Three Firestone football players will be continuing their careers in college next season, and two at the same school.
Trevor Kennedy, who was a first-team All-City performer at quarterback, will play at Mercyhurst (Pa.) College, along with receiver Jeffery Brantley. Meanwhile, Ross Davis, a running back for the Falcons, will be a preferred walk-on at the University of Akron.

The three players helped the Falcons (7-2, overall and 6-0 in the City Series) win the outright City championship for the first time since the school opened in 1963 and started playing in 1964.

John Dickerson, a Canton native, will retire from his position as assistant commissioner of the Ohio High School Athletic Association on September 19.

Dickerson is a 1960 graduate of Canton Lincoln High School, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Union College in 1964 and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Akron in 1969. He also is a member of the Lorain County Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, the OSSCA Hall of Fame and the OHSAA Officials Hall of Fame. He was a registered football official in Ohio for 41 years, which included officiating 14 state championship games.

The OHSAA announced that the deadline for applications for the position is May 2, by noon and that finalists will be notified by Commissioner Dan Ross no later than May 16.

The City Series baseball teams will not have a four-team playoff at the end of the regular season. One veteran City coach said there may have been the perception on the outside that the reason the league did away with the playoff system several years ago was because the district was going through financial difficulty, which forced cuts in extracurricular activities.

The district passed a levy which helped bring back those extracurricular activities that were cut. But Ellet coach John Sarver said the levy had nothing to do with the elimination of the playoff system.

Sarver said it all started a few years back when the basketball teams decided to drop the four-team playoff system and instead just play the championship game between the top two teams. That change was implemented because the basketball teams, in putting together schedules each season, had to factor in the possibility of playing in the semifinal and/or championship games. That meant coaches could only schedule 18 games (OHSAA rules allow for 20 regular season games) in case they made it to the City playoffs. But if a team didn’t make the playoffs, they would have only played 18 or 19 games during the regular season.

So the baseball teams decided to follow suit and drop the playoff system, allowing the coaches to schedule two additional games in place of the two dates they would have reserved for the playoffs.

Incidently, OHSAA rules allow 27 regular season baseball games.

The voice message said, “”You have reached Jason Hall, head football coach at Nordonia High School…”

Hall will quickly be changing that message to, “”You have reached Jason Hall, head football coach at Massillon High School…” if he hasn’t already.

On Thursday, Hall, 33, resigned as head coach at Nordonia after leading the Knights to a 10-2 record and an appearance in the Division I state semifinal game. Hall’s announcement ended weeks of speculations that he was the top candidate for the Massillon job, which became available when former coach Tom Stacy took the head coaching job at Green.

From the tone of Nordonia athletic director Rob Eckenrode’s voice, it appeared that Eckenrode may have been taken aback somewhat, considering Hall had coached Nordonia just one season. Maybe Eckenrode and the Nordonia supporters that Hall would spend more time there. But the high-profile Massillon job seemed to be too enticing for Hall to pass up.

“”I wish Jason luck,” Eckenrode said.

When asked if he thought Hall would leave, after hearing rumors that Hall was a leading candidate for the Massillon job, Eckenrode responded, “”I’d rather not comment. I need to look out for what’s best for Nordonia.”

One of the names already circulating as a possible replacement for Hall is actually a familiar name. It’s Keith Boedicker, who coached 11 seasons at Nordonia, compiled a 92-32 record and led the Knights to five appearances in the playoffs. Eckenrode declined to give any details as to any candidates or a timeline for hiring.

“”I’m not going to speculate on what’s going to happen next,” he said. “”Myself, the principal (Chuck Vrabel) and the superintendent (Wayne Blankenship) are going to get together and make the best possible decision for the school and the program.”

Telephone messages for Hall were not returned.[ep

OK, this has to be one of the more interesting and amusing tidbits I’ve come across.

Lake Center Christian School in Hartville has two student-athletes on the baseball and softball teams, respectively, who are siblings.

Brad Miller is a left fielder and pitcher and his sister, Mary Miller, plays center field.

Then there’s Jesse Coblentz, who is a pitcher on the baseball team, and Brittany Coblentz, who is a pitcher on the softball team.

I called the school to see about writing a feature on the four athletes thinking how interesting it would be to write about two sets of siblings playing the same sports at the same schools.

Well, after talking to one of the secretaries at the school, she informed me that Jesse and Brittany share the same last name, but aren’t even related.

Go figure.

When it comes to track, it’s always about who ran the fastest, jumped the highest or threw the shot or the discus the farthest. But sometimes there are stories, GREAT, INSPRATIONAL STORIES, that don’t have to do with who won.

For instance, I remember watching the local news in the fall, I think it was, and there was an amazing story about a young lady (she may have been from the Youngstown area), who was competing in the state high school cross country meet and was almost near the finish line. Then came a gruesome sight. She broke her leg on the course and fell to the ground.

But this young lady had the courage and fortitude to crawl and limp her way to the finish line, despite being in obvious pain.

It was a story of incredible self-will. This young lady needed medical help, but she didn’t want it. She was withering with pain but she wanted to finish that race, and if you watched the video, you couldn’t help but get a little emotional, knowing she was in a world of pain. But watching her will her way to that finish line, regardless of the pain she was experiencing, was breathtaking and moving.

The yound lady gave a great television interview a few days later and it was great to see she was doing well and was in good spirts. I think she even joked that all she was thinking about, when she went down, was that she wasn’t going to be able to dance at her sister’s wedding later that night.

I witnessed another incredible story, but it didn’t involve injury. A few years ago I was covering a regional track meet at Ravenna and the Copley girls were favored in this particular relay event. As the race began, Copley was right there, as expected. But during one of the exchanges, the baton was dropped and the team was out of the race.

The young lady who dropped the baton was devasted. I mean, I had never seen an athlete more distraught. What I found out later was that the young lady was only a sophomore and there were two seniors on that relay team. The sophomore felt she had blown it for the seniors because it was their last chance to make it to state.

She was on the infield of the track, as the race was still going, slumped over an emotional ball.

She just shuddered and shook as she cried.

Then, former Copley standout Carrie Dyer, who was a senior and on that relay team, ran to the young runner to comfort her.

Then the rest of the realy team followed.

To me, that was one of the most inspirational stories I had ever witnessed.

The sophomore was heartbroken. But she was heartbroken because she cared about her teammates and wanted to perform at her best so that it would help the seniors.

It didn’t happen. But when it didn’t happen, the seniors weren’t mad, bitter or upset. They showed support for their younger teammate because they loved her. And in the end, winning didn’t matter.

So, with that, I’m asking readers to post any inspirational stories you witnessed, in track or any other sport, that didn’t involve someone winning.

A story where someone overcame odds to get where they are. Or a story about teammates helping one another.

Those are the most compelling stories.

Tom O’Neil is still the track coach at North even though he gave up his position as head football coach after the 2006-07 season.

But that football mentality is still in his head.

While I was at a City Series track meet at Ellet Tuesday, I found it odd that O’Neil was standing along the fence near the finish line with a stop watch. Now keep in mind, the meet was between host Ellet, Buchtel and Firestone. North wasn’t competing.

So I asked O’Neil, “Hey Tom, are you helping with the timing?” He answered, no, we run against Buchtel in a few days so I’m just scouting.”

I doubled over in laughter. I couldn’t believe it.

Then again, as competitive and thorough as O’Neil was as a football coach for 12 years at North, it didn’t surprise me.

This is going to be Nefertitia Phair’s year. At least that’s what she’s hoping.

Phair is a junior at Ellet and last year she had a solid season by finishing runnerup in the shot put at the Division I district meet in Austintown. In fact, Phair’s toss (38-8) was tied with Twinsburg’s Leah Love but Love had a better throw during seeding. Still, Phair qualified for regionals and although she came up short in qualifying for the state meet in Columbus, she said she’s motivated this year.

“I want to break the school record, which is 38-10,” Phair said, as she competed in a three-way meet Tuesday at Ellet against Buchtel and Firestone. “My personal best is 38-8,” she said. “”And my other goal is to get to state.”

Phair said she’s going to put in the work this season so that she gets that opportunity. Yet, as proud as Phair is of her accomplishments last year, she’s just as proud of her work outside of track, more specifically, her job as an employee at McDonald’s on East Market Street and Mogadore Road, not far from the high school.

And Phair proudly stated, with big smile, that she does it all at the fast food restaurant. So I asked her, “”Can you make an ice cream cone so it’s not lopsided and ready to fall over before I even take one lick?” Her response, “”I can do it with no problem.”

“”OK, can you make a McFlurry so it’s extra flurry,” I asked. She laughed hysterically and responded, “”I can hook you up.”

Then, my last question was, “”So, when the timer on the fries goes off, and it’s beeping like crazy and no one goes over to take them off the rack, do you know how to take them off that little rack, shake the grease off and dump them into the tray?” She answered, “”Of course. I told you, I can do it all.”

Her attitude was refreshing and as long as she can apply that same work attitude that she has at McDonald’s to the track, she’ll be well on her way this year.[ep

While working on an upcoming story, I had to interview Elizabeth “Georgia” Stokes, a sophomore catcher for the Hudson Explorers. Stokes played a key role in Hudson winning the Division I state championship last year as she went 2-for-3 with two RBI in the title game.

That was an impressive performance, especially by a freshman. Stokes said that winning the state championship was special on so many levels, but mainly, she said it was because many outside the program never gave the Explorers a chance to even make it that far because of their youth.

Stokes said there’s no complacency this year and that the team is keeping that same “Us-against-the-world” mentality, so it’ll be interesting to see how Hudson fares this year.

After a brief separation, a pair of Akron natives have been reunited again as teammates.

Dru Joyce III and Romeo Travis are teammates on Ratiopharm Ulm, a professional basketball team in the Bundesliga League in Germany.

Joyce and Travis each played on successful teams at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and the University of Akron.

Travis, the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year in 2007, started his pro career with two different teams in Spain and then was added to Ulm’s roster on Mar. 12.

Joyce, a 6-foot guard, has played in all 27 games for Ulm. He is averaging 8.6 points, 3.7 assists and 1.7 rebounds in about 23 minutes per game this season.

Travis, a 6-foot-7 forward, has made an immediate impact for Ulm in three games played. He is averaging 9.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in about 20 minutes per game.

Travis appeared in two games for Ciudad de Huelva and averaged 3.5 points and 3.5 rebounds. He played in eight games prior to that for Alerta Cantabria and averaged 3.4 points and 1.8 rebounds. Both teams play in the LEB Gold league.

Joyce and Travis, both 23, led the Zips to the MAC East Division title and a MAC runner-up finish in 2007. They were each standouts on state championship winning teams at St. V-M alongside Cavaliers star LeBron James.