicates well with his kids. And, he’s in a good place with a football tradition at Covington. Those are tough, hard kids that we enjoyed playing when I was at Minster. He’s going to be fine at Covington.”
And the Stokes influence has continued since Morgan’s taking over the program.
“I’ve learned a lot from him,” Morgan admits. “He’s been a huge role model for me and if you take football out of the equation these are just kids out here maximizing and trying to be the best they can be. They’re just using football as a medium to do that. They’re learning about how to be a man…buying into those responsibilities. They’re on a four-year journey. There’s been a lot of growth here under the surface during that time, more as men than as players. And that’s what you’re seeing now with the season we’re having.”
Good teams have a leader, a look-to individual who can dictate things through action and personal example. But at Covington, at least this year, Morgan maintains that theirs is a different type of leadership.
The similarities are hard to miss with former Minster coach (now at Urbana) Geron Stokes.
“More by committee,” he adds, owing to the shared experiences of his sixteen seniors. “Some days it’s Landin Cassel, some days it’s Trenton Havenar, some days it’s Jordan Miller, or Sam Helman…whatever they need it to be. And each of them has their own way and style of doing it. But we have so many guys who just step up when they’re needed…they’re a tight bunch of kids, this senior class. And very little ego. Whoever needs to steps up and the others appreciate and follow. They have a standard, and they expect the others to be there. And if someone isn’t doing it they’re going to be on their butt right away.”
He’s just 32 years old, a graduate of Urbana University, and a 7th-grade history teacher in Covington’s middle school. His energy is unmistakable and easily transferred – hard to miss with how they go about practice. The rap music blares in a manner never seen during the Peacock, Finfrock and Miller days. Practice is observed overhead by drones. This is a totally new day at Covington, their record reflecting change from cultures past. Geron Stokes had a lot to do with it.
New days at Covington…drones overhead and the music blares. Far from the days of Ted Peacock and Dave Miller.
“He would come over when I first started because I invited him to observe practices,” Morgan smiles while telling the story. “And you know Geron is pretty blunt. I made a ton of mistakes early on and he would watch a while and then really tear us apart – this is wrong, that’s wrong, it’s not good enough. But that’s how he is. He tells it like he sees it, and he knew from his own coaching experience that you have to learn from it and move on. He’s a disagreeable giver, but he gives you a lot.”
Morgan approaches 9-1 Deer Park this week like any other opponent – another day, another opportunity. A chance for seven wins in a row.
“They’re athletic, and they have some studs,” he assures. “Their running back is a freak, and they have some kids going out to play college football. They’ll run some triple option and we’ll have to play with discipline, but we think we’re pretty good at that. But it’s a good opportunity to go see if we’re as physical as we think we are. Or not. We’ll find out real fast.”
But it’s not a glass half empty if the win streak, for now, gets snapped on Friday.
“If we come out here this week and prep the right way, every day, with the right work ethic, then Fridays take care of themselves. If we don’t win it wasn’t meant to be. If we do win it means we did enough to get that done.
“I’m just excited over the opportunity for our seniors. They mean a lot to me because my wife teaches here, too, and our first year here as teacher and coach they were in our seventh grade class coming through.
“They’ve been really loyal to us – I’m grateful for one more week with them.”
The shiny new object? The way Austin Morgan tells the story…
It hasn’t been so bad.
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