What about the entire body of work? I guess wins in the early years in the Suburban or the All-Ohio Leagues didn't count. You know, wins against schools like Green, Nordonia, and Hudson. Oh, and Orrville and Northwest which Manchester played on a regular basis. As for the early exits, a lot of that was explained in an earlier post, and in roughly half of those, Manchester was playing the eventual state champion or runner-up. But, sure, Manchester's history is not really anything special. I wonder if most Carrollton fans, if given the chance, would prefer to have Manchester's football history rather than their own? If you can't attain it, downplay it, right?
This is legit. Old school football fans know how good those Mo Tipton & Bill McMillen Orrville teams were in the AOL & Ohio Heartland Conference days.
Crooked Canal Fulton and Northwest was either really damn good under coaches Morrison, Dial (twice) and Whiting or really bad under the calvacade of coaches who were there when the Indians joined the NBC at the beginning of the NBC and into the 1990's. Northwest went through a bad stretch in the 90's.
They're pretty good now.
Manchester playing Green, Copley and Hudson was playing "up" for the Panthers. And did Manchester play Revere when Joe Pappano was coach?
Mogadore, Smithville and Black River all have been tuff.
I think Manchester was stopped by numerous private school teams in the playoffs which, no offense to CVCA, were a notch above. Ursuline, St V, Hawken (not a Catholic school but wasn't OJ McDuffie on that team?). Didn't Manchester run into Mooney, too?
My mind is somewhat cloudy on it but I know the Panthers ran into some buzzsaws much like
@Raylan_Givens beloved pro wrassler Buzz Sawyer.
Manchester won a bunch of games with a full haus T formation and that's hard to beat strong Catholic schools with that in the playoffs when those Catholic teams tend to be loaded in the trenches.
Those Catholic schools had more bulk than a Lane Bryant catalog. That's why I date a Presbyterian with a free beach house in North Carolina.
Maybe the Panthers needed a bit more passing but Jim France was and is KOACH because he was really good.
One difference Orrville had back in the day was a big passing attack and running backs that could score from anywhere on the field. Manchester was more of the grinders getting 4 yards a carry.
Orrville was Hank Aaron slugging home runs. Manchester was Pete Rose turning a single into a double with heart and hustle.
Each was beloved by their community of fans for what they did.
Look at it like this: Dover's been a really solid program. So do we fault them for no state title? Yet they've almost always given their little Ohio town something to be proud about as everything else in the economy, society, etc, is crumbling.
I mean Dover had a recent mayor nabbed on corruption charges and Mayor Homrighausen made a bigger mess than yours truly making chili in my crockpot.
But Dover football keeps on rolling.
So should we fault an excellent public school football program for no playoff state title?
NO.
A lot of it is luck and just sticking with it grinding away before the right opportunity happens.
Keep the tradition going at your school is what I say.
And that's why we tune into Yappi everyday and support our local teams.
This is the best of sports...right here...and much better than the heartless Cleveland Cavaliers or rigged major league baseball or a sh*tty hockey team in Columbus with an absentee owner or Taylor Kelce winning a Super Bowl (barf) or a ridiculous version of college football that would send Woody, Bo, Ara, the Bear, that nice Southern gentleman Bobby Bowden and JoePa into cardiac arrest.
#PACtion™
www.cantonrep.com
