Federal League coaches focused on the present

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Chris Beaven, Canton Repository

Go ahead. Talk about their teams’ playoff chances.

Just don’t expect Federal League coaches with teams in the hunt for the state playoffs to get chatty about postseason possibilities.

“We’re not paying too much attention to that,” said Perry coach John Miller, whose team is in the playoffs as of today. “You really can’t start thinking about that, because if you do, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Miller’s comments more or less express the views of each coach with a team in the playoff hunt. Coaches realize, thanks to the Internet and Web sites such as joeeitel.com — which quickly updates computer rankings — players know full well what it is going on around them in the chase.

“They probably do check it, but from Weeks 8 to 10, a lot of stuff happens,” said Jackson head coach Phil Mauro, whose team also is in as of today.

“If they’re not reading it themselves, people are telling them about it,” said McKinley coach Brian Cross, whose team leads its region. “It’s on the Internet almost after the game’s over. And people are talking about it around them.”

McKinley is ranked No. 1 in Division I, Region 2, which has Perry at No. 4, Jackson at No. 7 and Hoover at No. 13. The top eight qualify for the playoffs. Massillon, Stark County’s lone Division I independent, sits at No. 8.

A fifth Federal League team with playoff hopes is Lake in Division II, Region 7. The Blue Streaks are 10th.

“Our guys know and our coaches know,” Lake coach Jeff Durbin said. “But to be honest, I haven’t looked at it or seen it yet. I’ve got to keep trying to focus our kids one week at a time. We’ve got to win all three to get in, and you can’t win all three at once.”

Durbin has coached long enough to know upsets will happen and lots of changes could shake up the rankings.

“I’ll take a good hard look at it in Week 10,” he said. “Hopefully, we’re still in the hunt. We’ve just got to take care of business in between.”

With three league losses, Lake is out of contention for a league title. Hoover, with two league losses, also finds itself having to shift its goals.

“I know it’s going to be almost impossible for us to win the league,” Hoover coach Don Hertler Jr. said. “One of our other goals is to make the playoffs, and they know they have to win out to make the playoffs. That’s what we’re focused on.”

Hertler knows reaching the playoffs gives his team “a second season” to make things happen. But that second season is a long way off.

“The playoffs are the furthest thing from our mind,” Hertler said. “We’ve got three good opponents coming up and we have to take care of ourselves. You can’t control computer points. All you do control is how you prepare and how you play on Fridays. That’s so far away, and we’re pretty far down the charts right now.”

McKinley is at the top of the charts, but Cross said, “We have to continue to play from week to week like everybody else.”

It does not bother him that his players know where they are in the playoff hunt. He just does not want them discussing postseason plans.

“Because we are where we are, that doesn’t make us invincible,” Cross said. “It just puts a bigger mark on our chest because if teams beat us, they get a lot of computer points.”

Miller does not hear a lot of talk from players about computer points. He did address the issue after the release of the initial rankings last month.

“We talked about it’s not where we’re at now, it’s where we end up,” Miller said. “We have to take care of business week in, week out. They really understand that you can’t look ahead. If you do, it might turn around and bite you.”

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