By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

With the Division 5 football state championship about a dozen days in the rearview mirror, Ironton Fighting Tigers’ head coach Trevon Pendleton has plenty of time to reflect on what was and what could be.

The seventh-year head coach had plenty of praise for his team’s work and performance throughout the entire year and he looked ahead to what next year’s team’s chances are of repeating as champions.

Pendleton said this year’s team showed what it was made of dating back to the summer.

“I’d say just the competitive edge. Going back to the summer and the 7-on-7s, this team just wanted to compete every chance they got. It didn’t matter if we played 10 games the day before, they wanted to go out and compete,” said Pendleton.

“Even in practice, they wanted to compete. They wanted that competitive edge. They just went out and created it among each other and then on Friday night it was a competition until the final whistle blew in their eyes. That was the approach they took into every game. I think that gave us an advantage going forth.”

One of the things this team featured was what every great team has: senior leadership.

The year’s senior group including Missouri recruit and Division 5 Offensive Player of the Year Shaun Terry, Penn State recruit Josh Johnson, first team All-Ohio lineman Aiden Layne, Braden Schreck, Braylon Sturgill, Austin Bump, Bowen Gossett, Barkley Litton, Grant Day, Levi Joseph, Nick Sites and Jesse Copas.

“I think leadership, maturity, they’d been there. They understood what the task was in front of them and what the ultimate goal was,” said Pendleton.

“And things didn’t always go as planned or smooth sailing always, but that goal never changed and they never wavered from it.

“If we just go out and get three percent better each day then ultimately that goal at the end of the year is going to be obtainable and we can go out and capture it if we take care of all the small stuff.”

Ironton finished the season 15-1 and shared the prep sports writer’s poll championship. The Fighting Tigers put a running clock on all but three opponents all season. The only loss was to Clarkson North Football, an all-star team with players from all over  Canada.

But the Fighting Tigers played well in every game including the state championship game despite a few challenges during the game by Liberty Center. Even with a few anxious moments, Ironton still came away with a 28-17 win and the program’s third state title and first in 35 years.

Pendleton said getting the title took the monkey off the program’s back after failing to win the title in the past six attempts.

“Obviously, we were in position a few times to win it, but we didn’t play our best football and didn’t put our best foot forward, but those classes that came before us laid the foundation and showed the grit and hard work it takes,” said Pendleton.

“These kids picked right up where they left off and we was able to go out and play one of our better football games at the end of the year in the championship game.

At times we didn’t, but overall we did and played very hard for four quarters and obviously things were able to fall our way at the end and our kids just battled every second of the game  and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Pendleton said that the extended season of 16 games will affect next year’s squad.

“Obviously, any time you make deep playoff runs you get extra weeks of practice. We were talking as a staff that in the past five weeks you saw tremendous growth with some of our young guys. Our freshmen are no longer freshmen. Our sophomores are no longer sophomores,” said Pendleton.

“You’re getting more than half an extra season under your belts and it pays off dividends and just seeing the way these guys have handled adversity and the way these guys have approached this playoff run is about to pay off huge for these young kids.

“Definitely a talented group coming back. There’s no doubt about it that we’ve got to replace some guys and we’ve got some spots to fill, but we’ve got the guys in place that are able to do that who opted quite a bit and guess that are ready to step up and captain the ship and we’re excited about that.”