The Daily Standard
Sports Preview
The 2025 high school football season kicks off this week, with several games scheduled for tonight.
As always, hope springs eternal as the 706 schools that play football in Ohio look to be playing the first week of December.
As is the case in the Grand Lake area, it's not a matter of if local teams can make it to Canton, it's how many. For the past six seasons, two Midwest Athletic Conference teams have reached the state final, with Marion Local and Coldwater winning their respective divisions.
With the first week of the season consisting of all non-conference games before the Western Buckeye League starts play in Week Two (while the MAC gets another week of facing outside competitors before the MAC gets underway in Week Three), here is a bit of a closer look at some of the storylines for the first week.
Celina's Andrew Behm runs up field during the final scrimmage at Coldwater. The Bulldogs open the season Friday at St. Henry.
Celina will have a shorter road trip to open the season as the Bulldogs travel to the Wally Post Athletic Complex to play St. Henry for the first time in program history.
The Bulldogs have only played two other county schools over the years. The most notable has been Coldwater when the Cavaliers were members of the Western Buckeye League. After Coldwater left to join the MAC, the teams faced off in the season opener for many years before the series was halted.
The only other Mercer County team was the Rockford Tigers, with that series ending long before Rockford merged with Willshire to form Parkway.
Marion Local takes a 64-game winning streak into this season as the Flyers host South Adams on Friday.
Last year, Marion Local had a seven-plus hour round trip to Indiana to face Linton-Stockton in the opener. Marion won its 49th straight contest 45-6 in a game that took just under two hours. The Miners, located southwest of Indianapolis ended up reaching the Class 2A state final, losing to Adams Central, located just over the state line from Rockford.
Marion is at home for Week One this year and will face another Indiana school as South Adams, Adams Central's main rival, makes the trek to Booster Stadium.
The Starfires finished 8-6 last season, reaching the Class 1A semi-state (Indiana's version of state semifinals) before losing to eventual runner-up North Judson-San Pierre 46-0.
Returning for South Adams is quarterback Tytus Lehman, who passed for 2,728 yards and 29 touchdowns last season, and wide receiver Derek McKean, who had 65 receptions for 954 yards and six touchdowns for the Starfires.
It will be the first game of the season for South Adams as well. Indiana plays nine regular season games before all teams enter the tournament.
Coldwater opens defense of its Division VI state title with a road trip to Germantown to face Valley View.
It's the second straight season the Cavaliers and Spartans faced off. Coldwater won last season's meeting at Cavalier Stadium 38-0. Valley View went on to finish 9-3, losing to Taylor in the second round of the Division IV Region 16 quarterfinals.
Fort Recovery opens its season at the home confines of Barrenbrugge Park as the Indians face Dayton Ponitz Tech.
The game also marks the first game of the Wes Wenning coaching era. A 2016 graduate of Fort Recovery, Wenning was a member of the Indians 2015 state championship team before going to college at Ashland University. Before coming back to the area, Wenning had been teaching and coaching at Archbishop Hoban in Akron.
The Golden Panthers, a Division III school, went 1-9 last season, scoring just 22 points. Fourteen points came in the lone victory, a 14-0 decision over Thurgood Marshall, which went winless.
Two traditional opening matchups continue this season.
Most notable is the annual battle between schools on the Augalize-Shelby County border as Minster hosts Fort Loramie.
The Redskins were 6-6 last season, losing to Cincinnati College Prep in the second round of the playoffs. Fort Loramie is in its second season as a football-only member of the Northwest Conference after several seasons of independent play.
Parkway will open the season at home as the Panthers play host to neighboring Crestview in the teams' annual rivalry game.
The Knights were 4-6 last season, finishing 19th in Division VI Region 22.
St. Marys makes a road trip to Galion to open the season after playing St. Henry the previous two seasons.
Several teams will open against different opponents from last season this week.
St. Marys, which had faced St. Henry the previous two seasons, makes the trek to Galion. The Division IV Tigers went 7-4 last season, losing to Ottawa-Glandorf in the opening round of the playoffs.
New Bremen, which had played Bath the previous three seasons, heads to Paulding County to take on the Wayne Trace Raiders of the Green Meadows Conference. Wayne Trace finished 4-6 last season and did not make the playoffs.
The WBL starts next week. Celina travels to Wapakoneta to face the Redskins, who face Oregon Clay in their season opener at Mercy Health/Wapak Ford Field.
St. Marys plays its home opener at Grand Lake Health System Field against Bath. The Wildcats face off against Indian Lake at Wildcat Stadium in Bath Township.
There has been a change in the format for the OHSAA football playoffs this season. Instead of 16 teams reaching the playoffs from each region, only 12 teams per region will qualify for the postseason. Besides how this will obviously make it more difficult to earn a playoff berth, that means teams will be aiming for three different levels of computer points.
Teams finishing first through fourth in the rankings will receive a first-round bye and will host their second-round playoff game. While there is an argument that a week off can throw a team out of its winning rhythm, there are several obvious advantages to receiving a bye:
• For those taking the long view, these teams will only need to win five playoff games to win a state title, not six.
• Teams with a bye can use the week for players with minor injuries to heal.
• Coaching staffs with a bye week can more thoroughly scout their two possible second round playoff opponents.
• Likewise, these staff can use the extra time to "self-scout" themselves to pick up on tendencies other teams may notice and make adjustments.
Teams finishing fifth through eighth in the rankings do not get a bye but do get to host their opening round playoff game. If they win, they will have to travel to their second-round game against a team who had a bye in the opening round.
Teams finishing ninth through 12th in the rankings also do not get a bye and must travel for their opening round playoff game. If they win, they will have to travel again for their second-round game against a team who had a bye.
Hopefully, this will avoid a repeat of the 1 vs 16 playoff blowouts that were common last year (and avoid a repeat of teams turning down the chance to play a team like Marion Local in the playoffs, as happened in 2024).
There has been some changes in the divisions some teams participate in this year due to competitive balance adjustments, and there has been a resulting slight adjustment to some to the regional dividing lines. Of the teams we cover locally, Celina and St. Marys (along with Wapakoneta) have moved north from Region 12 into Region 10. In fact, all ten WBL teams are concentrated into just two regions this year. This will make conference games between mid-level WBL teams crucial to playoff qualification.
We shall group all of the teams in the WBL and MAC by the region they are in this year. We shall list their records and computer points earned last year, and where those same results would land them in this year's rankings.
2. Wapakoneta (10-0) 26.65
5. St. Marys (8-2) 20.05
8. Defiance (6-4) 15.10
10. Celina (6-4) 12.75
22. Shawnee (2-8) 5.10
There are 27 teams in this region. Last year's results would have four of the five teams from the WBL playoff bound. Expect Toledo Central Catholic to be the big favorites when the playoffs roll around.
For a team hoping for a first-round bye, nine wins will probably be necessary. To finish in the top eight and host a first-round playoff game, eight wins may be required, though seven could possibly be enough.
For these WBL teams, it appears six wins should be just good enough to qualify for the playoffs. Five wins may not be enough. This shows that a game like Defiance vs Celina could be critical in a 12-team playoff format this season.
9. Ottawa-Glandorf (5-5) 11.75
10. Bath (5-5) 11.25
14. Elida (3-7) 9.05
17. Van Wert (4-6) 6.95
22. Kenton (2-8) 3.50
There are 25 teams in this region. Last year's results would have just two of the five teams from the WBL playoff bound. Expect Sandusky Perkins and Shelby to be favored to win this region.
Seven wins might be enough to secure a first-round bye, and eight wins should do the job for certain. Six wins (possibly even just five) could have a team hosting a first-round playoff game.
For these WBL teams, it appears five wins ought to be all that is required to receive an invitation to the postseason. There are ten teams in this region who earned between four and five victories last year, so a sixth win should have teams breathing a lot easier.
While these five teams may not be expected to contest the WBL title this year, you could consider these schools to be in a mini-conference of their own, with the top two teams favored for the playoffs.
12. Versailles (5-5) 9.90
There are 24 teams in this region. Jamestown Greeneview and West Liberty-Salem will be two hot favorites in this region, but watch out for Indian Lake.
This region is a little rougher to analyze, but nine wins will probably be needed to finish in the top four, seven wins should earn a team a spot in the top eight, and five to six wins should qualify for the playoffs.
For Versailles, while a repeat of last year's five wins might be good enough to sneak into the playoffs, a sixth win would certainly remove some Week 10 jitters.
25. Parkway (1-9) 0.80
There are 26 teams in this region. Hopewell-Loudon, Bluffton and Patrick Henry are the recent powers in this region.
Eight or nine wins should be enough to finish in the top four, six or more likely seven victories should secure a first-round home playoff game, and five to six wins should qualify for the playoffs. But note that last year Metamora Evergreen won seven games but only earned the 14th most points among the teams in this region in 2025.
That means Parkway will need to find a lot more wins in their MAC schedule this year to contest for a playoff berth.
1. Coldwater (9-1) 23.85
2. Anna (7-3) 15.85
There are 26 teams in this region and based on recent performance Coldwater is the big favorite with Anna only an upset of the Cavaliers away from contending for the top spot. Last year's results would have both of these teams earning first round byes.
For a team hoping for a first-round bye, seven or more likely eight wins will be the requirement. Seven wins should earn these teams a spot in the top eight, thus hosting a first-round playoff game. Only four to five victories should be enough to play in the postseason.
18. Delphos St. John's (3-7) 5.60
There are 29 teams here, making this the largest region in the state. I also believe it will be the toughest region in which to qualify for the playoffs. Columbus Grove is the recent bully of this region.
3-7 Delphos St. John's qualified with the 15th seed last year mainly due to defeating 8-2 Sidney Lehman in Week 1. However, the Blue Jays also lost by one point to 7-3 Lima Central Catholic, which would have brought in another boatload of computer points.
This year, in order to finish in the top 12 will likely require six or even seven wins. That means a .500 or better record in MAC play, depending on how the Blue Jays' two non-conference games go. Earning a home game is going to require at least eight wins.
1. Marion Local (10-0) 27.10
2. Minster (8-2) 19.05
7. St. Henry (6-4) 11.30
8. New Bremen (5-5) 10.50
18. Fort Recovery (2-8) 2.80
There are 27 teams in this region. Last year's results would have four of the five teams from the MAC playoff bound. Despite losing most of their starters from last year, Marion Local will be considered the favorite in this region until proven otherwise.
This region highlights a fact that should be emphasized. The numbers in this article show the records and computer points from last season, which are often fairly predictive of the coming year. However, one fascinating preseason stat is that New Bremen has more seniors on its 2025 roster than Minster has juniors and seniors combined. Seniors matter in small school football, so don't be surprised if the gap between the Wildcats and the Cardinals closes greatly, if not switching in New Bremen's favor. St. Henry was also a fairly young team last year so watch for potential improvement by the Redskins.
Last year's results show that there will be a 9-1 team which does not finish in the top four in the standings, but any MAC team should earn a bye with eight victories. Somewhere between six and seven wins should get MAC teams in the top eight, while four or five wins will be enough to qualify for the playoffs, depending on the strength of any non-conference victories.
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The computer points for the entire state, and especially the four regions involving most area teams (Regions 10, 22, 24 and 28) can be found throughout the upcoming season at: user.nktelco.net/bdmonnin/football.htm or by searching the Internet for Bruce Monnin's Computer Points.
For even more computer point details about teams throughout west central Ohio, subscribe to my weekly podcast at the ITunes store, on Spotify or on YouTube. Search for Bruce Monnin's Computer Points.
Napoleon at Defiance
LCC at Shawnee
Celina at St. Henry
St. Marys at Galion
Coldwater at Valley View (7:30 p.m.)
Ponitz at Fort Recovery
South Adams at Marion Local
Fort Loramie at Minster
New Bremen at Wayne Trace
Crestview at Parkway
Oregon Clay at Wapakoneta
Indian Lake at Bath
Toledo Rogers at Elida
Kenton at Eastwood
Ottawa-Glandorf at Liberty-Benton
Van Wert at Bryan
Spencerville at Anna
St. John's at Lehman
Versailles at Milton-Union
Games kick off at 7 p.m. unless indicated
