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Sport Psychology and Performance Consulting
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By David Lee Morgan Jr.
Beacon Journal sports writer
POSTED: 01:40 p.m. EDT, Aug 21, 2008
Fifteen area high school football teams this season are under the direction of coaches in their first year at the helm of those programs.
That sounds like a big number from a total of 81 teams, but it's actually one fewer than the start of camp last season.
Some coaches are stepping into situations where winning could come right away and expectations are high, such as at Green, Massillon and Nordonia.
The coaching carousel of this offseason ended with Tom Stacy going to Green from Massillon; Jason Hall to Massillon from Nordonia; and Al Huge in at Nordonia.
Others are trying to rebuild programs and establish some stability.
One place where stability is not a question is Ellet. Joe Yost enters his 30th season as head coach of the Orangemen, and there aren't many like him. Yost is one of the few high school coaches who don't use headphones while on the sidelines. They're too high-tech for his liking.
And in all the years he has been at Ellet, Yost has resisted the urge to move on to bigger programs. Yost got the job he wanted and was content to stay for as long as he could.
Still, he knows what it's like for a first-year coach.
''It will be one of the most exciting and challenging times of their lives,'' Yost said. ''It's a tremendous privilege to be a football coach at the high school level.''
Yost said the new coaches will come to learn that they have talents that they may never have realized.
''They'll be amazed with how many nonfootball things they will encounter,'' Yost said with a chuckle. ''You're a part-time groundskeeper, custodian, bingo caller, fundraiser, politician and counselor. It's amazing how many things you're involved in that have nothing to do with scoring a touchdown or teaching a kid how to tackle and block.''
Yost is a classic, like Nick at Night's TV Land shows.
That's right, Yost's tenure at Ellet can be tied to 30 years of pop culture.
He started as the head coach for the Orangemen the same year actor Ashton Kutcher, American Idols' Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, the NBA's Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki and NASCAR driver Kurt Busch were born.
Disco was still hot with songs like Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees and Copacabana by Barry Manilow.
It's probably highly unlikely, though, that Yost had a wide-collared shirt, bell-bottoms and platform shoes in his closet or a Bee Gees or Manilow album in his possession.
Heck, he probably still has a rotary telephone.
And e-mail?
Forget about it.
If you need some kind of written correspondence from Yost, it'll come via the good ol' United States Postal Service, with the 42-cent stamp right there in the upper-right corner of the envelope.
That's just Yost, old school, simply put.
David Lee Morgan Jr. can be reachedat dlmorgan@thebeaconjournal.com.
Fifteen area high school football teams this season are under the direction of coaches in their first year at the helm of those programs.
That sounds like a big number from a total of 81 teams, but it's actually one fewer than the start of camp last season.
Some coaches are stepping into situations where winning could come right away and expectations are high, such as at Green, Massillon and Nordonia.
The coaching carousel of this offseason ended with Tom Stacy going to Green from Massillon; Jason Hall to Massillon from Nordonia; and Al Huge in at Nordonia.
Others are trying to rebuild programs and establish some stability.
One place where stability is not a question is Ellet. Joe Yost enters his 30th season as head coach of the Orangemen, and there aren't many like him. Yost is one of the few high school coaches who don't use headphones while on the sidelines. They're too high-tech for his liking.
And in all the years he has been at Ellet, Yost has resisted the urge to move on to bigger programs. Yost got the job he wanted and was content to stay for as long as he could.
Still, he knows what it's like for a first-year coach.
''It will be one of the most exciting and challenging times of their lives,'' Yost said. ''It's a tremendous privilege to be a football coach at the high school level.''
Yost said the new coaches will come to learn that they have talents that they may never have realized.
''They'll be amazed with how many nonfootball things they will encounter,'' Yost said with a chuckle. ''You're a part-time groundskeeper, custodian, bingo caller, fundraiser, politician and counselor. It's amazing how many things you're involved in that have nothing to do with scoring a touchdown or teaching a kid how to tackle and block.''
Yost is a classic, like Nick at Night's TV Land shows.
That's right, Yost's tenure at Ellet can be tied to 30 years of pop culture.
He started as the head coach for the Orangemen the same year actor Ashton Kutcher, American Idols' Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, the NBA's Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki and NASCAR driver Kurt Busch were born.
Disco was still hot with songs like Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees and Copacabana by Barry Manilow.
It's probably highly unlikely, though, that Yost had a wide-collared shirt, bell-bottoms and platform shoes in his closet or a Bee Gees or Manilow album in his possession.
Heck, he probably still has a rotary telephone.
And e-mail?
Forget about it.
If you need some kind of written correspondence from Yost, it'll come via the good ol' United States Postal Service, with the 42-cent stamp right there in the upper-right corner of the envelope.
That's just Yost, old school, simply put.
David Lee Morgan Jr. can be reachedat dlmorgan@thebeaconjournal.com.
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