Fanatical football lineup6/23/2023 Of course, the world has changed a bit since Brown became head coach at Ohio State in 1941, but the fervor here has not. Edward offering a free, professionally produced broadcast of its own for that Week 1 game, Massillon Schools brought in almost $17,000 in streaming receipts. Massillon has been charging $10 for its student-produced web stream of each game, something the school has been doing for several years - but something it had to do this season. Edward but are unbeaten since as they head into Friday night’s third-round state playoff game versus North Canton Hoover. This year’s Tigers dropped that soggy season opener to Cleveland-area power St. But I know on Friday night those people are thinking about the Tigers, and their moods come Saturday morning are determined by the final score of the Massillon game.” Maybe they can’t go to the booster club meetings anymore, or maybe they can’t go to the game every Friday night. It’s (for) tens of thousands that this is their heartbeat. “I’m psychotic about this town, and I’m not alone. A lot has changed in the world, but nothing has changed here in Massillon. “But it is the same because the names on the backs of the jerseys are the names of kids I had math class with, guys I went to battle with on Friday nights. “It’s not the same without the packed stadium, thousands of people chanting ‘T-I-G’ (the other side of the stadium responding, ‘E-R-S’) and just seeing that sea of orange,” said Ellery Moore, a captain of the 1999 Tigers who now does analysis on the radio broadcasts. Not many high school teams in the country have access to a $3 million indoor practice facility like they do in Massillon. Per the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s mandates, game-night crowds are capped at around 10 percent of the 81-year-old stadium’s listed capacity. To keep dedicated fans from gathering and following their usual traditions, Massillon police have had to barricade nearby streets and double-lock the gates to tailgating lots. There’s such a deep connection to the community, so that’s been different with (limited) crowds, most of the outside events canceled.”īut the games have gone on. They understand the responsibility to the city, to the guys who have come before them. “There’s such a different relationship here between our team and the community. “Nobody could picture a fall with no football. “We had some nervous, anxious times this summer,” said Nate Moore, the sixth-year head coach at Massillon and therefore the most talked-about guy in town. Can Massillon football remain pandemic-proof? Since 2008, it has been keeping the Tigers’ pursuit of their first state title in Ohio’s playoff era weatherproof.īut this year’s big test is ongoing. David Athletic Training Center is just one of many flashy features Massillon has that your friendly neighborhood high school program does not. Behind that scoreboard is the indoor practice facility the 80,000-square-foot Paul L. It sits just above the 1,400-square-foot video board that shows replays and commercials. There’s a picture of a young Brown on the stadium scoreboard. There’s only one Paul Brown, too, and the stadium is named after the father of modern football, the national champion coach at Ohio State and co-founder of both the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. The Tigers of Massillon Washington High School - it’s commonly referred to as simply Massillon - are Ohio’s winningest high school football program. A number of contests were postponed until the following day.Īs the storm made its way through Stark County, the two teams playing that night at 16,600-seat Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in Massillon simply relocated to the adjacent $3 million indoor practice facility and continued their regular warmup routines. Some games that had already been delayed by a week had to be pushed back another hour or two by lightning, high winds and even some flash floods. MASSILLON, Ohio - On the first Friday night of Ohio’s COVID-19-shortened 2020 high school football season, a nasty late-summer thunderstorm rolled through Northeast Ohio about 7 p.m., right when games were due to kick off.
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