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Beechwood coach Noel Rash is like many of his successful counterparts who live in the moment, but he knows a successful program begins with a great feeder system built over time. And it appears the Tigers have enough in the pipeline to enjoy another run of state championships like the program experienced in the 1990s.
Beechwood has won the last two Class 1A state titles. The junior varsity team was successful last season, the freshman team won a championship, and Rash sees strong numbers of players all the way down to the sixth and seventh grades.
"Freshman championships and JV records are wonderful, but so many things can happen between now and then," said Rash, who is 36-6 with two state championships in his three seasons as head coach. "You can't get ahead of yourself, but at the same time there's nothing wrong with planning ahead and looking into the future a little. One of the things I know is our offseason conditioning program is one of the better ones around, and that's not going to change."
Of course, Rash is quick to point out that his focus always will be on his current team.
"The big thing is you can't get so distracted looking down the road that you miss the details today," said Rash. "We have to keep focusing on what we have on hand because my future is today. That's how we talk about things in specific terms of today, be it weights, conditioning or practice. "
Beechwood owned the 1990s in Class 1A under coach Mike Yeagle. The Tigers won state titles from 1991-94, were runners-up in 1995 and then won titles in 1996, '97 and '99. The early part of this decade was a little lean by Beechwood standards, as the Tigers finished runners-up in 2002 and '03 before winning again in '04. The Tigers then lost in the second round in 2005 and '06 before winning the last two championships.
"I loved the fact that the press and the community feels that two years without winning a title is a drought," said Rash. "It is on our terms, and that says so much about Mike and all those past players."
This could be something of a rebuilding year for Beechwood after it lost three linemen (Dominic Mainello to Central Michigan, Matt Miller to Brown and Brady Slusher to the University of Cincinnati) and running back Nieco Teipel (University of Louisville) to Division I colleges. But Rash said watching this year's team in practice has him excited.
"I really like their leadership, and that's what this has always been about - the seniors keep getting the team to buy into it," said Rash. "Mike always reminded me that we're a single-A team and those games are the ones you need to win. With only eight seniors, this may be one of those years we struggle against the bigger schools, but we have to worry about those A games."
Rash sometimes worries that all the program's success can make observers think that anything less than being dominant is a failure, and that thoughts of individual glory start to creep into players' heads. He nips that in the bud quickly.
"One thing we've always done is stay humble," said Rash. "That's never going to be a problem as long as I'm here. I'm 5-9, slow and white. I'm a dime a dozen. I think Mike was big on that, too. I just stole Mike's formula of being a blue-collar, lunch-pail team for a white-collar community."