Ohio Valley Football 2022

Martins Ferry High School

MARTINS FERRY -- Justin Kropka’s career in coaching football has come full circle, and he couldn’t be any happier. A 1994 Purple Rider graduate and former player, Kropka has returned to the Dave Bruney Football Complex to lead his alma mater after stops at Harrison Central, Wheeling University and John Marshall. Kropka replaces another Martins Ferry grad, Chas Yoder, who stepped aside after last season and a four-year career. “It’s crazy. I never thought I’d coach here again,” Kropka said. “Four years ago when Dave (Bruney) stepped down, I didn’t apply. For those ...

Cameron High School

CAMERON — An unbeaten regular season last year was overshadowed by an unexpected first-round exit in the playoffs for the Cameron Dragons. As he enters his fourth year at the helm, Cameron coach Tim Brown has his team concentrating on focus, communication and committing less penalties in order to make sure that heartbreaking end to the season doesn’t repeat itself. “We had a great season and one bad day,” Brown said. “We’re going to have a lot of focus on penalties. We can’t have 175 yards of penalties and we can’t jump offsides five times. We were offside three times ...

Indian Creek High School

WINTERSVILLE - Time flies when you are winning football games. Andrew Connor embarks on his 20th season as head coach of the Indian Creek football team. In those previous 19, Connor has established a highly regarded and successful grid program. His teams have earned seven OHSAA playoff berths, captured OVAC 5A championships in 2018 and 2019 while pocketing more than 100 victories. With that glowing success as a backdrop, it is suffice to say all quality programs encounter an occasional speed bump. Such was the case a year ago for Indian Creek. The ultra-youthful Redskins finished ...

Brooke High School

WELLSBURG — Brooke football coach Mac McLean led the Bruins to a 5-4 season last year and while that was a great improvement, he is ready to focus on the upcoming campaign. “Every interview I’ve had this year starts out talking about last season,” McLean said. “We played older than we actually were but we had some key injuries. “Now our expectations are to take the next step forward this season.” In order to take that next step, the Bruins will have to do so without some key players who graduated last year. Nicholas Costlow (WR/DB), Luke Secrist (TE/LB), Stephen ...

Shadyside High School

SHADYSIDE — It’s been quite the preseason at Shadyside. Already faced with the tall task of replacing 10 seniors from a team that won an OVAC title and played in a regional championship game, the Tigers dealt with a coaching change just 16 days before Friday’s opener at Martins Ferry. Amid allegations of insensitive comments inside the Tiger locker room, which led to the Shadyside Board of Education meeting for 2.5 hours in executive session on Aug. 1, highly successful head coach Mark Holenka opted to resign on Aug. 3. Holenka’s decision ended a 13-year tenure as the head ...

Bellaire High School

BELLAIRE — Often times coaching changes occur and it includes a major rebuilding job. Mark Bonar walked into no such situation. The 69-year old, who hasn’t been a head coach at the high school level since coaching St. Clairsville more than two decades ago, takes over a team at Bellaire that returns more than a solid nucleus from a 10-2, OVAC championship squad. “When I took the job, I honestly didn’t know what to expect personnel wise, but we have really good personnel,” Bonar said. “Obviously, there were some big losses (to graduation) from last year’s team and you ...