Poochie and his Wildcat pals living it up in the good new days of Canton South football
CANTON TOWNSHIP − In his late 80s, from his retirement home in "Almost Heaven," College Football Hall of Famer Don Nehlen rode a time machine back to high school.
The West Virginia Mountaineers coaching legend was touched by a recent visit from Frank Dugan, Tim Miller and Ted Neininger, who played for him when they were together on the banks of the Nimishillen Creek.
"Seeing them reminded me how much I loved my time at Canton South," Nehlen said.
Seeing South score 92 points against substantial programs during a 2-0 start taps into thoughts of glory days.Everyone tells South's current star quarterback to enjoy every minute, even as he sorts out his college football future.
Poochie Snyder seems to totally gets it.
Snyder looks out on the field at Clyde Brechbuhler Stadium and remembers being a scared freshman.He marvels at the distance traveled to his senior year.
"Everything seems so slow when I'm out on the field with the guys, coming out of the huddle," he said. "I can almost see what's going to happen before it does."
The last of his four years as South's QB is happening. In a blink, a 42-40 win over St. Clairsville and a 50-40 conquest of Dover have come and gone, with an intriguing game at Sandy Valley up next.
It hit Snyder the other day, at a "senior dinner," how scary-fast time flies.
His big senior subplot is how many colleges might watch his 2023 unfold, conclude they missed the boat, and jump in on recruiting. For now, he has committed to Sacred Heart amidst everyone, including Sacred Heart, understanding − in these days of the transfer portal − he could de-commit.
Snyder dreams the impossible dream of an offer from his lifetime rooting interest, Ohio State.
"I know the chances of that are slim," he says.
He has a fresh offer from Army. Other new offers are quite possible.
But what do any offers matter while he is making memories of a lifetime among friends?
Ethan Fricke has a knock-your-block off build and, like Snyder, is in his fourth year as a varsity Wildcat alongside Snyder.
On the field long after Friday's Dover game, Fricke shared an insider's view of playing for a good team with a highly publicized quarterback.
"Some teams you have a lot of divas," he said. "Why isn't it about me? Why is it about him?
"Poochie threw two picks tonight, but it wasn't, well, it's going to be his fault if this doesn't go well.
"We picked each other up. We didn't fight, which we did a lot my freshman and sophomore years.
"We kind of handle it like, Poochie's just another guy. It's not in our heads that we've got this big D-I quarterback. We just see it as, hey, we've got a quarterback who is a helluva player and we can rally behind."
Longtime followers of South football are not conditioned to great things happening, dating to the times after the greatest era, eons ago under Nehlen.
The first half of the Dover game was too good to be true. The Wildcats led 30-7 and were driving. Then came a fumble. Then a tipped-ball interception. By halftime Dover trailed 30-22 and had everyone's attention.
"My freshman, sophomore and junior years, we might have folded," Fricke said. "This year, everybody has bought in. We straightened out a lot of things in the summer.
"It was like a war tonight after they almost caught up. It was … we've got to nut up or shut up. We had guys make big plays. We had guys make smaller plays that had a big impact."
Poochie made plays.
He threw for 344 yards (on 25-of-33 passing) and four touchdowns. He ran 13 times for 91 yards and two TDs.
"If I was a Division I college football coach, I would offer him a scholarship," Dover head coach Dan Ifft said. "He's got a head on his shoulders. He doesn't panic. He has legs. His release is quick. He knows how to read coverage, and he's being taught how to read coverage.
"The only thing he doesn't have is size. So what. SO WHAT?"
Snyder is a once-in-a-lifetime quarterback for his school, completely agreeing with the crowd telling him to have the time of his life.
That's the advice from Mark Miller, who was a senior quarterback at Canton South in 1973 before playing for Nehlen at Bowling Green and getting drafted in Round 3 by the Cleveland Browns.
Miller wasn't as fast as Snyder, but almost. At 6-foot-2 1/2, he had plenty of height, whereas Snyder - "6 feet on the nose," according to head coach Matt Dennison - lives in a world whose major college coaches like their QBs in the 6-4 range.
"That's the issue," Miller said. "You can try to gain some weight and get stronger, but there's no exercise that makes you taller, other than maybe the rack.
"Poochie is exciting to watch. He does all the right things. He runs. He throws. He's a good leader. He seems to read defenses well.
"He plays his butt off."
He is playing with guys he has known so long that half of them forgot his "real name." So few people call him Jack that his legal name might as well be Poochie. Some use his time-saving sub-nickname: Pooch.
His quick review of how the name began: "My sister, Caroline, started calling me Poochie when I was 2. She said I had a poochie belly."
Actually, Poochie is Jack Snyder Jr.
His dad was a starting South QB in the 1990s. His brother Silas was the Wildcats' No. 1 QB in 2016 and '17 seasons.If they brought back Jack's Kwik Shake, which was the business hub of Canton Township for many years, renaming it Poochie's Kwik Shake would be an option. Jack Snyder Jr. runs a 4.4 40. Talk about Kwik ...
Snyder is within hailing distance of Stark County records for passing yards and touchdown throws. He is a captain of a 2023 team perhaps as good as any South has seen since Nehlen won big 60 years ago.
An exception might be the 1970 team that had Mike Christiansen as a senior quarterback, Dave "White Shoes" Pellegrini racing down the sidelines, and Kevin Looman going toe to toe with the best linemen in the Federal League.
Another exception might be the 2006 team that included Ohio State recruit Devon Torrence as an all-around threat and Matt Trissel at quarterback. That team dropped its opener at Dover, 21-19.
The Poochie era has been up there with anything else since the Frank Dugan/Dick Himes/Nehlen era, which unfolded way back before there even was a Federal League. South's status as a charter Federal League member is a memory in the creek mist now.
Nehlen's Wildcats played in something called the Class A League, winning its championship in 1963. The 2022 Wildcats were in on a league championship for the first time since '63, but it was a bit odd, a five-way tie in the PAC-7.
The 2023 Wildcats want it all. They want to be outright PAC-7 champs and think they have the team to do it.
The opener, a 42-40 win over St. Clairsville, was a good sign.
"St. Clairsville is a perennial state power in Division IV," head coach Matt Dennison said. "They have almost everybody back from last year and they were predicted to go 10-0.
"To beat a program like that says something about your team."
Poochie's stats spoke for themselves. He completed nine of 11 passes for 195 yards. He ran 11 times for 180 yards, including touchdown runs of 89 and 50 yards.
The sensation of running along the home bench and home grandstand stayed with him all the way to the Dover game.
"It was feeling the guys who have been your teammates for so long," he said. "It was seeing the crowd standing up. I can't really describe it."
There were no crowds in 2020, when Snyder started as a freshman for a South team that came through "the year of COVID-19" with a 5-3 record.
Dennison replaced Greg Reed as head coach in 2021. The Wildcats went 7-4. with Snyder averaging 250 passing yards and throwing for 35 TDs, against five interceptions.
The passing stats got bigger in 2022, when the Wildcats went 9-3 and he threw for 3,567 yards. He emerged as a tremendous runner, gaining 1,156 yards.
Scoreboard?
The Wildcats haven't been held below 20 points since Snyder's freshman year, when that happened twice.
In his four years, the team has scored 20-29 points in seven games, 30-39 points eight times, 40-49 points 12 times, and 50 or more points three times, including Friday against Dover.
"I've had a tremendous amount of playmakers around me," Snyder said. "That has made it so much easier."
It is easy for 2023 opponents to understand they must contain receiver Tavon Castle, who made All-Ohio as a 2022 junior with 75 catches for 1,195 yards.
"St. Clairsville threw three different coverages at him," Snyder said.
Castle caught 13 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns against Dover.
"Poochie and Tavon have known each other since they were little," said Castle's mother, Rachel, while watching the Dover game from the first row. "It's like they grew up being together 24-7."
Matt Dennison has been a high school head coach 20-plus years. He is the son of famed college coach Jim Dennison. He understands adjustments.
"We're balanced enough where we can take what you give us," Dennison said. "We have three really good running backs. if somebody wants to put five in the box, we're gonna run it all night long.
"If you're going to go after one receiver, we've got three other guys."
Or, Poochie might read and run, and then you're really in trouble. He averaged more than 10 yards a carry and scored 21 touchdowns as a junior.
At times, he might even punt. He handled the Wildcats only two punts against St. Clairsville, each going 40 yards. One punt came after a wide-open pass play that could have gained big yards.
"It's high school football," Dennison said. "You're not going to hit every play.
"Poochie is at the point now where he's on time with all his reads. If he makes a bad read in practice, we get on him, like he's supposed to be perfect. That's a good place to be."
The Wildcats were in a happy place after beating Dover.
"We want to be a better team than we were last year," Snyder said. "I think we have every piece we need.
"I think across the board, one through 11 on both sides of the ball, we're right where we need to be. That might not have been the case at times last year."
The Wildcats not only are 2-0. The wins are against two proud programs.
"We want to prove Canton South is going in the direction of the good programs," Snyder said. "We're moving up the chart."
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Poochie Snyder leads Canton South High School football team
