ashtabula county touchdown club -...

A S H T A B U L A C O U N T Y

TOUCHDOWN CLUBHonoring This Year’s Hall Of Fame Inductees And The Best Of Ashtabula County Football Players.

2 — Touchdown Club Hall of Fame Star Beacon, Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Star Beacon, Tuesday, December 2, 2014 Touchdown Club Hall of Fame — 3

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CLIENT AND

FRIEND J.T. KANICKI AND THE OTHER

INDUCTEES INTO THE ASHTABULA COUNTY

FOOTBALL HALL OF FAMEANDREWS & PONTIUS , LLC

AP

2004■ Warren Andrews — inaugu-ral contributor■ Tony Barnes, PV■ George “Chic” Guamieri,Ashtabula■ Jim Henson, Grand Valleycoach■ Bob Herpy, Geneva■ Jim Hietikko, Conneaut■ Paul Kopko, St. John coach■ Joe Mallone, Geneva■ Ralph Mauro, Edgewood■ Ken “Monk” Meyer, Harbor■ Chuck Naso, Jefferson■ Benjamin Olds, Conneaut■ Mel Olix, Ashtgabula■ Mickey Sanzotta, Geneva■ Don Zalimeni, Harbor

2005■ Denny Allan, St. John■ Todd Baker, PV■ Tony Chiacchiero, Ashtabula■ Bill Davidson, Harbor■ Mark Debevc, Geneva■ Spiro Dellerba, Ashtabula■ Joe Ferl, Conneaut■ Leonard “Dutch” Hoppes,Conneaut coach■ Gary Lago, Edgewood

■ Jim Merrell, Geneva■ Bill Ollila, Jefferson■ Fred Parnell, Harbor■ Tom Zakowski, Grand Valley

2006■ Alan Amy, PV■ John Anthony, Conneaut■ Tom Betta, Conneaut■ Ron Chutas, Grand Valley■ Paul Dellerba, Ashtabula■ Robert Fuller, Harbor■ Paul Hogan, Ashtabula■ Tim Horst, Edgewood■ Harbor Ladner, Conneaut■ Wash Lyons, Ashtabula■ Dan McGinnis, St. Johncoach■ Clyde Means, Jefferson■ Tim Packrail, Geneva■ Randy Park, Jefferson■ North Soltys, Harbor coach

2007■ Dale Arkenburg, Geneva■ Dave Berkowitz, Edgewood■ John Bleshoy, PV■ Jim Boltman, Harbor■ Bill Brainard, Jefferson■ Paul Dombroski, Conneaut■ Jim Dyke, Grand Valley

■ Lance Hammond, Jefferson■ Larry Jepson, Ashtabula■ Mike Kaydo, Ashtabula■ Don Laaksonen, Harbor■ John Montgomery, Geneva■ Gene Pushic, St. John coach■ John Rhodes, Rowe■ Russ Salberg, Edgewoodcoach

2008■ Mike Bell, Pymatuning Valley■ Rick Brunot, Conneaut■ Dale Corlew, Edgewood■ Don Craine, Geneva■ Emmett Delaney, Jefferson■ Francis “Ducky” DiPietro,Ashtabula■ Larry Featsent, Ashtabula■ Gary Febel, Jefferson■ Kalser Holman, Harbor■ Bob Lampela, Harbor■ Urban Meyer, St. John■ Ed Pizzuto, Geneva■ Mick Shoaf, Grand Valley■ Joe White, Conneaut■ Jim Cordell, Gene Gephart,■ Pat Sheldon — WFUN radioteam

2009■ Mike Adams, Jefferson■ Mike Blauman, Geneva■ Jim Bordeaux, Harbor■ Jarrod Bunch, Ashtabula■ Walter Coleman, Grand Val-ley■ Doug Deal, Geneva■ Nick Deligianis, Ashtabula■ Jim Holub, Ashtabula■ Tom Kilker, St. John■ Al Lundstrom, Harbor■ Dave Melaragno, Edgewood■ Randy Pope, Ashtabula■ Mark Sanford, Conneaut■ Clint Schertzer, PV■ John Yesso, Conneaut

2010■ Erland Ahlberg, Conneaut■ Jim Davin, Conneaut■ Bob DeMay, St. John■ Jimmy Henson, Grand Valley■ Dean Hood, Harbor■ Mark Jablonski, Geneva■ Joe Kearney, coach■ Lou Konyha, PV■ Wayne Lomas, Geneva■ Bob Ockman, Harbor■ Karl Pearson — Star Beacon■ Joe Sanford, Conneaut

■ David Six, Edgewood coach■ Clarence Watters, Ashtabula■ Terry Weaver, Ashtabula■ John Workman, Jefferson

2011■ Steve Abraham, St. John■ Orvall Belle, Ashtabula■ Scott Bell, PV■ Willie Carlton, Ashtabula■ Bob Dombroski, Edgewood■ Henry Garvey — official■ Paul Halleck, Wayne■ Mike Hassett, Geneva■ Bruno Mallone, Genevacoach■ Bob Millberg, Harbor■ Larry Ogren, Conneaut■ Elmer “Buck” Peaspanen,Conneaut coach■ Joe Shoaf, Grand Valleycoach■ Ray Shore, Jefferson■ Bob Sidbeck, Harbor■ Greg Ware, Geneva

2012■ Alvin Benton, Ashtabula■ Francis J. Burke, St. John■ Tim Coy, Geneva■ Brian Gaines, Harbor

■ Gordie Hitchcock, PV■ Brian Laffey, Harbor■ Gary Lillvis, Harbor■ Vaughn Tittle, Ashtabula■ Rick Malizia, Geneva■ Lowell Moodt, Grand Valley■ John Peaspanen, Conneaut■ Jim Richards, Jefferson asst.coach■ Mark Wheeler, Conneaut■ Lou Wisnyai, Edgewood

2013■ David Dick, PV■ Tony Hassett, Geneva■ Matthew Hatchette, Jeffer-son■ David Huey, Edgewood■ Dennis Jepson, Ashtabula■ Ed Jones, Harbor■ Marvin Kuula, Harbor■ Scott Marcy, Conneaut■ Patrick McNamara, Ashtabu-la■ David Nye, Grand Valley■ Ken Parise, PV & Conneautcoach■ Don Rebera, St. John■ Gregory Showalter, Con-neaut■ Rich Spangler, Geneva

ASHTABULA COUNTY FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME

HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2014

■ Dana Schulte (Harbor) PAGE 4

■ Jeff Takacs (Grand Valley) PAGE 5

■ Alex Toukonen (Jefferson) PAGE 5

■ Jeff Dinger (Conneaut) PAGE 6

■ Bob Louys (Ashtabula) PAGE 7

■ Bill Olin (Harbor) PAGE 8

■ Rick Koschar (Geneva) PAGE 9

■ Dennis DeGennaro (Ashtabula) PAGE 10

■ J.T. Kanicki (Edgewood) PAGE 11

■ Eric Showalter (Conneaut) PAGE 12

■ Dan Craine (Geneva) PAGE 13

■ Sean Freeman (PV) PAGE 14

■ Ron Severino (St. John) PAGE 15

All stories written by former Star Beacon sports writer Chris Larick. Pages designed by Sports EditorVince Peluso and edited by sports writer Matt Wagner and Star Beacon Editor Matt Hutton.


Schulte aired it out at Harbor

By CHRIS LARICKFor the Star Beacon

Dana Schulte, a 1982 Harbor HighSchool graduate, was dissatisfied withthe veer offense used by West VirginiaWesleyan University when he was afreshman quarterback.

Dean Hood was unhappy that he was-n’t successful at walking on at OhioUniversity.

After Schulte saw an article in SportsIllustrated saying a quarterback at OhioWesleyan University had set a schoolrecord by passing 76 times in a game,Schulte thought that sounded more likean offense he would like. He calledHood, his childhood friend who hadstarred with him at Harbor HighSchool, where the two played pitch-and-catch for three years. The twohatched a plan to transfer to Ohio Wes-leyan as a package deal.

“Dean did all the work,” said Schulte,who will be inducted into the Ashtabu-la County Touchdown Club’s Hall ofFame on Dec. 8. “Dean would playdefense (he became an All-Americanfree safety) and I would play quarter-back.”

The two also talked Andy Catano,another Ashtabula friend who hadplayed at St. John, into transferring.

The trio were elated — until the headcoach was fired during training camp inAugust and the new coach decided theywould run the veer, the very offenseSchulte had transferred to avoid.

“They liked me because I was big andran well, but I hated it,” Schulte said.“We stuck it out, though. The three ofus were from Ashtabula. It was fun.You can’t replace that. I got my degree,majored in broadcast communicationsand used it for my career here. I got aneducation I wouldn’t have got withoutsports.”

That anecdote reveals two ofSchulte’s biggest assets: the perma-nence of his relationships and his man-ner of casting the brightest light possi-ble on situations.

He and Hood, now the head coach atEastern Kentucky University, are stilltight after all these years. Schulte and

Dan Platano, his coach at Harbor inhigh school, visited Hood at Christmastime.

Positivity? Schulte remembers howan injury he incurred in the eighthgrade, a broken right collarbone,worked to his advantage.

“I missed half the season,” he said.“That’s how I learned to play left-hand-ed. I had to dribble and shoot left hand-ed. It was sort of a blessing in dis-guise.”

Schulte had started playing footballwith the Ashtabula Midget League’sDolphins in the first year of thatgroup’s existence. He had always seenhimself as a quarterback, pretending tobe Terry Bradshaw or Brian Sipe. Andthat’s what he became, from those earlydays all the way through college.

“We had a good team, with RayKovacs, Johnny Marks, Timmy Mooreand Andy Catano — a lot of good play-ers,” Schulte said.

Hood didn’t play at that level, notuntil junior high school.

“That’s when Dean and I startedhooking up (as receiver and quarter-back),” Schulte said. “Dean and I werelike brothers growing up. We playedfootball relentlessly, every day. In theseason, I played basketball every day.He wasn’t able to do it as much as Icould. I lived down the street fromBrooker.

“There were no video games or thingslike that, so we played any kind ofsports — nerf football, whiffle ball.Those things developed your arms andlegs. We played baskeball in the drive-way. Back then your mom could yell atyou from the porch to come home; youcould be playing at 10 o’clock at night.Those days are gone.”

Schulte’s elementary and junior highteams were good, but the teams fromAshtabula often took their measure.

“They were always bigger andstronger than we were, but in highschool we caught up to them,” he said.“I don’t think we lost to ‘Bula in foot-ball or basketball in high school. Thatwas quite a feat because they beat us all

the time in junior high.”When Schulte’s class hit the ninth

grade, Paul Bodnar was their footballcoach.

“I have a lot of fond memories ofhim,” Schulte said. “He was creativeand let us experiment in football. It wasgreat to be able to see what a lot of peo-ple could do. It was fun. I have a thingabout sports bonds you make, andfriendships.”

Schulte started as the third-stringquarterback for Harbor as a freshman,but was elevated to the varsity teambecause of injuries and wound up play-ing in one game.

“I remember how scared I was,” hesaid. “I got into the game and one of thelineman was snorting, his nose flaring,and said, ‘You’d better not fumble.’ Iwent to the line and fumbled, but fellon it. He grabbed my face mask andsaid, ‘You’d better not do that again.’ Ialmost fumbled again, but held onto it.I finally relaxed on the third play.”

By their sophomore years, Schulteand Hood were both starting, Hood astight end and linebacker.

“We weren’t as good as we became,”Schulte said. “It was trial and error.Coach Platano threw us into the fire.Some of the seniors didn’t go out or gothurt, so we got to play a lot. I think ithelped us.”

But the Mariners didn’t really suc-ceed until that class became seniors.

“Our junior year we didn’t have awinning record,” Schulte said. “Ourtalent didn’t click. It all came togetherour senior year.”

Schulte particularly remembers theGeneva game. The Eagles had pre-vailed the previous year when RickMalizia had a great game.

“Coach Platano gave us some newwrinkles for that game,” Schulte said.“I was a running quarterback my junioryear, but he didn’t allow me to run asmuch as a senior. But that game he putin a wrinkle that was like the readoption. It opened up the passing gameand Dean (Hood) got a couple of touch-downs. Dean caught one ball that waslike the Joe Montana-Dwight Clarkpass. That was a tremendous catch. Iwas scrambling.

“(Geneva coach) Bob Herpy was aclass act. He came onto our bus andcomplimented Dean and myself, said

QB lit up the scoreboard with Mariners before playing college football

Submitted Photo

DANA SCHULTE had a successful career at HarborHigh School. See SCHULTE, Page 16

■ HIGH SCOOL: HarborHigh School.■ GRADUATION YEAR:1982■ POSITION: Quarterback.

DANA SCHULTE


Takacs never shied away from contact


Grand Valley running back-linebacker JeffTakacs always believed that a straight linewas the shortest distance to the goal line.

If defenders were in the way, so much thebetter.

“I didn’t run around people, I ran overthem,” said Takacs, who accumulated 1,677yards in 296 carries (5.67 average) duringhis two-year stint as a starter at fullback forthe Mustangs.

“It was no fun running around them. DaveHendershott (the announcer at Grand Valleyfootball games) told me, ‘You would’ve hadso many more yards if you ran around them.’To me, that’s not football. Football is smash-ing them.”

The Mustang team of Takacs’ tenure(1985-1987) did a lot of smashing. With

standouts like Jimmy Henson and BrianTurner at quarterback, Takacs and BrianSnowberger at running back and Adam andCarl McElroy at wide receivers, they had aformidable offense. Lowell Moodt, alreadyin the ACTC’s Hall of Fame, anchored theline. Other contributors included Dale Turn-er, Frank Makowski, Lonnie Troyer, LeeHall, Bob Lee and Bill Enstrom.

“We were undefeated in the seventh, eighthand ninth grades,” Takacs said. “In my jun-ior and senior years we were 8-2. We had agood run.”

Grand Valley made it to the state playoffshis junior year, only to be defeated byHawken, led by future NFL wideout O.J.McDuffie.

“We shut him down as a running back,”Takacs said of McDuffie. “When they puthim at wide receiver our defensive backscouldn’t handle him. He was tough.”

Takacs, who will be inducted into theAshtabula County Touchdown Club’s Hallof Fame on Dec. 8 at Our Lady of Peace,actually got his football start at St. Mary’sSchool in Painesville.

“In the first grade we were playing tacklefootball,” Takacs laughed. “We moved toAshtabula County in 1977 and I started sec-ond grade in the Grand Valley system.”

He played flag football in Orwell at thestart and progressed through the system.

“Every year was a big deal for me,” hesaid. “Once I hit junior high I was with thesame kids from grades 7-12.”

By the time Takacs and his classmates werewell-grounded in the Mustangs’ system. Lit-erally.

“All we did was pound the football,”Takacs said. “We hardly passed at all.”

Takacs loved it. Subtlety was never hisstrong point. Asked what he remembers mostabout that time as a linebacker and runningback, he said, “I remember a lot (of players)I knocked out of the game. I remember theinjuries.

“Making the playoffs was huge. I couldn’twait to play football. On Monday I would bethinking about football. I was insane. I lovedthe game and still do today. Those were goodtimes, definitely. There was nothing like aFriday night football game.”

He loved the coaches — head coach JimHenson and assistants Tom Henson and RonChutas — too. The Hensons had a reputationfor toughness. That was mother’s milk toTakacs.

“I loved playing for Tom when the veinsbulged out of his neck,” Takacs said. “If youdid the job for him, you didn’t hear fromhim. You wanted to be on his good side.

“Jim Henson was another hard-nosedcoach. I loved playing for him. Growing upand playing Grand Valley football, youwanted to be part of that scene. He was anawesome teacher and coach.”

The third member of the staff, Chutas, wascut from a different mold, Takacs said.

“Ron was an easy-going guy,” he said. “Hewould let Jim and Tom hash it out. He waslike a mediator, more personable. I neversaw him get overly serious about littlethings. (The three of them) were a perfect fit— brothers and friend.”

At Grand Valley, Takacs was first-teamStar Beacon All-Ashtabula County, first-team All-Grand River Conference and first-team all-district as a junior and senior. Hemoved up from honorable-mention all-Ohio

Mustang RB preferred to run through opponents

No one out-worked Toukonen


Alex Toukonen and his fellowJefferson linemen honed theirskills on Mondays, the day nor-mally devoted to non-contact.

According to Toukonen, coachGlenn Sutherin generally let hisskill-set personnel have a lightpractice that day of the week.Not so for the linemen.

“The line had to push the(blocking) sled for a mile,” saidToukonen, who will be inductedinto the Ashtabula CountyTouchdown Club Hall of Fameon Dec. 8. “He and an assistant,Jim Richards, would get on thatseven-man sled. We worked

hard on our endurance on Mon-days. He wanted his linemen alittle meaner. He was right outof the Woody Hayes mold.”

That was fine with Toukonen,especially considering theresults Sutherin’s methodsattained. The Falcons had notbeen an impressive team beforeSutherin took the job. In Touko-nen’s three years as a starter,they went 22-7-1 and notched aGrand River Conference title tiehis junior year and the outrighttitle one year later.

“I thought he was a greatcoach,” Toukonen said. “He

could turn a program around.He had coached at Canton orMassillon. He turned East Liv-erpool around, too. He demand-ed discipline and yelled ateverybody equally, maybe thelinemen a little more becausethat was his area of expertise.

“Glenn loved football and hada plan. He brought a lot of disci-pline to the team. He rocked theboat a little. A huge thing in Jef-ferson now is Falcon Follies. Heput us in there. You couldn’t sayno to him. He had us in littledancers’ outfits.”

In 1975, Toukonen’s sopho-more year, only 22 players wentout for football at Jefferson, justthree of which were sopho-mores.

“There weren’t enough tohave a team practice when Istarted,” he said. “WinningSubmitted Photo

ALEX TOUKONEN, former Jefferson lineman, pictured with his partner,Tonya Cardona.

Falcons lineman was always pushingto improve his game

See TAKACS, Page 17

■ HIGH SCOOL: Grand ValleyHigh School.■ GRADUATION YEAR: 1988■ POSITION: Running back; linebacker.

JEFF TAKACS

■ HIGH SCOOL: Jef-ferson High School.■ GRADUATIONYEAR: 1978■ POSITION: Offensive lineman

ALEX TOUKONEN

See TOUKONEN, Page 17


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Dinger zigged to success at Conneaut


It would be nice if every footballplayer had a play especiallydesigned for him to shine.

Conneaut wide receiver JeffDinger had one, and it might haveenhanced his college scholarshiphopes.

“Coach (Rob) Eager had a playcalled ‘zig pass,’” said Dinger,who will be inducted into theAshtabula County TouchdownClub Hall of Fame at MountCarmel Community Center onDec. 8. “We ran it every time wewere within 20 yards of the endzone. I think it worked 98 percentof the time we ran it.”

The play called for quarterbackKen Nuzum to loft the ball to thecorner of the end zone, where the6-foot-5 Dinger was waiting.Dinger used his height and goodhands to catch the ball for a touch-down.

“I think I caught it every time itwas called,” Dinger said. “I think Iscored eight touchdowns off it thatyear (2000), and most of themwere off that play.”

The 2000 season was an impor-tant one in Spartans’ football histo-ry. Two years earlier coach KenParise had come to Conneaut fromPymatuning Valley to rebuild theprogram. That was also the year

that Dinger, already a basketballstar at Conneaut, had decided toshare his talents with the footballsquad.

There was no magic turnaroundin 1998. It took time for the pre-dominantlyn young players tomature and learn the system.

“The first two years, I think wewon one or two games a year,”Dinger said. “My senior year wewon six or seven games and wereone game away from the playoffs,but we lost to Harvey.”

That final game of the season wasa letdown for the Spartans, who

had beaten Jefferson one week ear-lier in a rough-and-tumble gamethat assured Conneaut a share ofthe Northeastern Conferencechampionship. Then Harvey wonWeek 10 to make it so the twoschools shared the title.

Dinger lettered all three of thoseyears, playing wide receiver onoffense and free safety on defense,as well as serving as punt returner.At 6-foot-5, he led AshtabulaCounty in receptions his junior andsenior seasons and was an All-NEC and Star Beacon All-Ashtab-ula first-teamer both years. As a

senior, he also led the county ininterceptions (seven, if Dinger’smemory serves him correctly).

“He was an important contributorto leading the Spartans to theleague championship,” Parise said.

Dinger might have caught evenmore passes except Parisedeployed a run-based Wing-Toffense. He had the horses to dothat, with running backs Matt andAdam Kopacz and a line thatincluded standouts like J.T.Murtha, Forest Bean and GaryTantari. On the defensive side ofthe ball, Matt Cantari stood out.

“And Ken Nuzum could reallythrow the long ball,” Dinger said.“Coach liked to run the ball. Thatwas all right with me. I didn’t saytoo much about that.

“We had a lot of good coaches:coach Parise, coach (Bill) Lipps,Bob Lundin, Joel Taylor and RobEager. Eric Showalter (who willalso enter the Hall of Fame thisyear) helped coach my junior andsenior years.

“I had no problems with coachParise. He was always on my sideand I was always on his side. Hetaught us how to win. He took overafter years of losing. He tried tobuild that back up.”

Though Dinger was an outstand-ing wide receiver, he made first-team all-state as a defensive back.At both positions, he used hisheight to advantage.

“Being 6-5, going against adefensive back that was 5-6 wasalways a little advantage,” he said.“When I played safety, it wasalmost like playing the outfield. Iwas free to do whatever I wanted,not just pick up a speedy receiver.”

A recent trend in the NFL is draft-ing basketball players to play tightend or wide receiver. Playing bas-ketball did help him in some waysin playing football, Dinger feels.

“I have played basketball mywhole life,” he said. “It’s prettymuch timing, going up and gettingthe ball. Going up for a reboundand going up for a lob pass in theend zone are similar.”

Dinger had been a star on KentHouston’s NEC championship-winning basketball teams, playing

Submitted Photo

JEFF DINGER (88) was a stand out reciever with the Conneaut Spartans.

■ HIGH SCOOL: Conneaut High School■ GRADUATIONYEAR: 2001■ POSITION: Wide receiver

JEFF DINGER

See DINGER, Page 18


For Louys, transfer worked out well


Bob Louys didn’t know quitewhat to expect when he transferredfrom Edgewood to Ashtabula HighSchool as a senior in 1962.

“My dad moved the family whenI was growing up,” Louys said.“He worked for the railroad and wedidn’t have a lot of money. In mysenior year we moved to StateRoad.”

Fortunately for Louys, who hadplayed football, basketball andbaseball for Edgewood, the transi-tion from one school to anotherwas eased by his new classmatesand teammates.

He had known many of themfrom playing with and againstthem on Little League teams and inprevious high school contests.

While at Edgewood, Louys let-tered in both football and basket-ball as a sophomore and junior andin baseball for all three undergrad-uate years. He was voted MVP in1961 and threw a no-hitter againstMadison.

“I had played baseball with LouWisnyai and had played againstWash Lyons and others,” Louyssaid. “They treated me great whenI went to Ashtabula. I fit right in.”

Louys, who will be inducted intothe Ashtabula County TouchdownClub’s Hall of Fame on Dec. 8, hadreally enjoyed playing baseball forcoach Walter Higgins, basketballfor Bob Larkin and football forRuss Salberg at Edgewood. Hefound he also enjoyed playing forAshtabula’s coaches.

At the time, Tony Chiacchierowas head football coach at Ashtab-ula. Chiacchiero had built the pro-gram well from a humble founda-tion. As a result, his senior teamwas loaded.

Louys, who had already letteredfor two years with the Warriors,played offensive halfback anddefensive cornerback.

Twelve players saw consistentplaying time, including five whoeventually earned Division I schol-arships — Wash Lyons and DennisDeGennaro (Ohio University), BillMooney and Calvin Jepson (Van-derbilt) and Larry Featsent (Syra-cuse).

The Panthers’ 1962 line consistedof Mooney, Gibby and Calvin Jep-son, DeGennaro, Duane Hadlock,Featsent and John Stevenson.Larry Shively led the backfield atquarterback and was joined byLouys and Gary Pease at the half-backs. Lyons, the fullback, was theoffensive star of the team, whichfinished 9-0-1 after recording a tiein the final game.

On defense, Shively came out ofthe game and Dave Sheldon wentin at defensive back.

Louys led the Panthers in recep-

tions and interceptions that yearand averaged 41 yards as a punter.He was voted “Back of the Week”against Harbor in the city playoffs.

“Dennis (DeGennaro) and Iplayed Little League baseball withall of those kids,” Louys said.“After football came basketballwith Mr. (Gene) Gephart as ourcoach.

“We were district champions. Imade the all-sectional team. Iplayed with Dave Sheldon, JoeyDeAngelo and Calvin and GibbyJepson.”

Later, Louys played on intramu-ral basketball teams with the likesof Bob Walters, John Scoville andJerry Raffenaud.

After graduating from Ashtabula,Louys attended Marietta College,where he started his freshman yearat wide receiver and punter, earn-

ing honorable-mention status. Hewas moved to halfback his sopho-more year and played the remain-ing three seasons there.

While at Marietta, Louys brokethe school record with an 87-yardpunt, a mark he believes stillstands. He was honorable mentionAll-Ohio Conference, on HillsdaleCollege’s “All-Opponent team,”Alonzo Stagg Bowl MV and Mari-etta’s MVP-Offensive Back in1965. He was later named to Mari-etta College’s 1960’s All-Decadeteam.

After graduating in 1967, Louysgave semi-pro football a briefwhirl, signing a contract with theOrlando Panthers, but he did notplay the entire season.

“I realized I wasn’t goodenough,” he said. “I came backhome and taught school in Ashtab-

ula for two years, teaching socialstudies and serving as an assistantfootball coach.”

While working out at the YMCA,he came across Frank Farello,whom he described as “one of thefinest men I’ve ever met.”

Louys and Farello are now broth-ers-in-law, having married sisters.

In 1970 Louys landed a job withthe FBI in Jackson, Miss. andworked for the FBI for 27 yearsbefore retiring in 1997.

“I investigated crimes involvingauto theft, bank robberies, kidnap-pings, crimes of violence, drugsand crimes on a government reser-vation,” Louys said. “I served as arelief supervisor, informant coordi-nator, vehicle theft coordinator andequal employment investigator.”

After a year in Jackson, Louyswas transferred to Detroit, wherehe worked on such well-knowncases as the Jimmy Hoffa disap-pearance.

He was also involved in severalmurder cases, along with the arrestof Martin McNally, who, in 1972,hijacked an Ameican Airlines jet-liner, then parachuted, a la D.B.Cooper, before being caught in ahouse in a Detroit suburb.

“I escorted him to the jail,” Louyssaid.

Another notable arrest Louys andhis partner made was Sam Christ-ian, an FBI 10 Most Wanted crimi-nal. He also assisted with a majorcase of drugs coming into thecountry from South America.

During his career, in addition totwo within-grade promotions andseveral monetary incentive awards,Louys was honored with numerousletters of commendation, includingone from the Attorney General ofthe United States. He also servedon the FBI’s SWAT team. As afirearms instructor and competitive

Submitted Photo

BOB LOUYS, a standout at Ashtabula High School, is shown accepting the MVP award at theSusquehana University “Old Hat Trophy Bowl.”

Move from Edgewoodto Ashtabula helped lead two-way player to HOF

■ HIGH SCOOL:Ashtabula High School■ GRADUATIONYEAR: 1963■ POSITION: Runningback; defensive back

BOB LOUYS

See LOUYS, Page 17


EAST ASHTABULA CLUBEAST ASHTABULA CLUBCongratulates this years Hall of Fame InducteesCongratulates this years Hall of Fame Inductees

and Scholar Athletesand Scholar Athletes

Olin led the right side


Whenever the 1968 undefeatedHarbor Mariners needed a play tosave the day, Bill Olin had a sug-gestion.

“Dive right,” Olin would say inthe huddle.

Often quarterback Larry Hummercalled that play, which, wentbehind Olin at right guard.

Despite the fact he stood just 5foot 8 and weighed 150 pounds,Olin was likely to take his man outand the Mariners would get thatneeded first down.

Olin’s size was not the disadvan-tage it may have seemed. In fact,when the season was over, he wasnamed Most Valuable Lineman, inaddition to reaping first-team All-Ashtabula County, All-NEC andAll-Northeast Ohio honors.

Nowadays, Olin continues tosave mariners on dives, even if hisefforts are more likely to rescueimperiled swimmers, as command-er of the Ashtabula County WaterRescue Team.

Most of that 10-0 Harbor teamhad played together since the sev-enth grade and were 8-2-1 as jun-iors. The Mariners had an 18-gamewinning streak at one time untilErie Strong Vincent beat them inthe first game of the 1969 season.

“Some of those guys are my bestfriends to this day,” said Olin, whowill be inducted into the Ashtabula

County Touchdown Club Hall ofFame on Dec. 8 at Our Lady ofPeace Community Center. “We hadamazing camaraderie. I liken it totoday, Harbor and Ashtabula com-ing together at Lakeside. Our kidscame together — farm kids, eastside kids, country club kids. It waslike a melting pot, a unique experi-ence.”

Among the standouts on thatteam, in addition to Olin, wereHummer, Paul Cafaro, KennyBires, and Curtis Siler in the back-field and Bobby Millberg as a widereceiver and jack-of-all-trades.Roger Goudy, now the superin-tendent at Madison, was at tightend. Greg Fritz was a standout inthe defensive backfield, runningthree interceptions back for touch-downs. Gary Lillvis, the first ofthat team to be inducted into theACTC’s Hall of Fame, was a soph-omore lineman on the team. DaleTheis was voted most valuableplayer on defense. Dante Mondajoined Lilllvis as most improvedsophomores and Siler and JimCandela were named mostimproved juniors.

“Larry Hummer and Bobby Mill-berg were great friends and workedtogether well,” Olin said.

Of Olin, Jim Henry, who hasturned into the historian of thatteam and played in the defensive

backfield, said, “Bill was a stand-out, a hard worker and one of thestronger guys on the team. He wasa tri-captain, but a real modest guy.There’s no telling how good hewould have been if he was fiveinches taller.”

That Mariners’ team was latervoted the greatest team that everplayed at Harbor.

“It was a great group of guys,”Henry said. “It was a team effort.Eveybody came together and madeit happen.”

“We started lifting when we firstgot together,” Olin remembers.“We were one of the first teams tohave an intense lifting program. Iweighed 150 but I could bench 300pounds. When I went to college, Igot my butt kicked.”

That lifting program began whenJim Orr became head coach.

“He was an innovator,” Olin saidof Orr. “We built the benches inshop class, built them ourselves.

“He had us believing in our-selves. We did wind sprints; ourconditioning was better than any-one around. Our backs ran 4.3 (40-yard sprints), our linemen 4.8. Noone was over 5.0. He had usbelieving we were that quick andthat strong.”

The team was incredibly close,too, Olin said, reciting an anecdoteabout an incident when a mother ofone of the players brought donutsto a practice.

“A couple of our seniors made amove to take a donut before Orrwas done with his speech,” Olinsaid. “He yelled at them and saidthey weren’t going to start.”

Submitted Photo

BILL OLIN helped lead the undefeated Harbor Mariners as aright guard.

Guard always knewwhere he wanted Harbor to run the ball

■ HIGH SCOOL: Harbor High School■ GRADUATIONYEAR: 1969■ POSITION: Rightguard

BILL OLIN

See OLIN, Page 18


Salutes the 2014 Inductees into the Ashtabula County Football Hall of Fame

THE WARREN ANDREWSTHE WARREN ANDREWSMEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP ASSOCIATIONMEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP ASSOCIATION

Koschar was at center of great Geneva teams


Coach Bob Herpy’s Geneva Eagle footballteams of 1975 and 1976 teams were loadedwith talent, both in players and coaches.

Those Eagle teams went undefeated inconsecutive years, a feat few AshtabulaCounty squads have been able to accom-plish. All told, they won 21-straight games.

In 1976 All-Northeastern Conference andStar Beacon All-Ashtabula County votersacknowledged Geneva’s superiority, namingHerpy Coach of the Year, running back GregWilcox Player of the Year and about half ofthe Eagle starters to first-team status.

Among that group, perhaps under-recog-nized because of the sheer depth of the teamand the position he played, was center RickKoschar, who will be inducted into theAshtabula County Touchdown Club Hall ofFame on Dec. 8.

What most people don’t know aboutKoschar is that he was the only three-yearstarter on the squad, having started as adefensive tackle as a sophomore in 1974.

Like most of Geneva’s stars of that era,Koschar began his football career in theGeneva Midget League, as a member of theColts. His coach was Don Craine, whoseson, Dan, will also be inducted into theACTC Hall of Fame this year.

“That’s kind of ironic,” Koschar said.Koschar played fullback for the Colts.

Even when he became a lineman he had thespeed to run with the backs.

“My philosophy in athletics is that speed isthe most important thing,” Koschar said.“Everyone on that (Geneva) team was soquick and so fast. All of us had a ton ofspeed. In high school I could punt better than

Mark Csepegi (who held down that job), butthey needed me to snap the ball. But I wasoften the first one downfield from my centerposition.”

One of Geneva’s big advantages overopponents was its depth. The Eagles had somuch talent they almost had no two-wayplayers. That gave them two advantages: thedefense could rest while the offense was onthe field and vice versa, and the unit not onthe field could benefit from sideline coach-ing.

On offense, the 1976 Eagles had MarkJablonski (then a junior) at quarterback,Wilcox at halfback and Greg Scafuro at full-back. Harvey Jessup, Bob Gaylord andsometimes Steve Dragon were the widereceivers, while the line consisted of DerrenCole, Randy Hackathorn, Koschar, Csepegi,Dave Merrell and David Gernot.

The defense was just as loaded. Tony andMike Hassett played at the tackles, withTony Barszczewski and Dan Carraher in themiddle and Dragon and Scafuro at defensiveends. Brian Rembacki, Ken Covell and JohnFerguson played linebacker, with Randy andRick Puckrin alternating at defensive backswith Jessup and Gaylord.

“We all played together from junior highon up,” Tony Hassett said.

The varsity coaching staff consisted ofHerpy, Dick Hunt (who recently died), TomKoehler and Dick Pierce.

“The two ninth-grade coaches, StanBielech and Jim Deering, were very influen-tial too,” Koschar said.

Submitted Photo

THE GENEVA LETTERMEN from the 1977 were part of a strong period of Eaglesfootball. At the center, just like his position, is No. 70 Rick Koschar.

Underrated lineman wasbig part of unit that ledEagles to 21-straight wins

■ HIGH SCOOL: Geneva HighSchool.■ GRADUATION YEAR: 1977■ POSITION: Center

RICK KOSCHAR

See KOSCHAR, Page 16


Coach led DeGennaro to success


When Ashtabula former teammatesDennis DeGennaro and Bob Louys areinducted into the Ashtabula County Hallof Fame on Dec. 8 at Our Lady of PeaceCommunity Center, one person will bebeaming broadly.

Their former coach, Tony Chiacchiero,arguably, had more to do with their suc-cess than any other person.

“We were never afraid to play any-body,” said DeGennaro of the Pantherswho culminated their success with a 9-0-1 record in 1962. “Coach Chiacchieroscheduled teams like Mentor, EastlakeNorth, Willoughby South and Wickliffewhen it was a power. Most of the time webeat ‘em.”

DeGennaro, who played center andmiddle guard for Ashtabula for threeyears, also gives a lot of credit to assis-tants Randy Pope, Ben Klepek and GeneGephart with helping his development.

“Once Chiacchiero had the programestablished, we won the NEC (Northeast-ern Conference) championship seventimes in eight years and won 86 percentof our games,” DeGennaro said. “When Ilook back on it, it was unbelievable.

“We had great players and great coach-es. We didn’t have any prima donnas orshowoffs. As good as Wash Lyons was,he never bragged about it.

“Coach Chiacchiero worked us hard,but he always treated us with fairness andrespect. There was no swearing and nograbbing of players. All the coaches weregood coaches and real gentlemen. WhenI look back on it now, I just happened tobe in the right place at the right time. Hedid things the right way. A lot of gameswe had won by halftime, but he never ranup the score. He was smart; he gave theyounger kids experience.”

One thing Chiacchiero did was makesure that the Panthers had the best equip-ment, DeGennaro said.

“When I got to Ohio University I foundout that we had better equipment atAshtabula,” he said. “We had better hel-mets, shoulder pads, hip pads and shoes.Coach Chiacchiero insisted we have thebest equipment. One year we had 100

players out for football and needed moreequipment, but he wouldn’t cut players.”

Under Chiacchiero and his assistants’tutelage, DeGennaro earned all-city, all-NEC, all-county, honorable mention all-Ohio honors as a senior.

He played both ways as a center andmiddle guard in football, lettering threeyears. He also lettered in basketball forone year and baseball for three years onvery good Panther teams. He also earnedan athletic scholarship to Ohio Universi-ty.

The Panthers’ 1962 team was loaded,with Bill Mooney, Gibby and Calvin Jep-son, DeGennaro, Duane Hadlock, LarryFeatsent and John Stevenson on the line.Larry Shively played quarterback andwas joined by Louys and Gary Pease atthe halfbacks. Lyons, the fullback, wasthe offensive star of the team. WhenAshtabula went on defense, Shively leftthe field and Dave Sheldon replaced himas a defensive back.

“No one threw the ball much then,”DeGennaro said. “We were a fullback-oriented offense, ran sweeps and traps.Wash was the best athlete of that era, buthe never thought he was better than any-one else.

“When we played, we did it the rightway. We never bragged or made excuses.I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“If you played for coach Chiacchiero,you deserved to play. It didn’t matter whoyou were or who your father was. He didthings with class. When I look back on it,I’m proud to say I played football atAshtabula High School.”

DeGennaro played a lot as a sopho-more, but was injured that summer play-ing baseball. He made it back to the start-ing lineup the second half of his juniorseason and became a dominant player asa senior despite playing on the line at 195pounds.

“I happened to be in the right place atthe right time,” he said. “We went 25-3-2in my three years and we played (a) nocreampuff schedule. We played Riversideand Harvey when it was still in its heydayjust a few years after John Mummey,

played some good Harbor teams andGeneva, which had Mark Debevc lateron. A lot of my teammates could just aseasily be in the Hall of Fame.”

Some of the victories over big teams arestill memorable to DeGennaro.

“When I was a sophomore, we beatMentor 28-0. We lost to them when I wasa junior, 21-18. We beat Eastlake Northwhen they were strong, 22-20, and Wick-liffe, 28-20. After I graduated, we playedWarren Western Reserve, which laterwon back-to-back state championshipswith Ross and Joey Browner.

“Most of the time we won, but when welost, we never got embarrassed. My sen-ior year we scrimmaged Erie CathedralPrep. We thought we’d get better if weplayed good competition and did it theright way.”

DeGennaro said he felt the Panthersoften won because they were better con-ditioned than their opponents.

“We won a lot of games because wewere in better shape, fundamentallysound and better prepared,” he said.

Much of the credit for five members ofthat team earning Division I collegescholarships has to go to Chiacchiero,DeGennaro said.

“After our senior season, coach Chiac-chiero, at his own expense, took us toseveral college campuses,” he said. “Sev-eral of us went to Miami of Ohio, OU,Kent State and met with the Naval Acad-emy representative in Cleveland. Thatfive of us from the same school got schol-arships is because of what coach Chiac-chiero did that year. I don’t know of anyother coach who would have done that.He worked for his ballplayers.”

Playing football at Ohio Universitywasn’t the dream that DeGennaro mighthave hoped for, though.

There was the weight problem. DeGen-naro had played at about 195 pounds forthe Panthers, but had bulked up to about205. When he arrived at Athens that sum-mer the weather was sizzling and hedropped to 185, not ideal for an offensiveor defensive lineman.

“Physically, I was mismatched,” hesaid. “I wasn’t big, but had played inside.They switched me to defensive end inspring football. Over the rest of the sum-mer I went from sixth-team defensiveend to the second team. The guys I wasbehind were all seniors.

“I had some surgery that summer and

Submitted Photo

DENNIS DEGENNARO had a successful careeron both sides of the line for Ashtabula HighSchool.

Chiacchiero helpedpush lineman to behis best at Ashtabula

■ HIGH SCOOL: AshtabulaHigh School.■ GRADUATION YEAR:1962■ POSITION: Center; middleguard

DENNIS DeGENNARO

See DeGENNARO, Page 19


Kanicki part of Warriors’ air assault


The Edgewood Warriors footballteam was struggling along, win-ning two or three games per year,until coach Dave Melaragno hadan inspiration.

Melaragno’s idea of installing therun-and-shoot offense paid imme-diate dividends in 1985, when theWarriors won six of 10 games andwith three of the losses coming byclose margins.

Quarterback Brad Petro was thetrigger of the offense, hitting tar-gets like J.T. Kanicki, GeraldMcMahan, Brian Boles and SteveDiemer.

The offensive line of Glen Hold-en, Todd Hjerpe, Doug Breedlove,Chris Monda and Chris Allen wereassigned to blocking for Petro andrunning backs Lou Winsnyai andChip Radosvich. Gary Detrick alsocontributed as a running back.

“You’ve got to have the rightquarterback and people to catch theball,” said Kanicki, who will beinducted into the Ashtabula Coun-ty Touchdown Club on Dec. 8 atMount Carmel Community Center.

You also have to have a runningattack to keep the defense honest,and the Warriors had that in Wis-nyai and Radosovich.

“Lou Wisnyai was a big part ofour offense,” Kanicki said. “Weran a lot of counters to both sides.Lou and Brian Boles ran themextremely well.

“It was the neatest offense. I had-n’t seen a spread offense like thataround here, with our short passesand running game. Edgewood wasone of the first teams to use that.”

Though the Warriors went just 6-4 that year, they had proved theviability of the offense and the rel-ative success they had set the tonefor the following season, whenthey went 9-1.

“They really should have gone

10-0,” Kanicki said. “They had agroup of guys at the core who hadtasted that success.”

As far as the 1985 team was con-cerned, it might have done betterhad a juggernaut not arisen rightnext door. The Conneaut Spartanswent 10-0, won the NortheasternConference and advanced to theplayoffs.

Edgewood lost to Conneaut, 12-8, and suffered two other closedefeats. The only one-sided losswas to a strong Geneva team. TheWarriors led Champion, 14-0, atthe half, but the Golden Flashescame back to beat them.

Melaragno spread the wealtharound that year, meaning no indi-vidual had tremendous receivingstats. Kanicki estimated he caughtabout 40 passes for 500-600 yards.

He also threw a touchdown passagainst Ashtabula on a trick playthat went for a 60-yard touchdownthat raised the Warriors’ lead to 21-7.

“Dave installed it that week,”Kanicki recalled. “He called itright before halftime. Dave hadpulled us all together on the side-line and said, ‘Get ready.’

“I had split out and Brad (Petro)threw the ball on the ground, later-

ally. I caught it on the first bounce.I knew the ball was live. Lou Wis-nyai was wide open.”

As it so happened, Panther starJarrod Bunch, who later played forMichigan and the New YorkGiants, returned the ensuing kick-off 90 yards for a touchdown,negating the effect of the play andmaking it 21-14. Edgewood even-tually won, 30-20.

“We shut him down the wholegame, except for that,” Kanickisaid.

Kanicki had given high schoolbaseball up after his freshman year,but was a starter on the Edgewoodbasketball team under Al Goodwin.The Warriors were co-championsof the NEC his junior year, but lostout to Geneva as seniors.

After the season, Kanicki drewsome interest from Division IIIschools like Mount Union andThiel, but decided to go to Toledoinstead. Though he received a let-ter from the school inviting him towalk on as a football player, heopted against that.

“I decided I was not a Division Ifootball player,” he said, “that Iwas going there for an education.”

At the time, Kanicki was plan-ning to be a lawyer, but his father,

former Cleveland Brown defensivelineman Jim Kanicki, who was onthe Browns’ last NFL champi-onship team in 1964, had just takenover Arthur Louis Steel in Ashtab-ula and encouraged him to go intobusiness so that he would be ableto go into business with him.

“He said, ‘Get your degree inbusiness and come back and workfor me,’” J.T. said.

Kanicki finished his businessdegree with honors in Dec. 1990,but his dad had other plans than toput him right to work.

“He said, ‘I think you need to getyour master’s degree,’” J.T. said.“‘If you don’t do it now, you neverwill.’ So I enrolled at Lake ErieCollege and got it in three years.”

In addition to his pro footballbackground, Jim Kanicki hasbecome a fixture in Ashtabula areahigh school football circles. He hasbeen a huge supporter of theAshtabula County TouchdownClub and for years co-sponsoredthe club’s biggest scholarship, theRobert L. Wiese Award.

“He’s my hero,” J.T. said of hisfather. “He’s a self-made man. Hecomes from a family of nine broth-ers and two sisters. He’s almost 73and still takes care of himself. He

works out and golfs and is in goodhealth.

“He’s grown our company anddid well at it. He’s a smart guy.”

J.T. went to work for his dadafter he got his master’s in 1994,but he didn’t exactly start at thetop.

“My brother Matt and I startedat the bottom,” Kanicki said. “Iwas trained as a salesperson. I hadto learn all the procedures. I wasreally green. I had to know howthey did things on the shop floor.I did a lot of manual work atfirst.”

All four Kanicki brothers nowwork for the company. Bart, theoldest, is erection manager. J.T.and Matt are the executives incharge of the company. Greg cameinto the company after a 27-yearstint in the U.S. military two yearsago. He now handles the companybusiness in Georgia.

The company has grown fromabout 10 employees to 40 or 50 attwo different facilities, one inAshtabula and the other in Geneva.

“We’ve really grown,” Kanickisaid. “My father was the big cata-lyst. He allowed us to spread ourwings. It’s truly a family business.It’s good that it’s going wellbecause he sacrificed a lot for thecompany.”

In May 1992, J.T. met ShirleyAnnick, a 1991 Edgewood gradu-ate, at Lou Wisnyai’s wedding.

“She gave me her number andwe’ve been together since,” Kanic-ki said. “We married in 1993.”

The Kanickis have three chil-dren: Karli, a junior volleyballplayer and track athlete at Edge-wood; Hayden, an eighth graderat Braden who plays football(quarterback) and basketball; andKaci, a fourth-grader atKingsville Elementary, whoplays basketball and loves horses.

Edgewood receiver helped Melaragno open up his offense

Submitted Photo

J.T. KANICKI, shown with his family, was a standout receiver while at Edgewood.

■ HIGH SCOOL: Edgewood High School.■ GRADUATIONYEAR: 1985■ POSITION: Widereceiver

J.T. KANICKI


1066 Brown Dr. Ashtabula, OH 44004 440-994-9363

CC&&SSROOFINGROOFING

Showalter was destined to star at RB


Eric Showalter decidedwhat football position hewanted — no, which one hehad to play — when he wasin the fourth grade.

That was the year he sawOhio State running backKeith Byars run over oppo-nents, seemingly at will.

It didn’t hurt that Showal-ter’s brother Greg, sevenyears older than he was, wasthe star quarterback on Con-neaut’s undefeated team of1983.

“My most direct influencewas my brother Greg,” saidShowalter, who will beinducted into the AshtabulaCounty Touchdown’s Hall ofFame on Dec. 8 at MountCarmel Community Center.

“I was a sponge. All Iwanted to do was be a Con-neaut Spartan football play-er. Greg was the quarterbackon an undefeated team. Iwould go to all the gamesand sit in the stands. I wouldwait for him to come homeand bring in his duffel bag.”

One of Greg Showalter’sbest friends on the team,fullback Dave Murzynski,was the fullback for theSpartans and set a teamrecord of 1,002 yards rush-ing that year.

Steve Nolan was the headcoach at Conneaut duringthat time (”Steve Nolanbasically is responsible forbringing Conneaut footballback,” Showalter said), butShowalter fell more underthe influence of one of hisassistants, Rob Eager.

“Greg was always talkingabout coach Eager, how hecoached and what kind ofperson he was,” EricShowalter said. “When I wasin the fifth grade, Rob Eagerwas my teacher at ChestnutElementary School. Ithought, ‘OK, this is myfootball coach.’”

Showalter was taller andbigger than his classmates,and Eager took him underhis wing.

“He was always throwingme the ball,” Showalter said.“I kept thinking, ‘There’s nodropping the ball.’ I felt Ihad the reputations of mybrothers to live up to.”

As a running back, Byarshad first impressed Showal-ter. His attention moved onto Walter Payton, hisfavorite running back. Otherinfluences were Earl Camp-bell and Eric Dickerson.

“I tried to develop (Pay-ton’s) running style,” he

said. “I was mentally alreadypreparing myself.”

Showalter’s parents (Dickand Pat) hadn’t let his olderbrothers play football untiltheir freshman years becauseof the fear of injury, butbecause Eric was huskier,they gave their permissionfor him to play in the eighthgrade.

“I was ready,” he said. “Inthe fifth and sixth grades Iwas lifting weights. I wantedto be the fullback, the fea-tured running back in thewing-T.”

At the time, the Conneautstaff had a 150-pound limitfor backs of that age. Any-one heavier than that had toplay the line, and heweighed 153 just before theweigh-in.

Showalter had learnedsome tricks about losing

weight at the last minutefrom some of the Conneautwrestlers, but he wasn’t surehe made it down to 150 anddidn’t look at the scale.

“They said, ‘150 pounds,you’re a running back,’”Showalter said.

He took their word for it.He had already, with his

brother, practiced takinghandoffs and running trapsand belly plays.

“I lived for Conneaut foot-ball,” he said.

When he reached the ninthgrade, Rollie Mushrush washis coach. Showalter’s bestfriend Erik (”Juice”) Hunt,was lined up at quarterback.Showalter himself was putin the tight end line.

“I said, ‘I’m a fullback,’”Showalter said. “‘You cangive it a try,’ Mushrushresponded.”

“He watched what chem-istry we had with handoffs,”Showalter said. “I wanted tomake sure I didn’t get tack-led. I wouldn’t stop until thecoach blew the whistle. I hada great (junior varsity) year.Coach Eager was alwayssupportive and encourag-ing.”

After his freshman year,Showalter again liftedweights in preparation forthe following fall.

“I knew John Salters, theincumbent at fullback, wascoming back. Pete Harris, agreat runner, was the half-back.”

Showalter’s work in theweight room impressedupperclassmen like hisbrother Scott, Marty Peas-panen, Scott Bartone andJim Lucas. They acceptedhim.

When Salters graduatedearly, the position was open.It became Showalter’s.

“The Good Lord blessedme with the ability to matchmy desire,” he said.

As focused as he was,Showalter had goals: to be aleader, to be a captain, to besuccessful. And a big one atthat.

“I had undefeated in mymind,” he said.

The Spartans had a hugeline that year: Peaspanen,Scott Saylor, Bartone, RollieCiarelli, Lucas and GaryBleffin, all of whom rangedwere between 6-foot to 6-3and from 220-275 pounds.

Quarterback Dusty Kac-zoroski led the offense atquarterback and was joinedby Harris and Showalter.Boyd Griffith and Mo Wof-ford were the wide receivers.

Showalter admitted tobeing nervous before hisfirst varsity game.

“Pete (Harris) looked at meand said, ‘Show, I’m all-county and you’re runningwith me, so we’re bothgoing to be all-county,’”Showalter recalled. “Thatshook my nerves off.”

“With all those seniors, allI had to do was show up andplay, work hard and bedependable. My brotherScott was a defensive end onthat team. He didn’t playfootball until his senior year.The most important thing tome is relationships. Scottand I always gave each othera high five or low five whenwe went from offense todefense.”

Showalter and Harrismeshed. Showalter had 60yards rushing and 40 yardsreceiving in that first gameagainst Campbell.

There were good games.Against St. John the Spar-tans rolled up 62 points withthe first team playing onlythe first half. Harris had 174yards in that duration andShowalter added 130-pluson 13 carries.

There were tough games,too, such as playing Ashtab-

Submitted Photo

ERIC SHOWALTER was a successful running backwith the Conneaut Spartans.

Conneaut runnerknew at a youngage what he wanted

■ HIGH SCOOL:Conneaut HighSchool.■ GRADUATIONYEAR: 1992■ POSITION: Running back

ERIC SHOWALTER

See SHOWALTER, Page 18


Receiver captained ‘75 Geneva team


Like many other teams, the Geneva Eagleshave a tradition of coming out of the lockerroom pumped up, jumping up and down andthen onto each other, forming a pile. WhenBob Herpy was head coach, he topped thepile.

“I could never figure that out,” said DanCraine, who will be inducted into theAshtabula County Touchdown Club Hall ofFame Dec. 8 at Mount Carmel CommunityCenter. “One would think he had to hurthimself once or twice, but he never showedit. After the first time, I moved to the oppo-site side where Coach (Dick) Pierce wouldhide.”

Craine was an outstanding wide receiveron the Geneva teams of 1974 and 1975 (a co-captain as a senior), joining teammatesRandy Hartz, quarterback; Gary Munson(co-captain), fullback/linebacker: SteveMerrell (co-captain) tight end/linebacker:Rick Gaylord, running back; Willie DeJesusrunning back/defensive back; and JohnMontgomery, running back.

DeJesus and Craine would later roomtogether at Baldwin-Wallace.

“There were a lot of really great guys in theClass of 1975,” Craine said. “We had a lot offun and enjoyed each other. The offensiveline was a tough group, I wish I couldremember all of their names. Without themRandy Hartz would have never been able toget the ball out to his receivers.”

That group was coached by Herpy andassistants Tom Koehler, Dick Hunt and DickPierce.

“Coach Pierce coached the split ends andwide-outs, so we had a special relationship,”Craine said. “He was very motivated andyou just really wanted to play for him. Hehad a great sense of humor and you could tellhe really cared a lot about all of us.”

Craine began his football career in pickupgames around the neighborhood, with hisbrother, Don, and other boys in the neigh-borhood.

“The biggest problem for me, althoughmaybe it was a godsend, was that I was usu-ally the smallest guy out there, unless one of

my buddies showed up to play,” he said.Like so many other Eagles, Craine later

played in the Geneva Midget League, at leastafter some hesitation on his parents’ part.

“I remember sitting at the kitchen tablewith the family and telling them a lot of myfriends were talking about playing in themidget league football program,” Crainesaid. “I begged my dad to let me play. Atfirst, he did not want me to play. He eventu-ally came around and let me play, bought mea helmet from a sporting goods store. Hemust have not trusted the helmets the midgetleague program was issuing, but I was head-ed to play football.

“The name of our team was the Colts. Thecoach was Bill Hope and my father decidedhe would help coach. My first position wason the offensive line and I was given No. 51.I’m not exactly sure how successful wewere, however, I remember playing at theGeneva Memorial Stadium and catching awinning touchdown pass late in the game.”

When Craine moved on to junior highschool football. He doesn’t remember muchabout those years except for something hemight not want to.

“The one thing I do remember is playing a

freshman game at Jefferson,” he said. “I wasrunning the football up the sidelines and waschased out of bounds by one of the defend-ers. Bad news for me was that the ‘chaingang’ with the metal chains and poles forgotto get out of the way, and I went down hard.I remember getting up and not knowingwhere I was. I believe this was the first ofmy three concussions.”

Craine was more interested in basketballthan football during that time.

“I really became a basketball nut,” he said.“I was so crazy about playing that during thewinter I would go out at our house and clearall the snow and ice off the driveway just soI could dribble and shoot the ball. During thesummer there were a lot of guys who wouldplay basketball down behind the junior highschool, which was a full court with lights. Iremember I would ride my bike down therejust to see if I could get in on a game. Obvi-ously, there were a lot of older guys whowould come down to play, so there weretimes I would just have to sit and wait myturn.”

More interested in playing basketball, hedidn’t play football as a sophomore for acouple of reasons.

“One was my love of basketball and think-ing I could play at the next level,” he said.“The problem with that is I was only six-feettall and with no three-point line back then...well, need I say more?

“Another reason, and I guess it’s safe to sayit now, does anyone remember the footballteam of 1973? My older brother was part ofthat class and wow, those guys were big,fast, and mean. Why would anyone want tobe a tackling dummy with that group? So, Itook to the sidelines and became the stat boyfor the 1973 season. I had the best seat in thehouse and enjoyed a great season.”

His junior year he did go out and playedsplit end/wide receiver and defensive back.Herpy coached the defensive backs andPierce was the split end/wide receiverscoach. The starter at that position broke hiswrist that year and Craine became a starter.

“My mother remembers that I sufferedthree concussions during my playingcareer,” Craine said. “The one I rememberthe most was one which occurred during agame at Madison. I was playing defensiveback and the Madison quarterback took off

Submitted Photo

DAN CRAINE was a standout receiver for the great Geneva teams of the mid-70s.

■ HIGH SCOOL: Geneva HighSchool.■ GRADUATION YEAR: 1975■ POSITION: Wide reciever;defensive back

DAN CRAINE

See CRAINE, Page 19


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v We Salute Ashtabula County Football Players!

Freeman’s switch paid offBy CHRIS LARICKFor the Star Beacon

Sean Freeman had not even con-sidered playing football whenPymatuning Valley football coachKen Parise saw him playing bas-ketball and set out to recruit him.

“He pursued me, along withcoach Perry Nikolas,” Freemansays of Parise. “I had no interest inplaying football. But (Parise) knewme as an athlete. He saw me throwa ball and said I had to go out forfootball. I said, ‘All right, I’ll doit.’ I was a little reluctant... I givehim credit for getting me to dosomething that I wouldn’t havetried otherwise. I’m thankful forthat.”

Parise’s pursuit of Freeman paidhuge dividends. As a quarterbackfor the Lakers, he led them to a 9-1record as a senior in 1989 and wasnamed Star Beacon AshtabulaCounty Offensive Back of the Yearas a junior and senior. He shatteredthe school passing record (former-ly 1,017 yards) as a senior with2,091 yards and 23 touchdowns.For his career he threw for 4,641yards and 48 touchdowns.

Freeman, who will be inductedinto the Ashtabula County Touch-down Club Hall of Fame on Dec. 8at Mount Carmel Community Cen-ter, made all-state as a junior andsenior. The Plain Dealer rated himas one of the top six quarterbacks

in the state during that time.One of Freeman’s favorite targets

was Gordie Hitchcock, already amember of the Hall of Fame. Healso threw a slew of passes toDavid Dick, Brian McNamara,Mark Pittsingser and running backChristian Paye.

“He was a very good runningback but he also caught a lot ofpasses out of the backfield,” Free-man said of Payne.

“When I was a senior, we had aheck of a line — Shane Blanford,Brad and Brian Dernek, RollinJohnson, Chad Dunbar and FrankWhite.”

To Freeman, Parise set the tone.“He was an aggressive coach,”

Freeman said. “He had played pro-fessional football at some level andbrought a way of playing and away of excitement. He brought insome guys who had had some suc-cess there before.

“Before our junior year we hadplayed some smaller schools. Onlythe top four teams (in each divi-sion’s region) could get into theplayoffs then. In our junior year webeefed up our schedule and playedbigger schools for computer points.That set the tone for the next year(Freeman’s senior season) whenwe went 9-1.”

Of Parise, Freeman added, “Hesaw something in me. Up to that

time there wasn’t a ton of passingat PV. I had seen (Conneaut’sMark) Wheeler, how good he was,another lefty, tall like me. He hadplayed Division I football. I give(Parise) credit for opening up theoffense, letting me pass the ball.We could’ve been a running team.We worked at (passing) once wesaw what we could do. Our guysput in some effort on that.”

Just last year, Freeman wasinducted into the Ashtabula Coun-ty Basketball Foundation’s hall offame. Hoops was the game heprobably invested the most timeand effort in. That started in Con-neaut, not Andover.

The son of Conneaut principalPaul Freeman, a member of theAshtabula County BasketballFoundation Hall of Fame, Seanloved attending the Spartan basket-ball games as a youngster.

“I have a lot of respect forAshtabula County high school bas-ketball,” said Freeman. “My broth-er Brett played three varsity yearsat Conneaut and was kind of mychildhood hero. I was probably thelast child of the pre-technical era.”

He played junior high ball atRowe in the seventh and eighthgrades and started on the varsityteam at PV as a freshman from hissecond game on, playing for coachBob Hitchcock.

The Lakers won 12 of their last16 games that year to win the GRCwith a team that started only onesenior.

That season paved the way forone of the school’s best years ever,Freeman’s sophomore year, whenthe Lakers won their first 22 games

before Hawken beat them in over-time in the district tournament.

The team had size with Freeman(about 6-3 at the time), SteveOman, Jason Poole and GordyHitchcock. It had the shooting ofDoug Hitchcock and Rod Brownand the playmaking of Hitchcock.

Pymatuning Valley moved to theEast Suburban Conference Free-man’s senior year (1989-1990),where they faced tougher competi-

tion in the likes of Berkshire, Kirt-land and others. Still, the Lakerswound up second.

Freeman scored 1,301 points dur-ing his high school career, the sev-enth-highest total for all boys play-ers in county history.

He was also selected by theRegional Press as a player on theDream Team of the Decade for the

Submitted Photo

SEAN FREEMAN, current day, with his 5-year-old son, Daniel.

QB’s move from courtto gridiron helped lead Lakers to success

See FREEMAN, Page 16

■ HIGH SCOOL:Pymatuning Valley HighSchool.■ GRADUATIONYEAR: 1990■ POSITION: Quaterback

SEAN FREEMAN


Severino led Heralds’ lines


Ron Severino never saw it coming.Never saw the clip that ended his football

career, that is.Severino had so impressed the Universi-

ty of Arizona coaching staff while playingat MiraCosta Junior College in Californiathey signed him to a scholarship.

But in his first season there, Severino,who will be inducted into the AshtabulaCounty Touchdown Club Hall of Fame onDec. 8 at Mount Carmel Community Cen-ter, forgot to take one precaution.

“In those days the line of scrimmage wasa legal clip zone,” Severino recalls. “I wasplaying outside linebacker and was in ablitz. When I blitzed, there was no onethere to pick me up. In that situation, wewere supposed to drop to our knees since itwas possible someone would hit me fromthe side.

“I didn’t drop to my knees and someonecame in and took me down pretty good.”

The hit resulted in damage to three kneeligaments and all the cartilage in that knee.Severino had surgery on the knee and wentthrough rehabilitation.

“I came back and tried to play, but Icouldn’t play,” he said. “The knee hadturned all the way around (on the hit).They told me at the time they didn’t thinkI’d be able to come back.”

Severino, a 1966 St. John graduate, hadbegun playing football at Mount Carmel.At the time the county had a parochialleague and Mount Carmel played schoolslike St. Joseph and St. Mary. Thoseschools would play each other in tacklefootball every Sunday during the season.Mount Carmel also played flag football inthe City League on Tuesdays and Thurs-days.

“We always won that,” Severino said. “Iplayed defensive end and rushed the pass-er. I was on the ball a lot.”

Severino went on to play on a good St.John team, coached by Dan McGinnis.That team had several standouts, includingplayers like Denny Allen, Bob Sposito, JoeCoroa, Norm Dominico, Bob DeMay and

Terry Melaragno.“We had a lot of good players,” Severino

said. “Denny Allen was a year older thanme. He was a great player.”

“(McGinnis) was a great coach. I thinkhe had a heart condition, though. He was atechnical coach, not much of a speaker. Hehad some good assistants in Ron DeTireo,Don Cannell and Gene Pushic, who wenton to coach Bernie Kosar at Boardman.

“Steve Crest was the quarterback mysenior year. I think we ran the ball morethan we threw it. We were city champions

from 1964 to 1966 and NEC champs in ‘64and ‘65. We were the smallest school inthe city, but we were very competitive.”

Football was the only sport Severinocompeted in at St. John, except for oneyear when he played basketball. Playingoffensive and defensive tackle at 6 foot 2and 225 pounds, he was all-AshtabulaCounty and all-NEC and earned honorablemention all-Ohio status.

From high school Severino went to Mira-Costa, where, in his one year there, theteam won its league’s junior college cham-

pionship. They went on to play for thestate championship in California, but werebeaten, 17-13.

“I was defensive player of the yearthere,” Severino said. “I made (Junior Col-lege) honorable mention All-American.”

After that year, he hoped to hook on withUCLA, but that didn’t work out. Instead,Arizona pickd him up, where he sufferedhis career-ending knee injury.

He was majoring in history, but neverfinished his degree work.

“I couldn’t play football anymore,” hesaid. “I thought I would do somethingelse.”

Severino returned to California, where hehad gone right after high school.

“I didn’t stay around Ashtabula,” he said.“By August of 1966, I was in Californiaand I never came back. I’ve got nine sib-lings and some of them still live there.”

He began working in the constructionbusiness.

“I enjoyed that,” he said. “I liked carpen-try work. I had done that for a long timesince my dad, Steve, was a contractor.”

Severino worked for a company for threeyears, then got his license as a contractorand branched out on his own in 1970.

His company, Severino Construction,which once employed as many as sevenpeople, builds houses in and around SanDiego. He is in the process of finishing hislast house before retirement.

“We build custom houses, of about 5,000square feet,” he said. “They sell for abouta million two or a million three.

“It’s always 70 degrees here,” he said.“It’s beautiful now. But I don’t rememberthe last time it rained. We’re in the thirdyear of a severe drought.”

His first marriage lasted for 18 years andproduced three daughters: Anna, 41, whomanages a cosmetics store; Gina, 38, whoworks at a fish house; and Maria, 36, whois a real estate agent. He has two grand-children, Gabriella and Stella. All of hischildren live near him in Carlsbad, Calif..

After being single from 1988 to 2003,Severino remarried (Barbara), who passedaway in 2010.

Lineman was key on several strongSt. John teams

Submitted Photo

RON SEVERINO, pictured with his grandaughters Gabriella and Stella.

■ HIGH SCOOL: St. JohnHigh School.■ GRADUATION YEAR: 1966■ POSITION: Linebacker

RON SEVERINO


1980s.“I was very honored to be named as one of the

top 10 basketball players in county history by theStar Beacon,” Freeman said. “I was very humbledby that mention.”

One of his proudest accomplishments was beingrunner-up to eventual Ohio State star RobertSmith as Northeast Ohio Athlete of the Year.

After high school, Freeman had a chance to playDivision I football, but didn’t really consider it.

In baseball he had set the Pymatuning Valleycareer highs for home runs (21) and RBI (90)after his junior year.

College coaches wanted Freeman to play foot-ball exclusively. Freeman wanted to play base-ball.

“It was a stressful time,” he said. “Ohio Statewas involved. So were Bowling Green and Geor-gia Tech. It was a crazy time.”

One of the deciding factors was the college foot-ball itself, which was larger than the high schoolversion.

“I didn’t have big hands for my size,” he said. “Iwasn’t sure I could throw the college ball 50 or 60yards. And I really wanted to give college base-ball a shot.”

Kent State wanted Freeman as a baseball player.Eventually, that’s where he wound up.

He had pitched and played first base in highschool. At Kent, he became a full-time first base-man.

“I ended up playing first base all four years,” hesaid. “I’ve been inducted into the Kent State Uni-versity baseball Hall of Fame.”

Over his career at Kent, Freeman had a battingaverage of .333 and held the doubles record inaddition to the record for most games played.

He was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 1994 andwound up five or six classes short of a degree,spending four years in the Tigers’ system, fiveoverall in the Minor Leagues.

In Class AA Jacksonville in 1996, he was part ofa team that won a championship. The followingyear he went to spring training with the Tigers,but was injured and never played in a MajorLeague game.

After years of back problems, Freeman hadintensive back surgery.

“It was a five- or six-hour surgery,” he said.“They cut out three vertebrae in my spine. It’sbeen a couple of tough years for me. I had a tumorpressing against a major blood vessel.”

“It’s been a recurring issue. I take pain shots,”he said. “Some mornings aren’t good. I have ten-sion I’ve never had before. I’m not in a wheel-chair, but at times it gets so painful I have to liedown.”

Freeman has a son, Daniel, 5. He moved back tothe Andover area a couple of years ago.

Freeman From Page 14

we did a great job. I’ll never forget that.”The Mariners finished 8-2 that year,

beating Geneva but getting beat by St.John, 8-7, in the wind and mud at WennerField after a Harbor punt went backwardin the wind.

Harbor had a good offensive line, withDoug Stranman, Dave Powers, RaimoKangas, John Radkowski and KellyPrine. It had great skill players inSchulte, Hood, Tom Skarlinski, JohnRinger, Bob Raffa, Alex Raffa, RomeroSiler.

The Mariners also boasted a talentedcoach in Platano, who wasn’t afraid totake chances.

“He and (Harbor basketball coach) JohnHiggins were very influential in my life,right up to this day,” Schulte said. “Theycoached and motivated me and had belief

in me. They motivated me in a positiveway. That goes a long way.

“Our senior year (Platano) went out andresearched BYU’s offense. He put in awhole new offense for us. We were verygood at the skill positions.

“In the passing game we would pre-read. I always had three options, alwayshad an outlet to go to. I think coach Pla-tano was ahead of the game in innovativeoffenses. We had the swinging gate (onextra points) before anyone else.”

As good a quarterback as Schulte was,he may have been a better point guard inbasketball. In fact, Georgia Tech recruit-ed him when the Mariners played Ashtab-ula and said later, on the phone, that theywere going to offer him a scholarship.The head coach got fired, though, and theoffer was pulled.

“I thought about playing hoops in col-lege, but I needed a scholarship,” Schultesaid. “My parents weren’t in a position tosend me. It got to the end of the seasonand West Virginia Wesleyan lost a quar-terback and offered me a scholarship. I

had nothing else concrete, so I took it.”His freshman year he played in five

games, some of it as a quarterback, someat fullback. He wasn’t happy.

“They ran the veer and I wanted tothrow the ball,” Schulte said. “I had filledout to over 200 pounds at 6-2 so I couldrun, but I wanted to sit back and throw.”

His dissatisfaction led to the transfer toOhio Wesleyan.

He did get to throw occasionally, whenhis team got behind.

“Back then, if you threw it 20-25 timesa game you were airing it out,” he said.

When he graduated from college, hisfirst job was at a newspaper, the Char-lotte Observer in North Carolina for ashort time before returning to Ashtabulato take his first radio job at 102-ZOO,beginning in sales. Within six months hewas named sales manager and in nine or10 months, general manager.

“I’ve been a General Manager-VicePresident ever since, until about fiveyears later, when I became President ofthe Media One Group,” he said.

Schulte From Page 4

To rest some of the otherplayers, Koschar sometimesgot into the game on defense.

“I would rather have beenthere,” he said. “I had a blastdoing it. If somebody wentdown, I had to fill in.”

Most of the time in thatundefeated season of 1976,the wins came easily. Aboutthe only tough game was a 13-7 victory over Harbor thatwent down to the end.

The game that was supposedto be the Eagles’ toughest did-n’t turn out that way at all.

Geneva and St. John wentinto 1976’s ninth game bothundefeated.

“I’ve heard there were wellover 10,000 people at thatgame (at Geneva),” Koscharsaid. “There were a lot of peo-ple standing up on that hill bythe cemetery.

“We pretty much blew themout, 42-6 or so. That was a bighighlight of the season.

“We came together thatgame. We always talked aboutit. They picked (St. John) towin in the newspaper. Thatwas a fireball. Coach Herpy

always gave emotionalspeeches, but when St. Johncame in, he just stared at us,didn’t say much. We fed offthat.”

The Eagles were so unitedthat when it came to choosingan MVP, they balked.

“We couldn’t pick one,”Koschar said. “We said itshould go to everyone, eventhe underclassmen. They werea great, great group of guys.We couldn’t vote GregWilcox, even though he hadall those yards, because ofwhat was in front of him. Youcould have run the ball then.”

Even after all these yearsand living in Florida, Koscharlooks back on those days assome of the best in his life.

“I was just so very fortunategrowing up in Geneva, Ohio,”he said. “I was very fortunateto have the group of guys forfriends that I had, the group ofcoaches that I had, even theprincipals supported us.

“It was a great setting andwe had a ton of support fromour families. The spirit offootball throughout the com-munity was out of control, thebest I’ve ever seen, with noth-ing else close to duplicatingit.”

Koschar comes from

divorced parents. His father,Richard Sr., had worked atReliance Electric and passedaway in 2010. His motherlives in Mississippi. He hasfour sisters — Beth, Carrie,Meg and Jill.

After he graduated he wentto the University of Ediboroon a football scholarship. Heplayed in just five games as afreshman because of aninjury, then started at centerfor three years.

“We weren’t really success-ful,” he said of his time withthe Fighting Scots. “One yearwe went 8-2. I made secondteam all-conference my soph-omore year, first-team myjunior year. If we had beatClarion my junior year wewould have gone to a bowlgame, but it didn’t happen.”

After changing his majortwice, he took a degree in andphysical education.

“I didn’t find a job rightaway, so I started a businessin Pittsburgh,” he said. “Thenext year I took a physicaleducation job at Geneva Ele-mentary for three years. Icoached track at the highschool. I had done the highjump, mile and shot put inhigh school. I’m a go-getter;I’ll try anything.”

When it appeared that hewould be laid off after threeyears, he saw an ad for teach-ers in Florida. He interviewedin Palm Beach County in Fla.and accepted a job at ForestHills High School. After oneyear there, he was laid off, butlanded a job at South AreaHigh School in Lakeland,Fla., where he spent 12 years.

Koschar then got out ofteaching for a while and start-ed his own business installingkitchens.

In 2002 he returned to teach-ing and coaching at GladeCentral in Florida.

“We have a lot of (football)talent there,” he said. “Itaught a lot of players in theNFL now — SantonioHolmes, Fred Taylor, JamesLee, Diante Thompson andthe Browns’ Travis Ben-jamin.”

Koschar has coached crosscountry, tennis, wrestling andfootball.

Now divorced, he has twodaughters, Alica, 34, and Tia,30.

While he was in his 30s, heran triathlons, but has giventhat up.

“I do stay in shape, though,run three or four times aweek,” he said.

Koschar From Page 9


as a junior to second-teamAll-Ohio at a linebacker as asenior.

He also won four varsityletters in wrestling and qual-ified for state twice in thatsport. He added two lettersin track and one in baseball.

“I made it to the state myjunior and senior years at171 pounds,” he said. “Mysophomore year I separatedmy shoulder at districts. Ihad wrestled since kinder-garten at Painesville, thenhere in the Pee Wee programwith Mr. Cole and JohnMikus.”

After graduation, Takacsvisited a few colleges, buteventually decided the aca-demic life was not for him.

“At the time I wanted tolearn life skills,” he said. “Iserved my country fromFebruary 1989 to 1993.”

He entered the U.S.Marine Corps, doing hisbasic training at ParrisIsland, then his schooling atLeJeune, N.C. He was serv-ing in Erie with the reserveswhen Operation DesertStorm began.

He was assigned to drive aheavy truck used as a refuel-er.

“I had diesel fuel in theback of my truck,” he said.“That was a nice target. Wegot shot at by the artillery,but nothing connected,thank goodness.”

Of course, OperationDesert Storm went about aswell as a war possibly can,at least for the U.S. troops.

“It was only about threedays,” Takacs said. “It was amass movement of peopleand equipment. We hung outforever, were always moving,but the ground war only tookabout three days. Our jobthere was to liberate Kuwait.That’s what we did there.”

In 1993, Takacs decided toget on with his life.

“It was just time to move

on,” he said. “I just had toget to work, do my thing. Imet my wife (Renee Radin-sky, a 1984 Grand Valleygraduate) here in Orwell andwe started having children.”

Takacs reclaimed the job atChardon Rubber Companyhe had left to join theMarines and worked thereuntil 2004. He then workedconstruction in Middlefieldbefore accepting a job atKennametal in Orwell,where he continues to workas a maintenance technician.

“I get work orders to fixsomething in the building ormachinery, fix electric andhydraulics,” he said. “It’salways something different,not the same old, same old.”

Takacs, the son of Jane andJames (both deceased) hasfive siblings — Jim, MaryJane, Jason, Jennifer andJessica. Jeff and Renee havegiven birth to three children— Abigail, who plays bas-ketball, softball and volley-ball as a sophomore atGrand Valley; Clayton, whoplays quarterback on theMustangs’ eighth-gradeteam and wrestles; andMadison, who plays basket-ball and softball as a sixth-grader at Grand ValleyJunior High.

Clayton played his lastgame of the season recentlyagainst Mathews.

“Mathews has 12 kids onits roster,” Takacs said. “Webeat them 56-0 and put theseventh graders in early. Wehad 50-plus kids out there.”

Takacs coached Clayton infootball in earlier years(along with Chutas, whosenephew was on the sameteam) and was a wrestlingcoach for the junior highteam for five years until hewas replaced by a teacher inthe system.

His philosophy about foot-ball, the game he loves, hasremained constant throughthe years.

“It’s a game that’s notabout statistics, it’s aboutwhat’s in your heart andwhat’s in your mind,” hesaid.

Takacs From Page 5

changes things. The next year therewere more out, and when I was a sen-ior there were about 45.”

Still, with skilled players like RandyPark and Chris Wilson (a speedsterwho finished second in the 800 at thestate track meet as a senior), the Fal-cons went 6-3-1 that year. Toukonenplayed offensive and defensive tacklenext to John Workman, a standout.

“I played every down,” Toukonensaid of his stints at offensive tackle anddefensive lineman. “Playing besideJohn (Workman) when I was a sopho-more helped a lot with my blocking.

“You could do a lot more then. Youcould throw and roll three times rightacross their hips. Crack-back blockswere allowed. So were head slaps.”

The Falcons played a Wing-T onoffense, with an emphasis on runningthe ball.

“We didn’t do a lot of passing,”Toukonen said. “We did a lot of trapblocking. We ran a stunting Oklahomaon defense. We had some older guys onmy sophomore team, guys like MikeNugent and Tim Brenneman. JimBaker was a year older than me.”

Jefferson went 6-3-1 when Toukonenwas a sophomore in 1975, then 9-1 and7-3. In the Grand River Conferencewith Jefferson, Fairport, Perry, Ledge-mont, Grand Valley and PymatuningValley, the Falcons tied for the champi-onship with Fairport, then quarter-backed by future Ohio State and SanFrancisco 49er punter Tom Orosz, hisjunior season before winning it in hissenior year.

After graduating, Toukonen enteredOhio State, walking on to the wrestlingteam. A recurring neck injury, a stinger,was bothering him and his classes weredemanding, so after a few practices, hegave up that pursuit.

“They were about eighth in the coun-try that year,” Toukonen said. “I wasmajoring in education. I came home forthe summer and got in a car accident. Ihad to pay my medical bills.”

During that summer Toukonenreceived an offer to work at Rockwellin Louisville, Kentucky where heworked as a maintenance man forseven years. When that plant closed, hemoved back to northeastern Ohio, tak-ing a job as a teacher’s aide at HappyHearts School.

“When I was in Kentucky, I workedfor the Society for Handicapped Chil-dren, and that got me interested in thatfield,” he said. “I kind of pursued it fromthere. I’ve been back here since 1989.”

Toukonen took a job at Homestead, arehabilitation facility, in the evenings,and eventually got hired on a full-timebasis. He is now a Qualified Intellec-tual Disabilities Professional (QIDP),working with the disabled.

“I find work for them in the communi-ty, deal with their need for housing andmoney management,” he said. “I dealwith their transition to independence,teach them things like how to go to thebank and cash checks. It’s a challenge.”

Toukonen’s family has owned a dairyfarm near Jefferson for many years. Hisgrandfather emigrated here from Fin-land in 1911. One of his uncles, Martin,was a professional boxer who once beatan Olympian, but was disqualified asan amateur because he won a $10 prizefor boxing 10 bouts in a single day.

Toukonen is one of eight children of

Reino and Grace Toukonen, both ofwhom have now passed away. In addi-tion to Alex, the Toukonens gave birthto Dale, Eric, Dane, Sally, Judy, Eliza-beth and Karen.

“My mom and dad were fantastic,”Toukonen said. “They had 54 cows.There was a lot of work, but they gaveus all the opportunity to go to college.And we all had the opportunity to playsports, too. My brothers were all-GRCand all-county athletes, too, and wres-tled in college.

“My sister Sally was a heck of an ath-lete. She played field hockey at KentState University. Once when we wereplaying football (in the neighborhood)I remember Sally hitting Dale reallyhard when he was going for the foot-ball. Sally was 17 years older than meand was like a mom to me. She wasalways there for me.”

Of the other siblings, Toukonen saidhis brothers Dale and Dane were all-county athletes. Eric went on tobecome an Ohio Hall of Famewrestling coach at Urichsville Clay-mont High School. Elizabeth is a anadministrator at Bellefonte in Pennsyl-vania, near Penn State College.

Sally Toukonen Dulak, who becameGeneva’s first head girls basketball coach,came down with Parkinson’s Disease andpassed away a couple of years ago.

Alex, now 46, has been married, butis now divorced. He has a partner,Tonya Cardona, a 2002 Geneva gradu-ate who works as a nurse at Homesteadwith him.

Tonya has two children and she andAlex attend their soccer games andother activities.

“I also like to fish and hunt rabbitsand deer,” he said. “I don’t have time toget out there a lot, though.”

Toukonen From Page 5

shooter, he won the Interna-tional Border Agency DayMost Valuable Competitoraward, along with the IBAShooting Team trophy.

Although he retired fromthe FBI, Louys was notready to stop working. Hold-ing a bachelor degree in his-tory from Marietta and mas-ters of social studies fromMississippi College, hebecame the Director of

Petroleum Products Inspec-tion Division in Mississip-pi’s Department of Agricul-ture and Commerce, retiringfrom that position recently.In 1997 he became AdjunctProfessor in MississippiCollege’s history departmentand, in 2006, he took anidentical position at HindsCounty Community Col-lege. He continues to servein both capacities as a pro-fessor of western civilizationand American history.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “I lovehistory. I’ve always beenvery honored that (the col-

leges) even considered me.”He is also proud of the

service he has done with theBoy Scouts of America.Having been affiliated withthat group for 30 years, hehas been honored with a BoyScout of America Award. Heled one of the largest troopsin Mississippi during thatperiod, attended thePhilmont Boy Scout Ranchin Raton, N.M. three timesand obtained his WoodBadge Award. His son,Boomer, is an Eagle Scout.

Louys married Marie(Welsh) in 1970. The couple

has three children: Danielle,Robert Jr. (Boomer) andShannon, who have giventhem four grandchildren:Elliot, Gavin, Madelyn andJoshua. The Louys reside inBrandon, Miss.

Among the people he metand played with and againstin high school, Louys mostcherishes people like DennisDeGennaro, whom he’llenter the hall of fame with,Vaughn Tittle, Lou Winsyai,Mike Castrillo, DaveBerkowitz, Ed Miller,Tommy McGill and GenePlatano.

Louys From Page 7


with Frank Armeni, Jeremy Bunnell, BenHoffman, Seth Walbridge, Chris Newcomb,Tim Kennedy and Jay Georgia, but surprising-ly received few college offers for that sport.Edinboro did offer him a scholarship for foot-ball, though.

“My first year I was redshirted,” he remem-bered. “To practice and never play was hardafter playing every single down in high school.

“After that, I played sparingly, got in a fewplays early in my redshirt freshman year. Istarted the last 2.5 or 3 years of college. Youpretty much have to pay your dues.”

The Fighting Scots ran multiple offensivesets, so on certain plays no wide receiverswere used and on others four or five widereceivers were on the field.

“We won the conference (the PennsylvaniaState Athletic Conference) three times andwent to the national playoffs twice but lost,”Dinger said. “We were always 9-1 or 9-2.

“I got to play with coach (Jim) Henson (for-mer Grand Valley coach). He’s still there.When I was there, he coached the runningbacks. He’s a good guy.”

At Edinboro, Dinger got his degree in healthand physical education and sports administra-tion, graduating in 2006.

When he graduated, he took a job as a coun-selor at a youth detention center in Meadville,Pa., where he worked for four or five years. Hethen took a position in sales for Utz QualityFoods.

Dinger recently took a job in Florida, forPepsico, which makes Pepsi, as a sales repre-sentative.

He moved there, just outside of Orlando withhis girlfriend, Sara Baney.

“We’ve been together almost 10 years,” saidDinger, now 31 years old, of Baney. “We met incollege. She took a teaching job down here.”

Dinger has stayed active, playing in basket-ball leagues for a while, going to the gym andis now heavily into cross-fitness.

“I’m always working out,” he said. “I alwaystry to play basketball when I get a chance.”

“I always played basketball in open gyms atEdinboro. When I was redshirted in football, Ithought about quitting since we weren’t verygood, but the coach talked me out of it. Thenwe started winning and I ended up starting.”

Dinger is happy he got to play with a coupleof individuals from Ashtabula County, TommyDavidson from Geneva and Justin Lipscombfrom Grand Valley.

“Tommy was a really good player at Edin-boro at safety,” he said. “Justin was probablythe best wide receiver on our team when I wasthere.”

Dinger From Page 6

Not long afterward Olin saw Orr in the hall-way but ignored him.

“He called me into his office and said,‘What’s wrong?’” Olin recalls. “I told him thatthe seniors said ‘If they (the offenders) don’tstart, we don’t start. We came this far togetherand we consider ourselves one team.’

“He had already ordered the patches that said10-0. If the seniors hadn’t played, we wouldn’thave much of a chance.”

All the seniors started and the Marinersdefeated Wickliffe, 34-6, to clinch their unbeat-en season.

Starting as a right guard and middle guard,Olin also played on special teams.

“A lot of times in my junior and senior years,I never left the field except for halftime,” hesaid. “What really made us good was we had alot of depth at all positions. If I messed up, Iknew there were two or three other guys to takemy place.”

According to Olin, Orr started the best play-ers. Because he was so small, Olin liftedweights after practices at the YMCA. He alsohad a regimen of 100 pushups and 300 situpsevery day for three years. He wrestled for acouple of years, but had no real talent for thesport. He was doing it for the conditioning.

Olin would later coach with Orr at Ashtabula,along with fellow assistants Buddy Candela,

Jerry Raffenaud, Otis Sandidge, Dom Iarocciand Lillvis. Olin, self-employed as a carpenter,found Orr’s seven-day-per-week scheduleimpossible and served only one year with Orr.Then the Benjy Ramirez scandal broke, costingOrr that job.

“They kind of blamed Orr,” Olin said. “I did-n’t see that presence with the kids. I never didhear anything about steroids then. Benjy was areally nice kid. I was saddened by that.”

After graduating, Olin moved on to Wilming-ton College, between Columbus and Cincin-nati. He wanted to become an industrial artsteacher and Wilmington was one of the fewplaces that offered that program and at thesame time was small enough that Olin couldplay football there.

He played two years there, but didn’t start. Heplayed on the scout team and got into a fewgames.

“I used to terrorize the first team when Iplayed on the scout team,” he said. “Peoplewould say, ‘Lighten up,’ but I was trying toimpress the coaches.”

When the Quakers signed guards much big-ger than Olin, he saw the writing on the wall.

“It was a tough road,” he said. “I decided toconcentrate on academics.”

Wilmington had a tremendous athletic facili-ty since the Cincinnati Bengals used the collegefor summer training, including a huge swim-ming pool. Olin loved the water and took upscuba diving. When he returned to Ashtabulaafter graduating with his degree in industrialarts in 1973, he became a scuba diving instruc-

tor. Needing a break from academics, heworked in industry for one year.

In the fall of 1974 he took a job as an indus-trial arts teacher at the Ashtabula Joint Voca-tional School (now named ATech) for a year,then started his own construction company.He’s been in construction in one way or anoth-er since.

He returned to teaching in 2004 at the voca-tional school again for one year, then went backto it in 2007 and has been working at ATechsince.

“One of our projects was the covered bridgein Geneva,” he said.

Always busy, he recently finished a remodel-ing of a house in Eastlake and helped a friendbuild a house. He has also been in the countywater rescue unit since 1971, using his talentsas a scuba diver. He is now the head of thatunit.

“I’ve been involved in drownings and res-cues,” he said.

When a boy drowned in Saybrook about oneyear ago, he was the one who found the body.

“I’ve recovered numerous bodies over theyears,” he said.

He also works the annual Polar Bear Plunge— just in case his abilities are needed.

One of the founders of the Ancient Marinerswith Brian Gaines, Jim Henry and RogerGoudy, he works to keep the knowledge andtraditions of Harbor sports alive.

Twice married, he has two stepchildren inZachary and Sidney Betonte.

“I’m in their lives,” he said. “I took Sidney toher first kindergarten class.”

Olin From Page 8

ula, which featured Sean Allgo-od at quarterback and BrianScruggs at running back.

“That Ashtabula game was thehardest-hitting game I everplayed in,” Showalter said. “Iloved it. My knees were blackand blue after that game. We lostthat game, but I loved it.”

There were lessons, like thetime Showalter took a belly playoutside after he had been toldnever to do that. Eager yelled atShowalter and he never did itagain.

Conneaut went 6-4 that year,not quite what Showalter hadhoped for. But he gained 920yards as a sophomore, third in thecounty to PV’s Christian Payneand Scruggs.

With most of the team leavingbecause of graduation (onlyShowalter and Kaczoroskireturned as starters) his junioryear was tougher.

“Dusty could throw the ball

through a brick wall,” Showalterrecalls. “I was a fullback, but ourlinemen had no experience andwe couldn’t run the ball well.”

So Showalter became a pass-catcher.

“I could catch the ball and runroutes,” Showalter, then 6-0, 185or 190, said. “We had Boyd (Grif-fith) at wide receiver and me outwide. I was a fullback but ended upthird in the conference in recep-tions.”

Running the ball was more diffi-cult for Showalter that junior sea-son because of a severely sprainedankle he incurred. He wore a brace,but it slowed him down.

The Spartans’ lack of a consistentoffense resulted in them going just3-7 that year.

Showalter had not come close tothe 10-0 season that was his goal.On the other hand, Kaczoroski hadgraduated, so his best friend, ErikHunt (”Juice”) would finally gethis chance to play quarterback.There would also be three experi-enced senior linemen to help out— Jason Coe, Matt Penna and JimFeathers. The guards were under-

graduates — Brian Bartlett andDarrell Thomas. When Barlett wasinjured freshman Duane Burdick,possibly weighing 140 pounds,took over.

“We plugged him in and nevermissed a beat,” Showalter said.

Showalter rushed for 1,088 yardsthat season, eclipsing Murzynski’srecord. He added 260 receivingyards on 15 or so catches and wasvoted the team’s MVP. Conneautwent 5-5 that season, far from hisexpectations.

He was granted a scholarship toClarion, but sprained an ankle incamp. When he returned to prac-tice, he felt a numbness in his armwhile blocking. The team did anMRI and EKG but found nothingwrong.

He transferred to Baldwin-Wal-lace and discovered he had twodamaged vertebrae in his neck. Ifhe continued to play football, hewould have risked partial paralysis.His career was over.

“Two great things came out offootball,” Showalter said. “Ilearned I have two of the most lov-ing and supporting parents you

could ask for. They never missedan athletic event.

“And if not for football I would-n’t have heard of Clarion Universi-ty.”

That’s significant, he explained,because he met his wife there.When they met at Clarion, he andKaren Maddix were good friends.When he left, they lost communi-cation with each other.

For some unknown reason, 14years later, out of the blue, hethought of Karen.

“I wondered what had happenedto her,” he said. “I found out shewas a professional woman living inPittsburgh. I was single — she wassingle. We dated two years andhave been married five years.

“If nothing else came out of (myexperience at) Clarion, the mostimportant thing in my life did.”

Showalter works as a carpenterand house builder for G. AndersonContracting.

“I’ve always enjoyed carpentry,”he said. “I loved creating with myhands as well as my brain. For themost part, that’s what I’ve done allthese years.”

Showalter From Page 12


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on a run. I remember putting my headdown, which is a big no-no, and then...lights out… I woke up sometime in theambulance on my way to the hospitalwith my father asking me if I was OK.

“Of course I said ‘Yeah, why?’ Thehospital released me, I was driven backto the game, and went in for one play inthe third quarter on offense, only to real-ize I had no idea where I was or what Iwas doing. It’s great to see that at all lev-els of football and other sports are tak-ing the appropriate precautions andmedical evaluations for all injuries.”

Another game he recalls was a game atRiverside in which he caught the win-ning touchdown pass in a 13-8 victory.He still has a photo of the celebrationafter that touchdown.

The Eagles went 6-3-1 his senior sea-son, winning their first three gamesbefore losing to Ashtabula in the fourth.Geneva was a running team, mostly run-ning inside, as Craine’s brother Don didwhen he led the team two years earlier.

After high school Craine in 1975moved on to Baldwin-Wallace, coachedby the late, great Lee Tressel.

“Coach Tressel was a great man and heknew how to run a football program,”Craine said. “Every year, including myfreshman year, BW had great recruitingclasses. I was recruited as a wide receiv-er, but there were 12 freshman widereceivers that reported for fall camp,”

Craine started the second half of hissophomore year and all of his junioryear. During a scrimmage before hissenior season, the quarterback threw theball a little high on a throwback play.When Craine came down he shatteredhis right wrist. He never got to play at allthat year, and as it so happened, the Yel-low Jackets won the NCAA champi-onship in their division that year. Notbeing a part of the team, Craine didn’t

receive a championship ring.Getting a redshirt the previous season,

he played the next year (1979) and BWmade the playoffs but lost to Ithica Col-lege, which wound up as champion thatyear.

Craine graduated in 1980 with a bach-elor’s degree in criminal justice. In1988-1989, he went back to Lake ErieCollege to get his Master’s in BusinessAdministration, while working at thePerry Nuclear Power Plant after gradua-tion.

He left Perry to work in CEI’s corpo-rate office for a couple of years beforeleaving to take a job with Lucas Aero-space, where he spent seven years.

“Then 9-11 happened,” he said. “Iloved security work and my old boss (atCEI, now First Energy) called, so I cameback in 2004. I spent one year at Perrythen from 2005 to the present I’ve beensecurity manager at the Beaver ValleyNuclear Power Station in Pennsylva-nia.”

Security at all the nuclear power sta-tions is very intense, he said, though hecouldn’t go into a lot of detail for obvi-ous reasons.

“There are fences with razor ribbingand cameras,” he said. “Everyone istrained like military people since 9-11.Nuclear power plant security is a bigtask to implement protective strategies.One thing you do not want to do is gonear a fence.”

Craine, the son of Don and MaryLouCraine, has two brothers, Donnie(already in the ACTC Hall of Fame) andDavid, along with a sister, Kathy. DonCraine, Sr. succumbed in 1991 to cancer(mesothelioma).

“My father was a charismatic guy wholiked to joke and have fun,” Craine said.“He always told me to ‘keep your noseclean’, ‘do the right thing’ and ‘havefun.’ Great advice from a great man!”

Craine met his wife, Nancy, in 1978when her friend and Nancy (both fromKent State University) came to B-W tovisit one of his friends.

“So my friend and Nancy’s friend stat-ed they were going somewhere for a fewminutes and would be right back,”Craine said. “Needless to say, Nancyand I were left alone for quite sometime, which obviously turned out OK aswe dated for the next few years, gotengaged in 1980, and then married onFebruary 28, 1981. We have been mar-ried for 33 years.”

The Craines are the proud parents ofthree beautiful daughters: Katie, 29;Allison, 26, and Erin, 20.

Katie works for Remedi Pharmacy andlives in Garfield Heights. Allison, whograduated from Cleveland State Univer-sity, is a teacher at Notre Dame Elemen-tary in Chardon, is married and lives inAuburn Township.

Erin is attending Ohio State Universityas a junior, majoring in Integrated Lan-guage Arts and English education.

The Craine sisters played CYO soft-ball, basketball, volleyball and track inschool.

“My wife and I were fortunate to beable to coach all three while they partic-ipated in the sports and we are proud tosay they have a few trophies of theirown,” Craine said.

Dan and Nancy enjoy watching theBrowns (“even as painful as it can besometimes,” Dan said), and with all ofthe children out of the house enjoy whenthe kids come for a nice relaxing week-end.

Among the awards Craine values high-ly are the George Duplay Award he wonin high school and the Golden Globethat Gazette Publications honored himwith as the outstanding county playerafter his senior year of college at theannual Ashtabula County TouchdownClub banquet.

“That was a huge surprise for me,”Craine said of Duplay Award. “I remem-ber my parents working the banquet andsomeone had to go get them so theycould see me receive the award.”

Craine From Page 13

stayed out of school a year.Then, when I went back,they moved me backinside. I wasn’t big enoughto play there. Even at OUnobody lifted weights backthen. Things have changedcompletely.”

He gave up football andconcentrated on his stud-ies. When he graduated, hesaw an ad for ateaching/coaching positionat Conneaut. He didn’thave a teaching certificate,but that was a solvableproblem.

“I had to go back (to col-lege) and take courses,” hesaid. “I loved it. I ended upteaching 35 years.”

After one year at Con-neaut, he went to River-side, Calif., where he spentthree years, then back tonortheastern Ohio to Har-bor, then the PainesvilleTownship system. Hespent the last 27 years ofhis educational career

teaching history in theBuckeye system, whilecoaching football andbaseball.

“If a person is going tohave any success here, he’sgoing to have to get helpalong the way,” DeGen-naro said. “My parentswere working people whosacrificed a lot to put threekids through college. Itwas a done deal. I alwayshad respect for what myparents did and am verygrateful for what they did.My older brother Gerald iseight years older than meand Les is seven yearsolder. They taught me a lotabout football and alsoabout how to compete.They never let me winbecause I was a lotyounger and they felt sorryfor me. They taught me totake the game seriouslyand to play to win. Play thegame right or don’t play atall.

“My success has to goback to oach Chiacchieroand the assistant coaches atAshtabula.”

DeGennaro From Page 10

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