Kehres: Players control behavior

By Doug Chapin

The Mount Union football coach emphasized the importance of self-discipline.

WARREN — Mixed in with the good-natured banter usually heard when football coaches gather, two more serious themes were apparent during the Warren Sports Hall of Fame’s annual Coaches Huddle held Sunday night at DiLucia’s Banquet Room.

The first theme was introduced by guest speaker Larry Kehres, coach at Mount Union College and winner of nine national championships. Kehres spoke about the importance of self-discipline in the lives of young football players, and the fact that in these changing times coaches need to be willing to reach out to players when necessary.

The other theme is obvious to most area football fans: High school football in northeast Ohio, particularly the Mahoning Valley, is pretty good.

“Despite the fact that we’ve lost a lot of kids, we’re going to have a good football team in Champion this year,” Golden Flashes coach John Gibson said. “We could be 0-10, we could win five, I don’t know. But in this area they are all good football teams.

“In this valley, where there have been such tough times, there are a lot of people looking forward to the excitement that happens on Friday night. I am remarkably excited to be a part of it.”

Ray Depofi spoke for Lakeview High coach Tom Pavlansky who was unable to attend.

“Obviously high school football is a great experience for our young people and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but the Mahoning Valley to be a part of it,” Depofi said. “I’ve had some experience with athletics in other parts of the country and, quite frankly, if you want to see football on a Friday night, you want to see it here, in the Mahoning Valley. There’s no question about that.”

Howland has a chance to carry the Mahoning Valley banner to a larger audience.

“We got invited to the Kirk Herbstreit Classic in Canton which is a great positive, we’re the first Trumbull County team to go and we’re very excited about that,” Tigers coach Dick Angle said.

A recent fracas between players from two different schools at a football camp at Mount Union got Kehres to thinking about self-discipline.

“I started thinking about how we learn self-discipline. In most cases, we learned it from our parents with help from others, in my case, my grandfather. And coaches also played a role, but most of us learned it from our parents.” he said.

Kehres said the disagreement at the camp got him to thinking about a situation on his football team in 1996. The Purple Raiders had just one national title (1993) at the time and were playing in week seven or eight of what would turn out to be a 14-0 national championship season.

When he and several players returned from pre-game warm-ups, there was a ruckus occurring in the locker room that centered around three or four guys and the music that was being played.

Kehres related that as he and his coaching staff determined in the following days what disciplinary action should be taken, the option of dismissal from the team for those responsible for the fight was presented.

“Over the course of the week I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to dismiss anyone,” he said. “Now it’s 12 years later. One of those young men is a principal at the biggest school in Stark County. Two of the young guys are head football coaches doing quite well. The fourth guy works with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.