What. Is. Your. Definition. Of. Central. Ohio? Franklin County or more than just Franklin?
I think we can stop playing 'clue" with this guy . Is Professor Plumb who holds a candlestick on the sideline coming in for a interview? Is it any one from the MAC ? WAC? SWOC? AMAC ? BBC? ACC? CBS? Do any of the candidates have an IQ over 100 ? Do any candidates eat green eggs and ham ? Is there anyone named Sam? A-7 ? Miss . B-9 ? Miss . CC ? Hit . I think , seeing as the only others interested are basically 6th grade flag football coaches or decent guys from One room schools , or guys so old they have asked if a ventilator is available or do they need to bring their own . May be a high valued 'Move in" coach comes in and rescues the Rocks from the 'nice man " who is a terrible coach who the pathetic and weak minded parents and kids want but has proven he can't coach a lick ? .
OK then . I guess the Rocks are stuck with a 'nice man " with a terrible resume because no one wants the job because Dublin is a terrible district, pays chit and the program is embarrassing the administration .
Of course the last few years many fans parents and others have thought out loud that may be Coach was ready to hang it up , call it a day , pack up his tent on Coffman Road , recharge for a bit and take one last job . I still think he coaches again . He didn't leave a couple years ago for obvious reasons . He had a lot of talent. He liked this group of kids. They had some potential to go a bit further.
Well that didn't happen . Final 8 two of the last three years and a sudden scrimmage Saturday exit this year ending in excruciating fashion IN A ONCE IN 100 YEARS type season of little buzz few fans and a rare postponed play-off game , and oh yeah it was a shortened season . Getting outcoached again by Liberty in a play off setting after winning the first 8 meetings { 9-2 overall vs .Hale BUT PLAY-OFF LOSSES TWICE} had to sting .FIVE turnovers , fumble at the 13 to end the game against a gassed defense ? { Why even chance that pull the ball out crap, with how tired the Liberty defense was you just hand it to Threats a couple times from the 13 , or a quasi play-action quick strike to the end zone ? . I've seen ONE halfback pass run from Coffman in all the time I have watched them. OK , I am getting off track here , but the fact is Crabtree is exiting at the end of an era .
Davidson's has ended . Wayne will always have some ridiculous talent but has clearly lost momentum which started with the Coach being ousted. Colerain still good but going forward , Lakota West who has their coach ,will be superior to them and talented kids in 'Underserved HS football communities if you will find their way to that school more readily than they will Colerain , or Wayne? Better schools district by a nice margin and now they have the coach . Springfield won't be losing any talent to Wayne or anywhere else now that they have it rolling downhill .
20 to 30 year runs of averaging a percentage of 80-90 percent are rare. A handful out of a many bushels of programs achieve this . Crabtree was in this handful. May be he knows it won't be this good anytime soon and it's time for someone else to take over and 'Build " their own program .
The 8-2 average { rounded off and this year was pro rated to 9 wins as they beat 6 and the other 4 had may be one loss on them ?[ Elder ? May be ?. Northmont ? NO Even with the kid whose Mom just happened to move from Florida to Northmont so her son could play there and who was very good, their defense wasn't stopping Coffman } expectation was lofty. It was achieved over a couple decades. Crabtree did a great job overall even if the play-off record was disappointing overall , in their inability to win some close ones and getting upset a couple times.
Next coach should NOT be expected to go 8-2 or even 7-3 every year in the next decade . The more I think about it , may be a new coach given 5 years to prove himself and build the program his way is a good move ? Ideally? In a really unrealistic vane is Crager staying on as DC , and a couple others may be , and a smart talented future star comes in who is about Crabtree's age when he started? { 36-37} Can't expect Crager to go for that of course or a new coach to may be not want his own DC.
The job checks a lot of boxes for prospective coaches even given the really challenging starting point. Yes AHM paints a different picture which we take with a grain of salt of course. Re$ources , facility's , community support . Parental support . High achieving family base that has expectations for their kids who will DO EXTRA and work hard to be more successful . Smart kids . There has been pretty good physical talent more years than not . It is a place and community that parents will move to in order to put their kids in a very good environment to succeed academically and athletically . Good programs , good teachers, competitive school that will prepare the kids well for college.{ Most kids surveyed say that Coffman prepared them well for big college challenges . My daughter felt really prepared and from the beginning felt she was as at least if not more prepared than the kids from even the most tony private and prep schools. }
Bottom line is Coffman has proven that it is a school where you will get that full year's growth academically and over 4 years will eave you very prepared for the next step , and that goes for a large majority of the sports programs and other programs they offer . How much better do you get over 4 years ? How much do you grow not only athletically but academically as well ? The school has become more diverse over the last 20 years . It has evolved. This is a new era in football . Kids and parents want to be in winning cultures , academics , athletics, arts , clubs and the community at large. Families are always going to search out places like this eventually . Kids will be coachable work hard , will study and as a group will want to succeed , IN ALL AREAS . Coaches and players would do worse than this school and community. I have said it is a bad starting point . But thinking a bit longer about that , may be it's not . Talent and experience is less , but the opportunity to build and mold your own program is there. Expectations should be lower . Good starting point for the players as well , existing ones and may be some newer ones .More positions and a better chance of more playing time . The work has already started , now who the coach will be needs to be made official .
Update :
Colonel Mustard has withdrawn his name , he wants a school with yellow colors . Mr. Green was told no thanks .He loved the colors , but was found to be a bit too shady .