Jays now have handful of rings |
 |
 |
|
Written by JIM METCALFE, Special to the Chronicle
|
|
Friday, 05 December 2008 01:00 |
DELPHOS—Coming off a 2-8 season, the worst record in 20 seasons, perhaps no one expected the St. John’s football team to do a complete 180-degree turn.
Considering the Blue Jays had nine sophomores starting (one both ways) from the word go, one might have been utterly justified in that thought.
Just one point: the coaching staff and the players didn’t believe it.
So much so that the Blue Jays chose as the season motto “Leave No Doubt.”
They then backed up that lofty goal and fooled many people’s expectations by winning the Division VI state football championship over Hopewell-Loudon 34-14 Nov. 30 at Massillon’s famed Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
Head coach Todd Schulte earned the school’s third state title in his 10 seasons at the helm, currently holding a 97-31 record.
With the two that previous coach Vic Whiting (who Mr. Schulte succeeded) earned in his 11 seasons at the helm, the total of five titles — all in Division VI — put the Jays as the only team in Ohio currently with five.
Mr. Schulte proved prescient at the beginning of the season.
“We’re young in many spots but these kids are talented. It’s going to be a matter of how quickly they develop and also staying healthy because we aren’t as deep as we’ve been in he past,” he said.
The Blue and Gold did stay relatively healthy and the youngsters slowly but surely gelled with the juniors and seniors.
They won their first five games — LCC and Tinora out of conference and Minster, New Bremen and Versailles in the Midwest Athletic Conference.
They lost two of the next three in the MAC: Marion Local and Coldwater, both of whom were defending state champions in divisions 5 and 4, in between a win over Parkway. The latter loss seemed to galvanize this young team as they won seven in a row: St. Henry and Fort Recovery in the regular season and then Arlington, Carey, previously-unbeaten Ada, Sidney Lehman and the previously-undefeated Chieftains; to bring home the gold.
As school superintendent and St. John pastor, Father Mel Verhoff told fans during the team’s welcome-home ceremony, “We have proven that we have left no doubt. We bless this team. With God, all things are possible.”
----
Jim Metcalfe is sports editor for the Delphos Herald.
|
|
Last Updated on Friday, 06 February 2009 09:39 |
