DON McCORMACK
You can call Dave Melaragno a lot of things, and as a former head varsity football coach, you can bet he’s heard pretty much all of them.
In a little less the three months, you can call him “hall of famer,” too, as he will be inducted into the Ashtabula County Football Hall of Fame on Dec. 7.
Perhaps best known for leading the Edgewood Warriors to their only Northeastern Conference football championship in the fall of 1986 with Brad Petro and Lou Wisnyai as the headliners and for being a great player himself for the Scarlet and Gray during his scholastic days, what most don’t recall, however — and Melaragno freely admits he’d rather not, either — was how he began.
As current Edgewood coach Joe Kearney has helped the Warriors rise from the ashes as he leads his 2-0 Warriors into their biggest game in more than a decade when they host City Series rival Lakeside tonight at 7 at Corlew Stadium, Melaragno has perhaps the best perspective, not to mention — appreciation — for just how far they’ve come.
“It’s so wonderful to see the boys walk around the school with the sense of pride they’re carrying themselves with,” the Edgewood athletic director said. “I gotta admit, we’re kind of floating on a bit of a cloud around here these days.”
Dirty dozen erased
Kearney & Co. came into the season with the albatross of a 12-game losing streak hanging around their necks.
However, if a 27-15 victory at Champion in Week 1 didn’t open some eyes across the area, a 28-19 triumph at Berkshire last Friday night most certainly did.
Not only did the opening-night win end the 12-game skid, but coupled with the Week 2 triumph marked the first time an Edgewood team opened a season with two wins since 1996.
“These guys and their coaches deserve some success,” Melaragno said. “They’ve worked very hard, hit the weights extremely hard and put in the time it takes to come out on top.”
Seems familiar
While Kearney is a grizzled veteran of a football coach who has been through the wars as the head coach at Pymatuning Valley, Harbor and Jefferson and as an assistant at Lakeside and Geneva before taking the head job at Edgewood last fall then endured an 0-10 season with his players, Melaragno was a 34-year-old when he took over as head coach at Edgewood in the fall of 1982.
He inherited a squad from Mike Kaydo, for whom he had coached defensive line and offensive backs, that had lost its last nine games in 1981.
As head coach, his Warriors dropped their first game, 8-6, at Jefferson, then lost six more in a row, none by fewer than 10 points as Edgewood’s losing streak stretched to 16.
“I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever win a game!” he said with a laugh. “But seriously, the NEC was really, really strong then and even though we weren’t winning, we were going out there and hitting the tar out of people.
“It was only a matter of time... at least we sure hoped so!”
On Oct. 22, 1982, the “time” finally came to fruition, thanks to a gutsy defensive effort and the talented right foot of Bob Dombroski at the Beaver Bowl, now known as Riverside Stadium, in Painesville Township.
Dombroski booted a 21-yard field goal with 47 seconds to play in the first half to put the Warriors up, 3-0. Melaragno admits Edgewood wasn’t sure how to react to being ahead at the intermission because his players weren’t used to it.
“That second half seemed to take about three days to finish,” he said with a laugh.
When the clock finally ran out, Melaragno said he didn’t feel a sense of relief that the 16-game skid had been halted — and against a good team. The 1982 Beavers finished 6-4 under the direction of fellow first-year coach Don Andersen, who eventually built Riverside into a powerhouse.
“It wasn’t about that for me,” he said. “I was just so darn happy for those boys to be able to experience that.
“To see the smiles and the looks of satisfaction on their faces — and the difference in the way they carried themselves not only around the school, but also around the community after that was the greatest thing for me.
“About all I remember was Bobby kicking that field goal for us — and he was truly a great kicker — but more importantly, the effect just a little bit of success had on the boys, the buddies, their classmates, the entire school.”
Here we are
Which brings us tonight’s encounter with Lakeside, the first meeting between the Warriors and the Dragons since the 2004 season.
First-year coach Bill Lipps is bringing perhaps the best team in the county into the game at Corlew Stadium. The Dragons are 1-1, having dropped a tough opener at Howland, 24-14, and taking apart Conneaut last Friday night, 54-15, at Lakeside Stadium.
Lakeside comes into the game averaging 39 points and 438.5 yards in offensive yardage per game utilizing Lipps’ imaginative no-huddle pistol offense. Considering Lipps assumed the position as head coach less than three weeks before the season kicked off after former coach Van McWreath departed to become principal at Pymatuning Valley and it’s almost frightening what his squad will look like in another week or two.
Throw in the fact in the four games that were played between the schools from 2001-2004 that Lakeside outscored Edgewood by an average of 52.0 to 6.5, the smart money says the Dragons are prohibitive favorites tonight in Ashtabula Township.
And that’s OK, says Melaragno.
“We know we will be facing a very fine, extremely talented, well-coached and physical team in Lakeside,” he said. “But our guys are excited to be playing the game, anyway. It’s important to them to play against a team like Lakeside because all of these guys on both teams know each other.
“It’s fun to play these kinds of games.”
Especially when both programs have enjoyed some success this fall.
“That’s the point,” Melaragno said. “Yes, winning and losing is important, but it’s not most important.”
Life lessons
Therein lies the true beauty of high school athletics. Years from now, most of the people won’t remember the final score of games. What they will remember, though, are the times spent alongside buddies in brutal two-a-days in the heat of August practices, in the frigid night air of games played around All Hallows Eve, the pep rallies, the postgame jaunts to a local eatery and, yes, picking up the newspaper the next morning.
“High school athletics can teach a young person so many things they can carry with them the rest of their lives,” Melaragno, a star running back during his days as a Warrior, said.
Just being involved and being part of your community, team, school and going through the process of lifting, practicing, preparing and accountability and responsibility, win or lose, are what makes high school activities — not just athletics, but also cheerleading, band, chorus, drama, youth leadership, etc. — some of the most wonderful aspects of this journey to experience.
Enjoy the little things in life, because the big ones are few and far between.
And, as will be the case tonight, it’s not about who you are playing against.
It’s about who you’re playing for.
McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
