Avon football releases schedule

“In order to be the best, you have to beat the best,” is an often said phrase by Avon coach Mike Elder.

The Avon football program will have a chance to put that phrase to the test this fall as the Eagles open their season with a rugged stretch of games.

The team will scrimmage Massillon and Lorain at home before opening its regular season at Brunswick Week 1 and at Medina Week 2. The Bees are led by junior quarterback Drew Allar, who committed to Penn State earlier this month.

“We’ve been scrimmaging Brunswick for the last several years, and that was an opportunity for us to play them,” Elder

said.

“They are a Division I program who plays in a really good conference themselves.

“I think everyone is aware of how talented of a quarterback (Medina) has and coach (Larry) Laird has done an outstanding job with their program. When you beat St. Eds and St. Ignatius in the playoffs, we know what we’re up against.”

The Eagles’ first two games are followed by a pair of home games vs. Glenville and rival Avon Lake. Avon has beaten Avon Lake four straight times with two of those wins coming in the postseason.

“Our kids at Avon, they want to play great competition,” Elder said. “They want to play the best. We have to get through the likes of Massillon, Hoban, Cleveland Benedictine and all of those guys.

“We were supposed to play (Glenville) last year but unfortunately their season was canceled. We’ll finally get to play them this year. I have so much respect for coach (Ted) Ginn ... I enjoy being around him. He’s a legendary coach and someone I have respect for.”

Following the team’s Week 4 matchup with the Shoremen, Southwestern Conference play continues with newcomer Elyria. The Pioneers will be making their SWC debut this fall.

The rest of the way, Avon will face off with North Ridgeville, Olmsted Falls, Berea-Midpark, Midview and Amherst.

For the fifth straight season in 2020, the Eagles won at least a share of the SWC Championship. Their 2020 title was their fourth outright title as they shared the championship in 2018. The team also made its fourthstraight state final four appearance in 2020.

“We feel like any time you play in the SWC, you have a tough schedule built right out of the gate,” said Elder. “I have so much respect for all of the coaches and the programs in the SWC. We’ve been fortunate to be at the top of that league for the past several years. That’s because of the teams in the league and how hard you have to work.”

Elder and the Eagles are looking forward to hopefully having as close to a normal offseason as possible.

Last year’s offseason and start to the season was filled with uncertainty as the novel coronavirus pandemic loomed over area football programs.

“We’re excited about that. Everything about the beginning of football season to me, and I think to our coaches and players (as well), is it’s exciting,” Elder said. “This excitement last year was replaced with uncertainty. It’s going to be nice to hopefully not have that uncertainty and to know what the next thing is. Football is a very structured occurrence and for us last year, it became unstructured, which was hard.”

The Eagles had to adapt when presented with unprecedented circumstances last season, Elder feels that his program is better off after having to navigate through rough waters.

“Our players were able to navigate through that uncertainty so well,” said Elder. “Any time you are forced into a situation where it makes you feel uncomfortable and you’re not sure how to proceed, you have to really reflect. You have to think ‘OK, we have a bad situation. What are we going to do to make it the best it can possibly be?’

“We did that as coaches and players. There’s things we are going to take from this pandemic and from what we just did and apply it moving forward. Things that I think we can use that improve our program.”