Zack Klemme: Tigers leave their mark

Dec. 3—CANTON, Ohio Lincoln — Barnes was partaking in a family tradition.

Four years ago, when Ayden Barnes completed his Ironton football career, he passed along a message to the next group of wide-eyed Fighting Tigers, which included his then-eighth-grade brother.

On Friday afternoon, it was the younger sibling's turn.

"I just told the team this: my brother graduated his first year here," Lincoln Barnes said, glancing to fifth-year Ironton coach Trevon Pendleton to his left at the dais in the press conference after the Division V state championship game, "and (Ayden Barnes) said in the locker room, leave the program better than you found it."

Lincoln Barnes and his fellow 15 seniors surely did that. After all, he was speaking in the bowels of Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, where the Tigers had just played in the state final for the third time in his four years in the program.

Even if Ironton has lost all of those — most recently 53-27 to South Range on Friday — it's clear progress. Ayden delivered the same address in 2018, after the Fighting Tigers dropped their playoff opener, 15-7, at Johnstown-Monroe.

A year later, Ironton got back to the state final for the first time in 20 years. And no other Fighting Tigers class has ever played in three state title games.

Only Ironton's Class of 2023 can say that.

"Ever since we were freshmen, when we found the program, it was always (the goal) to reach higher," Barnes said. "We just tried to make it back here every year."

With one exception, and one year's detour to nearby Massillon for the 2020 final, they did.

Pendleton wants that to be the focus of observers, a positive approach to a distinction — Ohio's most-frequent state runner-up — that could be viewed as good or bad.

Pendleton's frustration with one side of that narrative, and his desire to reset it, led him to deliver the following statement in response to a media question about something else:

"Obviously, there's some things here that's pretty glaring that we have to get better at and take care of," Pendleton said, "but it wasn't a matter of effort. I don't think people realize what these kids put into this. Truly.

"I think a lot of people get to sit back in the stands, sit back on social media, and they get to talk about kids, and they don't realize what they go through on a daily basis," Pendleton continued. "They don't realize the amount of effort and the time that these kids put in, and I can assure you it's more than a lot of people that are making those comments would ever fathom or ever do themselves."

Indeed, postings on social media and message boards are not world-famous for being overwhelmingly positive.

Whether Pendleton personally peruses SEOHIOPREPS or scans his Twitter feed isn't known, but he clearly has a general idea of their frequent tenor.

"I know there's some things floating around, and there's gonna be some things floating around about them not getting the job done, but I can assure you in the big scheme of things, of life, they have gotten the job done," Pendleton said, "because they are gonna be better men, they're gonna be better leaders, they're gonna be better fathers, they're gonna be better husbands. They're gonna be whatever is necessary to make their community better, their country better and their families better."

Pendleton's comments clearly weren't directed toward the entirety of Ironton's fan base, or the area at large. The Fighting Tigers had strong support among a crowd of 6,393 — enough so that Raiders coach Dan Yeagley commented about it more than once, especially in light of the Fighting Tigers' trip to Canton of about four hours, compared to South Range's jwaunt of around one hour.

"It's just crazy how all the people from Ironton made the four-hour drive up here to watch us play," Barnes agreed.

Independent of what the outside world thinks about it, Pendleton and the returning Tigers still want to find a way to end that title-game skid and claim their first crown since 1989.

The solution?

"Get back to work," Pendleton said. "Roll up your sleeves and find a way to get 3% better."

That would require Ironton's 2023 team and beyond leaving it better than they found it. The Tigers fervently believe the '22 club did the same.

Reach ZACK KLEMME at zklemme@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2658. Follow @zklemmeADI on Twitter.