'All about adjusting': Columbus-area high school football teams find ways to iron out early wrinkles
Long weekends scrutinizing film are commonplace for high school football coaching staffs throughout the regular season, but for much of that time, teams generally enter preparation with at least a rudimentary knowledge of their opponents given familiarity from annual league matchups.
The early part of the season, when teams play outside their leagues for at least the first few weeks, can be another story as coaches try to figure out their own players and lineups, let alone someone else’s.
“I really dislike the first week of the season for this reason,” Upper Arlington coach Justin Buttermore said as the Golden Bears prepared to visit Reynoldsburg to start the season Aug. 19. “You really only have one scrimmage to go off. The first scrimmage, there’s no real flow to the game. So, really we have one half of that second scrimmage (to see) game-like conditions and get a feel.
“Game one as a coach and as a player is all about adjusting. Adjusting to the flow of the game, adjusting to the things you haven’t seen on film. Those are the things that make it difficult. You just don’t know what you’re walking into a lot of times.”
In UA’s case, that was compounded because the Raiders have a new coach in Mark Philmore as well as several first-time starters after losing 22 players to graduation, six more than the Bears.
With 19 new starters of its own, UA used a 28-7 second-half advantage to beat Reynoldsburg 42-14. Junior quarterback Tommy Janowicz helped spark the surge, coming off the bench to rush seven times for 75 yards and a touchdown and complete two of three passes for 72 yards and a score.
Junior running back Connor McClellan, making his first varsity start, helped the Bears jump ahead 14-0 with two 1-yard touchdown runs.
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Another relatively unfamiliar team, Toledo St. Francis, follows on the Bears’ schedule for their home opener Aug. 26. Despite a 37-14 win over the Knights last year, Buttermore and his staff prepared for a team with a new quarterback and new coach after previous coach Bruce Gradkowski left after one season to become an offensive coordinator in the XFL.
Teams generally trade film from scrimmages and whatever games they have played early in the season. Within the OCC, teams can exchange unlimited amounts of film.
Independence coach Maurice Douglas encountered a different challenge before his team’s opener Aug. 20 against Dayton Thurgood Marshall. Cougars coaches told Douglas they did not have any film of their scrimmages.
“You just have to make sure you’re handling the things you can handle because of the uncertainty,” said Douglas, whose team beat the Cougars 46-0 but will not play its scheduled Aug. 25 game against Hamilton Township because of the Columbus City Schools teachers strike. “The first couple weeks are, from a preparation standpoint, a little bit more about you than the team you’re playing because you never know what you’re going to get.”
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That’s how first-year Westerville Central coach Ed Miley felt about his own team, let alone preparing for an opponent, largely because of the early start to the season. Beginning last year, the season started the third weekend of August because an additional round was added to the playoffs.
“You got to try to survive Week 1 and move on and try to get better,” said Miley, whose team beat Westerville North 23-20 on Aug. 19 on a 72-yard hook-and-lateral touchdown as time expired. Sophomore quarterback Jaystin Gwinn completed a pass over the middle to senior wide receiver Jacob Harris and Harris lateraled the ball to senior receiver Kobi Davis, who sprinted about 60 yards into the end zone.
“Being a new staff, we’re really not sure (about all positions), so you’ll probably see a lot of different guys on the field,” Miley said before the game. “We can narrow it down a little bit, but you’ll see multiple guys play the same positions.”
Even with film in hand, Big Walnut defensive back and wide receiver Nicky Pentello shared firsthand experience entering the Golden Eagles’ opener and first meeting against Hartley since 1984. When Pentello was a sophomore at DeSales in 2020, the Stallions went 3-0 against the Hawks during the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season.
“I just told the guys that they’re tight. They’ve grown up together,” said Pentello, who had an interception in the Golden Eagles’ 35-7 win. “They’re not going to stray away from their game plan and if we (came) out and we play physical and we play our game that we’d be fine and we’d execute well.”
@ThisWeekDave
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Central Ohio football teams tackle early season obstacles
