Battle-tested: Mansfield Senior football's 2023 success looks a lot like 30 years ago

MANSFIELD — This 2023 football season has been historic, but hardly unprecedented, for the Mansfield Senior Tygers.

And nobody understands that better than head coach Chioke Bradley.

In becoming the first coach in program history to win 100 games, Bradley’s Tygers navigated a four-game gauntlet to start the season to win the program’s first undisputed Ohio Cardinal Conference title since 2013 and grab a high seed in the playoffs.

It’s been an exhilarating season for everybody involved and it’s not over yet. The 9-2 and fourth-seeded Tygers host 10-1 and fifth-seeded Rocky River in a Division III regional quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Friday at Arlin Field.

But you’ll have to excuse Bradley if it feels like he’s boarded this carnival ride before.

High School Football: ‘It’s all about the kids”: Tygers shut out Madison to clinch undisputed OCC title

In 1993, he was a senior anchor for the Tygers as they tackled arguably the toughest schedule ever by a Richland County team and emerged as an outright conference champion.

It’s the 30th anniversary of that team becoming the first to represent Mansfield Senior in the OHSAA playoffs. To say no one saw that coming is probably an understatement given the landmines laid out in front of the ’93 Tygers.

“There are a lot of similarities (between 1993 and 2023),” said Stan Jefferson, then the Tygers’ coach and now the school superintendent, “but we’re mostly talking about two teams who were going to play for a sacred brotherhood – for their teammates and for their (position) units. They’ve both been very tough groups.”

’93 season started as huge question mark

Even though Senior High had been 23-7 the three previous seasons, no one knew what was in store for the ‘93 Tygers.

They were breaking in a new head coach and a new offensive system, transitioning from a power option attack to more of a pro-style set.

The Tygers were replacing 18 starters, nine on each side of the ball, and the senior class was in the single digits. The roster was smaller than average by about 25 players, no doubt impacted by a then-highly controversial 2.0 GPA requirement for eligibility.

Starting quarterback Effie James was playing varsity for the first time as a senior after sitting out his junior season.

“Our class was big as freshmen, but we lost a lot through attrition,” he said. “Our freshmen class had about 45 guys in it, but then we ended up with six, seven, eight seniors. But they were key players – Ellery Bradford, David Lawrence, Charles Dawson, Chioke, Charles Fountain.

“We had seniors at key positions and we were as committed as we could be. Every senior was a leader on that team.”

And Mansfield Senior’s schedule was stacked. Its non-conference opponents – Groveport Madison, Zanesville, Mentor, Massillon and Barberton – have combined for 80 all-time playoff appearances.

The Tygers were also scheduled to play Canton McKinley, but Jefferson, making his debut atop the program, talked counterpart Thom McDaniels into letting Senior High out of that contract.

In hindsight, that was a smart decision. A loss to McKinley might have cost the Tygers a playoff berth despite an eight-win regular season. At the time, only four teams per region qualified for the postseason, not the 16 that currently make it.

In the end, McKinley finished No. 1 in the Division I, Region 2 computer ratings. Senior High was No. 2 with an 8-1 record, Massillon was No. 3 and Walsh Jesuit was No. 4.

“We wanted to play that kind of schedule – tough, competitive football. People don’t realize we played Massillon 10 straight years. It wasn’t just one and done,” said Jefferson, whose team beat the Tigers in 1995 for the first time since 1949.

‘We knew where our money was made’

The Tygers started 3-0, capped by a 33-14 win at Mentor. They dominated the second half against a 10-win team from the year before, and it did a world of good.

“That was a different environment (at Mentor),” said James, who had three total touchdowns that night. “I had never played football in northeast Ohio. Playing against that type of team, that type of physicality and then coming back and playing Massillon and coming back and playing Barberton … when we got to the league, we were able to exploit a lot of those teams. Those plays that maybe went for long yardage against the big teams on our schedule went for touchdowns against (conference) teams.”

The only league foe that went toe to toe with the Tygers was crosstown rival Madison. In their showdown at Arlin Field, the Rams capped a 19-point run to lead 26-21 with 1:21 left.

A 44-yard kickoff return by Malcolm Bessick gave the Tygers a chance and, with 21 seconds left, James found Ken Fairchild Jr. in the back of the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown and a 27-26 victory, clinching a share of the conference title.

James accounted for three TDs, two of them through the air. Ali Grose, now the Mansfield Senior secondary coach, scored the other touchdown on a five-yard fumble return.

“There weren’t many games where I felt, in the midst of the game, wow, we could lose,” James said. “Every punch we threw, (Madison) would hit back.”

Bradley was decorated on defense, earning Northwest District Player of the Year and first team All-Ohio honors thanks to 91 tackles and two interceptions, but he was a two-player whose versatility was on full display against Barberton.

He made four catches for 144 yards and two touchdowns that night: One for 81 yards and the other for 24 yards, which proved to be the game-winner. Oh, and he snuffed out a potential game-winning drive with an 81-yard pick-six.

“Coach (Steve) Helbert was ahead of his time,” said Bradley, who went on to start for four years at Bowling Green. “He hatched a plan to use me similar to the way Lexington used Cade Stover. Teams wouldn’t throw to my side [as a cornerback], so he came up with the idea of using me at free safety and walking me into the box. Now you can’t throw away from me or run away from me because I’m right there in the middle of the defense.”

The Tygers locked up a perfect conference season by routing Lex 48-0. James threw two TD passes and Bradley scored on a 38-yard end-around. Fountain rushed for 176 yards and three touchdowns on only 11 carries, giving him the league rushing title by three yards.

The Tygers bowed out in the first round of the playoffs to Massillon, which also beat them in the regular season in a game that was within a touchdown after three quarters.

Still, a season that started with so many unknowns ended with a clear sense of what was accomplished, even 30 years later.

“We knew we were a big-play team. We didn’t have any misconceptions about who we were,” said James, the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year after throwing for 769 yards and a league-high 14 touchdowns during the regular season.

“We weren’t a grind-it-out team. We weren’t a team that was going to go on long drives. We had speed in the backfield with Charles Fountain and outside with Chioke. So we knew we were a big play team. We knew where our money was made.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Looking back: Mansfield Senior football's first OHSAA playoff in 1993