Valley football shows out at championships
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It was quite the weekend for football in the Mahoning Valley.
Canfield and South Range, two schools separated by less than six miles, both brought home their first state championships in school history on Friday. Facing a tough New Bremen team, Warren JFK fell just short of making it a perfect weekend for the Mahoning Valley in their second state championship appearance in three years.
What was special about the local success this weekend was the way each team celebrated the next while in Canton.
When South Range head coach Dan Yeagley was walking off the field Friday after his team defeated Ironton, Canfield head coach Mike Pavlansky was the first to greet him on the ramp leading to the press conference. Canfield actually watched the final few minutes of South Range's matchup from the sidelines before taking the field against Bloom-Carroll.
"Mike and I coached in an all-star game together so we know each other pretty well," Yeagley said Friday. "We're just happy. These kids know each other. They play baseball together and everything else. So it's really exciting for the area. The Mahoning Valley is awesome, and the football is good."
Canfield later followed South Range's victory with one of its own as it thrashed Bloom-Carroll 35-14. Pavlansky, who captured his first state title after taking Canfield to the state championship game in 2005, was appreciative of all of the local support.
"We were excited for Dan Yeagley and the South Range Raiders because their guys, like ours, put a lot of work in behind the scenes," Pavlansky said during his post-game presser on Friday. "They showed up here in Canton, and we were fortunate to go out and watch the last two minutes of that ball game and congratulate Dan and his staff and his team. Then to follow up with our effort.
"Northeast Ohio plays some pretty good football, and I don't think our guys will take a back seat to anyone."
Honestly, there may not have been a better script written than what played out Friday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
Pavlansky and Yeagley have 55 years of head coaching experience between them, and both coaches headed teams that were led by large senior classes. The Cardinals came into this season with 28 seniors, and South Range had 20.
It was a true testament to the programs that both coaches had built and in the end, the hard work and leadership that was put forth by their seniors resulted in state championships.
"Having seniors come all the way through, and even playing when they are young, is so important because they understand what we are trying to do," Yeagley said. "These guys are also very intelligent players so it makes it nice that we don't have to start fresh the next year and we can actually expand on what we already know and build on it from there. This season was four years in the making of hard work and labor to get where we are at."
When Pavlansky led that Canfield team to the state championship in 2005, Warren JFK head coach Dom Prologo was coaching defensive backs for the Cardinals. So when an opportunity came up to support his former head coach and a good friend, Prologo jumped at the chance.
Although they weren't playing until Saturday, the Eagles headed to Canton a day early to support their fellow Mahoning Valley teams, and despite coming up just short of their own goals, Prologo was happy to see the success that both Canfield and South Range had.
"It just speaks to the type of football we play in the Mahoning Valley," Prologo said Saturday. "Because of that, we had three teams play in the state finals out of seven games. We came up a little bit short, but I congratulate the other two. I've got connections to both of them and coach Pav and I are very very close, and I couldn't be more happy for him."
The Mahoning Valley hasn't had this amount of success during state championship weekend in quite some time. In fact, the last time two teams from the Mahoning Valley won state titles in the same year came in 2009 when Ursuline and Cardinal Mooney won titles on the same day.
So, here we are again with another special weekend for Mahoning Valley football.