Cincinnati Colerain Cardinals

[Honor&Glory]

Congrats to ATH Gary Pride!

Pride was offered a D1 scholarship as a DB/WR/ATH by the Akron Zips and he gave his verbal to them on the spot.

Another D1 player from the Colerain family! Well done, Gary!

[osugrad21]

Enquirer

Powerhouse Cards haven't lost a step
BY TOM GROESCHEN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
This just in: The Colerain football team is crushing people again.
The Cardinals (3-0), ranked No. 2 in the Enquirer Division I area coaches' poll, are winning by an average of 49.3 points a game. That is vintage Colerain, which won by an average of 39.8 points in winning the 2004 state title and outscored opponents by 33.7 points a game in 2005 (regional semifinals).
Yet, Colerain coach Kerry Coombs wonders exactly how good his 2006 team can be. Coombs will learn more when Colerain, which entered the USA Today national poll at No. 25 this week, faces Cardinal O'Hara (Philadelphia) at UC's Nippert Stadium today at 9 p.m. The game is part of McDonald's Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA Challenge, with Cardinal O'Hara (1-1) ranked No. 6 in the Philadelphia Inquirer area poll.

OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1');
"I'm not sure where we are," Coombs said. "We're playing well, but I honestly don't know where we stand."
Coombs won't say it, but Colerain simply has not been tested. The Cardinals have routed Mason (41-14), Columbus Brookhaven (70-0) and Fairfield (51-0). Colerain's starting defense has not allowed a point, with Mason scoring against Cardinal reserves late in the game.
It's a typical Colerain team, with speed galore. One difference is the 2006 Cardinals aren't as physically big as recent years, when Division I college recruits including offensive lineman Connor Smith (Ohio State), linebackers Tyler Moeller (Ohio State) and Cobrani Mixon (Michigan) and fullback Mister Simpson (Michigan) were in town.
"We're small, but we can run," Coombs said.
Defensively, safety Eugene Clifford is Ohio's No. 1-ranked Division I college prospect by Rivals.com and many others. Clifford has Ohio State, Michigan, Florida and Miami (Fla.) on his short list of colleges. He also plays some at wide receiver.
Nose guard Calvin Dixon and linebacker Spencer Smith are among other defensive mainstays.
Offensively, Colerain is throwing the ball more than usual. Longtime Colerain offensive coordinator Rick Haynes, master of the run-oriented triple option, is taking a varsity coaching sabbatical to watch his son play for Lakota East. New offensive coordinator Tom Bolden, another longtime Coombs assistant, is a former Colerain quarterback.
"Tommy still holds our passing records, and of course he's going to throw it a little more," Coombs said. "We're still going to be a triple-option team, but we've also got a nice group of kids who can get open and catch the ball."
Doug Reynolds, a junior and first-year starter at quarterback, has completed 19-of-26 passes for 277 yards and six TDs this season (no interceptions). Last year, Colerain threw only 29 passes in 10 regular-season games.
Gary Pride, who quarterbacked last year's team as a junior, is now a running back as a senior. Pride, who rushed for 1,010 yards and 14 TDs last season, has committed to the University of Akron for next fall.
This year, the speedy Pride has rushed 14 times for 216 yards - a gaudy 15.4 yards per carry - and one TD. He also is Colerain's leading receiver, with six catches for 60 yards and a TD.
"It's worked out pretty well," Pride said of the quarterback switch. "It feels good knowing all the checks and plays from last year. It's like having two quarterbacks on offense now, and Doug and I are very cool with it. Coming up to varsity, he hasn't missed a beat."
Senior fullback Trammell Williams is the Cardinals' leading rusher with 326 yards and eight TDs.
While Colerain's schedule could portend another 10-0 regular season, Coombs said reigning state champion St. Xavier deserves its No. 1 area ranking.
"St. X is the team to beat until somebody beats them," Coombs said. "We'll just worry about ourselves for now."
E-mail tgroeschen@enquirer.com

[Honor&Glory]

The Colerain Boosters announced the guest speaker for our annual sports stag on February 8th as Jim Tressel. Needless to say, I'll be in attendance.

[buckeye247]

Originally Posted by Honor&Glory

The Colerain Boosters announced the guest speaker for our annual sports stag on February 8th as Jim Tressel. Needless to say, I'll be in attendance.

Lucky

[osugrad21]

Link

Colerain stays atop Div-1 football poll
High school roundup
ENQUIRER STAFF REPORTS
Colerain remains the top-ranked team in the Enquirer Division 1 area coaches' football poll.
The Cardinals (9-0, 6-0 Greater Miami Conference) host Oak Hills (6-3, 5-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Colerain has won 50 consecutive GMC games dating to 1999.
St. Xavier (7-1, 2-0 Greater Catholic League-South) is No. 2 and garnered three first-place votes. The Bombers host No. 4 Moeller (5-3, 2-0) Friday night.
In Divisions II-VI, Indian Hill remained No. 1. Edgewood moved up one spot to No. 2, followed by Turpin.
Indian Hill (9-0, 7-0 Cincinnati Hills League) plays Purcell Marian (2-7, 1-6 GCL-C) at 6 p.m. Friday at Paul Brown Stadium.

[osugrad21]

Link

No. 1 Colerain, No. 2 St. X make region final
By Tom Ramstetter
Post contributor St. Xavier unveiled a new trick and Colerain was up to its old tricks as both high school football teams earned shutout wins Saturday in Region IV semifinal games at Nippert Stadium to set up Friday's 7:30 p.m. regional final between the two schools at Nippert.
The Bombers, ranked No. 2 in the final Associated Press Division I state poll and the defending state champions, beat Glen Este 17-0 in the first game. Colerain, the AP state poll champions and 2004 state champs, followed with a 28-0 win over Sycamore.
The Bombers beat Colerain in the regional semifinals last season, 12-9 in overtime at Paul Brown Stadium, on a touchdown pass into the left side of the end zone that looked strikingly similar to the 20-yard pass junior kicker Danny Milligan fired to senior Jon Saelinger late in the first half to get St. Xavier on the board against the Trojans.
This time it was a fake field goal rather than a first-down play. Milligan took the snap and threw a fade to Saelinger in the corner.
"We've been working on that," Milligan said. "We've been working on it for the past three weeks now. We wanted to run it, but every time we'd come out, they'd be yelling 'fake.' People were looking for it. We came out, we saw that they were coming pretty hard and we ran it and I just kind of threw it up. Jon's so athletic, I knew that he would get it."
It was the first touchdown pass Milligan, who was a quarterback in grade school, has thrown in high school.
"I didn't see it, I just heard the fans," Milligan said. "I was covered by Glen Este kids and they're so tall, I didn't see anything."
"You want to take advantage of the talent God's given kids and Danny Milligan can do an awful lot of things," Bombers head coach Steve Specht said. "We could have kicked a field goal, but at the time I thought our kids needed a shot in the arm."
Colerain's defense returned to form and recorded its sixth shutout of the season a week after blowing a 28-0 lead over Moeller and holding on for a 34-31 triple-overtime win. The Cardinals held the Aviators to 173 yards total offense and blocked a punt for a touchdown to beat their Greater Miami Conference rival.
"Our defense worked real hard this week and worked real hard on watching Sycamore's film," Cardinals senior defensive back Eugene Clifford said. "We just came out and played the best way we can. We bounced back from last week after having them come all the way back from 28 points down. We did pretty good and we got a shutout this game.
"We tried not to let down. Once we get up on a team like that, we can't let another team come back and get a chance to win a game. I think we did a great job of that this game."
Cards head coach Kerry Coombs, who was looking for answers last week, praised his defense.
"I talked to so many coaches this week from the pros and college and everywhere and I asked them what you do with your kids in this situation," Coombs said. "The only thing they'd say is just go back to work. Just go back to work. And that's what they did. They went back to work this week in practice and they struggled and they were down and they were moping. But they fought through it and they showed up and they played big (Saturday)."