Holgate head coach Colton Wagner talks with Lynn Groll during the first week of practice. Click on audio link: https://blackswampfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Wags.mp3
Lynn Groll, Tony Haynes and Andrew Mickey look back at week 3, hand out Offensive Player of the Week to Otsego’s Trent Leiter and co-Blockhead of the Week to Leiter and Columbus Grove’s AJ Schafer.
PDF of 2021 Black Swamp Football Preseason Magazine
A Northern 8 slugfest is looming Friday when Holgate travels to Danbury to face the Lakers.
Both teams enter the game at 2-0 and will collide again just three weeks after scrimmaging each other.
“Well, having already scrimmaged them a few weeks ago, it is a challenge that we face as far as them being familiar with what we like to do,” said Holgate coach Colton Wagner. “They are very physical so our line needs to step up and own the line of scrimmage to be successful.”
The Tigers and Lakers do not try to hide their identities, both love to run the ball and play as physical as possible.
Only a few days old, a rivalry is already brewing in Ohio’s only 8-man football league, the Northern 8, which kicked off its first season last weekend.
The first of two conference meetings between Toledo Christian and Holgate will take place this Friday with the Tigers hosting the Eagles in Henry County.
“I know our guys will be jacked up and ready to play,” said Holgate coach Colton Wagner. “We have had this game circled since our second meeting last year was postponed and never rescheduled.
“These are two teams that really do not like each other, and I know there has been a lot of trash talk all offseason between the players leading up to this game. We need to limit mistakes and be more physical than them to be successful Friday night.”
The momentum is growing and a different way of playing football is likely to continue to grow in small schools around the Buckeye State. A year after 8-man football put a footprint on a few gridirons around the state, Ohio’s first 8-man league has come to fruition. Holgate, Danbury, Stryker and Toledo Christian have joined forces to form the Northern 8, the first of its kind in the Buckeye State.
