Article CategoriesAFM Magazine
|
Regional High School Coaches of the YearPERFECTION5 REGIONAL WINNERS FROM 5 UNDEFEATED TEAMS-ALL SHOWING A DOMINANCE IN THEIR REGION by: Jeff Davis © More from this issue MIDWEST REGION Kerry Coombs, Colerain HS, Cincinnati “I think being a high school coach is one of the best things anybody can do.” That holds especially true for Cincinnati Colerain Coach Kerry Coombs, whose Cardinals blazed away to win one of high school football’s most prestigious titles, the Division I state championship of Ohio. Most important, Coombs’s Cardinals saved their best effort for the title game on December 4 as they manhandled traditional Northeastern Ohio power Canton McKinley 50-10 on McKinley’s home field, Fawcett Stadium, across the way from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was a title game scoring record as the Cardinals’ triple option offense rolled up 489 yards. After McKinley took a 10-6 lead to open the second quarter, Colerain buckled down to score the game’s next 44 points thanks to quarterback Dominick Goodman’s state playoff record 259 yards on 21 carries as he tied the state record with four touchdowns. Coombs’ Cardinals averaged 46 points per game and had the largest margin of victory of any Ohio high school team in history-39.8. Ohio has produced several of high school football’s most legendary coaches, chief among them two men from Massillon, Paul Brown and Chuck Mather, and Cincinnati Moeller’s Gerry Faust. As great as their teams were, perhaps none in the history of the Buckeye State can approach Kerry Coombs’ Colerain unit that blazed its way to a 15-0 record to capture the school’s first Division I title. Unlike those men who moved on to collegiate success, and in Brown’s case, mastery of the professional game with his Cleveland Browns, Coombs likes it exactly where he is, at his alma mater in the city of his birth. “I really like my job and I really love Colerain,” Coombs says. “I have no plans to leave.” WEST REGION Butch Goncharoff - Bellevue HS, Bellevue (WA) America outside the Pacific Northwest discovered a smart, wonderful high school football program on opening night of the 2004 season when Bellevue, Washington’s Wolverines, stunned De La Salle of Concord California 39-20 to end the nation’s longest ever high school winning streak at 151 games. Anyone who thought the outcome was an upset was mistaken as Bellevue proved over and again that this was no fluke. No team that has won four consecutive championships in tough competition like that served up in Washington is a fluke. In just his fifth year at Bellevue, Butch Goncharoff is the first head coach in Washington state history to win four titles in a row. The Wolverines were a perfect 13-0 this past fall. Goncharoff has found success by creating a dominant feeder system, the nine team junior Wolverine program. As coach of the juniors, Goncharoff’s “kids” went 104-4-1, winning seven league titles. Since he took over the varsity at the high school, Goncharoff’s Wolverines have won 57 of the 60 games he’s coached, good for four straight state 3A titles. How long will this success story continue? According to Goncharoff, it could last far into the future. “Kids come in and see the success the program has had. We didn’t have to teach them the excitement, it was already there.” As long as Butch Goncharoff is there, Bellevue stands to keep winning – big. EAST REGION SOUTH REGION The current star and hot prospect for Coach Ricky Woods, is option quarterback Derek Pogues. In South Panola’s championship game against Ocean Springs at Jackson’s Memorial Stadium, Pogues ran wild, gaining 268 yards as he scored five touchdowns to lead the Tigers to a 39-21 victory for Woods’ second state title in as many years as head coach at the Batesville school. Pogues was named Mississippi’s High School Player of the Year. No stranger to championship production, Woods won two 2A state titles at Ackerman and got his team to two more title games. Then, upon his arrival in 2003, Woods made a couple of changes, installed a more balanced attack, beat Oak Grove in the title game and returned to go all the way, 15-0 in 2004. “I inherited a great program and was fortunate not to mess it up,” the modest Woods says. |
|
HOME |
MAGAZINE |
SUBSCRIBE | ONLINE COLUMNISTS | COACHING VIDEOS |
Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved