As Canton South High School's football team makes history, an old Wildcat's memories run wild

A friend introduced me to a friend.

He mentioned high school football predictions the paper ran for many years.

"Steve's the guy who always picked Canton South. They could have been playing Alabama. He picked South."

Guilty as charged.

Canton South was my school. The Wildcats were my guys. They'll always be my guys.

One win out from the state high school football final four, the old school has never been this far.

It makes me remember old times, old faces, lifelong friends.

The team is 13-0 heading into Friday's Division IV regional finals.

Quarterback Jack "Poochie" Snyder is as fun to watch as a high school player can be.

Head coach Matt Dennison is a together fellow whose dad, Jim, is a coaching icon.

The rest of the guys are the team's hope for winning the rest of the games.

The impossible dream is to win three more and become Division IV state champs.

Friday's opponent, Struthers (10-3), has a hardhat history linked to Steve Belichick and Bob Commings.

Cleveland Glenville (12-1), Sandusky Perkins (12-0), Steubenville (12-1), Thornville Sheridan (12-1), Kettering Alter (10-3) and Cincinnati Wyoming (12-1) are the others still kicking.

South's 13-0 record indicates "a chance." School history suggests ... who? Us?

The Wildcats were competitive in the 2000s (57-48 overall, 2-3 postseason); not so much in the 2010s (33-67). In the 1970s, South was 8-2 my junior year, 1-9 my senior year. The 'Cats are around .500 over time.

The best team in school history is from the 1960s.

The coach, Don Nehlen, is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Star back Frank Dugan wound up at Alabama. Lineman Dick Himes played 10 years for the Green Bay Packers.

That team might have had a 6-foot-10 receiver, but Dick Cunningham quit football as a freshman and followed a path to the NBA. The team did have a 6-5 receiver, Ronnie Young, who lived a few houses down from Doerschuk's Service on Sherman Church Road.

Dad and his brother George opened the station after making it out of World War II alive, which brings me to a personal Canton South story.

My grandpa built a house near Skyland Pines golf course in the 1920s. Grandma was pregnant with her 12th when grandpa collapsed and died. Then their house burned down.

With the Great Depression snarling, the family found refuge in Canton Township — a farmhouse, 50 acres and a barn on Sherman Church Road.

Without those circumstances, which led to dad meeting mom, my brothers and I not only wouldn't be Wildcats; we wouldn't be.

Our family tree traces to Zoar. Sherman Church Road goes south to Bolivar.

Many Canton South families, mine included, have an affinity for people and families in the communities that make up the Tuscarawas Valley school district.

All of us were sick at the news of Tuesday's highway tragedy. All of us apt to turn to God and seek comfort for families and friends are doing so. Comfort isn't even the word.

I need to take a deep breath.

Continuing my family story ...

I was a South freshman when mom decreed: "You will do something in addition to sports." She provided a list. Trying out for Claude Paumier's C.S. Journal seemed the least of the evils.

I pumped gas from age 10. Doerschuk's Service was a window to the Canton South world.

I learned to talk to people. Dad knew how.

Ralph King, Bud Breymaier, Dewey Dayton, Pappy Lovell, Thespina Michailides, Red Rice, Harry Noll, Tom Long, George Miller, Riley Dedmon, Ron Bercaw, Tom Maston, a sweet old lady named Grace who drove a Model T … the names flood back.

Ken Dillon and dad would chat about the lightest subjects and the deepest. I overheard them talking about heaven once.

Dad took us to Canton South games. Nights in a packed gym with Red Ash's basketball teams were magic.

My brother Bob still has a rally banner that hung in a high school hallway in 1965, the year the Wildcats beat No. 1-ranked McKinley.

That might be "The Game" in school sports history. The win over Poland that sent the 2003 Wildcats to the state final four against LeBron James is up there.

Beating West Branch this past Friday is up there.

Old Canton South had six youth baseball rivals tied to elementary schools. My team was Prairie College. The rivals were Trump Road, Waco, Howenstine, Amos McDannel and North Industry.

Teams "acquired" nicknames. The "PC" on our caps made us the Pregnant Cows. (Cows ruled.)

A community connectedness was so natural we never really thought about it.

On trick or treat night, Bud hitched a tractor to a hay wagon and hauled us to the Steiner Allotment.

Johnny Miller kept the Howenstine field pristine into his 90s. He knew the history of North Industry - "Slabtown" - better than a veteran tour guide. He coached kids from all over the district.

Lew Mikunda, Waco baseball csar, drove the school bus that collected Prairie College kids.

Lew played on Red's final four team in 1948. His son-in-law Jack Fuller, who grew up a short toss from Amos McDannel school, coached the next CSHS team to make a final four, in 1990.

Oscar Addis was a Trump Road catcher who became a Canton South fixture coaching football and operating the vocational auto body shop.

Those guys would have loved these football playoffs. Maybe they're watching.

There is no downtown Canton South.

We smile at the people and places factoring into our identity.

The Old Landmark Tavern carries her secrets, but is an openly proud sponsor of the 1973 Wildcats.

"Barber Dan" Datkuliak can give you the history of Canton South hair cutting.

Brenda Bowling reveals the secret behind the famed footlongs at Jack's Kwik Shake (deep fry the hot dogs).

Such morsels come to mind when a football team full of kids from all over the township gets cooking.

This is our team. Thanks, team.

We are your people. Come here and know us better.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton South football OHSAA playoff run gets to soul of community