Griffin Will Not Return As Lima Sr. Football Coach

C

Chisel

Active member
Lot of talent Over the last couple years and not many wins to show for it. Not saying it’s his fault as I have no insight into the program but they should be winning more games.
 
D

dhsdog06

Member
Chisel said:
Lot of talent Over the last couple years and not many wins to show for it. Not saying it’s his fault as I have no insight into the program but they should be winning more games.
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Toledo Central Catholic, St. Francis, St. Johns, and Whitmer, plus Findlay.

It's always gonna be an uphill climb for Lima in that league. 6-4 would be a real accomplishment most years.
 
C

Chisel

Active member
dhsdog06 said:
Toledo Central Catholic, St. Francis, St. Johns, and Whitmer, plus Findlay.

It's always gonna be an uphill climb for Lima in that league. 6-4 would be a real accomplishment most years.
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Yea I didn’t realize they played in that tough of a league.
 
S

Smalls

Active member
It has been a struggle for Lima Sr. and every other team in the TRAC vs Central and Whitmer. They are right around .500 vs the rest of the TRAC.

League Records

'19 1-6
'18 1-6
'17 2-5
'16 4-3 Central 35 Lima Sr. 34 Whitmer 42 Lima Sr 35
'15 5-2 Central 49 Lima Sr. 48 Whitmer 49 Lima Sr 33
'14 5-2
'13 4-3
'12 0-7
'11 0-7

Vs each team in the league

Clay 5-4
Central 0-9
Whitmer 0-9
Fremont 5-4
St. Francis 4-5
Findlay 5-4
St. Johns 3-6

22-41 overall.
 
H

HighSchoolFB45

Active member
StateChampion2012 said:
I've said this before but I still think Lima senior should be in a league with Piqua, Sidney, Troy, Etc.
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For Lima Senior’s sake, yes. Lima Senior always has talent to be a perennial playoff team in D2. I would go out on a limb and say they have the most pure talent in the TRAC. I watched Lima Senior week one against LCC and I have watched all three of Trotwood’s football games. I mean it when I say Lima Senior has just as good of athletes as Trotwood if not better. However there are two factors that lead to them never having elite football teams. One of those is coaching. Coach Fell brought them the closest to being an elite team, and he isn’t some great coach. Coach Griffin really didn’t do much for them, like someone else said in this post his teams were undisciplined and sloppy. They should have blown the brakes off of LCC but they weren’t disciplined to read LCC’s wishbone offense. The second factor is that Lima Senior is located in the city of Lima. Anyone who has lived in that town knows it is a tough town. It is really like a mini Toledo. Kids would rather be on the streets than playing sports, and kids don’t focus on football like they do in other towns.

However, I feel like if Lima Senior could get a good coach they could be a great team and program.
 
C

CCHS93

Active member
Smalls said:
It has been a struggle for Lima Sr. and every other team in the TRAC vs Central and Whitmer. They are right around .500 vs the rest of the TRAC.

League Records

'19 1-6
'18 1-6
'17 2-5
'16 4-3 Central 35 Lima Sr. 34 Whitmer 42 Lima Sr 35
'15 5-2 Central 49 Lima Sr. 48 Whitmer 49 Lima Sr 33
'14 5-2
'13 4-3
'12 0-7
'11 0-7

Vs each team in the league

Clay 5-4
Central 0-9
Whitmer 0-9
Fremont 5-4
St. Francis 4-5
Findlay 5-4
St. Johns 3-6

22-41 overall.
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I remember the 49-48 loss to Central. I left the game when Lima was up 48-21. Central somehow came back and won 49-48. Same thing happened the next year.
 
S

Spartan87

Member
I understand the wins and losses weren't there, but Coach Griffin made his impact off the field. Got grade point averages up, got kids into college, life skills. He will still be involved in those things in the high school going forward, but I don't think it's going to be too long before someone snaps him up. Our loss...
 
Beezer70

Beezer70

Member
I was impressed with Fell made Lima into a very good team quick. Where did he go to coach after he left Lima.
 
J

Johnstown Benny

Active member
Insane92 said:
He has been the head coach at Mountain View HS in Mesa, AZ since 2016. I believe he moved there for family.
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A bit of trivia : Former Ohio State Quarterback, Joe Germain was a three sport star at Mountain View HS back in the 90's.
Eventually transferred to Ohio State and ended up the Rose Bowl MVP as well as winning the Big 10 MVP
Award in 1998.

Mike Fell was a huge loss for the Lima Sr. program when he left to take the Mountain View job. Fell was also
a great quarterback in his playing days at Lima Sr. Would love to see him return to coach the Spartans but
can't see that happening.

JB
 
S

Stirred not Shaken

Well-known member
Lima Sr. has the talent to compete with anyone, I give Lima Sr. credit to move on from someone with a name as popular as Griffin. Griffin may have got the job done in the class room but it still comes down to W's at any level. I do think it would be tough to coach at a public city school, disciplinarian but not overly so. Doubt if someone like Tim Goodwin would succeed at Lima Sr.
 
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I

irish_buffalo

Well-known member
Griffin was a better coach than anyone on here is giving credit. He simply did not have the same "dudes" as Coach Fell. That 2015 team was absolutely loaded with talent.

Although Fell was able to make the move from small school to big school it would difficult to replicate again. Small school football to the TRAC is a whole different ball of wax. Most teams two platoon, most run college schemes, etc...

With all of that said Lima's 7th and 8th grades teams routinely dominate the TRAC. As HSFB45 stated if someone could ever put it together the Spartans could be very similar to Trotwood Madison.
 
H

HighSchoolFB45

Active member
Stirred not Shaken said:
Lima Sr. has the talent to compete with anyone, I give Lima Sr. credit to move on from someone with a name as popular as Griffin. Griffin may have got the job done in the class room but it still comes down to W's at any level. I do think it would be tough to coach at a public city school, disciplinarian but not overly so. Doubt if someone like Tim Goodwin would succeed at Lima Sr.
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I agree with that. I’m not sure if any of the coaches in this area would be able to have the success at Lima Senior as they do at their current schools, including Goodwin, Otten or Moyer.
Those schools have outstanding community support. Jawan Anderson or Brandon Taylor (Lima Senior’s best players) could be walking down the street in Lima and nobody could tell the difference between them and just another person in Lima. Anybody would recognize Huelsman, Hemmelgarn or Kaeck in their respective communities.
One advantage that Lima Senior has though is that they can “recruit” kids from Bath, Elida, Perry, Shawnee, etc. I heard from a friend that 7 of Lima Senior’s starters on defense were Elida boys. Brandon Taylor originally went to Bath. It already happens down at the midget and middle school level. I remember going to the midget games and routinely seeing all three of the Shawnee and Elida teams dominate every one of the Wapak teams. We see what happens at the high school level because the best kids are leaving to Lima Senior.
 
E

ER8868

Member
serpico said:
I think the level of sophistication at upper-end small school football programs would surprise you.
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I think Mike Fell ran the same offense he ran at D6 Ada and I believe D6 LCC scored about as much as anyone did on them this year. The talent gap between Lima Senior and LCC is astronomical and LCC had every chance to beat them. LCC was also eliminated in the first round of the playoffs so it wasn’t like it was a D6 powerhouse going toe to toe with them.
 
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