LaVerde, Trivisonno share Ritley honor

Steve Trivisonno and Tiger LaVerde have put their teams in position to win state championships despite overcoming some rather large roadblocks.

For that reason, the head coaches of the Mentor and Kirtland football teams were both named winners of the Bob Ritley Award, which goes to The News-Herald’s football coach of the year.

The announcement was made Nov. 20 at The News-Herald’s awards night as part of the “Varsity Chalk Talk” show at Hooley House in Mentor.

T r iv isonno’s Ca rdina ls (12-1) will play Olentangy Liberty (11-2) in a Division I state semifinal Nov. 24 at Arlin Field in Mansfield.

The same night, LaVerde’s Hornets (13-0) will play Nelsonville-York (13-0) in a Division VI state semifinal at Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium in New Philadelphia.

With their 23-21 win over St. Ignatius in a Division I re- gional final Nov. 17, the Cardinals successfully avenged their only loss of the season. St. Ignatius defeated Mentor, 41-31, in Week 2 of the regular season.

Since that loss, Mentor has won 11 games in a row, including back-to-back wins over state-ranked St. Edward and St. Ignatius.

With their 17-7 win over Rootstown in a Division VI regional final Nov. 17, Kirtland ran its record to 13-0 despite having a handful of players sidelined or out for the season.

Kirtland is in the state final four for the sixth time in the past seven years.

Trivisonno and LaVerde

emerged as the winners from a pool of four finalists, a list that included North coach Shawn Dodd and Perry coach Matt Rosati.

Dodd led North to a 6-5 record, including a fivegame winning streak to end the regular season that put

the Rangers into the Division II playoffs for the first time in program history.

North lost to Bedford, 30-22, in its playoff debut.

Rosati guided Perry to its second straight 10-0 regular season. The Pirates (13-1) were ousted from the

Division IV playoffs with a 33-21 loss to Steubenville in a regional final Nov. 17.

The Bob Ritley Award is named after the legendary coach from Perry who died in 2003 after a courageous battle with cancer.

This is the second year

the coach of the year award has been handed out in Ritley’s name. Last year, Rosati took home the award.

Members of the Ritley family presented the trophies to Trivisonno and LaVerde in front of a packed house at Hooley House.

BARRY BOOHER — THE NEWS-HERALD Kirtland coach Tiger LaVerde, right, accepts the Bob Ritley award with co-honoree and Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno on Nov. 20 at Hooley House.