Photo

Photo by: Mark Stahl

Mark Asher

Team

East Liverpool

Record	Div.	Conf.
2/5	Div. IV	Independents

Former Youngstown State University assistant coach Mark Asher has been a successful car and real estate salesman for the past 15 years.

Asher left Jim Tressel’s staff in 1996 during YSU’s national championship era and recently surfaced as the head coach of the East Liverpool High School football team.

Last year, Asher, who’s made a name for himself in the sales profession, took over a Potter team that went 1-19 in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

The always optimistic salesman quickly sold the players from those teams a philosophy and spirit that has transformed the once proud East Liverpool football program back to prominence in only two short years.

Tonight, the Potters (8-2) will take on Newark Licking Valley in a Division III, Region 11 playoff game. It is the team’s first appearance since 2002 and only the third (all losses) in team history.

Q. How has the buzz and excitement been in East Liverpool now that you have turned the program around and are playing in the postseason?

A. It’s been great. The mayor just came to our practice to talk to the team. The excitement here has been a great positive influence on the area and community. Our students are so pumped up for this weekend and its been a great way to start the school year for them.

Q. Your team is coming off a disappointing loss to Salem in week 10. How do you put that loss behind and move forward into this week’s playoff game?

A. Hopefully you learn from a loss like that. We were at home and I don’t think I did a good job of motivating the team and so we didn’t play very well. It would be easy to talk about how we didn’t execute fundamentally or run to the ball because those things are easy to fix. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to the playoffs here so motivation won’t be a problem and hopefully we learned a lesson last week.

Q. How were you able to turn the program around so quickly?

A. I think what I tried to do was change the perception around here - the perception the players had of themselves, especially with fundamentals. We had to convince them that they were good players. I looked for fighters, kids that worked hard and wouldn’t quit. The biggest things to overcome were attitudes so we talked a lot about the great tradition the school had in football in the past and how they could help bring that spirit back.

Q. After almost 15 years out of the coaching profession (other than a brief stint as an assistant at East Palestine) why did you want to become a head coach and why at East Liverpool?

A. In my past I had always followed the great coaches at East Liverpool and I think the great thing about coaches is that they respect their peers. I missed that part of my life and when East Liverpool came calling — their alumni got a hold of me and asked me to throw my name in the hat — I considered it a lot. I knew the school had great tradition and had great athletes. The cupboard wasn’t bare. This was just a great opportunity and a perfect situation for me. The time was right for me to get back into a profession that I love.

Q. Are you still in touch with Coach Tressel and did he have any influence on your coaching style or with anything you do here at East Liverpool now?

A. We still e-mail each other once in a while, this is a busy time of year for him. We had a couple players visit down there and we still stay in touch. All of us coaches at YSU learned how to win under coach [Tressel], what it took to win, how hard you have to work to win and how you have to want to win. Those were great years.

Q. What was it like back then winning all those championships and do those stories correlate to today and what you are trying to do with your program?

A. Absolutely. Those years were the greatest and kind of like what we are experiencing here now with the excitement by the community. It was a rush. Here at East Liverpool, I’ve called on some of those great YSU players I had at YSU to come talk to the kids about attitude, winning with class and what football can mean for the rest of their lives.

Q. You are known as a great salesman, how does that translate into coaching high school football?

A. I think it is very important. My glass is always half full and you have to be positive. You have to sell yourself to your team because if the players don’t believe in what your are doing they won’t be successful. Our players have bought into my way of doing things and it’s paid off.

Q. What was that first Friday night in August like for you last year?

A. It was awesome. It had been a long time for me to experience that again. It was a fun night. Friday nights under the lights is high school football. You can’t beat it.

Interview conducted by Chuck Housteau.