This is the problem. Should the Browns have expectations because of all the championships they won in the 50s?
Everyone from Manchester thinks they're some staple football program in Ohio.....did you win a lot of games with France, yes, yes you did.....ya went to 1 state finals and another final four. You carry a record of 23-27 in 27 total playoff appearances.
Now, those 27 appearances are enough to be tied for 18th most appearances all-time in the state! Did you also know that Manchester is THE ONLY TEAM in the top 18 all-time appearances with a LOSING record in the playoffs? The next closest record is 34-26 with 1 championship.
In fact, all other 18 teams ahead of Manchester hold a combined playoff record of 1063-489 with 78 state titles.
Moral of the story - Manchester and France spent a lot of time winning meaningless games against lesser opponents and when the lights came on, and it was time to win big games (playoff games) they just flat out haven't gotten it done.
So let's all stop acting like Manchester has this historic championship winning tradition it MUST uphold - take a nice shot of reality, and give a promising young coach more of a chance/opportunity than 2 freaking years. He took over a team that went 0-10....year 2 "expectations" should be 5-5 and if he somehow manages to do that or even do better than that - be super happy and excited.
No one is rooting against Coach Stacy and Manchester fans are more than willing to give him enough time to build his program. That said, there are expectations and it is because of the history.
To call all those wins meaningless is insulting to the coaches, the players, and the community. You play games for a purpose, to win. For a long time we played games in Ohio with no playoffs, or with limited playoffs with very little chance of qualifying. The regular season is all we had. Either they count or the don't. If they don't, then why play them at all?
Since 1941 when Manchester fielded its first football team, the school has won roughly 70 percent of its games. Show me a school that wouldn't love to have that kind of winning percentage over more than 80 years.
For years before there was such a thing as competitive balance, Manchester played in regions chock full of schools that played in DIV or DV with DI level talent on their rosters. How they qualified for those regions has been debated for years, but since they were in our region, we had to play them. In many cases we lost in the first or second round of the playoffs to teams that were state finalists or state champions. In some cases, you could argue that the actual state championship had been played in Week 1 or Week 2 of the playoffs.
In my quick reading of available history, in the playoffs Manchester has lost to the eventual state champion at least seven times; a state finalist four times, and a state semi-finalist three times. So, in roughly 50% of the years Manchester has qualified for the playoffs, they've been knocked out by a team that reached the Final Four.
There's a lot to be said for getting to the postseason. There's a lot to be said for winning consistently. And there are certainly any numbers of communities who would love to be in Manchester's shoes.
So, yes, there are expectations. There are also a lot of people with good football knowledge who follow the program and they know it will take time to rebuild. Usually, I have a lot of respect for your posts; they're typically well thought out. That one wasn't
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