Presidents anxious to play in MOAC

MARION – Some members of the old guard in Marion may still be gritting their teeth over the move, but more folks than not have accepted reality with the annexation of Marion Harding into the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference.

For years, Harding was the lone Division I team in Marion County and always bumped heads with the likes of Mansfield Senior, Sandusky, Findlay, Fremont Ross, and Lorain among others in the regular season and several big-name schools in the playoffs.

Those were the days when Harding’s enrollment was high enough to provide enough boys to successfully play those big schools. Even as far back as 1956, enrollment figures showed 1,700 total students in grades 9-12.

Fewer boys at Harding

Harding fans bristled at any talk of playing any of the other smaller Marion County teams, or teams similar to them in size, in football.

Then last year Harding was accepted into the MOAC. The school’s enrollment numbers in 2012 had fallen to 986 total students, with only 503 boys included in that list.

New numbers for 2014 released by the Ohio High School Athletic Association last week showed only 379 eligible boys at Harding.

With Upper Sandusky staying only one season in the MOAC’s Red Division in football, Harding wasn’t scheduled to begin football competition in the league until this fall.

The last league the Presidents played in was a Division I- and II-dominated loop called the Greater Buckeye Conference.

That conference folded its tent after the 2010 season and forced Harding into a league search.

Harding badly wanted to get into the Ohio Capital Conference, but for some unexplained reason that Central Ohio loop expressed no interest in a school from Marion. At the same time, Harding had also asked to join the Toledo City League and the Northern Ohio League.

With the pending expansion of the MOAC several years ago, Harding switched gears and looked toward the more-local league.

Many Marion concerns nearly lost their lunches over the decision, but all they have to do is look at the enrollment numbers to finally understand Harding isn’t Division I material any more in football.

Harding is a small DII entity, and it is joining a league which has one DIII school, three DIV schools, and many from DV or VI.

Tough non-conference teams

The Presidents this season will still play large schools such as Mount Vernon, Lima Senior and Mansfield Senior in their non-conference schedule.

But then come the River Valleys, Elgins, Pleasants and North Unions of the world.

Harding head coach John Brady admitted he remembers fine battles with larger schools over the years at Harding, but he realizes the current situation.

“I am a BC guy,” Brady said in discussing the former Buckeye Conference in which he played for Harding many years ago. “But football is football. We are not the power we used to be with numbers.”

After the demise of the GBC, Harding was thrust into an independent schedule since no conference came calling. The Presidents were forced to look for DI or II schools which had an opening in their non-league schedules, and that limited the field of prospective foes.

Many times they had to take what they could get and wound up playing powerhouses which were looking for non-league wins to boost their playoff points standings.

Struggling to compete

In the last few seasons, the Presidents, during campaigns which were 3-7 at best, were thrashed 70-20 and 62-13 by Akron St. Vincent/St. Mary; 63-7 and 68-7 by Austintown-Fitch; and 63-7 by Marysville.

Harding was 9-31 in its four seasons as an independent.

As enrollment figures gradually declined, so did Harding’s football won-lost records.

The Presidents were 7-4 and a playoff team in their final season in the Ohio Heartland Conference. They were 9-2 and made the playoffs again in 2003 in their first season in the GBC, but after that Harding had only a 25-45 record in GBC games.

Including an 0-10 ledger of a year ago, that makes Harding 34-76 against the big boys since that last playoff squad of 2003.

Three years ago, due to injuries and player defections, there were only 27 active Presidents on the roster for their final game of the season.

Most of the larger schools that took Harding to the wood shed are now off of the schedule. The MOAC has been added.

“People say they (MOAC teams) are too small, but Harding is small now in enrollment,” Brady said. “That’s just the way it is.”

MOAC has benefits

Brady said being a member of the MOAC now will satisfy many needs.

“You have a set schedule, and you can get that rivalry thing going again,” he said. “With Harding, it used to be teams like Findlay and Mansfield Senior you had rivalries with. You have to have that Ohio State-Michigan type of game in your conference, and I hope down the road Harding is everyone’s rival game.”

Harding and River Valley have already had a non-league series which has seen each team dominate in different eras.

It began in 1991 with a 12-9 Harding win over the Vikings, the first of four straight wins for the Presidents over RV from 1991-94.

It resumed in 2013 and River Valley has held serve since with a 41-13 triumph that season and a 33-7 victory in 2014. The two will meet again in week 10 this season since both are members of the MOAC Red Division.

‘A logical fit’

When Harding was admitted to league play in all sports but football in 2013, MOAC commissioner Terry Williams said the Marion school would be a fine addition to the conference.

“All leagues are going to geographical considerations because of gas prices and travel,” Williams said at that time. “Harding seemed to be the logical fit. I think they would be a very good fit for the league.”

Brady believes attendance at Presidents home games will increase with area foes replacing those who took a long time to reach Harding Stadium.

“Bishop Ready never did bring anybody here,” Brady said. “Toledo Scott, Sandusky, and even the good Tiffin teams never brought anybody.”

On the flip side of that coin, Harding will not have to take long journeys in conference play to larger far-away schools whose teams hoped to face a bus-weary opponent.

“It was tough going all that way and getting out of a vehicle and playing,” said senior Harding tight end/defensive end Jordan Scott. “We would get out of the bus for about an hour and stretch on a long trip, but you have to keep your mind focused to play.”

The Presidents won’t have to travel to play such powerhouse teams as Austintown and Akron SVSM any more, but Brady said the MOAC still offers up tough competition.

New challenges

“This league is as good as any,” he said. “It’s proven with the playoff teams it has had. Pleasant, River Valley, Galion, North Union and Jonathan Alder are all playoff material. They seem to qualify at least every other year, and the teams in the conference are all very well coached.”

The conference will also offer up new challenges for Brady and his crew.

“I will have to do my research now on these teams,” Brady said. “But at least, with the regular conference schedule, we will know the teams’ rosters from the year before. We didn’t know anything about Fitch or the Toledo teams until we got rosters and Sunday films.

“If you are in a league, you know who the players are and you are familiar with the coaches and what they do.”

During the 2014-15 school year, Brady watched how other Harding athletic teams dealt with what were their initial trips through MOAC competition.

He likes the attitude he saw out of them, and he’s thrilled to see it wash over onto the football program.

“I think it’s great all of our coaches have the same goal of winning the league, and we will work hard to do it,” Brady said. “We are all on the same page. Coach Worstell (Harding boys head basketball coach Don Worstell) had our kids together and he talked about winning the conference, and that’s all we’ve talked about all summer.”

Even if Harding doesn’t win the MOAC, Brady believes there are still benefits to being a part of it.

“The kids get more recognition in a league, and that’s what it is all about,” he said.

With two county teams in its own division, the MOAC lineup will also give the Presidents a chance to square off against many players they know.

“It opens up a lot of opportunities for our football team,” said senior Harding guard/noseguard Airian Harmon. “We can now play against kids we grew up with.”

Harding senior tackle/defensive end Mike Davis can’t wait for one opportunity.

“I have a couple of friends who play for Pleasant who were running their mouths last year,” Davis said with a smile. “Last year I told them, ‘OK, wait until we get in the league.’

“I can’t wait to hit them.”

dmcphers@nncogannett.com

740-375-5158

Twitter: @starsportsdenny

MID OHIO ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

2014 Final Standings

NOTE: Marion Harding replaces Upper Sandusky in the 2015 Red Division lineup.