Jackson grad Shawn Lutz: Who is this unsung coach, and how did he get Massillon's star QB?
A street party broke out in Massillon after the football team won a state championship in Canton.
Nov. 30, 2023 was as loud as it gets in high school football these days.
The recruitment of Massillon's star quarterback was strikingly quiet.
After the noise of NCAA Division I business blew over, DaOne Owens signed with NCAA Division II Slippery Rock. Head coach Shawn Lutz is still celebrating.
Lutz regards Owens as one the best catches Slippery Rock has made since he arrived in 1996 as a graduate assistant — he became head coach in 2016.
Lutz relates to Stark County celebrations, having played in two of the most famous games in Jackson High School history (see below).
Larry Taylor, who was Lutz's basketball coach at Jackson, regards him as "probably the best kept secret of a success story in Stark County."
"I'm super proud of Shawn," said Elmer Schuetz, who coached Lutz in football at Jackson. "I mean that from the bottom of my heart."
Lutz had Slippery Rock rolling in 2019, a 13-1 year that stretched into the national semifinals. Then the COVID-19 meteor hit, wiping out the 2020 season.
The reboot has gone well. Wrapped around the lost season, Lutz has taken The Rock to the playoffs five straight years, second-longest streak in the USA in Division II.
Schuetz regularly attends Slippery Rock games, roughly 100 miles east of Massillon and 50 miles north of Pittsburgh.
"Shawn is a great recruiter who can relate to the kids he's bringing in," Schuetz said. "DaOne Owens was a really good signing.
"I was talking to Shawn and he said, 'Guess who we're going to sign?' I said I didn't know. 'He said, 'The quarterback from Massillon!' I said, 'Get out.' That kid beat Hoban. He beat St. Ed's. He beat Valdosta, Georgia."
Schuetz helps operate a "college night" in which college coaches come to Stark County in part to assess prospects who may have slipped through the cracks.
"One of Shawn's assistants was at this year's college night," Schuetz said. "I asked him how Slippery Rock will do this year.
"He said, 'Coach, we're getting a lot of Division I kids through the transfer portal. We've got kids coming from Pitt, from Bowling Green … with the success we've had, some really good players.'"
Lutz was a Jackson senior in the 1990 football season, when Nick Saban was head coach at Toledo.
"Toledo came in and offered Shawn a scholarship," Schuetz said. "Then, on signing day, he didn't get a phone call. He was a nervous wreck.
"I called the coach who was recruiting him and he says, 'We signed another guy at his position."
Schuetz was furious. Lutz learned a lesson in how not to treat recruits.
He walked on at West Virginia and stuck with a team whose famous coach was Canton native Don Nehlen.
As a senior receiver/linebacker, Lutz faced Massillon in one of the most famous games in Jackson history, on Nov. 3, 1990.
High school football seemed louder then.
It was just the first round of the playoffs, but a crowd of 17,124 made a racket in Canton's Fawcett Stadium. Attendance at the Tigers' 2023 state title game against Hoban, at what now is Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, was 14,846.
In the 1990 battle, Massillon won the coin toss and deferred.
A sentence in The Independent described a key play in Jackson's subsequent series:
"On third‑and‑seven, quarterback Jeff Morris and all‑county wide receiver Shawn Lutz hooked up on one of their pet plays, a sideline pass that takes advantage of Lutz’s 6-foot‑6 frame and soft hands."
A bigger play followed, a 53-yard touchdown run by track star Jaiye Murdock.
Jackson led 123-21 in net yards after one quarter. Massillon fought back.
Deep in the fourth quarter, Jackson's Bryan Scheetz returned an interception 43 yards. Leading 15-13, Morris aimed to put the game away, with a pass to Lutz if he was open, on third-and-6 from the Massillon 23.
But Morris was sacked by Mark Murphy. Massillon's track star, Jeff Perry, picked up the ball.
The strangest possible scene began with everyone on the field coming to a weird halt.
As described by the Independent:
"After the pause, Murphy ran toward the north grandstand, packed with Massillon fans. He leaped and pumped his fists, later saying, 'I figured the play was dead when everybody stopped.'
"Somebody in the press box screamed, 'Was there a whistle?' Apparently not.
"Perry caught himself and began running. Jackson’s Milan Herceg, who like everyone else had relaxed, recovered and got his hands on Perry, but Perry escaped and steamed toward the left sideline.
"Dan Craven gave chase, but Perry escaped and headed toward I-77 to the east end zone."
The touchdown and a conversion gave Massillon a 21-15 victory.
Morris, that year's Stark County Player of the Year, was quoted in the next day's Repository:
“It may have been a fumble, but the ref blew the whistle, and he knows it. He even came up to me and said, ‘I’m sorry, I blew it.'”
A few months after the strange football game, Lutz played in one of the biggest boys basketball upsets in county history, Jackson over McKinley, equally strange
McKinley was an obvious state championship threat, with a lineup including future NBA players Eric Snow and Michael Hawkins and future DePaul center Bryant Bowden.
"For a long time Shawn didn't realize how good an athlete he was," said Taylor. "He grew into realizing, 'You can do this.'
"From there he realized, 'Yeah, you can do this, but you've got to bring some teammates with you.' He grew as a leader. He helped pull us together to be the kind of team that had a chance to beat McKinley.
"The end of that game," Taylor added, "was bizarre."
Snow made a steal in the final seconds and looked to have a breakaway layup, but Herceg came out of nowhere to foul him. Snow made one free throw and missed one, leaving Jackson, trailing by 1, with barely enough time.
Tim Ertle's missed shot went into the hands of Morris and into the basket at the buzzer to give Jackson a 1-point win.
Amid an unwieldy uproar in Memorial Civic Center, the points were put on the scoreboard for McKinley, not Jackson. No one was sure if Morris got off the shot in time.
A game official ran to the scorer's table, summoning Taylor and McKinley coach Dave Cady.
Taylor's recollection: "The official, who was from Cleveland, said, 'The basket is good. Jackson did win the game.' He told the scorer's table, 'Don't put up the correct score until the officials are escorted from the floor.'"
"Those were crazy games," Lutz said. "It was quite a time in Stark County sports, with a lot of big names. All of the McKinley guys ... Chip Hare from Perry ... David Grim from Massillon.
"I'm so fortunate to have had the experiences I did in Stark County. I know what it means for DaOne Owens to experience that.
"I'm not sure how the Mid-American Conference missed DaOne."
Yet, Lutz understands the Division I trend, particularly rampant in the MAC: Find an experienced quarterback in the transfer portal, sign high school QBs sparingly.
Lutz also wonders if Division I programs backed away partly because Owens resisted a possible position change.
"He definitely could play running back or safety," Lutz said. "He made it clear he wanted to be a quarterback, and that's what we want him to be."
Owens transferred to Massillon in 2023. At first, he shared the starting job with returning starter Jalen Slaughter.
In 2022, while playing for a 3-8 Copley team, Owens threw for 2,594 yards and ran for 1,422 in earning All-Ohio honors.
In Massillon's 2023 opener against Valdosta, Slaughter started, but Owens did stunning work after the Tigers fell behind 14-0. During a 28-3 run, he ran 13 times for 241 yards, including touchdowns of 69 and 75 yards.
During Massillon's 15-0 season, Owens ran for more than 100 yards six times. He passed for 1,566 yards and 18 TDs.
"He obviously can make plays as a runner," Lutz said. "From studying him as a passer, there isn't a throw he can't make."
Owens' chance to start for Slippery Rock probably won't arrive in 2025. Senior Brayden Long, who will be a senior in 2024, was a 2023 finalist for the NCAA Division II national player of the year award.
Ohio is well known for its NCAA Division III football, led by Mount Union. Pennsylvania is an NCAA Division II hub, featuring 18 teams that compete in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.
Slippery Rock went 10-0 in the 2023 regular-season before falling to Kutztown in the PSAC championship game. Along the way, Schuetz was in a crowd of 5,312 that watched his alma mater, Clarion, fall 42-14 at Slippery Rock.
"Shawn's teams have been very good," Schuetz said.
"The Rock" took down East Stroudsburg and Tiffin in the 2023 national playoffs before falling to Kutztown in the third round.
Lutz's 70-19 record in seven seasons equates to a .787 winning percentage, best in the PSAC in that period.
"We're all proud of him," Taylor said. "He's done an amazing job at Slippery Rock."
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Slippery Rock football excited to add Massillon Tigers QB DaOne Owens
