Raiders can’t rest on success

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

NORTH LIMA — It only takes a second for South Range High senior guard Mike Hudak to recall the last time his Raiders lost a regular season football game.

“Mineral Ridge in 2004,” said Hudak who also plays defensive end.

When it comes to high expectations, no area public school football team consistently has greater ones than South Range, which has won six league titles since 1996 and has been to the playoffs every year since 1999 except one.

“There’s a lot of pressure put on us, mostly from the teams in our league because they all want to take us down,” Hudak said. “They all want to be the team that beats South Range.”

Credit goes to the coaching staff headed up by Dan Yeagley, who took over his alma mater’s program in 1995. With a record of 111-28, Yeagley has developed a program to be envied.

“I’m just blessed with great coaches,” said Yeagley who is preparing to send oldest son, Scott, off to college on Labor Day Weekend.

“If I have to miss a Saturday practice, it’s OK because we take care of each other.

“I have two ex-head coaches on staff — Rich McClellan and Mike Owen. They know what has to be done,” Yeagley said. “It’s a good place to be.”

Recent success

Two years ago, Yeagley had what many consider his finest team. The Raiders went unbeaten in the regular season, winning the final Inter-County League title.

That South Range squad advanced to the Division V state semifinals, losing to eventual state champion Hamler Patrick Henry on a frosty night in Fremont.

Last season might have been Yeagley’s best from a coaching perspective. With only a handful of starters back and a much tougher schedule, the Raiders again went unbeaten to win the inaugural Inter Tri-County League Tier One crown.

The old ICL and Tri-County leagues were merged and split into a bigger and small school divisions. Instead of playing tiny Div. VI rivals from the ICL days, South Range battled and won a very competitive league that includes similar-sized Crestview, United and Springfield plus small but tough Columbiana and Mineral Ridge.

The beefed-up schedules in both tiers generated plenty of computer playoff ratings points. Last year’s top tier sent South Range, Crestview and Columbiana to the state playoffs. From the second tier, McDonald and Western Reserve qualified.

“The ITCL is a great league filled with a bunch of great coaches,” said Yeagley, citing Columbiana’s Bob Spaite, Crestview’s Paul Cusick and Lisbon’s Jim Tsilimos of Tier One. “We have coaches who have been around and know the game. It’s more intense.

“We try to sell our kids early that it’s a 10-week playoff system,” Yeagley said. “You’ve got to come ready to play; if you take a break, you’re going to get burnt.

“Last year, that was a great tribute to our kids because they stayed focused for 10 weeks,” Yeagley said. “We were in a dogfight in three games we probably could have lost, but they fought to the very end.”

Last season, luck and hard work were factors. At Crestview, the Raiders won, 7-6. They needed overtime to beat Columbiana.

“That’s a great tribute to last year’s seniors and the kids here who played,” Yeagley said.

“The league is brutal, as good as any in the state.”

Bigger challenge

Senior halfback Steve Bensinger said the new league “made us step up our game. We knew we couldn’t take weeks off or even practices off. Coach emphasized that, that we had to go hard no matter what.”

Yeagley’s influence has spread throughout the community whose school system has been graded among the top in the state.

Bensinger, who rushed for 1,089 yards in 2006, has fond memories of watching varsity games. “My goal was to be a South Range Raider.

“I wanted to be Homecoming King because I saw Jimmy Sanders win it,” said Bensinger, who also plays defensive back.

“It was fun growing up watching [success] — that’s why you have all these kids out here now. The success that they had when we were little has carried over to now.”

Dan Pierce, the Raiders’ senior center and noseguard, says Crestview is becoming an arch rival.

“We’ve played them twice for the past [two] years so there’s a rivalry there,” said Pierce, referring to South Range’s recent playoff success against the Rebels.

Bensinger agrees.

“It’s grown into a huge rivalry,” Bensinger said. “Columbiana, too. They’re going to be gunning for us.”

Over the years, Yeagley’s teams have excelled playing a team concept.

“Do we have big, standout kids? No. We just have kids who love the game of football,” said Yeagley, who stresses pushing aside glory days.

“Sometimes you don’t have to be the biggest, fastest, strongest if you play as a team. We tell our kids all the time that you can’t worry about the last play or the last game. You have to focus on the next game, the next play.

“Those were great seasons, but they’re over. Now, it’s time to write a new story. It’s a lot of pressure on them but it’s a good pressure, it keeps them working hard,” Yeagley said. “We know anything can happen on any Friday night.”

Starting small

So how do you top an unbeaten season? Start with one game at a time.

“Our first goal is to win the first three games and then we’ll go from there,” Hudak said.

This year’s team has five starters back on offense and defense.

“Starter-wise, we have a lot more experience, but we still have a lot of holes to fill from last year’s team,” Yeagley said.

Pierce said, “There’s a lot of pressure, but I think we can meet up to it. Last year, they literally didn’t expect us to be that good. This year, they are expecting us to be even better or go further.

“It makes for a lot more competition. There are no easy games.”

williams@vindy.com