Turf at Orrville High School....sort of.

I bet you thought this was going to be another one of my pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking posts. I've done plenty of those after all. But this time, it's the real deal.

There now exists, at Orrville High School's Red Rider Stadium, artificial turf, but nowhere on the actual field of play....just on the home and visitor sidelines.

Nevertheless, still very cool.

More pictures below, and I'll talk about why this was done.

Thoughts After Week 1

I've got a big list...so let's talk about everything and anything related to the big week 1 win over Northwest.

It's nice to start the year with a win, isn't it? Hopefully we'll continue to reap the benefits of the win long into the season in the way of playoff points.  Here's to Northwest going 9-1.

Thanks to Mike Guster for the picture of Turner's punt return (click to see full size).  Photo treatment by yours truly. 

Week 1: Orrville Red Riders at Northwest Indians

Who: Orrville Red Riders (0-0) vs. Northwest Indians (0-0)
Where: Smilek Stadium - Canal Fulton, OH (Click Here for Map & Directions)
When: Friday August 27th, 7pm
 Coaches: Doug Davault (32-14 in 4 seasons at Orrville) & Vic Whiting (95-34 in 12 seasons at Northwest -- 9 straight playoff appearances, 189-62 over 23 seasons)
 Radio: WQKT 104.5 will provide updates.
All Time Series: Orrville leads 19-7 (Click Here for Series Detail)
Last Meeting: 2009 (Northwest won 40-14)

2010 Orrville Football Season Preview

It's football season again?  Wow.  Feels like not so long ago we all walked back to our cars in Tiffin after the Ottawa-Glandorf game.  I guess here we go again.  This is the third season preview of Orrville football preview that I've done.  We'll again hit the low-hanging fruit and try to answer some questions that me and many others have.

Red Rider Playoffs: 1992

Coming off a 3-7 season in 1991, Orrville's first losing season since 1974(!) and what would turn out to be the only losing season in the 90's, there was unusual pressure in Orrville to win and get back to the playoffs. Once they got to that point, they only had a five-game playoff losing streak starting them in the face. A streak that began in the latter years of the Mo Tipton era and had continued right into the early tenure of Coach Mac.

A post I had always hoped to write.....

If you've read the blog since it's inception or just in the last month, you've no doubt read of my love for the Red Rider football uniform.  I even did my best attempt at "digitizing" the Red Rider uniform and offering changes I thought would modernize the uniform, yet still stick with tradition that makes our program so special.

One day, I thought, I will write about the Orrville football team getting new uniforms......and that day is TODAY!!

A little bit of everything

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.  Been a great one for me.  I'm trying to get out from under all these projects I'm half-started on before another football season gets underway and I'm slowly but surely getting there.  Made some nice progress that I'll share. Also have some football scrimmage dates, the latest Smitty Classic lineup, some new faces on the "College Riders" list.

Let's go.

The "Orrville Captains Project"...complete.

A mere week after putting out the call for help in compiling a historical list of Orrville football captains, the project is now complete...due in large part to many contributions from Orrville alums, former players, and even the Orrviews newspaper.

I'll explain....but only after I show you the list.  The link will be at the top of the page (under the banner) for awhile and also listed in the "Football" menu bar permanently.

Picture: 1993 captains (L to R): Shelton Riffle, Doug Steiner, Mark Hershey)