Coach Q&A: Warren Harding's D.J. Dota

When you’re a high school football team playing an independent schedule, it’s often tough to find opponents. Instead of having seven games already set in stone for you each fall, you have to basically start from scratch every year — or two, if you have home-and-home contests set up.

Warren Harding is among the several Valley schools — most notably Mooney, Ursuline and John F. Kennedy — that have faced this issue for years. But starting next season, coach D.J. Dota and his team will finally have some scheduling stability after joining the Lake Erie League.

“It’s a good fit for us,” said Dota. “It’s going to involve some driving, but it will give us some good football matchups on a weekly basis. We are excited to be in a league, because when you’re not, it’s hard to find games on a continuous basis.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve played all kinds of different teams in all kinds of places. Some of them were two-year contracts, but some were only one year because of conflicts. It will be nice to play some teams every year and build some familiarity with them and get some stability.”

In Harding’s division of the LEL, it will face the likes of Cleveland Heights. Mentor, Shaker Heights and Euclid. All those schools are Division I, which could prove key when looking at the battle for playoff computer points and promotes string competition.

With those four teams on the schedule every season, the Raiders will also attempt to keep Chaney, Massillon and Steubenville on the yearly schedule, which gives Harding only three open weeks to try to fill. That’s similar to what most teams face when they compete in an eight-team league.

“That will be nice,” said Dota, whose team even had to play a team from Ontario this season just to get a game. “Also what’s nice about the new league is that it’s two tiers and teams from the other tier want to help each other by crossing over to play you. That will be an asset as well.”

Q. What are your thoughts on how all three major schools in Warren — Harding, Howland and John F. Kennedy — have been able to find enough good football players to be successful pretty much every season?

A. That’s really been going on for a long time. All three have been pretty successful and share a lot of good football players. It’s kind of weird because most communities aren’t like that. Like in Youngstown, you have East and Chaney, but then there’s Mooney and Ursuline and Struthers. There are a lot of good football players in Warren and it’s great that all three programs are successful.

Q. There have been some recent changes at Mollenkopf — what has the response been and have those changes affected your football team?

A. The biggest changes were to the lighting, some things on the away side, like a new press box and it looks different because the school isn’t there anymore. It’s definitely a different look and I’m sure we can be heard from further away. The biggest thing for us is that it is a lot more windy there because it’s so open and everything sits down low. And I think it sounds louder and there’s just more sound to the game.

Q. How have you been able to come in after replacing Thom McDaniels and give the program your own flavor?

A. I just try to stay true to myself. I was fortunate to coach with some good head coaches and I think I’m a little bit of each one of them, but with my own twist. I learned a lot of football from them, but coming in here I had to do it my way. I have to be able to look in the mirror every day and know that I did what was right for me and right for the kids. We’ve really taught three things: Family, Focus and Attitude. Football is a game of life, so we try to teach the players how to be positive, care for each other, learn from adversity and to handle success and failure.

Q. Warren G. Harding is known for very successful football and basketball programs — which one is king at Harding?

A. I think we’ve been able to co-exist really. I’ve been close with Coach Arnold for years and there’s a mutual friendship and respect there. I think we’ve had a good working relationship and we’ve been able to carry on the winning tradition of both programs.

Q. What was the situation regarding the tie against East Cleveland Shaw in Week 1? How was it handled?

A. It was a mutual thing. It really was a safety decision for both teams, decided by both coaches and both ADs. We wanted to try to wait it out and finish the game, but there was more lightning at 11:30, so by the time we waited and played more, Shaw would be getting home at like 2:30 a.m. So, to come back the next day, would have been exhausting. It was a physical football game and both teams were beat.

XInterview conducted by Eric Hamilton.