Stark Sports
Active member
I am probably one of the few people on here that was at this game. While the loss was certainly disappointing, I think most realistic Tuslaw fans knew their best chance was still a year away. The 1999 Tuslaw team was very much a junior led team (Staver, Cresenze, Kurzen, Hoffman, etc). The 1998 team was the first to ever make the playoffs and lost some key pieces from that team. While people were hopeful going into the 1999 game, I personally thought it would be an uphill battle with an eye on the 2000 season as the real chance to strike.There's 25 weeks, less one day, left before the start of the 2024 High School Football Season on August 23rd. So ... with the help of the Ohio High School Football Database, I figured I'd go back and try to find out information on The Game of the Year in the PAC, for each of the last 25 years, and make one post a week, leading up to the season. We'll see if I can keep it up?
October 15th in 1999 is remembered for one thing in Northeast Ohio. The Indians fired Mike Hargrove. Front page news in The Beacon Journal. But page 68 is where you'll find the story on the 1999 GOTY in the PAC. Manchester (6-1, with a loss to Green) traveled to undefeated Tuslaw, as the Mustangs were looking for their first-ever win over the Panthers. As so often was the case back in those days, it was over before it even started. Here's a look back, courtesy of the ABJ. And check out the byline on this story. None other than current ESPN senior NBA writer Brian Windhorst, who took in the action in the heart of PACtion™ on that night, 25 seasons ago.
All right, old-timers. What do you remember for this game? This season? Or the week leading up to the big showdown?
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Tuslaw hadn’t exactly played a cupcake schedule, but they hadn’t faced anyone of even remotely Manchester’s caliber to this point and were no where near the 6th best team in the state where they were ranked.
The unfortunate part about the 1999 game is that it was played at Tuslaw. Which meant that the 2000 game (which I am assuming will be the game of the year featured next week), would be played at Manchester.
The Tuslaw teams of the late 90s and early 00s knew tuffness, but unfortunately Manchester was the gold standard for elite tuffness at that time.