Week 2: Louisville Leopards (0-1) at Poland Bulldogs (0-1)

Why do think that? Haven’t really dominated anything other than wrestling lately? Probably would be a good fit.

Yah nothing really lately...here's the last two seasons of hardware in ALL SPORTS

Softball - DI State Champions - 2019

Boys Cross Country - DI 8th in the State - 2020

Boys Cross Country - DI District Champions - 2019

Girls Golf - DI 9th in the State - 2020

Girls Golf - DI District Champions - 2020

Boys Bowling - DI 12th in the State - 2020

Volleyball - DI District Runner-Up - 2020

Boys Basketball - DII District Runner-Up - 2020

And for fun here's Wrestling which you already mentioned.

Wrestling - DII State Champions - 2020

Wrestling - DII State Runner-Up - 2021

Wrestling - DII OHSWCA Dual Meet State Tournament Runner-Up - 2021

Point being, I think there's plenty of evidence of Leopard "domination" especially if you translate these results to a league. I remember when we "dominated" the NBC, but I wouldn't trade any of the hardware pictured above for a league title. Overall being an independent (or at least free from a single league across all sports - Wrestling is in the EOWL I know) has made us better.

Football is much harder to navigate through because health and depth are extremely critical to your success + up until last year only 8 teams made the playoffs in a region. Hard to make a case for playing the toughest schedule possible when you take into account those factors.

Hopefully we can win enough games to get into the postseason and our tough schedule will pay off this year!
 
Last edited:
Yah nothing really lately...here's the last two seasons of hardware in ALL SPORTS

Softball - DI State Champions - 2019
View attachment 20575


Boys Cross Country - DI 8th in the State - 2020
View attachment 20577

Boys Cross Country - DI District Champions - 2019
View attachment 20578

Girls Golf - DI 9th in the State - 2020

View attachment 20581

Girls Golf - DI District Champions - 2020
View attachment 20580


Boys Bowling - DI 12th in the State - 2020

View attachment 20579

Volleyball - DI District Runner-Up - 2020
View attachment 20576

Boys Basketball - DII District Runner-Up - 2020
View attachment 20582


And for fun here's Wrestling which you already mentioned.

Wrestling - DII State Champions - 2020

View attachment 20583

Wrestling - DII State Runner-Up - 2021

View attachment 20584

Wrestling - DII OHSWCA Dual Meet State Tournament Runner-Up - 2021

Oh it won't allow me to add another picture I ran out of file allocation for this post...

Point being, I think there's plenty of evidence of Leopard "domination" especially if you translate these results to a league. I remember when we "dominated" the NBC, but I wouldn't trade any of the hardware pictured above for a league title. Overall being an independent (or at least free from a single league across all sports - Wrestling is in the EOWL I know) has made us better.

Football is much harder to navigate through because health and depth are extremely critical to your success + up until last year only 8 teams made the playoffs in a region. Hard to make a case for playing the toughest schedule possible when you take into account those factors.

Hopefully we can win enough games to get into the postseason and our tough schedule will pay off this year!
Impressive!! I guess I was guilty of not thinking about the “other” sports. I am an odd Minerva fan longing to the days of the old NBC days and I do root for the Leopards!! I hope they have a successful football season. Barberton usually has athletes and I think they may match up better with Poland..
 
How’s Louisville’s run defense this year? Also how is their passing attack? I think they’ll have to be good in both of those this week to come out with a win
Run defense is good but passing attack needs improvement. They have good team speed if they could figure out how to use it would be helpful.
 
If they can’t pass the ball effectively they have no shot
You’re probably right. But I wouldn’t mind seeing Poland lose. Can’t stand their crybaby coach. They could lose them all for all I care.

I wonder how he’ll fare as the enrollment continues to plunge? And you know it will.
Both Struthers and Poland are heading towards Div V, sooner rather than later.
I think their run is about over.
 
You’re probably right. But I wouldn’t mind seeing Poland lose. Can’t stand their crybaby coach. They could lose them all for all I care.

I wonder how he’ll fare as the enrollment continues to plunge? And you know it will.
Both Struthers and Poland are heading towards Div V, sooner rather than later.
I think their run is about over.
I want louisville to win as well lol
 
They wouldn’t dominate Streetsboro in football. Also wouldn’t dominate Woodridge in boys cross country or track.
I beg to differ on Streetsboro. Woodridge would be the only school that could compete with them in track/cc. They would dominate football, softball, wrestling. And be at the top of almost every sport there is. Maybe they would accept them, but I would put my money on no.
 
I beg to differ on Streetsboro. Woodridge would be the only school that could compete with them in track/cc. They would dominate football, softball, wrestling. And be at the top of almost every sport there is. Maybe they would accept them, but I would put my money on no.
The last couple years Streetsboro would have named the score, idk going forward, I know they had a lot of transfers
 
I beg to differ on Streetsboro. Woodridge would be the only school that could compete with them in track/cc. They would dominate football, softball, wrestling. And be at the top of almost every sport there is. Maybe they would accept them, but I would put my money on no.
You’re going to have a hard time convincing me that Louisville would have dominated Streetsboro in football in 2019 and 2020.
The Rockets are excellent this year as well.
 
The last couple years Streetsboro would have named the score, idk going forward, I know they had a lot of transfers
Maybe so. But from a strictly tradition standpoint, Louisville is typically very good year in and year out. Every public goes through down spells though. Streetsboro might be able to compete/win sometimes, but Louisville would typically run that league in football IMO. No one really besides Streetsboro would challenge them on a yearly basis.
 
Maybe so. But from a strictly tradition standpoint, Louisville is typically very good year in and year out. Every public goes through down spells though. Streetsboro might be able to compete/win sometimes, but Louisville would typically run that league in football IMO. No one really besides Streetsboro would challenge them on a yearly basis.
Typically yes but they haven’t been for a couple years
 
I know nothing about this league, but from the comments it sure sounds like it'd be a similar situation to the NBC. Even if we weren't the dominate team in a sport we were 2nd or 3rd to compete for the title. Football was often like that, Marlington had their year in 2010

Sounds like it would be a heck of a Boys XC rivalry with Woodridge. We don't have the state title banners they do, but Boys XC is probably the most consistent athletic program at Louisville even in DI. I think that would push both those programs to the max if they were in a league together.
 
Louisville has to find a way to win this week or I’m afraid we will be on the outside of a 16 team/region playoff format. That would be devastating to the program. A once proud program has been decimated to trying to find a couple wins in a season and it doesn’t fall solely on being an independent. Numbers are awful 50 kids on the roster and we’re playing 9 man football in 7/8th grade….it’s not even a thing, we’re just making #schit up. Outsiders like to only point to being independent on the slide of the program but that’s not true. This is a problem that goes to the top and down to the bottom and in every crack in between. Being independent hasn’t hurt any of our other sports. The football program is on life support and until changes are made in the way we do things, it won’t improve.
 
Louisville has to find a way to win this week or I’m afraid we will be on the outside of a 16 team/region playoff format. That would be devastating to the program. A once proud program has been decimated to trying to find a couple wins in a season and it doesn’t fall solely on being an independent. Numbers are awful 50 kids on the roster and we’re playing 9 man football in 7/8th grade….it’s not even a thing, we’re just making #schit up. Outsiders like to only point to being independent on the slide of the program but that’s not true. This is a problem that goes to the top and down to the bottom and in every crack in between. Being independent hasn’t hurt any of our other sports. The football program is on life support and until changes are made in the way we do things, it won’t improve.
9 man football?? Are the numbers that bad in the 7th/8th grade.
 
One step forward two steps back.
Can’t turn the ball over and you have to come away with points inside the 5….especially when it’s 4th and goal at the 1 and you run to the side of the field where you have 3 senior captains blocking!
Running game was improved but my god we have 3 year letterman that are just going through the motions. 2 things that need fixed quickly are the white collar tackling we have behind our front 3 and I’ll give the corners a slight pass because they should be out there for their cover skills first, and that was improved from last week, but I don’t want to hear about blue collar anything anymore! We reach, and attempt to arm tackle, while Poland who does play blue collar football is knocking heads off and causing turnovers. Glad to see 34 get out there cuz his ceiling is high, but I encourage looking at that video and using the pause and rewind function. You could make a comedy highlight reel out of the Louisville jockstraps left on the field last night. The other thing that needs ironed out is the indecisive nature of both QB’s….make your minds up and pull the damn trigger weather it’s to take off and run or throw the ball, you don’t have time to sit there and think about it for 3 seconds. I would think that battle will continue for another week or two but one of them has to be the guy that moves this team down field. 32,6 and 72 again most effort getting their job done need some others that get all the “press” or attention to step up and get better.
 
Maybe it’s because they had a pretty good coach and they let him get away? Now De Marco is at Northwest winning games.
He's the one who started the downfall. You can only run the same offense and defense for so long before other coaches start catching on. One of the least motivating coaches I've seen.
 
Maybe you can explain why Louisville has been out hit in most games for the last 5 years.
My guess is, but not sure that town becoming more white collar and competition has gotten a lot tougher. I do not know though, I asked that question in another thread and no one has replied. Has nothing to do with the tire, that is the way tackling is taught now
 
He's the one who started the downfall. You can only run the same offense and defense for so long before other coaches start catching on. One of the least motivating coaches I've seen.
Understood, didn’t know the story. I really think Louisville will be fine.
 
I don't have a dog in the race but from what I saw last night, Louisville has talent even though I heard they lost starting TB to season ending injury in a scrimmage. They had some real players that stuck out especially #56 on the d-line and #32 the RB. Poland still seemed as if they are looking for an identity and looked as if they still were unsure where to line up ect. They absolutely throw more than previous years, but need guys to start catching the ball!! Obviously still learning the new offense.
 
Top