Morning Journal • Football Preview 2012 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 21B
Run for the playoffs Area qualifiers aim for repeat performance in 2012 By RON FIRTH Journal Sports Editor
Area powerhouses Crestview and Minerva were locks for the football playoffs late last year. It was a different story for Wellsville and Springfield, which had to make late-season runs to get in. “It was pretty hard,” Wellsville lineman Seth Martin said. “We had to step up and prove to everyone we could make the playoffs.” Springfield won its last three games, while Wellsville took three of its last four to earn playoff berths. “As a team, that puts a lot on you,” Springfield fullback Alex Wharry said. “When you win early, it’s easy to relax. We couldn’t relax last year. It came down to either win or you’re not in.” Wellsville was one of two teams in the state to reach the playoffs with a 55 record. Naturally, the Tigers had a lot of skeptics. ‘I heard it from my everyone, even my parents sometimes,” Martin said. “They said we shouldn’t have made it, but I think we worked hard enough to make and showed we could make it.” The high school football season opens in Ohio this week. Of the 716 high school football teams, there will be 192 of them who advance to the state playoffs in November.
“We had to step up and prove to everyone we could make the playoffs.” SETH MARTIN, WELLSVILLE SENIOR
There are 10 weeks of sweat and tears between now and then. “We just work hard the whole season and the playoffs just happen to come around,” Crestview linebacker Kaleb Baker said. “We know if we work hard enough, we will eventually make it to the playoffs.” Last year, five area teams — Columbiana, Crestview, Minerva, Springfield and Wellsville — made it to the playoffs. “Since we went last year, we’re shooting for the same exact thing this year,” Columbiana running back Britton Steiginga said. “Just because that is our tradition, to make it to the playoffs is always our goal.” “We focus on one game at a time,” Columbiana linebacker Brandon Hacker said. “That’s all we do.” It can be hard to put last season behind you, especially when teams like Crestview and Minerva are coming off their best seasons — each with a school-record 11 victories. “It was a pretty amazing experience,” 20 ACR ES O VER 7 M ILES O F M AZE
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Minerva quarterback Jake Riley said. “We haven’t had that Minerva in a long time. It’s always going linger in my mind, but you’ve got to put it behind. It’s a new season.” “We expected some success, but we kept working hard every day and hopefully good would happen,” Baker said. “And it happened.” Those teams can add another chapter in the record books beginning this week. “It’s another season,” Riley said. “We’ve got to prepare to win and the guys have been working hard, doing the right things in the weight room and on the field and even off the field the field in general. We want repeat. We want to
do just as we did last year if not better.” All the excitement will start in the season openers this week. “We don’t try to look forward to anything,” Wharry said. “We just look at that week. It’s all about beating who we have right now. We’ve got to focus on beating them.” The playoffs will end in Stark County with the six state title games on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. “It’s in our locker room goals,” Columbiana coach Bob Spaite said. “We want to earn the right to be in the playoffs, but it’s not like we’ve got to do this to be in the playoffs. We want to make sure we deserve to earn the right to do that.”
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