Staff photo file / Preston Byers
McDonald’s Casey Miller returns a kickoff for a touchdown during the Blue Devils’ 35-34 overtime loss to Western Reserve in Berlin Center on Sept. 13.
The high school football landscape has greatly changed just from the start of the 21st century.
The number of teams qualifying for the playoffs has doubled. Turf, considered a luxury in 2000, has now become the rule rather than the exception. Locally, numerous leagues have come and gone. The ground-and-pound running game, once a staple in the Mahoning Valley, has largely given way to the spread offense.
Meanwhile in McDonald, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
It was in the fall of 2000 when the McDonald football program introduced a new coach for just the 11th time in the 75-year history of the program. Dan Williams, a McDonald alumnus, replaced Andy Golubic Jr., who coached 16 years at the school.
When Williams inherited the Blue Devils’ job at 30 years old, he wasn’t just the youngest coach in the Mahoning Valley, he was younger than any of his assistant coaches. In fact, several members of his staff had 30 years of coaching experience under their belts.
Today, among all the changes around him, Williams is still calling the shots at McDonald. Now in his 25th season at the helm, he is the dean of Trumbull County coaches, having more tenure at his school than any other county coach. He is now a member of the Trumbull County Sports Hall of Fame and owns a 165-92 record at his alma mater.
Williams, who graduated from McDonald in 1988, had just completed his second season as the head coach at Jackson-Milton in 1997 when he was persuaded to return to McDonald as an assistant coach. He would serve under Golubic for two years before taking over the program.
Golubic owned a 124-40-3 during his time at McDonald.
“Looking back, it’s pretty crazy how that all played out,” Williams said. “I was asked to join the staff with the agreement that I would take over when Andy retired. That was a different time. When Andy stepped down at the end of the 1999 season, I didn’t even submit a resume. There really was no hiring process, I never interviewed for the job. I just stepped in.
“So here I was, taking over the program that I grew up in and now there is added pressure because I was hand-picked to replace a legend. There was a lot of pressure to succeed. I placed a whole lot of pressure on myself because I wanted every kid that I coached to have the same experiences and enjoy the same type of team success I enjoyed while I played here.”
Williams found immediate success, as McDonald went 9-3 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2000. However, that was followed by a 5-5 finish in 2001 and a rare losing season (3-7) in 2002. It was the Blue Devils’ first losing season since 1978.
But the struggles were brief. By 2010, Williams’ resume included six playoff appearances, four league titles and a pair of 10-0 regular season records. The next decade brought two more perfect regular seasons (2014, 2018), along with additional conference titles and playoff appearances.
“Those first couple of seasons, that was a wake-up call where you start second-guessing yourself and you wonder if they picked the right guy,” Williams said. “But we stayed the course and by 2010, I felt like I belonged.
“I had the support of a great staff. I’ve always been extremely lucky in that I’ve always had a staff of great coaches. These guys know football. They know McDonald and what it’s all about and they have my back.”
While little has changed in McDonald since Williams took over the program a quarter of a century ago, high school football, in general, has greatly evolved. Williams noted that during his playing days, he watched game film via an 8 mm projector. At the start of his coaching career, he exchanged VHS tapes with other coaches. Today, game film is recorded and viewed with a mouse and keyboard.
Williams says the evolution of social media has provided an added burden for coaches at every level.
“How quickly information can get out into the public is crazy,” Williams said. “When I first started, we would have to tell our kids, ‘Hey, we’re playing Mineral Ridge this week. Don’t go into Mineral Ridge and cause any problems. Don’t go to the restaurants, the stores, just keep your distance to avoid any unneeded distraction.’
“Today, you don’t have to leave your house to cause problems. We have to remind players to stay off social media, but that’s difficult to police. Luckily, we live in a great community and our kids are sensible and they seem to inherently know what’s right and wrong.”
On the flipside, Williams noted that the recent focus on player safety has helped move the game forward in a positive direction.
“We’ve always taught tackling with your head up, we’ve always stressed the importance of player safety, but the added emphasis has helped everyone, it has been great for football in general,” Williams said.
Williams jokes that he’s now been coaching for so long, that what’s old is becoming new again. He noted that in the late 90s and early 2000s, most area offenses were run-oriented, featuring two running backs and a tight end. That was largely replaced with the spread offense. He now sees a shift back to the running game.
In fact, when Williams inherited the program in 2000, he maintained the Wing-T offense, a McDonald staple since 1978. He transitioned to a spread offense in 2018, and this year, the Blue Devils went back to a predominantly Wing-T look. Williams noted that his quarterback worked from the shotgun formation “just a handful of times this year, all in week one.” In last week’s 42-14 win over Lowellville, the Blue Devils threw just three passes.
“We’re always willing to adapt to the talent we have at any given time, and right now, we feel like this is our strength,” Williams said. “I’ve noticed that over the past couple of years, more and more area schools seem to be focusing on the running game.”
Beyond a bit of tinkering here and there, nothing much has changed over the past 25 years.
“We’re old-school,” Williams said. “We’re teaching the same techniques and drills that we taught when I was an assistant. We follow the same practice schedule. The terminology I’m using today is the same that was used in the 1970s.”
Since 1978, the McDonald program has been guided by just three different coaches – Golubic, Brian Fedyski and Williams. To put that in perspective, during the same timeframe bordering schools Mineral Ridge and Niles have gone through 10 coaching changes. Girard has had nine different coaches since 1978. Mineral Ridge has had eight different coaches just during Williams’ tenure at McDonald and Niles has had five different coaches since 2000.
McDonald has had just 11 head coaches since 1925.
“Our continuity plays a huge factor into our success,” Williams said. “And a lot of that continuity has to do with the fact that so many of the families that were here when I was growing up are still here today. Same families, just a different generation that grew up on McDonald football. They are now playing today and they embrace the traditions and everything that goes into maintaining a solid program.”
McDonald currently sits at 5-2 and will likely earn a playoff berth for the 20th time in school history. The two losses were to Clearview (6-0, Division IV) and an overtime setback to Western Reserve (6-1). The Devils have won three straight since the Reserve defeat and close the season with games against Campbell, Springfield and Mineral Ridge.
“After a couple of down years, we felt like this could be a turn-the-corner type of year for us,” Williams said. “We had great preparation during the off-season. We’ve had a great attitude. The pieces were in place to have a good year and to this point we are right where I hoped we would be.
“Most importantly, the kids are enjoying football again. I always say that if you’re going to play this game, you have to have fun because it’s a tough game involving a lot of grit and a lot of work. At the end of the day, you have to have fun doing it.”
As for Williams’ enjoyment of the game?
While Williams notes that he’s “not going to be a Bill Bohren” and coach into his 80s, he is not quite ready to hand over the reins just yet.
“The fire is still there, I still enjoy coming out to practice, planning from week to week, making those gameday adjustments,” Williams said. “I still love seeing kids have success. That’s why I’m still here, because I feel like I can bring that out of kids.
“My wife Debbie always tells me that I’ll never give it up. But I know there will be a time when I’m ready to hand things over to a younger coach who is ready to make his own mark on the program.”
McDonald can secure its 17th winning season under Williams tonight when it travels to Campbell.