I remember a Friday night in 2010 when Springboro played its first-ever football game against Centerville, a powerhouse in Southwest Ohio for as long as I have been alive.
I was there because that’s what I do on Friday nights — go to football and basketball games, either involving Springboro, or Franklin, or sometimes both (my TWO hometowns). I could not believe my small town of Springboro was on the same field with the mighty, mighty Elks.
I grew up in Springboro in the late 60s and early 70s when it had only two traffic lights, and I was there every Friday night. Boro played other smaller schools like Kings Mills and Blanchester and Waynesville — even Mason was a smaller school back then. But it was Friday night lights at its finest, and I loved every minute of it.
When Springboro’s population explosion hit in the late 1990s, I figured it would take a long time for the football program to get to the level of the really successful big schools in our part of the state, schools like Colerain, Northmont, Huber Heights Wayne…or Centerville. Big numbers did not automatically equate with big time success.
But Ryan Wilhite, who was named Springboro’s head football coach in 2006, came here with a large school mindset. He had been an assistant coach at Wayne, which — like Centerville — has had more than its share of football success. He had already been with teams that had big programs on the schedule.
The goal was to infuse that mindset into Panther football. I was eager to see if it would happen.
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IN THE SUMMER OF 2012, when I knew my daughter Chloe would be a football cheerleader, I volunteered to write stories about the Panthers – something I had done in college and law school 30 years earlier for The Star Free Press. I intended to do it only for that one year.
But I learned immediately that I was witnessing something special. Coach Wilhite gave me open access to everything the team and the coaches did. I sat in on pre-game, post-game and halftime team meetings. I heard the game plans. I stood along the sidelines. Without a doubt, I had the best seat in the house.
With such unbridled access, I learned that the essence of Springboro football consisted of course on meeting goals and winning championships, but also on something way bigger than that —turning teenage boys into strong and productive young men.
Coach Wilhite is big on teachable moments. “You cannot play ‘afraid to lose.’” he will say. “You cannot control outcomes, but if you focus on process and fundamentals, good results will come,” is another one. I quoted him last July when I dedicated our new courtroom at the Warren County Common Pleas Court, saying “We didn’t get where we are all by ourselves. We got here on the backs of all those who came before us.”
I want to write a book someday on the life lessons I have heard during these sessions. It is why I continued to write for six seasons, but that’s another story.
In 2012, Centerville was Boro’s second opponent of the season. In the game’s early going, it was evident that no matter how hard the Elks hit, and no matter how much they scored, another thing was also true — the Panthers were not backing down.
In the end, in a game that I would put in my top 10 biggest wins in Springboro football history, the Panthers eventually outmaneuvered and overpowered the seemingly invincible Centerville Elks, 42-28, giving them a huge win that served as a springboard to a 10-0 regular season. I felt like a kid just being part of all the excitement.
As a team, but also as a program, Boro made a statement that night: “Here we come.”
And the Panthers kept coming. A year later Boro was 9-1 and again in the playoffs, this time at Colerain, a school that has won the Division I state championship. A year after they were again 9-1, winning handily in a week five contest at Northmont, another big-time school.
After that, the schedule continued to get harder, and the Panthers continued to hold their own. I could go on and on and on, and someday I will.
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SPRINGBORO WENT 9-1 AGAIN THIS season, with Mason, Wayne, Springfield, Northmont, Trotwood, and Centerville on the schedule. They won the GWOC and will play at Dublin Jerome tomorrow night in what will be the Panthers’ sixth playoff appearance in eight years. They were ranked in the top 10 Division I teams in all of Ohio. All of it is remarkable.
But do you know what? This team played with such confidence, it expected to be exactly where it is.
And do you know what else true? I can see why it has such confidence.
With all that is happening with Springboro football, from its varsity coaching staff all the way down to its pee wee players, there is some serious Panther Pride going on. The program is Big Time. I am convinced.
Go Boro.