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The Insider
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Mooneyfootball.com was born in 1996 when the Internet was a novelty, like color TVs in the 1950s or Cleveland Browns victories over the past decade. (Sigh.)
“Back then, we got maybe 800 hits for the whole year,” said site creator Erik Sardich. “Nobody knew about it. It was just word of mouth.”
Sardich, a 1993 Mooney High graduate who played tackle for Don Bucci, was a self-taught Web designer. (Still is, in fact.)
He was just looking to do something extra for his brother Todd, who was a senior on that year’s team. It had a team photo, scores and some recap information, but not much more.
“I just thought it would be a nice way to remember the season,” he said.
It was likely the Valley’s first high school football team site. More than a decade later, most area football teams finally have some sort of site (even if it’s just a link from the school’s home page listing the 2006 schedule), but none can compete with Mooneyfootball.com.
It’s still a simple site — if you’re one of the two dozen people who still has a dial-up modem, you can still access most of it — but that’s part of its charm. It doesn’t overwhelm you with video or graphics.
It has the basics (roster, team photo, coaching staff, schedule) along with game previews and recaps, year-by-year results (with every score) since the team began play in 1956, team records, columns and a message board. It even has a photo store — Sardich and his wife Erin take the photos — where you can buy the prints, or get the photos printed on T-shirts, magnets, mugs, tote bags, etc.
(For instance, you could get coach P.J. Fecko’s picture on a T-shirt and maybe have a screen printer add one of his classic quotes about outstanding senior leadership or having a great week of practice.)
Sardich, who is a geologist in Akron, spends about three or four hours per week during the season maintaining the site, which is a money-loser. He gets help with the game recaps (written by Rocco DeLisio Jr.) and with moderating the message board.
Although he has a good relationship with the Mooney’s staff — he was a classmate of Fecko and went to school with a few other coaches — the site is distinctly separate from the school.
Sardich lives in Stow and travels to about 80 percent of the games — he’ll be in Buffalo on Friday night — and has converted his wife (a Mantua Crestwood graduate) into a fan. He even went to last year’s Mentor Lake Catholic game one day after getting back from his honeymoon. (He had to miss the Warren Harding game because his wedding got in the way.)
“It’s a not-for-profit thing,” he said of the site. “I really do it for the kids, the players and the alumni. I get notes from people living in Florida, Texas, California. They’ll write a note of thanks saying they read the site and it keeps me motivated.”
The site is essentially dormant from December to June. During the season, it gets between 800 and 1,000 hits per day.
Sardich would like to keep adding to it, but he doesn’t have the time to make it a world-class site (ala Centerville Elks’ site, www.elksfootball.com). He also doesn’t want new technology to overwhelm an older generation of readers.
“There are a lot of new technologies out there and a lot of things I’d like to add,” he said. “But I don’t want to confuse people. I like to keep it as simple as possible.”
Other sites
Here are five other team sites worth visiting:
- Canfieldfootball.com
- Nilesdragons.com
- Raiderfootball.net (South Range)
- www.liberty.k12.oh.us
(Click on the high school, then click on the football helmet.)
Power poll
Very little change this week, but I would like to apologize to unbeaten Western Reserve, which I left off last week’s poll. Just a brain freeze.
Big schools (Division I-III): 1. Mooney, 2. Fitch, 3. Poland, 4. Howland, 5. Hubbard. Honorable mention: Boardman, Warren Harding, Canfield.
Small schools (Division IV-VI): 1. Ursuline, 2. Girard, 3. East Palestine, 4. Lakeview, 5. McDonald. Honorable mention: Crestview, Western Reserve, Campbell.
Midseason thoughts
- I’ve covered 11 area teams so far — Mooney, Boardman, Fitch, Ursuline, Warren Harding, Poland, Hubbard, Girard, McDonald, Wellsville and Warren JFK — so I’ve been able to see a lot of the area’s best teams.
Mooney stands out, obviously — I’ve seen the Cardinals three times and wouldn’t be surprised to see them go 15-0 — but I’ve really been impressed with Poland, Girard and McDonald.
- I think Ursuline will make the playoffs with a 6-3 record and contend for a second straight Division V title.
- My midseason player of the year is Mooney senior Braylon Heard.
He’s a lockdown corner on defense, he’s a big-play threat on offense and he’s the best player on the area’s best team.
- My midseason co-coaches of the year are Campbell’s Jeff Bayuk and Salem’s Mike Kopachy, who have taken losing teams and made them contenders.
Consider this: Salem went 0-10 last year, losing to Girard, United, West Branch, Hubbard and Liberty by a combined score of 210-52.
The Quakers played the same five teams this year and went 3-2, with one bad loss to Hubbard.
One more thing
Make sure you vote in our Reader Survey on www.vindy.com/blitz. We’ve received more than 100 votes since last week but we’re looking for a lot more.
Voting is open through Oct. 12.
Joe Scalzo covers high school football for The Vindicator. Write to him at scalzo@vindy.com.