Western Buckeye League 2022

Kinda went how I expected. We can move the ball fine. Left at least 21 if not 28 points inside the 10. That's the difference between experienced teams that will win championships and young ones that will struggle to get to .500.

Saw a lot of good out of the Dogs tonight. Also saw a lot of youth and inconsistency.
 
Wapak and St.Marys have had some classic games the last few years. Didn’t see the game, but from what I’ve heard, this year was another good matchup.
 
My power ranking after 3 weeks

1 Van Wert
2 Wapak
3 Elida
4 St. Marys
5 OG
6 Defiance
7 Celina
8 Kenton
9 Shawnee
10 Bath

I'd be shocked if the VW-Wapak winner doesn't win the league. Elida has been impressive, but you wonder if it's them or a weak schedule. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. St. Marys looked a little flat against Defiance, then hung with Wapak. They'll be fine, but probably a bit behind the title teams. OG...who knows. 0-3 looks weird. But that early schedule has been a grind. Could they start 1-5 this year? If Defiance can finish drives and minimize mistakes, they can hang with almost anyone. If they shoot themselves in the foot, they can lose to anyone. First 3 weeks probably went as well as could be expected though. Thought Celina would battle for the cellar. Still might, but good win tonight. Same with Kenton. I can't see either realistically making a run at .500, but they both suddenly look improved. At least Shawnee beat Bath. Bath....yikes. Long season ahead on Bible Road. I'm not sure they win a game.
 
dhsdog06 said:
My power ranking after 3 weeks

1 Van Wert
2 Wapak
3 Elida
4 St. Marys
5 OG
6 Defiance
7 Celina
8 Kenton
9 Shawnee
10 Bath

I'd be shocked if the VW-Wapak winner doesn't win the league. Elida has been impressive, but you wonder if it's them or a weak schedule. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. St. Marys looked a little flat against Defiance, then hung with Wapak. They'll be fine, but probably a bit behind the title teams. OG...who knows. 0-3 looks weird. But that early schedule has been a grind. Could they start 1-5 this year? If Defiance can finish drives and minimize mistakes, they can hang with almost anyone. If they shoot themselves in the foot, they can lose to anyone. First 3 weeks probably went as well as could be expected though. Thought Celina would battle for the cellar. Still might, but good win tonight. Same with Kenton. I can't see either realistically making a run at .500, but they both suddenly look improved. At least Shawnee beat Bath. Bath....yikes. Long season ahead on Bible Road. I'm not sure they win a game.
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Van Wert is at Wapak next week.
 
933York said:
Wapak and St.Marys have had some classic games the last few years. Didn’t see the game, but from what I’ve heard, this year was another good matchup.
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29-22 in OT......3rd OT game in the past 4 years.

michaelhirn.com

Skins down Riders in OT

ST. MARYS – Wapakoneta pulled off their second overtime win in the past four seasons on Friday night as they defeated the Roughriders 29-22 at Grand Lake Health Systems Field in front of a ca…
michaelhirn.com michaelhirn.com
 
BTW, the 50/50 this week was $12,335!

Week 1 total was $10,320.

With St. Mary's coming to town in two weeks, that weeks 50/50 could be over $20,000!

MAC nation we are closing in on you. ;)
 
How many schools have their 50/50 last the entire week though? I had never heard of it before this, but maybe it's done that way in some places.
 
WBL Week 3 Finals
Wapakoneta 29, St Marys Memorial 22, OT
Elida 21, Ottawa-Glandorf 12
Van Wert 36, Defiance 0
Celina 19, Shawnee 10
Kenton 20, Bath 6

The game of the week did not disappoint. Wapak started red hot both on offense and defense. St Marys showed resilience in the second half. Both teams had turnovers that swung momentum. The Battle of Auglaize County has to be the best rivalry in the league right now. 3 of the last 4 games have all gone to overtime (2019, 2020, and 2022).

Elida-OG was a game I wanted to pick Elida as the winner, but wasn't sure since OG had played better competition than Elida up until that point. It sounded like Elida's defense was the star of the show as they made a number of big plays. I think they had at least 2 interceptions. I think it's safe to say Elida is back on track after a bit of a disappointing season last year. OG has to be one of the best 0-3 teams in the state.

The Celina-Shawnee and Kenton-Bath games didn't tell me much honestly. Those 4 all seem like pretty bad football teams this year. I'm not sure any of them will get a win outside of each other. Bath must be really bad if they couldn't score a touchdown on Kenton. Both of Bath scores were field goals. Shawnee's lack of offensive ability continues to surprise me.

WBL Standings
1. Elida -- 3-0 (2-0)
1. Van Wert -- 3-0 (2-0)
1. Wapakoneta -- 2-1 (2-0)
4. St Marys Memorial -- 2-1 (1-1)
4. Celina -- 1-2 (1-1)
4. Kenton -- 1-2 (1-1)
4. Shawnee -- 1-2 (1-1)
8. Defiance -- 1-2 (0-2)
8. Bath -- 0-3 (0-2)
8. Ottawa-Glandorf -- 0-3 (0-2)

WBL Week 4 Games
Van Wert (3-0) @ Wapakoneta (2-1)
Ottawa-Glandorf (0-3) @ St Marys Memorial (2-1)
Bath (0-3) @ Elida (3-0)
Celina (1-2) @ Kenton (1-2)
Defiance (1-2) @ Shawnee (1-2)
 
I am friends with a few Bath insiders and they don't see things getting much better anytime soon. They said there are only a couple seniors and 1 middle school team. Yikes.
 
Bath's boy sports just haven't been very good. Even when their football team had a lot of upperclassmen and high expectations, they finished 5-5 and middle of the road of the WBL. Bath is a program I root for and would love to see them have more success, but I don't see them being any better than middle to bottom of the WBL standings for the foreseeable future.
 
True, I just looked. Bath's senior class last yr finished 7-12 over their final two seasons. Not even close to the expectations some had for them.

The WBL doesn't attract near the coaching talent that they once did...speaking mostly of the bottom few teams. The WBL never used to be a place that relied in "community people" to run the program. I see a lot more of it nowadays. Only the top programs attract and keep outsiders as head coaches. The rest are recycling townies through more or less. Not a recipe for success. Success meaning wins and losses.
 
What schools have some talent coming up in the system that may lead to better varsity results? Celina has to be due for some talent. They have been down the past couple years. Anything coming through at Kenton?
 
54cheetah said:
True, I just looked. Bath's senior class last yr finished 7-12 over their final two seasons. Not even close to the expectations some had for them.

The WBL doesn't attract near the coaching talent that they once did...speaking mostly of the bottom few teams. The WBL never used to be a place that relied in "community people" to run the program. I see a lot more of it nowadays. Only the top programs attract and keep outsiders as head coaches. The rest are recycling townies through more or less. Not a recipe for success. Success meaning wins and losses.
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So Bo Fyre was just a townie hire?
 
54cheetah said:
What schools have some talent coming up in the system that may lead to better varsity results? Celina has to be due for some talent. They have been down the past couple years. Anything coming through at Kenton?
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Defiance's sophomore class looks promising. Already seeing it, as quite a few starters this year are sophomores and at least not getting curb stomped every week.

I know Kenton was really young last year and there seems to be optimism there.
 
933York said:
I would say no. His dad was hired in from out of town several years ago and ran the program for a long time with a lot of success.
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I agree with this statement. His dad was a very successful coach and even before St Mary's. Even if you consider him a "townie" (which I don't)...it doesn't mean a townie is bad in every situation. I think if a winning program is in place and they served as an assistant then it makes some sense. Hiring a townie due to lack of outside interest or desire by admin to keep a larger degree of control on the program typically only happens in losing programs and almost never results in positive change in wins/losses.
 
54cheetah said:
What schools have some talent coming up in the system that may lead to better varsity results? Celina has to be due for some talent. They have been down the past couple years. Anything coming through at Kenton?
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Cw jv put up 67 I think on Kenton....look foe them to be down for years. Without Air Mauk to help bring in talent in the area this could be a very long drought for them.
 
Thavoice said:
Cw jv put up 67 I think on Kenton....look foe them to be down for years. Without Air Mauk to help bring in talent in the area this could be a very long drought for them.
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That same team won their next two JV games I believe. Beat Elida 50 - 13 and Bath this past week I believe. Watching the game CW had juniors playing and Kenton had Freshmen and Sophmores. Also, Kenton has a lot of Sophomores and Juniors playing on Varsity. Only a few seniors start for them. Maybe 5? Their junior high programs have done decent up this point as well.
 
I know that Mauk attracted some Kenton area kids. Maybe that was intentional by Mike and maybe it's just the product of a good program that people want to be apart of. I don't know the details. For the people who know about Kenton, is it mandatory to get kids open enrolling for football in order to be really good or does the district produce talent historically? I gotta think Kenton will have a run of talent and if Turner is solid he will get them competing at the top at times.
 
54cheetah said:
I know that Mauk attracted some Kenton area kids. Maybe that was intentional by Mike and maybe it's just the product of a good program that people want to be apart of. I don't know the details. For the people who know about Kenton, is it mandatory to get kids open enrolling for football in order to be really good or does the district produce talent historically? I gotta think Kenton will have a run of talent and if Turner is solid he will get them competing at the top at times.
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Kenton's best teams always had a few kids from around the area. However, Kenton has produced kids from in the area with talent as well.

Biggest piece is Turner has to get kids excited about play football in Kenton again. That is what Mike did really well.
 
Nash said:
How many schools have their 50/50 last the entire week though? I had never heard of it before this, but maybe it's done that way in some places.
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We started doing this way this year. It's working well. I'll give our Booster Club kudos for changing it up. It gets people excited in the whole community.
 
54cheetah said:
Only the top programs attract and keep outsiders as head coaches. The rest are recycling townies through more or less. Not a recipe for success. Success meaning wins and losses.
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Eh, I'd debate this with most of the WBL. Yeah, you've got the bottom of the league like Celina, Bath, and currently Kenton, but the top half of the league is pretty good. The head coaches that could be considered "townies" other than at the schools I mentioned have all either got years of experience from different schools, or are former assistant coaches that took over after successful coaches retiring/leaving. If you've got a local guy that is committed to the community with the resume to support it, it seems pretty dumb not to go for those guys
 
yappi.com

Limaland Pick 'Ems Week 4

Rough week for Limaland pickers. Best record overall was 14-6 due to some big upsets. Only 1 person picked Kenton to win, no one picked Celina, only 1 picked Tinora over LCC, and no one picked Pandora over Leipsic. Overall Pretty Ricky, StateChampion2012, johnmoxon, cknights, and hermonboone22...
yappi.com yappi.com
 
OhioFootball25 said:
So Bo Fyre was just a townie hire?
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Definitely NOT. He was an assistant at Wapak for his dad and has been on staff the entire 7 years Doug was in charge the 2nd time at St. Marys......I would say he earned a shot and put his time in like most assistants do at successful programs who eventually get the big chair.
 
BirdDog10 said:
Eh, I'd debate this with most of the WBL. Yeah, you've got the bottom of the league like Celina, Bath, and currently Kenton, but the top half of the league is pretty good. The head coaches that could be considered "townies" other than at the schools I mentioned have all either got years of experience from different schools, or are former assistant coaches that took over after successful coaches retiring/leaving. If you've got a local guy that is committed to the community with the resume to support it, it seems pretty dumb not to go for those guys
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I'm confused by the definition of a townie, honestly.

I'd argue whatever it is, Defiance in ZERO ways meets it, so there's one back half school not just hiring random home town guys.

Kline, for all his trouble at both Defiance and Pleasant, won at Edgerton and won big at Bryan. He was then on staff one year and took over for Buti.

Cooper is a Fairview grad, which I guess some would consider to fit the definition being local. Taught at Defiance while working under Buti and then won at Bryan and won at Wauseon. In both of those cases, it was more like guys who paid their dues that happened to have ties to the city/program.

Then again we've been blessed with great facilities and some of the best coaches in NW Ohio in all of the 3 big sports. They period where we had Buti/Lehman/Held could have arguably been some of the best coaching in the state.
 
dhsdog06 said:
Kline, for all his trouble at both Defiance and Pleasant, won at Edgerton and won big at Bryan. He was then on staff one year and took over for Buti.

Cooper is a Fairview grad, which I guess some would consider to fit the definition being local. Taught at Defiance while working under Buti and then won at Bryan and won at Wauseon. In both of those cases, it was more like guys who paid their dues that happened to have ties to the city/program.
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That's what I'm saying, some people on the outside could look at these guys, or Frye at St. Marys or even Harmon at Elida and think they're "townies" but all have either paid their dues under successful head coaches, or been successful head coaches themselves at other programs. I don't think there's any issue at all hiring guys like that for their local schools, I think it benefits all parties when those guys get hired and do good.
 
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