Stow-Munroe Falls Bulldogs @ Hoover
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Click on image to expand viewThursday, August 25, 2011
Josh Weir, Canton Repository
NORTH CANTON Friday is about all things new for
the Hoover High School football team.
But the Vikings will be sure to give a nod to the past
as they look for a fresh start.
The Vikings will debut their new FieldTurf playing
surface, which is named after former longtime
Hoover head coach Don Hertler Sr., in Friday's
7:30 p.m. season opener against Stow at Memorial
Stadium.
A ceremony at the end of halftime will mark the
occasion.
“It’s exciting for this 2011 team that they’re going to
be the first one on the field,” Hertler’s son and
Hoover’s current head coach, Don Hertler Jr., said. “A field is a field, but there are a lot of alums coming back. There’s always a lot of interest for the first game, so that just adds to it. I’m hoping our guys execute and play the way I know they can play.”
The Vikings are coming off a 3-7 season last year, just the second losing season in Hertler Jr.’s 15 years as head coach. An extremely young and inexperienced team took its lumps.
With Purdue recruit Austin Appleby at quarterback and Hoover returning 19 lettermen, the Vikings look to put 2010 behind them.
“Last year is last year, and we’re not looking back,” Hertler Jr. said. “We had some tough nights, and we had some good nights. But this is a new group and a new year. That’s what’s great about high school football. I’m excited to see us put it together.”
The current Vikings have a chance to put it together with plenty of former Vikings looking on. Hoover football alumni of all ages are expected to attend.
That includes Dick Snyder and Jeff Logan, whom Hertler Sr. considers the best athlete and the best football player, respectively, he ever coached. Snyder, one of the best athletes in Stark County history who played 13 years in the NBA, played on Hertler Sr.’s first two teams at Hoover. Logan, who held Stark County’s scoring record for more than 30 years after graduating from Hoover in the early 1970s, went on to become an All-Big Ten running back at Ohio State.
From all over the country they are coming, all to honor a man considered the architect of Hoover’s football tradition.
Hertler Sr. never experienced a losing season in 21 years atop the program from 1960-80, while leading the Vikings to two 10-0 seasons. He accumulated 163 career wins at a .788 clip. The Vikings won seven Federal League titles during his tenure.
Hertler Sr.’s presence still is felt since he still attends Hoover games. Now his name is on the field.
“It’s a tribute to what he did for North Canton schools and the North Canton community,” Hertler Jr. said of his 83-year-old father. “He wasn’t just a football coach here. He was a community leader, and still is.
“He and (his successor) Coach (Ed) Glass have been mentors to me, and it’s an honor to follow in their footsteps.”
Former Hoover football players are invited to attend a reception at The Fairways in North Canton after the game.
Hoover Vikings Football
Hoover Vikings Football
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Hoover to debut its new FieldTurf
