City Series Coaches Excited About Upcoming Football Season

Once again, the City Series hosted its annual football media day, with lunch sponsored by the Akron Education Association, and for the second-straight year the event was entertaining mainly because it's the second year that the league is somewhat wide open.

Last year, Firestone won the City championship, led by head coach Tim Flossie, and the Falcons are conisdered one of the favorites again this year, along with Garfield. Joe Howard, the program director for Akron Public Schools athletics said it best: ``In the past, you could pretty much figure out who was going to win a game in the City in just the first few minutes. But last year was different. There were several games where you didn't know who was going to win until the last few minutes"

Then, Howard added this poignant nugget, ``But that was last year and last year is over. It's a new year and a new season.''

Other interesting notes and comments from the luncheon-

* Buchtel second-year coach Ricky Powers and Kenmore first-year coach Tom McKinnon were reunited for the first time since the early '90s. Powers was a standout running back at Michigan and McKinnon, a Hoban graduate, was a standout lineman at Indiana, so they battled against each other during Big-Ten play.

During the luncheaon, Powers was the first coach to speak and one of the first things Powers made sure he did was welcome McKinnon into the City Series head coaching ranks. At the same time, McKinnon made sure to acknowledge Powers. ``It's good to see Ricky because the last time I saw him was in 1992 at (Indiana's) Memorial Stadium.''

* Garfield coach Bob Sax is proud of the fact that he has a lot of kids out this year, which includes 52 upperclassmen and 22 sophomores. Ellet coach Joe Yost, the Dean of City Series football, who is heading into his 30th season, couldn't wait to heckle Sax about his depth. ``Can we borrow some helmets,'' Yost jokingly said.

* City teams have their two-game preseason schedules set and here are the opponents:

Buchtel- Warrensville Heights and Austintown Fitch

East- Tallmadge and Warrensville Heights

Ellet- Kent Roosevelt and Barberton

Firestone- Hoban and Wadsworth

Garfield- Mansfield Madison and Northwest

Kenmore- Coventry and East Palestine

North- St. Thomas Aquinas and Norwayne.