Even though I am not from the area I have been an avid follower of the MAC for a few years now. What the league has been able to accomplish is so impressive and I've asked myself a lot of times what separates the MAC from other leagues. I would actually reverse the order of these for a couple of reasons.
#1 - The number of MAC kids that plays sports is incredible. At the start of every sports season you can go to Versailles' web site and watch the team pictures scroll across the top of their site. It's incredible the number of kids they have playing sports. And it's not just football, it's every sport. You look at the cross country team and its 15-20 kids running, golf has 10-12, volleyball has varsity, jv, and freshman teams, etc. I wish they still had the pictures up from this year so people could go look at them but it's incredible. I know this doesn't happen at every MAC school but you see that several MAC schools have freshman teams in an era where a lot of schools can't even field JV teams.
So why does it happen at MAC schools and not other places? That's a community thing. If you follow MAC schools closely you will notice how much more support there is from the community and the school itself vs. other areas. Things that MAC fans take for granted like getting a trophy for winning the league title or hanging a banner in the gym for a team going to state aren't valued everywhere like they are in the MAC. And the fundraising the MAC does for their athletic teams is incredible. Whether it's the 50/50s at games, the Marion Local Ball Drop selling out each year, the Tiger 250 club from Versailles, St. Henry selling off 750 $100 tickets for a truck raffle, etc those things aren't able to happen at a lot of schools the same way they do in the MAC. Look at what the MAC does with Twitter and Facebook and the MAC website. It's all kept up to date, the history is known and preserved. You can see the pride the MAC has in its history.
All of these things are minor alone, but when you combine them the message is continually be sent to kids about the value of sports in a community. Some communities value high school sports a lot, some want to have good high school sports but don't want to do what is necessary (facilities, coaches,etc) to make it happen and some couldn't care less at all.
To me, this is the MAC's secret. The kids know sports are important, they know sports are valued and they grow up wanting to play sports. That in turn gives you large rosters and gets your best athletes on the field or court.
I would ask MAC fans and specifically Marion Local fans a simple question. How many kids are walking in your hallways that aren't playing football that you look at and say, "Man, if that kid would play football he would be an absolute stud?" My guess is that number is pretty low.
#2 - I've always been amazed by the number of seniors MAC teams have on them. The culture of the MAC seems to be much different than many other DVI and DVII schools where many kids quit if they are not playing varsity as a sophomore. There are a lot of good athletes that quit sports their freshman/sophomore year because they weren't starting on varsity and they weren't going to waste their time if they weren't getting to play varsity.
My school played Versailles in the state volleyball tournament two years in a row. The second year we played them, Versailles had four seniors who didn't see the court for a single point the year before. That means as juniors they sat the bench. But they didn't quit. They kept playing and they were rewarded with a state title the next year. That's culture. That's community. That's not genetics.
Last year Marion Local won their 11th football title. In their second playoff game they won a hard fought game over Fort Loramie. In the paper afterwards this is what Tim Goodwin had to say: “It’s a reflection of the kids and the program, the community and all of the support we’ve had,” assured Marion Local coach Tim Goodwin. “These seniors waited until their senior year to play, a lot of them. They were willing to keep working and stick with the program and here we are, going to the regional final.” Those kids were rewarded with a state title.
Last year before the state title game Goodwin said the following: “If we’re lifting at 6 in the morning, we’re going to have 100 % participation,” Goodwin said. “If we’re practicing on Thanksgiving, even the freshmen are showing up. We’re very fortunate to be in the area that we’re in."
I'm sorry but that doesn't happen in other places in Ohio. That's an advantage that can't be quantified. Maybe MAC kids look genetically superior on the field because of the dedication their kids and families have in working to get better instead of just showing up in August to play. You take an average athlete as a freshman and give them three years of committed training and good coaching and that kids looks pretty damn athletic as a senior.
#3 - That brings me to the coaching. MAC coaching is incredible. Not only at the head coaching level but the depth of coaching at the assistant coaching level is crazy good. Most schools are just hoping to find someone to coach to help fill their coaching staffs. I'm always amazed when I see the MAC ADs announcing a new coaching hire on Twitter the resumes that some of these coaches have. It's not just a dad that's willing to do it, it's a coach that has a solid background in his/her sport.
If you subscribe to NFHS, go watch the Marion Local middle school games. It's amazing to watch the various offensive formations, the defensive adjustments to formations and motions, the substitutions, and just the general management of the game at the middle school level. The Marion Local 8th grade team is doing things that many high school teams don't do or struggle with. Those kids are clearly getting great coaching and I know that happens across multiple schools in multiple sports in the MAC.
#4 - Competition, competition, competition. The thing that is great about the MAC is you have several schools that really seem to compete in almost every sport. That seems like common sense but there are a lot of schools out there that excel at one or maybe two sports and then don't really care too much about the other sports. A lot of leagues have the team that is the football school and the team that is the basketball school and the team that is the baseball school. That doesn't seem to be the case in the MAC as much as it is in other areas. Most MAC schools seem to really compete in most sports and that creates a league in which teams get battle tested and prepared for tournaments. That's a huge MAC advantage over other schools that play in leagues where they may only have one or two competitive games a year.
Now for as much as I respect the MAC and love watching your teams play I will say one negative thing about the league. You guys are really, really really bad at golf. What's the story with that?