Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Youngstown East head football coach Devlin Culliver coaches up his team during a 7-on-7 passing scrimmage at Campbell Memorial High School

YOUNGSTOWN — East football is a program with significant history.

The Golden Bears have produced a lot of football talent and some of the best athletes to come out of the city of Youngstown.

But in recent years, the program has fallen on hard times.

East hasn’t had a winning season since 2018, when it went 7-4. But that season was an outlier, as it was the Golden Bears’ only winning season in the last 16 years.

New head coach Devlin Culliver is trying to change that.

A Youngstown native and Cardinal Mooney product, Culliver was named East’s new coach last December by the Youngstown City School District.

Culliver has coached high school football for more than 20 years. In addition to his most recent coaching stint at Elyria, he has also coached at East Cleveland Shaw, Painesville Harvey, Warrensville Heights and Maple Heights, all in the Cleveland area.

“It was time for me to come home,” Culliver said. “I gave my time, effort and love to other communities, and I never previously had the chance to come back home, but the time was right for me to come back, so I did.”

Culliver has a history of rebuilding struggling programs.

At Elyria, the Pioneers had gone 0-10 the season before Culliver was hired. In the four years he coached there, he guided the Pioneers to a 15-27 overall record with three playoff appearances.

The key to building success, Culliver says, is consistency.

“I think the product that we put out there on Friday nights should be something that people are proud of, because we’re pushing them to be the best that they can be and get out their full potential as football players,” Culliver said. “We’re trying to get them to play at a high level, a level that they haven’t been used to playing at, that they haven’t been used to practicing at.”

Since he took over, Culliver has kept his players’ nose to the grindstone during the offseason.”That’s what’s been going so well for us as far as summer camp goes — they’ve been practicing hard because we haven’t been letting them slack off,” Culliver said. “There’s been some growing pains with some of the kids — they’ve been struggling trying to make it through a day because of the constant repetition to do it again and again and do it right. I’m one of those old school guys. My little league coaches, high school coaches — they were sticklers for doing everything right, so I’ve always kept that same type of coaching style.”

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s been a work in progress so far, according to Culliver. His philosophy is not just limited to improving East football on the field, but helping the Golden Bears to improve off the field, as well.

“It’s been good so far,” Culliver said. “We have a lot of wrinkles — attitude adjustments and behavior situations, but we’re working on all of that stuff. I’m big on player development and trying to develop these young men to have a better life after they finish playing football. Football is second, we’re trying to get them to the point where they can live as productive men — that’s our main mission here at East.

“From a football standpoint, nobody’s going to play harder and be tougher anytime you look at it on both sides of the ball. So win or lose, you’re going to know you played against a tough football team.”

Staff photos / Neel Madhavan
Youngstown East quarterback Andrew Blackmon throws a pass during a recent 7-on-7 passing scrimmage against the Campbell Memorial Red Devils and Campbell Memorial High School.

OFFENSE

As for personnel for East this year, Culliver is keeping things close to the vest, noting that he won’t be making any definitive decisions on where individual players will play until after the Golden Bears’ first official scrimmage Aug. 5 against Girard.

“We’re still in the evaluation process,” Culliver said. “(After Aug. 5), I’ll be able to gauge more who will really be our first-team guys.”

Culliver started to get a slightly better picture of things during East’s 7-on-7 against Campbell on July 25.

“We got to look at a whole bunch of guys to see how they respond in a, not a serious pressure situation, but semi-pressure,” Culliver said.

Every position is an open competition.

All things considered, Culliver is starting from scratch, and just because a player played in a certain spot last year doesn’t necessarily mean that will be the case again this year. The Golden Bears do have some notable players returning from last year including five players who started on offense.

Andrew Blackmon was East’s starting quarterback last year, and he is back for his senior season. Blackmon threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns last year.

Last season’s leading rusher, Thomas Davis, also is back. Davis ran for 461 yards and three touchdowns during his campaign last year. Some other returners on offense include Breshean Buie, Jewon Littles and Tyris Davis.

Staff photo / Neel Madhavan
Youngstown East’s Thomas Davis runs for a gain during a 7-on-7 passing scrimmage against Campbell Memorial.

DEFENSE

More than anything, Culliver said he’s looking for players that work hard and are willing to run, especially on defense.

“We look to see if a kid is going to run,” Culliver said. “If they’re not going to run, then they’re not going to play. They’ve got to be able to run, and they’ve got to be able to hustle.”

East returns four players that were starters on last year’s defense, including Davis, who was last season’s leading tackler at linebacker with 63.5.

Other returning players include Keylin Warren played linebacker last season, while Carter Jones, Andre Underwood and Trent Madison both played on the defensive line last year.

SPECIAL TEAMS

East’s personnel uncertainty extends to special teams, as well.

The Golden Bears open the 2023 season at home at Rayen Stadium against Hubbard. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

2023 Schedule

Aug. 18 Hubbard 7 p.m.

Aug. 25 Shaw 7 p.m.

Sept. 1 at Villa Angela-St. Joseph 7 p.m.

Sept. 8 Ursuline* 7 p.m.

Sept. 15 at Akron East 7 p.m.

Sept. 22 Dohn Community 7 p.m.

Sept. 29 at Howland 7 p.m.

Oct. 6 at Struthers 7 p.m.

Oct. 13 at Cardinal Mooney* 7 p.m.

Oct. 20 Chaney* 7 p.m.

*Conference games

2022 Results (1-9)

at Hubbard (6-5) L 8-28

at Shaw (2-8) L 8-12

Villa Angela-St. Joseph (8-3) L 0-49

at Ellet (4-6) L 28-74

Boardman (4-6) L 8-42

Cardinal Mooney (6-7) W Forfeit

Howland (2-8) L 0-3

Canfield (14-1) L 0-48

at Ursuline (10-3) L 8-56

at Chaney (10-2) L 0-34

*Steel Valley Conference game

Coaching staff

Head coach: Devlin Culliver, 1st season at East

Staff: Anthony Fultz (passing game coordinator/wide receivers/cornerbacks/assistant head coach), Tony Donaldson (quarterbacks), Mark Greene (offensive/defensive line/run game coordinator), Edward Thomas (defensive coordinator/linebackers), Danny Allen (safeties), Randy Nuby (H-backs/player development), Breyon Jackson (tight ends/defensive line), Demond Hymes (slot wide receivers), Darrell Cooper (JV/manager)

Team facts

Division IV, Region 13

Steel Valley Conference

Players on roster: 36

Returning letterwinners (9): Thomas Davis, Tyris Davs, Andre Underwood, Andrew Blackmon, Trent Madison, Keylin Warren, Jewon Littles, Breshean Buie, Carter Jones.

2022 season: East struggled during the season, stumbling to a 1-9 record. The Golden Bears’ lone victory came against Cardinal Mooney, as the Cardinals were forced to forfeit the game after the fact due to playing an ineligible player. On the field, however, Mooney defeated East 37-0.