State championship atmosphere awaits Tigers and Tarblooders

State championship atmosphere awaits Tigers and Tarblooders

By Keno Sultan

Stark County Prep Press writer

www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com 

FEARLESS LEADER. Massillon head coach Nate Moore enters his 12th season as the patriarch of the Massillon Tigers. The two-time state title winning head coach is eyeing a third state title, his second wtih the Tigers. (Keno Sultan/Stark County Prep Press)

FAITHFUL PATRIARCH. Cleveland Glenville head coach Ted Ginn Sr. leads his charges onto the field before their Division IV state championship against Shelby. The Tarblooders are focused on winning a fourth state title in the last five years. (Keno Sultan/Stark County Prep Press)

MASSILLON--It has been 13 years since the OHSAA last held the state football championships inside Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, Home of the Massillon Tigers.

Friday night might as well be a state championship game.

With Massillon and Cleveland Glenville set for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday night in what is expected to be a nearly sold-out crowd, the second straight meeting between these two heavyweights figures to be a classic with both teams wielding the axes of championship expectations bestowed upon them. Massillon is aiming for a second state title in four years while Glenville on the other hand hopes to have their season end for a fourth time in five years with another state championship.

For 12th year Massillon general Nate Moore, he has relished the excitement of opening day. It was one thing for Valdosta (Georgia) to arrive to Massillon as the nation's all-time leader in victories. It was another for the Tigers to enter the 2024 season ranked #2 in the nation and opposing New Jersey state power Bergen Catholic. However, this meeting against Glenville is of atomic proportions.

Last season, Glenville regurgitated a 19-7 lead but in a second half that saw four blocked field goals, two by each team, it was the Tarblooders scoring on a touchdown pass to walk off the field with a thrilling 33-27 overtime victory that left 29th year patriarch Ted Ginn Sr. hoarse, nearly unable to talk and in tears while thanking God for the success of his team's first return to Massillon since the 2004 state semifinals when they were in Division I.

Moore has not put any stock on last year's setback but acknowledged the imperativeness of the competition. 

"For us, this is a big game for us for a lot of reasons because it is the start of the season and we have to be prepared to play a good Glenville team that won the state championship last year," he said.

Both teams come in boasting a slew of firepower across the board. Tigers running back Savior Owens is a commit to Michigan State, wide receiver and cornerback Deontay Malone, a four-year varsity player is committed to Ohio State. Fullback and linebacker Brayton Feister has committed to Oregon. And the Tigers have another durable offensive line at their arsenal.

On the other hand, Glenville has linebacker Kaylon Bailey, who has committed to Colorado to further his academic and athletic career. He is the only major college commit but don't get the perception he is their best player because the Tarblooders are skilled at all positions, the same as the hosts welcoming them to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The Tarblooders are at the height of their dominance and really have nothing else left to prove to anyone being the first public high school from Cleveland to not just compete in multiple state championships but to win multiple titles as well.

Moore has a high respect for what Ginn Sr., a cancer survivor has attained at his alma mater.

"Ginn has been there a long time and his mission has been to help student-athletes in life and he has done a great job with that," he said.

Glenville comes into this game with a 3-3 record against Stark County schools, two of those coming against Massillon and one more against Canton South while their losses, all three have come to Canton McKinley in 1996, 1997 (Ginn's first year, a 70-0 loss) and 2004 in a Division I state semfinal.

A key asset for Friday's game just might not only come down to the offensive and defensive lines but most importantly, the special teams. Massillon and Glenville both blocked two field goals against each other. This is a game where a kickoff return or a punt return for a touchdown just may be the decisive factor come Friday night. Moore is hotly aware of this when Malone returned a McKinley punt for a 50-yard touchdown that stripped away the Bulldogs momentum after they had clawed their way back from a 14-0 deficit to tie their rivalry game before and ended up being the winning tally in a 21-14 victory.

Both teams have the ability to break a long touchdown. According to Moore, his legion of Tigers in order to win will have to contribute on all three phases of the competition.

"Special teams is going to be big as we failed in that category last year. But to win, we have to be on point with all three phases of the game, offense, defense, and special teams and we must do our jobs and live up to the standard," he said. "We also have to execute at the highest level with great effort."

Local media, state media, and social media have had their dates circled for this game for weeks. One thing that sets Moore aside from other head coaches is that he doesn't make anything of what the media says, whether it is previews, or chatter from other social media outlets, no matter if it is positive or negative.

Players and coaches from both schools are not naive to social media. One thing they have going for them is that they are coached by God-fearing and God-loving gentlemen who are raising young boys to become successful adult men and in the cases of some, are second fathers to those who may not have a biological father in their life due to a life circumstance.

Moore expects his team to focus on the assignment on hand and tune out all the noise once gameday approaches.

"We have to control what we can control. We are preparing our young boys to become men and a lot of that is intrinsic to the game. Football is a sport around 11 men and everyone has to do their job because if one doesn't, it can cost you," he said. "We are facing a great opponent."

It has been 13 years since an OHSAA state football championship game was last played at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. Massillon's opener against Glenville for the second straight year will be the closest thing to a state championship game.

---PREP PRESS PIECES---

*New to the region: Columbus Bishop Watterson, who won the last two Division III state titles has moved up to Division II and are in Massillon's region, along with Sunbury Big Walnut, who has a 2-2 record against Massillon with both wins coming in regional finals. When asked about this, Moore was gracious of the Eagles ascension to the region but also pointed out that it is only the first week. "We will worry about that come week 11 but for now our focus is on week 1 and we have a great respect for our opponent," he said.

*A long time ago: It was nine years ago that Warren G. Harding arrived to Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium as the first visiting team to oppose Canton McKinley. McKinley used four goal line stops from the one-yard line to stifle a Harding scoring threat in a 29-7 win in 2017. The Bulldogs have won five in a row over the Raiders, who have not defeated McKinley since 2003, a 45-21 victory in Warren. Both Renzy Parnell (McKinley head coach) and Matt Richardson (Warren Harding head coach) were both defensive and offensive coordinators at Hoban, where both men were part of five state championship wins, two of the five coming against Massillon in 2018 and 2020. Richardson won a state title at Warren JFK and coached at Harding under Thom McDaniels, who coached the Raiders for seven seasons and was a combined 9-1 against McKinley and Massillon (5-1 against Massillon, 4-0 against McKinley).

*Return to Tuscarawas County: GlenOak head coach Matt Dennison returns again to Crater Stadium for the second time in three seasons, this time as head coach of the GlenOak Eagles, who will travel to Dover to battle the Tornadoes and their second-year head coach and 2004 Dover graduate, Matt Rees. Dennison coached rival New Philadelphia for 18 seasons before becoming the Canton South head coach. Last year, Dover defeated GlenOak 18-7 for Rees's first win as Tornadoes head coach. Rees is 5-0 against New Philadelphia (4-0 as a player). Rees was the defensive coordinator for 10 years under Dan Ifft before being promoted to head coach upon Ifft's retirement after 30 years as Tornadoes head coach.

*Welcome to Stark County: Of the 19 head coaches, three of them are first-year head coaches. Jake Adkins, who was a part of the 2007 Louisville Leopards Division II state runner-up team is the head coach of the Leopards, McKinley graduate Isaiah Robinson, who was part of the Bulldogs back-to-back Division I title winning teams in 1997 and 1998 is the head coach of St. Thomas Aquinas. Torrance Carle, a Minerva native who coached out-of-state is back in Ohio as head coach of Sandy Valley.

Keno Sultan is a writer for Stark County Prep Press. He can be reached at 330-445-4575 or email at KenoSultan@hotmail.com.