At 7 p.m. last Saturday, Mary Ann Reardon Dilan was sitting next to her 12-year-old son in Sarasota,
At 7 p.m. last Saturday, Mary Ann Reardon Dilan was sitting next to her 12-year-old son in Sarasota, Fla., trying frantically to pick up WNIO’s Internet feed of Ursuline’s regional final against Kirtland.
She wasn’t having any luck.
“Oh, my heart is breaking!” she wrote in an e-mail to me at 7:43 p.m. “Do you have a Blackberry? You do understand what I’m asking you here, right?”
I don’t have a Blackberry. (Not to brag, but my cutting-edge cell phone both dials out and receives calls.) Since I didn’t have wireless access at Mollenkopf Stadium, I couldn’t help.
So Dilan, one of six older siblings of Irish coach Dan (or Danny, as she still calls him) Reardon, opted instead to log on to Vindy.com, where I was calling in periodic score updates for our Blitz scoreboard, where you can get the score and the quarter.
As you might imagine, this wasn’t quite as good as being in the stands, but when you’re 1,000 miles away, you do what you can.
By the time I checked my e-mail at 11 p.m. — using the $3 wireless from a McDonald’s in Warren — Dilan had sent me four more e-mails, ranging from ecstatic (when Ursuline was leading) to what-in-the-heck-is-going-on (when it wasn’t), which perfectly summed up the feelings of the Irish fans who were at the game. The difference is, Dilan is a better writer.
Here are a few highlights:
8:56: Okay! Now 12-7 in the third quarter. Go Irish! What happened to that extra point, Danny?
(Note: Ursuline missed its first extra point, then failed on two-point conversion attempt.)
9:18: Okay, 15-12, but 17-12 on another of Vindy.com’s little sites, which do I believe, and how did that happen? Of course I have no idea. The Live Ticker can’t tell me. Starting to panic a little here in Sarasota, and I sure do hope that I don’t break the promise that I made to you, when I promised you that Danny would win the state championship. Okay, a little faith here; he can still do it.
(Note: Kirtland scored a TD late in the third quarter, then Ursuline snapped the ball over its quarterback’s head, giving the Hornets a safety to make it 17-12.)
9:28: Okay, 18-17, all he has to do now is run down the clock, right? At least, I know that would probably be right if I knew how many minutes were left in the game, which of course I don’t.
(Note: Ursuline took the lead with about three minutes left, so it wasn’t quite that easy.)
9:43: 18-17 final? It’s still a win. So I kept my promise to you. Please, if you see Danny, tell him congratulations from his sister.
(Hey Danny, your sister said congratulations.)
Saturday’s state semifinal between Ursuline and Baltimore Liberty Union will be broadcast locally on WNIO-AM 1390, which streams live over the Web at WNIO.com, I was able to get it to work on Thursday morning on my home computer (I used Safari on a Mac) by downloading Quick Time. I think WNIO was playing a Glenn Miller Orchestra song at the time.
WNIO’s site should work with most computers. So, if you’re from out of town and reading this story on the Web, log on to wnio.com and try it out. If it doesn’t work, you can still get live updates on Vindy.com. (And if you’re not from out of town, it’s important to remember that in this time of economic uncertainty, the two best investments you can make are in newspaper subscriptions and big, fat newspaper advertisements. Operators are standing by.)
Dilan, by the way, graduated from Mooney, but now roots for the Irish. (Reardon graduated from Canfield.) She’s not a football fan, per se, but she’s a huge fan of her brother — and, consequently, her brother’s team. It’s enough to make her wish she was still living up north, which makes no sense to me since I’ve been to Sarasota.
“I’ll tell you a secret about him,” she wrote. “He has a miraculous way with kids, aged just-born to about 18 [and even beyond], and they respond to him so well for one simple reason: Danny genuinely cares about them and they feel it and so they know it. I can tell you with certainty that he cares far more about his players than he does about winning football games. ... And Danny cares an awful lot about winning football games, so that should give you a clue about how much he cares about his players.”
Pick and choose
Ursuline junior defensive end Jamel Turner already has more than 20 Division I offers, including Ohio State and Penn State, but if you’re wondering whether any school will have a hometown advantage, here’s a little backstory on Turner. He grew up in Chicago then moved to Youngstown in second grade. He said he doesn’t cheer for Chicago teams any more than he cheers for Ohio or Pennsylvania teams.
“I’m a free agent,” he said.
As evidence, he wore a Steelers sweatshirt and an Indians hat on Monday. He’s not a fan of either.
“I just liked the hat,” he said.
Everybody clear?
Ursuline fans booed the officials throughout Saturday’s game against Kirtland after the Irish rang up nine penalties for 106 yards, compared to four Hornet penalties for 30 yards.
The yardage included a 20-yard pass interference penalty on Ursuline late in the third quarter. Irish coach Dan Reardon even called a timeout to protest the spot to the officials.
“They told me, ‘The spot is right and you’re wrong,’” Reardon said Monday.
Oh.
Quick hits
If Ursuline wins Saturday, it will play either Maria Stein Marion Local (which beat the Irish in last year’s state final) or Findlay Liberty-Benton (the state’s third-ranked team) in the Div. V state final at 3 p.m. at Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. ... Marion Local is one of three defending state champs still alive, joining Cincinnati Anderson (II) and Sunbury Big Walnut (III). ... Liberty Union is the only remaining playoff team that is making its first postseason appearance this decade. ... Malvern, one of the finalists in Div. VI, had not won a playoff game before this season, going 0-4 in previous appearance.
X Joe Scalzo covers high school football for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.