Ready to go, Tigers hit the field

By Jon Moffett

The team was on the practice field 45 minutes after the strike ended.

NEWTON FALLS — The Newton Falls High School football team is back on the practice field after nearly a week off.

A teachers strike halted the Tigers’ season, postponing the team’s Sept. 3 game against nearby Windham. The team had not been able to play or practice since.

Resolution of the labor dispute Wednesday evening enabled the Tigers to resume football activities.

Head coach Greg Lazzari wasted no time informing his players they were able to practice again.

“We found out today that we are going to practice, so we went down and grabbed them,” Lazzari said. “We got the news at 6 o’clock that [the strike] was over; it’s 45 minutes later and we’re getting ready to get on the field.”

Matt Novotny and Joe Zigler, two senior team captains, noted the team had been meeting to make sure it stayed focused on the season.

“Pretty much we’ve just been trying to lay low and keep our spirits up,” Novotny said. “We kept the team coming every day, getting them together to throw the ball around and run through some plays just to keep the spirit up.”

Novotny added the team wasn’t able to participate in a lot of full team drills, but was able to line up in some formations. Zigler said there’s a huge difference between practicing in the park and on the actual field.

“You get to wear your pads [on the playing field] and you get to actually wrap them up [make tackles]. You don’t have to just run through in front of them,” Zigler said. “You get your timing down and get better angles on the tackles. You can block live and just get prepared for the game better.”

The suspension of play was especially frustrating for the players because the team had started the season so well. The Tigers are 2-0 with victories over Rittman and Southeast. It marks the first time the team has gone 2-0 since 1996. The Windham game will be made up later.

Newton Falls had won only two of its last 25 games before the 2008 season. The last time the Tigers won more than two games in any one season was in 2004, when the team finished 3-7.

With the success the team had in the early parts of the season, Zigler said it was frustrating to have to sit out while other teams could play.

“We prepared just like everyone else, we went through two-a-days like everyone else, but we didn’t get to play like everyone else,” Zigler said. “It just didn’t add up.”

The strike began Friday when the 82-member Newton Falls Classroom Teachers Association rejected a school board offer on a new contract the previous day. The strike temporarily suspended all extracurricular activities.

Lazzari, who also teaches special-needs math classes at the school, said it was important the strike was settled for the pupils’ sake.

“Any time there is a teachers’ strike anywhere in the United States, the people that suffer the most are the kids,” Lazzari said. “Now, the thing that we have to do to be successful is put that behind us and move forward.”

With the strike ending, not only will football be restored to normal, but classes will as well.

Zigler said he and many of his teammates were not attending school during the strike.

“I’m just glad that they’re back in school,” said John Ballas, whose son Jacob, a junior, plays football. “Their education is more important, period. Sports are secondary, but I’m glad that they’re back, too.”

Newton Falls is scheduled to play Girard on Friday, but Lazzari is trying to have the game pushed back to Saturday so the team has a fair amount of time to prepare.

jmoffett@vindy.com