Fall's notes, quotes & amp; anecdotes

Over the past 51/2 years, I've probably interviewed Warren Harding coach Thom McDaniels 100 times. For a while, he was pretty much the only person who would talk about Maurice Clarett on the record.
Basically, my boss would tell me about the latest Clarett incident, then tell me to write about it. Since Clarett hasn't returned a phone call from us since high school, and since his mother, Michelle, hasn't returned a phone call from us since his freshman year in college, there weren't many people left to interview in his circle.
But McDaniels would always call back. I even remember interviewing him before Clarett's private workout for NFL scouts in 2005. He hadn't talked to Clarett in more than a year -- "Our deal is that he calls me, I don't call him," McDaniels said -- but he set up the workout anyway, telling me that Clarett "will always be a Raider."
McDaniels isn't always the most fun guy to be around. He's not easygoing. He doesn't exchange small talk. He's a little bit abrasive. But he always returned phone calls, he was always professional and he was (and is) one of the most quotable people on the planet.
McDaniels resigned this week (pretty much everyone already knew this would be his last season) and soon he'll end up coaching somewhere else. As a final tribute, here are the five McDaniels quotes I loved the most.
On the three-team Steel Valley Conference: "It's ridiculous to have a three-team conference. It's almost embarrassing to think of ourselves as such. You tell me where else in America is there a three-team league? If you find me somebody out there who wants one or all three of us in their conference, I'll give you 1,000,"
On a bad performance: "Film doesn't lie. We didn't fabricate our pitiful performance; it's on tape for anyone to see. [But] we can have one of two reactions. We can pout like second-graders because we played badly or we can be angry about our performance and go do something about it."
On college recruiting: "High school coaches are notorious liars, and you can quote me on that. I'm not, and college recruiters know it."
On Valley teams' unwillingness to schedule bigger programs: "Other than Ursuline and Mooney, there aren't many teams willing to do that, and I think that's a weakness about the football in this area. I've always had a great regard for it, but too many teams are unwilling to schedule tough games all too often."
And, of course, on the 2003 season: "If I don't win a state title this year, they should fire me."
He didn't win one that year -- Harding lost to St. Edward in the second round of the playoffs -- and he didn't get fired. But after seven years, five playoff appearances and a state runner-up, McDaniels knew it was time to leave.
We wish him the best.
Top athletes,coaches of 2006
And now, two games early, I present my highlights of the 2006 fall season.
Player of the year: This was tough, but I'm giving it to Mooney junior quarterback Dan McCarthy, who has been terrific in his first year at the position. As talented as Mooney is, he makes the offense go.
Coach of the year: Mike Kopachy, Western Reserve. Moving to Tier Two of the Inter Tri-County League certainly helped, but Kopachy helped lead the Blue Devils to their first winning season -- and first playoff berth -- since 1989. Honorable mention goes to South Range's Dan Yeagley (considering what he lost to graduation, there's no way that team should have went 12-1), Mineral Ridge's Dominic Leone (everyone expected that team to go 1-9; instead, they went 6-4 and lost to three playoff teams) and Jackson-Milton's Mark Assion (how in the world did he win five games?).
Five favorite athletes to watch: Canfield senior Sean Baker, Warren Harding seniors Dan Herron and Sidney Glover, Ursuline senior Matt Yarab and McCarthy. Honorable mention: Michael Zordich, Mooney (heck, pretty much everyone on Mooney's roster); Steve Bensinger, South Range; Joe Winters, Columbiana; Nate Schuler, Springfield; Nate Ganyard, Niles; Greg Sabol, Poland.
Five favorite athletes to interview: Maplewood senior cross country runner Andy Morgan; Salem senior runner Erin Murphy; Mooney junior RB Brandon Beachum; Warren JFK senior QB Anthony Kokal; and Boardman sophomore runner Lauren Agnew (who still answered my questions even though I wrote that she didn't look old enough to drive a scooter).
Five favorite coaches to interview: McDaniels; Fitch football coach Neal Kopp; Columbiana football coach Bob Spaite; Maplewood cross country coach Ted Rupe; and Hubbard football coach Jeff Bayuk. Honorable mention goes to Ursuline football coach Dan Reardon and Poland football coach Mark Brungard, who were both exceptionally gracious after tough losses.
Best game I saw this year: Canfield's last-second win over Poland. Runner-up: The Cardinals' near-comeback against Pickerington Central in the first round of the playoffs.
Other notesand thoughts
At the South Range-Independence game in Week 2, I saw something absolutely amazing. Flouting a long-standing tradition that states that band members must wear the stupidest, most ridiculous outfits on the planet (Have you seen the University of Texas band? Are you kidding me?), the Raider band members were wearing (brace yourself) maroon polo shirts and khaki shorts.
Best I could tell, the earth stayed on its axis.
My favorite band songs of the year: "Give me some lovin'" by the South Range band; theme song from "The Incredibles" by the Ursuline band; "Circle of Life" from the Poland band; "Seven Nation Army" by the Pickerington Central band; and the "Superman" theme by the Warren Harding band.
And here's two things that may interest only me. Lisbon football coach Jim Tsilimos' voice mail message is "This is Jim. Giddyup!" And when you call McDonald football coach Dan Williams, you're either treated to the "Monday Night Football" theme song or the Ohio State fight song.
Five quotesI loved the most
Earlier this year, I asked Canfield's Sean Baker about playing the first game on the Cardinals' new FieldTurf. "It's awesome," he said. "I couldn't ask for anything better. Perfect timing, too. They didn't play any soccer games on it yet."
Speaking of that turf, Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky's team played a faster Rayen team in the first game. "The grass wasn't growing," said Pavlansky, "but we were sure going to water it."
Columbiana coach Bob Spaite gets two. The first is in reference to his players' tendency to flock to their girlfriends after the game: "These guys act like they're going to war, like we're going to send them all to Iraq tomorrow."
The second is in reference to his defensive coaching prowess: "I don't have a position to coach on defense. When we're on defense, all I do is run around and shout buzzwords and say things like, 'Get out of your breaks!' and 'That's not fast enough!'"
And, finally, Neal Kopp suspended Keane Boyd for the first half of the Chaney game, only to reinstate him just before halftime. "I told him, 'Your suspension's been cut [three] minutes short,'" Kopp said. "I guess I'm a softy." Boyd scored a touchdown on the next play, then scored again, blocked an extra point, nearly returned an interception for a touchdown and combined for 150 yards of total offense.
By the way, the Falcons won 26-13.
Joe Scalzo is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.