It seems like every year Gridiron Glory (for those of you who don't know this is a high school football highlight show in Southeast Ohio produced by Ohio University students) covers at least one team that has a very successful season and has one reporter that almost exclusively covers that team's games. In 2008 that team was the Logan Chieftains, and I was "their reporter." I'm not sure that this was an entirely good thing...it may have looked weird seeing the same college kid at a bunch of their practices, games, even at their school for a day (I'll discuss that shortly), but I can't say I didn't enjoy becoming familiar with the Chieftain players and staff. In fact, by the end of the playoffs I had reported on seven Logan games and shot another one (out of 12).It all started during two-a-days when GG producer Justin Stoll and I headed out to Logan to shoot some practice video and interview Dale Amyx, Logan's head coach. Eventually we discovered that the team was practicing in a big field right by one of the Route 33 exits in Logan, since the new Logan High School and its football field were still under construction. We had coach Amyx tell us where the new field was being built so we could check it out. Seeing the new Logan Chieftain Stadium was the first good sign I received for the upcoming season. Maybe it just seemed more impressive because everything was new, but the stadium looked amazing. It sported brand new field turf, a big scoreboard with a little video board for messages, a nice press box and pristine bleachers. Something about getting to walk around the stadium before it had actually been used for an event was really impressive to me.
Next came week one of the football season, when Logan hosted Lancaster. For starters, a sky diver landed on the field to deliver the game ball. I'd never heard of this happening at any level of football, much less at a high school in Southeast Ohio. Logan and Lancaster often played in week one and Lancaster usually dominated the game...but not on this night. The Gales kicked a field goal to get on the board first, but from then on it was all Logan as the Chieftains rolled to a 35-10 win (keep in mind this was a Division II team beating a D-I squad by 25). It wasn't the margin of victory that stunned me the most, though, it was how Logan got there. Since the first time I'd seen Logan play, the Chieftains had always been a power football team. They would line up in the I formation, dominate the line of scrimmage and basically run it down the throats of their opponents...and it worked for them. Against Lancaster, though, Logan's offense ran almost exclusively out of shotgun sets. The reason for this switch became clear to me very quickly: junior quarterback Patrick Angle. Angle took over under center for his brother Michael, who graduated the year before, and was electrifying. He could out-run or run over defenders, or throw a perfect pass...whatever the situation called for. He broke the school's single-season record for touchdown passes, was named to the All-Ohio First Team and was Gridiron Glory's Player of the Year. Angle and the school even let Dan Lannon and I follow him around for an entire day to put together a "day in the life" TV package to show our viewers what a game day is like for high school football players. I can't say I didn't feel incredibly awkward, walking around a high school for a day as a 21-year-old, but it was still pretty cool and I thought the package turned out pretty sweet.
Led by Angle, the Chieftains finished the regular season 10-0 and won their first playoff game since 2000. In the regional semi-finals the third-seeded Chieftains faced second-seed Louisville, which was the state runner-up in 2007. The teams played at Zanesville's Sulsberger Stadium on a night when mother nature was not sympathetic to the spread offense. Both Logan and Louisville ran the spread and it rained for pretty much the entire game, sometimes abnormally hard. There were plenty of dropped passes on both sides, and an uncharacteristic 4 interceptions thrown by Angle. Louisville led 7-0 early and looked like they would keep scoring, but thanks to some big defensive plays and a couple lucky breaks, Logan stayed within a score. In the fourth, the Chiefs finally broke into the red zone, but Angle threw an interception on the goalline that halted his team's best chance to tie the game, giving Louisville a 7-0 win.
I had no official connection to this Logan team - I was simply a member of the media who reported on the team throughout the season. Still, it was a unique experience for me, seeing them so much throughout the season. When they did lose that last game, I almost felt like I had lost it with them. I'm not saying it hurt me as much as the players coaches, there's no way it was even close. Still, at that point I just wanted them to keep playing and stay alive in the postseason. I don't think my objectivity as a journalist had been compromised, it's just a lot more enjoyable to watch and report on success than to have to break the news that the team a lot of viewers pull for just had its season ended. It was still great to watch such a successful and exciting team so much during one season.
While not all of you may have been familiar with this localized story, the next stop on my countdown returns to the national stage...but I won't be surprised if you're unfamiliar with it as well.
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