Nordonia football team approaches playoffs with optimism

by Chris Collins

The Nordonia High School Football Team is an experienced, senior-dominated squad under Head Coach Jeff Fox that hoped to make a long run in the playoffs. The Knights are coming off their fourth consecutive eight-win regular season and defeated Solon 38-6 in the opening round of the playoffs on Oct. 29.

Nordonia had already beaten Solon 45-7 in a week four matchup, but Fox said the Comets put up a good fight in this contest, especially in the first half. “It was a 10-0 nothing dog fight in the second quarter,” Fox said, “but we showed more maturity in the second half.”

Nordonia is bracketed in region 5, Division 2 of the playoffs that includes five-time state champion Archbishop Hoban High School from Akron. Fox called it one of the toughest regions in the state. Nordonia is the number three seed in this year’s bracket, and for the fourth consecutive year, the team has been one of the highest seeds in its region.

The Knights would have been seeded even higher, had it not been for one-point losses to Wadsworth in week seven and Hudson in overtime in week eight. Fox said he and the team were disappointed because those losses cost the team the Suburban League-National Division championship.

Nordonia beat Green High School on Nov. 8 with a score of 42-17. Of added interest is that Green’s head coach Mark Geis was formerly defensive coordinator at Nordonia and remains a close friend with members of the Nordonia coaching staff.

At the time of this article writing, Nordonia was set to play Hoban on Nov. 15.

Fox said that his approach to playoff games is the same as for any regular season contest. So, practice times and other pregame activities are kept as consistent as possible. “We preach the cliché that winning games comes from what you do Monday through Thursday,” he said, adding that the familiarity makes players more confident and they can concentrate on making improvements.

Nordonia’s offense is anchored by quarterback Ben Chesser and running backs Rocco Delorenzo and Liam Kountz. Defensively, Fox cited senior linebacker Caleb Aiken and cornerbacks Blake Allen and Vince Natali as strong players. The offensive line is anchored by seniors Grant Lefeld and DK Liverpool.

This is coach Fox’s 13th season as head coach at Nordonia after a stint as an assistant coach at Willoughby South High School. In addition, he taught mathematics at both schools and has now moved into administration at Nordonia as dean of students.

He said being hired to head up Nordonia’s football program was and is a tremendous opportunity. “This is a town (including Macedonia, Sagamore Hills and Northfield) that cares about football,” he said. “Now I consider myself one of the luckiest coaches around.”

He cited Nordonia’s past success when teams in 2002 and 2006 made deep runs in the playoffs, and the school has several alumni who have played in the National Football League.

But it’s clear that Fox is very proud of this year’s team no matter how far they go in the playoffs. “This is a great group of kids,” he said.” Out of our 27 seniors, seven of them have a GPA of 4.0 or better.” ∞

Main photo: The Nordonia Knights take the field for their Nov. 1 game against Solon. Photo by Dennis Pylypiak, FocusPix.org.