Through floods and flurries, Ursuline able to stay focused
By Joe Scalzo
It was snowy outside and wet inside as the Irish prepared for tonight’s game.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Ursuline High football team has weathered the storm this week — and that’s not a figure of speech.
Ursuline canceled school Friday when one of the pipes leading to a drinking fountain burst and flooded a main hallway.
“Lucky for us,” Irish football coach Dan Reardon joked, “it drained down into the locker room.”
The Irish maneuvered around the cleanup, but were forced to practice in the gym due to the snow. Fortunately, Friday practices are quick walk-throughs. And after 15 weeks, Reardon’s team has learned to stay focused amid any distractions.
“All season long they’ve done a real good job being focused,” said Reardon, whose team lost in last year’s Division V state final to Maria Stein Marion Local. “As we’ve been saying all year, we want to do better than we did last year. Our goal is to get back there and win a state championship.
“But our guys are really focused on the task at hand.”
Top-ranked Ursuline (13-0) will play Baltimore Liberty Union (12-1) at 7 tonight in a Div. V state semifinal in New Philadelphia.
Although the Irish returned a lot of talented players from last year’s team, Reardon said the extra weeks of practice — five last year and four so far this year — have been a key to his team’s development.
“It has a huge impact, particularly on the younger players,” said Reardon. “I think that’s one of the reasons for where we’re at right now.”
But, Reardon admitted, it can also be a grind — for the players and the coaches.
“That’s the nature of football,” he said. “You get a lot of bumps and bruises and sometimes worse than that.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint. You have to be focused from week to week and keep plugging away. We’ve done a real good job of that.”
Today’s forecast for New Philadelphia calls for a morning flurry, followed by temperatures in the teens during the game. Since the Irish have made it this far by relying heavily on their running game and defense, you can expect them to switch things up tonight by airing the ball out at least 20 times.
Right?
“I don’t know who you heard that from,” Reardon said, chuckling. “We’re averaging about eight or nine throws a game and we’re completing about 60 percent of those throws, so from that standpoint we feel good about what we’ve done.
“But the strength of our team offensively is our offensive line and our running backs. Not to say we don’t have good wide receivers. We have very capable wide receivers.”
Despite the cold weather this week, and despite today’s Ohio State-Michigan game drawing attention, Reardon said ticket sales have been strong.
He’s expecting a big crowd on both sides.
“I’d be surprised if there wasn’t,” he said.
scalzo@vindy.com