Here it goes... Jackson vs. Wellston

[Portsmouth98]

Wow, late Wednesday and still only on page 1, very odd for this matchup.

[Portsmouth98]

Wow, late Wednesday and still only on page 1, very odd for this matchup.

DOH

[hsfbfan]

I think the reason there isn't much talking going on is because the Jackson fans are a little bit concerned about a possible Wellston upset. And, the Wellston fans are cautiously optimistic about their teams chances of winning.

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

Here's the main preview piece for Thursday's Times-Journal. Enjoy.





WHS at JHS 2009: Does new year mean same old story?

New-era Ironmen aim for 19th straight win in series

By PAUL BOGGS

Sports Editor

In a game full of questions, one stands above all else in this year’s Jackson-Wellston football clash.

While the more things change, will the more things stay the same?

For the Jackson High School football program, it’s a new era with a new head coach and new philosophies.

But will the novelty of the new-look Ironmen translate into a 19th straight victory over the visiting Golden Rockets?

Any and all questions will be answered on Saturday night, as Jackson and Wellston will square off for the 96th time as archrival opponents.

Kickoff is set for the prime time of 8 p.m. in Jackson’s Alumni Stadium.

Saturday night marks a milestone in the storied Jackson-Wellston rivalry, as the Rockets’ last win over the Ironmen came exactly 20 years ago at the former Jackson High School stadium.

None of the current players on either roster were even born yet, and Wellston High School athletic director Jeff Hendershott was the Golden Rockets’ quarterback.

Since then, the Ironmen are 18-for-18 against their neighbors to the north, including last season’s 41-14 pull-away win at Wellston.

The two teams did not play in 1991, and Jackson owns a 64-25-6 record in the all-time series.

So, will it be another game of the same-old, same-old for the Ironmen over the Rockets?

Well, neither program is the same compared to this time last year.

The Ironmen have a new head coach in Andy Hall, who has spent most of his coaching career in Scioto County.

This is Hall’s first Jackson-Wellston affair, as he brings with him a change in offensive and defensive schemes as well as new personnel.

“I’m really excited about this. It’s been something we’ve been thinking about since the day I got hired,” said Hall in an interview on Tuesday. “The first thing I was told when I got hired was whatever you decide to do, and whatever you decide to change or keep, understand the importance of the Wellston rivalry. Every day that I’ve been here, somebody in the town, community or school system has mentioned if we’re ready for week one. That’s where we’re at.”

The Rockets, meanwhile, are under the direction of third-year head coach Jason Mantell, who has been part of the game for the past six seasons as either an assistant coach, brother-in-law, fan or head coach.

Plus, several of the Rockets have started since they were sophomores, and hold an experience advantage over the Ironmen, which are playing several new players in new positions.

Already, it begs the question asked in Wellston for at least the past decade-and-a-half: Is this the year that the infamous streak is snapped?

Mantell — who played football for Andy Hall’s father and current Jackson defensive coordinator Larry Hall at Wheelersburg — was asked that question point-blank, as well as what would a win over Jackson mean to the Rocket program?

Especially after a two-decade drought.

“I’m not from here, but we’ve heard a lot of ‘this is the year’ talk over the last two decades. Let’s not downplay it either. We haven’t beaten Jackson in 20 years, and again I’m not from here, but it would be the biggest single-game win that we’ve had in 20 years,” said Mantell. “Now we’ve had two TVC-Ohio titles since then, and we’ve had two playoff appearances since then, and I don’t want to downplay what those four teams did. But a win over Jackson, I think, would be as big for our program as winning the conference championship and us making the playoffs.”

Many Wellston fans would argue it would be even greater.

So simply put, what’s it going to take — according to Mantell — for the Rockets to emerge victorious?

“What it’s going to take is playing well for all four quarters. We have not put four quarters together against them since probably the 2003 game (27-21 Jackson win), and unfortunately, we lost,” he said.

Mantell also mentioned that “I think it’s as much a mental thing as it has been physical.”

“Once something starts to roll, it’s the snowball effect. Once something is in the head of a young kid, I think that it is hard to overcome, no matter what the talent level is or how even the teams are,” he said. “People talk about the speed Wellston had for about a six-year run from Chris Hutchison (Wellston running back from 1996 through 1999) and Brad Young (Wellston running back from 1998 through 2001) and some of those kids. There were some close games, but there is that mental edge that Jackson has just seemed to have. Jackson’s kids, maybe, in the past have just believed a little bit more.”

Hall said that while he is new to the series, he recognizes “the importance of the rivalry and winning in week one.”

“This is a 365-day bragging rights situation. Because the communities are so close together, it’s kind of like that Hatfields and the McCoys. You have a lot of people that work together, you have lot a people that are related to each other,” he said. “But I’ve told these kids that they have not done this 18 years. They’ve done it one, two or three years of varsity. They can’t control the past. What they have to worry about is winning this year. Starting 1-0 as compared to trying to sustain a 19-year record. We’re concentrating on being 1-0.”

The new Jackson mentor added that his involvement in previous rivalries “has helped me prepare for this type of battle.”

“I’ve been involved in Rock-Hill Coal Grove games, Ironton-Wheelersburg games, but this is a true rivalry,” said Hall. “These are games why you coach. This is fun. This is what kids are excited about. The practice intensity is not hard at all to build in weeks like this.”

The Ironmen are aiming for a better week this week than last.

Hall said they performed poorly in their scrimmage against Wheelersburg last Friday, just six days after mixed reviews in their scrimmage against Meigs.

“The first scrimmage, I thought we moved the ball really well. I was impressed with our offensive line play and we pass-blocked pretty well. We moved the ball down the field. Defensively, physically, we just didn’t step up and make plays, nor were we lined up right,” he said. “In the second scrimmage, we didn’t do anything right. We didn’t block well offensively, and defensively, we slowly kind of went downhill after causing a fumble and an interception in the first 10 plays. Some of it was alignment problems, and some of it was overall intensity. I wasn’t happy at all with the last scrimmage.”

The coach then explained “changing gears here if we’re going to get this thing going.”

That included personnel shifts.

We’ve really been working on our physicality this week. We need to be more up-tempo in practice, be more physical in practice,” said Hall. “We’ve changed some personnel too. I think part of the problem in our two scrimmages was that we’re looking at a lot of new kids, we’re letting kids kind of play where they want, and we’re letting them feel their way through. Now, we’ve evaluated those kids and we’ve moved them to where we think they can play. There’s some new personnel packages this week that people haven’t seen in the last two weeks. I think that will help us tremendously.”

Mantell mentioned that his Golden Rockets greatly improved from their first scrimmage to their second.

“Against Chesapeake, we came out flat and didn’t play to our capabilities. We didn’t play well enough for us to diversify much. We just played our basic defense, and not very many running plays. We found out that if our intensity didn’t get better, if we don’t turn things around, given our schedule, it was going to be difficult and no one was going to take us seriously. Against Zane Trace, I thought we played extremely well. Our line play was fantastic, especially in the second half of the scrimmage. I thought we really took control of the game. We made some mistakes, but we were pleased,” he said.

The Rockets reportedly suffered a key injury, though, as sophomore tailback/linebacker Jaylen Prater injured his knee in the second half against Zane Trace.

Prater played hurt in the final three games of last season, and is listed as questionable for Saturday’s contest, Mantell said.

But the Ironmen aren’t without significant injury news themselves.

Hall said senior receiver/cornerback Ryan Mullins hyper-extended his knee against Wheelersburg.

But Mullins is easily best-known for his all-district placekicking abilities, as Hall said his kicker injured his plant leg as opposed to his actual kicking leg.

“Ryan Mullins and the kicker from Chillicothe (Ohio State signee Drew Basil) are probably the two best south of Columbus,” praised Mantell.

Like Prater for Wellston, Hall said Mullins may or may not be able to play on Saturday night.

“We hope to have him (Mullins) in there, because he is a huge part of what we do,” said Hall.

So just how will two key injuries impact play come game time?

It’s just another in the laundry list of questions surrounding this year’s Jackson-Wellston bout.

Not quite 100

There exists the belief that this year’s meeting marks the milestone 100th between Jackson and Wellston.

Not true, according to Southeastern Ohio Athletic League and Jackson High School football historian Randy Heath.

This is actually the 96th meeting, with the two teams having played as two official high school teams beginning in 1908.

There were four meetings prior to then, in which Wellston faced Jackson as a town team but was not recognized as an official high school team.

That quartet of matchups included 1898, twice in 1904 and again in 1905.

Jackson won all four of those contests.

[email protected]

[ironman02]

GREAT write-up, keyser_soze78! After reading that, I'm definitely ready for Saturday. The comments by both coaches show how much this game means to both sides...coaching staff, players, and fans. The rivalry has been one-sided for the last couple decades, but it's still as intense and anticipated as it ever was.

I'm glad that you wrote the "Not Quite 100" portion of your article as well. I have heard from other people, and maybe even you, that the earliest games between Jackson and Wellston may have been between Jackson High School and a team formed through the Wellston YMCA. I've never actually been able to speak to Mr. Heath about it, so it's nice to finally have a definitive answer about those first four games.

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

Thanks ironman02 for the kind words. Here's a 2nd story I did which focuses on all the actual matchup factors. In today's (Thursday) Times-Journal as well. Enjoy this one as well.



WHS-JHS matchup talk is mainly up front

By PAUL BOGGS
Sports Editor

Jackson wins the numbers game, and Wellston wins an edge in experience, but which team on Saturday night has an advantage up front?

As is always the case, this year’s Jackson-Wellston football game features a proverbial tale of the tape.

“We probably, in the skill area, have the experience edge, but in numbers, they have the edge,” said Wellston coach Jason Mantell. “Does it even out? I don’t know.”

Which makes the play along the offensive and defensive lines — already important enough — even more of a deciding factor.

In years past, the Ironmen have been known for their strong, physical and often overpowering offensive line play.

But this season, Jackson does not return a single starter up front from a year ago.

Some did play last year, but this isn’t the most experienced Ironmen trenchmen at the varsity level.

First-year Jackson head coach Andy Hall, an offensive-oriented mind who has implemented a greater emphasis on the passing attack, admits his Ironmen linemen are adjusting still to his new schemes.

Both offensively and defensively.

“Our line is a concern for us right now,” admitted Hall. “With no returning starters along the offensive line, we have to see what these guys are going to do. I think they are very capable of being a good offensive line. Not as big as they’ve been in the past, but because of our scheme, that will help them. They just haven’t been under the gun yet. Defensively, our style is more of a quicker and smaller line. It’s going to be interesting to see how we handle that. This year, I think Wellston’s offensive line is going to be bigger than our defensive line.”

The Ironmen are also not used to playing actual ironman football against the Golden Rockets.

Whereas Wellston is, which has been — according to Mantell — a disadvantage for the Blue and Gold.

“In years past, all five or six of our guys up front were starting both ways. All five guys were rolling every play on offense, and then flipping it and playing every play on defense. That’s not the case this year. That’s a huge plus for us,” he said. “I’m pleased with the kids that we have up front and we’re reasonably deep.”

But the Ironmen are deep in general, and plan to showcase that on Saturday night.

“One of the keys for us is our depth. We have a lot of kids that’ve we played. We’ve probably played 18 or 19 kids on defense and probably close to 20 kids on offense,” said Hall. “We don’t have any superstars, we don’t have that one kid that you have to stop. We can do a lot of things offensively and defensively that you can’t key on just one guy or block one guy to make things happen. So being able to substitute, and being able to use a lot of kids, is definitely going to be to our advantage.”

Mantell said he doesn’t believe the Ironmen “are as down as I think a lot of people seem to believe.”

“It’s not like they have no one to replace who they lost on the line. And it is tough. When you lose 100-percent of your starting line, and you are new to the program, that’s tough,” he said. “But I think Andy (Hall) has found some kids that are pretty solid for him. And maybe what they lack in offensive line, it seems like they make up for in skill-kid depth. They are five, six or seven deep there.”

That’s part of over 60 this season for the entire Jackson High School roster in grades nine through 12.

Mantell mentioned the Ironmen’s strength in numbers as a secret to their past success against the Golden Rockets.

“There are (OHSAA) divisions for a reason. There’s no question that Jackson has the numbers game on us,” he said. “They’ve had an upper-hand in the sense of depth. We might have 40 to 45 kids in our program, but that’s grades nine through 12. They typically have upper 50s or lower 60s nine through 12, and mid 40s to lower 50s in 10 through 12. They don’t even have to dress their freshmen for varsity games whereas we do. We’ve been worn on. They’ve had more kids to rotate in and out. But if that’s the case, then our conditioning has to improve. We can’t use that as an excuse. We have what we have and we have who we have. We just have to be in better condition than most anyone we play.”

Wellston does have experienced skilled position players returning.

Among those three-year senior starters are quarterback/cornerback Cody Wilkett, wingback/linebacker Ryan Darnell and wide receiver/cornerback Jeff Matteson.

“Most of these kids have been starting for Jason (Mantell) and playing varsity football for two and three years. A lot more games than what our kids have played at this level. I think going in that they have to be confident, regardless of the years past or the record,” said Hall.

All were all-TVC-Ohio choices last season, and Matteson is a two-time Division IV all-Southeast District Honorable Mention selection.

“We have some kids with some notoriety,” said Mantell.

Wilkett, Matteson, sophomore tailback/linebacker Jaylen Prater and junior fullback Brad Miller made Hall’s Wellston-watch list.

“Anytime you have a three-year starter at quarterback, he’s been in the fire and through the wars. In the two scrimmages we saw of Wellston, Wilkett has really impressed me as a guy that we need to contain. He does a good job of running the football and a pretty good job of throwing the football. He’s one of the fastest kids on the team,” said Hall. “And I really like Matteson at receiver. He’s six-foot-three, they look to throw the ball to him in the passing game. He’s long, he can run and has good hands. We have to make sure we know where he’s at.”

Mantell mentioned similar threats which the Ironmen possess.

“They are balanced in the sense that on one play, they are just in a basic pro-set and the next play, they’ll be four wide with an empty backfield. We expect a lot of different formations. I don’t think they’ve shown their hand completely from the two scrimmages, but I am real impressed with the read-option they are running with (Kruize) Wandling and (Eric) Landrum a little bit. They’re reading the (defensive) end and holding him hard, and they’ve run that for several long gains. They have two kids that can play quarterback for them (Wandling and Landrum). Their running game is similar to what we do when they are under center — trap, counter, quarterback keeper kind of thing. They did lose a lot of starters, but they have a lot of skilled kids and a lot of weapons. They have Wandling who is a good player. They have the (Klay) Arthur kid back at fullback. Landrum, (Drew) Ervin and (Derrick) Meredith can play all over the field. (Nathaniel) Haller is a big target. They have a lot of kids that have similar abilities, which makes it hard to defend because if one or two come out, they have two, three or even four to replace them.”

And most of the same Ironmen have played against Wellston the past two seasons, which were 56-6 and 41-14 runaways.

“It’s not like Jackson is completely bare. I think some people have the misconception that because they lost a large amount of kids from last year that they don’t have anything back this year,” said Mantell. “That’s really unfair to those kids because they do return a lot of kids that played regularly on their team last year and even played against us. I think they are kind of forgotten about just because Jackson had a large senior class.”

So perhaps Jackson has an experience edge even.

Either way, Hall knows his club must still execute.

“Just looking at the x’s and o’s of this thing, Wellston has a nice team, they are coached well,” he said. “It’s going to be a heckuva game regardless, but we have to play well to get a win.”

Saturday night fever

Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. on Saturday in what is expected to be a jam-packed Alumni Stadium.

This is the first game at Alumni Stadium between Jackson and Wellston which is being played on a Saturday night.

In years past, the game at Jackson has been played on Friday nights, while Wellston hosted the Saturday night main event.

Alumni Stadium starts its sixth season of existence this fall.

[email protected]

[grndma1]

Good luck to both Jackson and Wellston. It will be great to see the season start off again with these two teams. It's a tradition that I hope never ends. I hope for an injury free game, good rivalry, and seeing old friends on both sides of the field. The outcome can go either way, but one thing for sure, it will be an exciting evening.

[ironman02]

Great read as usual, keyser_soze78. Those two articles gave a ton of insight into the game. Keep up the good work.

Went to the middle school games tonight in Wellston. Impressive performance by both Jackson squads. There seems to be a lot of talent coming up through the program.

7th grade - Jackson 44 - Wellston 0

8th grade - Jackson 22 - Wellston 6

[LEROY]

I'm going with Wellston in the streak-ending win.

Good luck to both teams, and to Boilermaker. Have a great game.

[WitnessProtection]

Wellston ends the streak on Saturday.
Rockets 21, Ironmen 15

[sleepy floyd]

with new uniforms new coaching staff the only thing not new is a Jackson Victory.
Should be a great game but Jackson at home makes the difference.

[boilermaker]

Just got in from the Rockets practice. With not knowing if Jalen will play or not the Rockets have a new offensive scheme. They were working on the spread offense,and a empty backfield with five wideouts.This looked real good . I look for Wellston to throw the ball 50 times. Now if they can catch half of those they will have a chance.They were also working on a swing-gate type of play ,but use it as a play not a extra point. Trickery is the gameplan this week for the Rockets!
The team also has talked about taking the red shirt off of Ralph Whittington and letting him play.


GO ROCKETS!!!!!

[ironman02]

Just got in from the Rockets practice. With not knowing if Jalen will play or not the Rockets have a new offensive scheme. They were working on the spread offense,and a empty backfield with five wideouts.This looked real good . I look for Wellston to throw the ball 50 times. Now if they can catch half of those they will have a chance.They were also working on a swing-gate type of play ,but use it as a play not a extra point. Trickery is the gameplan this week for the Rockets!
The team also has talked about taking the red shirt off of Ralph Whittington and letting him play.


GO ROCKETS!!!!!

Very funny, boilermaker.

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

ironman02.....Thanks again for the kind words and once again you are welcome.

Here is one final story which developed out of my two interviews with the coaches. Interesting I thought. Enjoy this one as well.

I'm out the door in 20 minutes to head down to Chesapeake.


Halls meeting Mantells make WHS-JHS game ‘interesting’

By PAUL BOGGS

Sports Editor

By the time you read this, familiar faces — and friends — from Scioto County will have taken their football coaching show to the annual Jackson-Wellston rivalry.

First-year Jackson High School coach Andy Hall, and third-year Wellston High School mentor Jason Mantell, squared off against each other on Saturday night for the first time in Jackson County.

But they know each other quite well.

Mantell, along with his brother Brian, played for Hall’s father — Larry Hall — at Wheelersburg in the mid-and-late 1990s.

Larry Hall headed the ‘Burg for most of that decade.

Mantell said he knew Andy by being around Larry Hall almost every day.

Andy Hall was then making his way into the coaching ranks, around Scioto and even Lawrence County in Ohio and Greenup County in Kentucky.

Mantell played for two seasons at Wheelersburg while Andy assisted at Greenup.

“I’ve known Andy for probably 12 or 13 years. He was a familiar face when I was at Wheelersburg and he was a young coach. Of course, I was around Larry for every day almost for two years, and we had some nice playoff runs at Wheelersburg,” said Mantell. “Both Brian and I played for Larry the majority of our high school careers.”

While the Halls remained in Scioto County, Mantell made his way to Wellston as an assistant five years ago, then on to Manchester a year later.

That season was the first for Mantell as a head coach, and first year of football for the Manchester program.

“When he started coaching at Manchester, we spent time together, talked about coaching styles and how to build a program. I always told Jason that I would help him in any way I could,” said Hall. “Being an alumni and being a friend of mine, I wanted to see him do well. We’ve always stayed in contact, always talked about the x and o part of the game, and how to handle kids.”

Mantell admitted that he adopted what Larry Hall taught him when he was a Pirate.

“If you look at our (Wellston) offense, probably a third of our offense is from Coach Hall, or what he ran when we were at Wheelersburg,” he said.

Now, Mantell may utilize some of that knowledge against his mentor, and give Wellston its first victory in the Ironmen series in 20 years.

“It’s going to be interesting standing across the sidelines from both of them. I’ve never been across the sideline before from Coach (Larry) Hall. It will be a different feeling facing our former head coach,” he said. “For both my brother and myself. That’s rare that that gets to happen. I guess it’s more personal for us this year. When you’re across from the man who was your mentor as a high school player, you have something to prove.”

A victory would have been unquestionably Mantell’s biggest as a head coach, and one of the Golden Rockets’ largest in school history.

Meanwhile, the Ironmen aimed to extend their infamous winning streak over the Rockets to 19.

Hall said the entire situation this season was “unique.”

“It’s kind of unique this year that we are coaching against each other, Not just each other, but in such a heated rivalry such as the Jackson-Wellston series,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we’re both preparing our teams to play against the other team, not necessarily the other coach. We’ll lay our friendship aside for four quarters and play the game and after that, we’ll be friends again.”

Indeed, the Halls and Mantells are familiar faces — and friends — in now one of Ohio high school football’s fiercest rivalries.

[email protected]

[ibe4gahs]

Will this game be broadcast on any radio stations?

[ironman02]

Jackson's games are usually on 96.7 FM, but I don't know for sure.


Glad it's finally gameday. The forecast seems to be clear for tonight and the game time temperature should be around 70 degrees...pretty good weather for the first game.

Good luck to the Ironmen tonight. Week 1 is YOUR week!

[The _Big_One]

If Ralph Whittington plays this year rockets have a chance at a state title!

[boilermaker]

If Ralph plays the Rockets will win the state in all divisions!

[blacksheep_24]

21-14 wellston win.

[RVRaiderFan]

Jackson won 21-7.

This was my first trip to Alumni Stadium. Very impressive!