Home-grown battle: Garber's Twinsburg, Dudones' Stow show similarities in overtime game
TWINSBURG — Stow-Munroe Falls' Jim Dudones and Twinsburg's John Garber are both home-grown guys.
Their paths to leading two of Summit County's best girls soccer programs bears a striking similarity.
Dudones started in soccer coaching when he helped his own kids come up through the Stow Soccer Club. Garber spent much of his early career coaching in the Twinsburg AC program.
"I think it was invaluable to me," Dudones said of his time at the youth level. "Not so much now because I'm at the high school level, but when I was with Stow Soccer Club, I knew players in the city. I think it's good to know to everyone."
Once they moved to the high school level, both coaches served under two of the longest tenured boys high school soccer coaches in Summit County. Garber was junior varsity coach under the Tigers' Mike Lally, and Dudones coached under Stow's Kyle Kosmala.
Coming from the boys' game, both coaches have slightly different takes on coaching males and females.
"The biggest difference for me is that girls like to solve problems together," Garber said. "They like to work together to get things done. In the boys game, you see a bit more of that individuality and creativity come out."
"There are subtle sorts of differences, but the bottom line is I've had very talented athletes on both team," Dudones said.
In other words, soccer is soccer according to Dudones.
That might be a bit more true for the Bulldogs than the Tigers.
Garber inherited a team brimming with All-Ohio talent, leading him to move to an aggressive offensive style, pulling away from the defense-first style that has long been a hallmark of the Twinsburg boys.
By contrast, Dudones has made "Stow style" soccer work for the girls program.
"Direct play, toughness, athleticism. Those are all Kyle [Kosmala] traits," Dudones said.
Both approaches have worked. Twinsburg has reached the district final six consecutive seasons, and Dudones coached Stow to a Suburban League title in 2019.
Dudones said this season, the two teams are mirror images of each other in terms of style.
Perhaps that was a big factor Oct. 6 when two teams played to a 0-0 draw at Stow, which was one of only three draws on Twinsburg's record.
Both teams expected another close game when they met Monday at Tiger Stadium in a Division I district semifinal.
When the dust settled, both coaches expressed nothing but admiration for each other.
"I told Jim afterwards, they all get up for you," Garber said. "They play their absolute best for him and they are very well coached. We told our girls it was going to be a battle. This isn't going to be an easy game."
"I thought it was almost part two of the first game," Dudones said. "Twinsburg is an amazing program. We both play the same way. It was a battle."
In the end, Dudones had a request of Garber.
"I told him 'Now just do me a favor: Go win the whole thing." he said
Stow made Twinsburg work for everything Monday, including scoring only the eighth goal Twinsburg has surrendered this season to force overtime.
In the end, Tigers captain Brenna Utrup smashed home a goal in the 84th minute, giving the Tigers (15-0-3) a 2-1 win over the Bulldogs (8-6-4) in overtime.
Utrup said she heeded her coaches words about the likelihood of another tight game.
"I honestly thought it was just the way we thought it would be," Utrup said. "There are a lot of seniors on this team. During the break [after regulation], we thought about this being our last home game and we got a little emotional about it."
Utrup said Garber has been a huge influence on her.
"He's kind of like my dad," she said. "I've spent nearly every day with him in fall after school. He's been in my life for a long time and I'm very fortunate to have him as coach."
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Garber's Twinsburg girls soccer edges Dudones' Stow in Div. I district
