D5 State Semis! Final 4! Coldwater vs. Wheelersburg

[yabbadabbadoo]

Great season Pirates! Nothing to be ashamed of at all. 2nd best record ever by a Burg team (89 state champion team went 14-0).


Someone else was telling me that they ask there football players to also participate in wrestling, which teams them the quickness of how to get around their opponent. Saw a lot that being put to work with there D-Line all night long. Filled the lanes very quickly and made running the ball very difficult for the Burg.

Maybe Burg can start traveling to beef up there schedule like they have done in the past. If that is what it takes, then someone needs to make it happen.

[piratepride86]

Thanks for the great season. You all have been fun to watch.
To the coldwater team great job and good luck next week.
You opened up a can of woopass and are some High Quality H2O

[CWVoice]

I'm not sure where your information is coming from, but Coldwater is not Amish. Yes, there is a large settlement of Old Order Amish directly west of us in Eastern Indiana, but there really are few cross overs. Coldwater has a vast majority of German Catholics.

By the end of tomorrow night, there will probably be three schools, all from Southern Mercer County, and whose districts touch each other, will be playing in Columbus. They are all big German Catholic towns.

[knightruner]

Dang I thought they were big AMERICAN towns. Anyway they know how to play football.

[Abe Froman]

Congrats on a greats season to the Pirates.

Now you know what it takes, got to put all those things in place, and have the patience as a program to reap the results. Coldwater has built a machine and is completely rounded it seems in all facets of the game (O,D,ST's). Every kid executes every play, every Friday night.

Well done Burg, take a month off and get back aftert it.

[Henry Jones, Jr.]

One thing Coldwater doesn't have is buddy league football. Their kids start in the 7th grade.

[big medicine]

Congrats to Wheelersburg on a fine season.

Have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed following this conversation this past week, with the possible exception of a couple of pages spent on seating assignments.

As to some of the comments made. If a fan doesn't support his/her team with all they got, they just don't have any sand at all. But I have to say some of the " Coldwater has not yet been hit like they will be Friday night,", and 'haven't seen the likes of us" kind of stuff, made me grin.

Listened to this game on the computer tonight. First half on a Celina station (Coldwater home broadcast), and the second half on your burgfan.com station to see how your announcers were handling the game. Which I thought the did fairly well.

This game tonight put me in mind of a very similar game a few years back, 07 I think. Coldwater was playing a very confident Clinton Massie team who had been steamrolling everybody with a power inside run game. I was at this game at U.D.'s Welcome Stadium, which by the way has adequate seating on both sides. During pregame warm ups, you could just about see the Massie supporters butts tighten up watching the Coldwater wide outs hauling in long catch after catch, but they knew they would be able to drive down the field, score and eat a bunch of clock, with their run game. The thing was that Coldwater, playing in the MAC, had been exposed to just about everything anybody had thought of to try, and any weakness they had been exposed and exploited, making any team that survived that schedule very well rounded and adaptable. So Coldwater loaded the box, and stuffed Massie's running game. The entire night Massie continued to try to run up the gut, to no avail. I don't know if they were just so convinced that eventually they would wear Coldwater out, and it would start working, or the fact that it had always worked they might not even have had a plan B in the playbook.

So I guess what I am getting at here is it is up to you what you take from last night's game. Massie saw the need to be a little more versatile, which has paid off in a couple State titles. Coldwater and Massie are scheduled to start a home and home series beginning next year, which should benefit both teams. I agree with several posters, that beefing up your non league schedule can do nothing but help in the long run.

[The Nature Boy]

Thanks Coldwater for not hanging seventy points on the Burg. Classy team and whole different level. No one have acknowledged my posts on here and this will be my last but I think from reading other posts about playing schools out of your area economics have a lot to do with that. Some schools don't have the funds. And, if you want speed, this old coach used to train his linemen like boxers. Speed bag and jump rope and the parachute really work. Also shadow boxing gets the footwork down. Good luck in round ball Burg, I hear you might be good. Coldwater, keep representing.

[sports junkie]

I really think Wheelersburg if it were to play in the MAC, would finish in the middle of the pack.

Last night showed that Coldwater is playing at a much higher level.

[CrashDavis]

Congrats Burg on a fine season. Nothing at all to hang your heads about.

The Coldwater community, parents and fans should be (and I'm sure they are) very proud of their kids. From pre game, to warm ups, to the band, to the fans, an entire class act. No negativity surrounding anything involved in their process, and that breeds winning. One of the most impressive butt whippins (lol) I've seen in a long, long time. Bring the D5 title home again Cavs!

[Westfan]

Usually Wheelersburg in warmups is the confident team. As the other poster kind of hit on you could feel Coldwater was the confident team during warmups. I thought it was interesting when Coldwater split into 4 lines before they went to team O and D. All designed I'm sure to psych out the opponent.

The awe of playing teams like Coldwater can be fixed with a beefed up schedule. What it can't fix is the caliber of athlete. Coldwater is just good at every position. Yes their skill kids dominate, but I was just as impressed by the O and D lines. The footwork on pass protection and the way they get off blocks on defense looks like a drill every play. They are a machine.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

Just my thoughts on teams from this area competing with Coldwater like teams.

In no real order

1-Get your numbers up-Depth especially on the lines and RB slot. Also need to have JV TEAM AND FRESHMAN Team(That way those players are getting on field experience. Having 7th and 8th grade teams can only help.
2-Weight room- Have to be stronger, again especially on the lines
3-Study film
4-Upgrade the non league schedule- Even if this means traveling (get a home and home)
5-Have to be able to run and pass the ball.
6-Conditioning- Have to get this up even more
7-All teams in system must run same off and def.

[greygoose]

Getting a large number of players to play football year in and year out is huge. Coldwater has built such a program that the kids just buy into how things are done and know what is expected, not only that but you're talking about 2nd and 3rd string players that go up against these state champion starting lineups they've had now for probably 7 years straight. People wonder how they reload each year it's simple you've got a large group in a small division coming out every year so you don't lose a large class then drop down like a lot of other schools. Then these kids, unless they're just standouts, aren't starting as freshman and sophomore and are spending couple years going against the best players on the best team in DV. Then you get into Freshman and JV schedules where they're not traveling all over to play tough teams to get them ready, the MAC schools are playing each other as Freshman and JV which everyone knows what the MAC schools are doing year in and year out. So by the time these kids get to the point of starting they've gone up against state championship starting lineups in practice every day, then freshman and JV teams are going up against the other MAC teams who are tough as nails also. So yeah by this time kids simply just slide into their position for the varsity team and have faced the best opponents and gotten kicked around and learned from the best for couple years. They're just ready built, while you'll have players be better then others and positions be stronger one year to another the theme remains the same, 11 strong with no weak links when they step out on that field. Of course they're confident they've been playing better teams then the one they're about to face for 2,3,4 years.

[Burg_Grad_77]

Great season, pirates. Maybe we'll see you when the little white balls start flying.

By the way, shame on you Burg fans who left in the 3rd. #Fairweather

Thanks for a fun week of discussion. Catch you all on the flipside.

Probably wasn't actual Burg people, just people from our area there to watch. The whole county brings fans to the games.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

I think about 20-25% of the fans on the Burg side left really early.

I was shocked, even with the game long being over.

I would guess the players saw this and it had to be disheartening.

[kodeman419]

Usually Wheelersburg in warmups is the confident team. As the other poster kind of hit on you could feel Coldwater was the confident team during warmups. I thought it was interesting when Coldwater split into 4 lines before they went to team O and D. All designed I'm sure to psych out the opponent.

The awe of playing teams like Coldwater can be fixed with a beefed up schedule. What it can't fix is the caliber of athlete. Coldwater is just good at every position. Yes their skill kids dominate, but I was just as impressed by the O and D lines. The footwork on pass protection and the way they get off blocks on defense looks like a drill every play. They are a machine.

You are correct. Cw has athleticism along both lines and that won them the line of scrimmage. WOSN is replaying the game latwr todày so I will record it to watch again. Felt going in that it was a mistake for WB to spread the field and create space with CW athletes... Thought WB best chance was to use its size,strength and power....run double TE with small spacing between linemen and run at CW. Felt WB came out in 2nd half more packed in but I doubt this makes a difference in the outcome regardless.
Obviously CW 's coaches liked what they seen in the passing game as that was the focal point all night but did have success running misdirection/counter. Looking forward to watching the replay and focusing more on those line battles

[wobycat]

1. Coldwater is like an army. I watched them warm up, during the game, their reaction to the touchdown they gave up, and their overall awareness of the game. Everyone of those kids were in tuned to the game.
2. Scheduling is a must but kind of hard with finance. Coldwater just happens to be in the best confrence and area. They really don't have to travel far to get competition.
3. I think Burg is going to continue to put themselves in a position to play for championships. The coaching staff are always looking to better the team. They will sure learn from this now that they've experienced it.
4. Most burg fans knew the game would be tough. I think we thought it would be closer but this whole year they've not felt adversity. Didn't know how to handle it.
5. I'm not sure how any other way burg schemes for this game. Perhaps they go to a cover 4 and make coldwater dink and dunk. On offense they could have tried to go more power. Very difficult game to call against a team like that. I thought burgs best play was the zone sweep that they've ran all year. Maybe they could have simplified and try to do what they do best.

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

congratulations to the wheelersburg pirates on another fine year of football in the south. and were a great representative from our part of the state.

[BobSugar]

Maybe Wheelersburg needs to start scheduling to play one or two of these tougher teams up North to get experience..

All SOC II teams need to do this or at least get north of Chillicothe, Ohio into some of the C-bus or surrounding schools that are near our same size. Amanda CC, Jonathan Alder or Clinton-Massie would be a good pickups instead of the OVC. I know Massie has a week 3 opening.

Hit it right on the head. You don't get better by playing Fairland and Coal Grove. Get some good Columbus area or Cincy teams on the schedule.

Another thing is that teams around this area don't really throw the ball. It's all Woody Hayes three yards and a cloud of dust offenses. You need to face teams that pass so that you will be ready for that come playoff time. That Burg pass defense looked bewildered at times.

[kodeman419]

1. Coldwater is like an army. I watched them warm up, during the game, their reaction to the touchdown they gave up, and their overall awareness of the game. Everyone of those kids were in tuned to the game.
2. Scheduling is a must but kind of hard with finance. Coldwater just happens to be in the best confrence and area. They really don't have to travel far to get competition.
3. I think Burg is going to continue to put themselves in a position to play for championships. The coaching staff are always looking to better the team. They will sure learn from this now that they've experienced it.
4. Most burg fans knew the game would be tough. I think we thought it would be closer but this whole year they've not felt adversity. Didn't know how to handle it.

I can understand the financial aspect. May have to get athletic boosters help there with transportation cost... Plenty of good Mac teams to play, doesn't have to be coldwater. Marion local traveled to beasville for a game out of necessity. Mac teams are looking for computer points. WB offers that.... They even dropped a conference game so they could play an OOC game instead of beating each other up. CW did not play ft recovery this year. Typically, FR has been one of the weaker teams... Fairly new etc.... But have really come on... Obviously.