The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Who’s in? Who’s out? Playoff berths on line
Bond of Kenston, North coaches goes way back; team vying for spots in Week 11
“... the kids have really stepped it up. Guys are playing positions they’re not used to or comfortable playing. There are no excuses, everyone is doing their part. It’s been humbling to see as a coach.” — North coach Shawn Dodd
Eight years ago, a pair of young teachers at Forest Park Junior High School in Euclid sat together in the lunch room and talked about their day.
The two social studies teachers — one teaching sixth-graders and one teaching seventhgraders — discussed teaching methods, their students, their careers ... They talked football. When Oct. 27 arrives, those two men will be leading not junior high schoolers, but high schoolers on the football field in search of elusive playoff berths.
Those two young teachers — North’s Shawn Dodd and Kenston’s Jeff Grubich — each of whom have piloted brilliant reclamation projects this season to put their program’s on the cusp of playoff berths.
North (5-4) is seventh in Division II, Region 5, and can clinch the school’s first playoff berth in program history with a win against 6-3 Chardon on Oct. 27.
Kenston (7-2) is third in Division III, Region 9, and is likely to be postseason bound with a win over 1-8 South.
“We were together for fiveto-10 years at Forest Park, which is now closed,” Dodd said.
“I was receivers coach at Euclid, he was coaching defensive backs at Mentor.
“It’s awesome to see how things have worked out. We’ve known each other for a long time.”
School history
Dodd gets goose-bumps just thinking about the opportunity in front of his Rangers.
He rattles off the names of former North coaches such as Vic McIntyre, Dan Kukura and Nick Toth, chronicling their close calls in playoff hunts.
Things were different in what Dodd termed, “back in the day.”
There were fewer divisions and only four teams per region made the playoff for many of those years, not the current system where eight per region make the grade in seven divisions.
No matter the year, the number of divisions nor the number of qualifiers — North has never been in the football postseason.
Now the Rangers’ destiny is in their own hands, something that hasn’t been uttered in Week 10 in Eastlake in a long, long time.
“It would be incredible,” the 1991 North graduate said. “Beyond special, especially for the kids, who have gone through so much.”
The turning point of the season came, ironically, the evening of Sept. 22. The Rangers had just been pile-drived by crosstown rival South, 46-13, in a turnover-riddled game that left North with a 1-4 record and a four-game losing streak.
That was an opportune time for the Rangers to
hang their heads, chalk it up to a lost season and mutter, “here we go again.” Dodd sensed it. “Man, I laid into them after that game,” Dodd said. “We had a lot of season-ending injuries, we just lost to our rival, and I could see guys starting to feel sorry for themselves. It was that old, ‘poor us’ mentality.
“From that moment on, the kids have really stepped it up. Guys are playing positions they’re not used to or comfortable playing. There are no excuses, everyone is doing their part. It’s been humbling to see as a coach.”
North hasn’t lost since, beating Riverside, Brush, Mayfield and Madison.
A win against Chardon would give North its first five-game winning streak since they won their first five games of the 2001 season before going 2-3 in the second half to finish 7-3 and out of playoff contention.
“I remember walking out of the locker room at halftime against Mayfield up two on the road and wondered about how they’d handle (the pressure),” Dodd said. “Kenny Streb and Brad Burrow are like, ‘Coach, we got this.’
“There is no sales job anymore. These kids aren’t cocky, but they’re confident in themselves. They’re giving 100 percent and just out there having fun. ... I can’t wait for Friday night. It would be great to have that opportunity to play in Week 11 after all we’ve gone through.”
Surging Bombers
Grubich’s team faced a similar crossroad heading into a Week 7 game against Riverside.
The Bombers had just had their first hiccup — two of them, to be exact —
with a 52-48 loss to Brush when the Arcs scored in the final 10 seconds of the game, and then an accompanying 38-12 loss to Mayfield a week later.
It would have been easy for the Bombers, still a young team with numerous sophomore starters, to slump shoulders and revert back to their 2016 form when they went 2-8.
But since then Kenston has won three in a row, capped with a rousing 3415 win over Chardon last week.
A win over South and Kenston will be dancing for the first time since 2014.
“These kids, no one expected them to do anything,” Grubich said. “One publication predicted they wouldn’t win a conference game. And here we are in Week 10 hoping to take care of business and hoping to play in Week 11. We want to keep this thing rolling.”
Character has been revealing the recent weeks, Grubich said. When Chardon blew down the field on their first two drives of the game last week, Grubich said he took a deep breath and thought, “Oh, boy.”
His team didn’t give up another point the rest of the game.
“These kids are acting and playing like they’ve been there before and they haven’t,” Grubich said. “This senior class has never had a winning record, from Pop Warner to middle school to high school. With what we’ve been through and to push through it is gratifying.”
Grubich has been around long enough to know even with a 1-8 record, Week 10 foe South is dangerous with offensive innovative coach Matt Duffy and a high-octane offense led by quarterback Steven D’Eusanio.
The Rebels can’t make the playoffs, but they sure can decide who doesn’t.
“This is exactly what we told the kids,” Grubich said. “Come in, work hard, win and if we’re invited to play in Week 11, we’ll be ready to do that.
“We’re not worried about Week 11 until the OHSAA calls us and tell us they want us there. But we do want to keep this thing rollin.’”
Playoff roll call
Aside from North and Kenston, here is the way the playoff picture stacks up according to JoeEitel. com.
Division I
• Mentor (8-1) is third in Division I, Region 1 and has already wrapped up a first-round home playoff game prior to this week’s game at Elyria.
• Euclid (7-2) is fifth in Division I, Region 1 and has already clinched a playoff berth and still has a chance to host in Week 11 with a win over Shaker Heights.
Division II
• Brush (7-2) has already clinched a playoff berth and could host in Week 11 with a win over Madison.
• Benedictine (6-3) has clinched a playoff berth and retains hopes of a home game in Week 11 with a win over Akron Hoban.
• Mayfield (5-4) is ninth in Region 5 and Lake Catholic (4-5) is 10th, but both need teams ahead of them to lose to get into the playoff picture — but they are mathematically alive.
Division III
• NDCL (7-2) is eighth in Region 9, but clinches a playoff berth with a win this week over Padua.
• Chardon (6-3) is 14th and can still get in with a win over North, but would need a number of teams ahead of them to lose to get into the top eight.
• University (7-3) has clinched a playoff spot in Region 10, but has a tough task this week with a game at 9-0 Steubenville. Either way, the Preppers are likely on the road in Week 11.
Division IV
• Perry (9-0) has wrapped up a home game in Week 11 regardless of the outcome of this week’s game at Harvey.
Division V
• Gilmour (6-3) clinched a playoff berth with its win over Lutheran East in Week 9, and can clinch a home game in Week 11 with a win this week against Lima Central Catholic.
• Wickliffe (6-3) controls its own destiny. Currently seventh in Region 17, the Blue Devils are in if they beat Geneva this week.
• VASJ (4-5) is currently 11th in Region 17 and would need a number of scenarios to play out — including a win over Cleveland Central Catholic — to make it to the dance.
Division VI
• Kirtland (9-0) clinched a home playoff game with a win over Cuyahoga Heights in Week 9.
Division VII
• Despite a 30-20 loss to Pymatuning Valley in Week 9, Newbury (4-5) is 11th in Region 25 and still alive for a playoff berth. A win over Vienna Mathews this week might not be enough. The Black Knights likely need some teams in front of them to lose.
Bengal dedication
Long-time Benedictine statisticians, historians, and alums, Wally Mieskoski (40 years) and Andy Hudak (30 years) were honored at halftime for their many decades of service to the school and its football program in the Bengals’ North Coast League game against Padua.
When they began their volunteer duties, the Bengals head football coach was the legendary Augie Bossu. So it was appropriate that presenting the commemorative plaques at the halftime ceremony was Augie’s oldest son, Dr. Frank Bossu, Benedictine Class of ‘67, who is now the school president.
As the stat crew, Hudak and Mieskoski have witnessed the Bengals win 284 games, earn 19 playoff appearances and capture six state playoff championships.
Their busiest year was 2008, when the duo racked up 1,277 round-trip miles to follow the Bengals to away games in Fremont, Youngstown, Columbus and Cincinnati.
Between them, they have missed less than a dozen games in those five different decades.
District meeting
The annual Northeast Lakes all-district football meeting will be held Monday, Nov. 6, at The NewsHerald office.
That day, representatives from the district’s media outlets will gather to select the all-district football teams, which is the first step in the process to determine all-Ohio honors.
Nomination packets have been emailed to each school’s athletic director. These forms can also be used for all-News-Herald nominations.
For more information, or if you did not get a nomination sheet, email JKampf@ News-Herald.com.