“We’re trying to enhance the program from here,” said Derge, at 26 among the area’s youngest head coaches. “We’re not doing anything differently. We have a new group of seniors and a new coach, but we really want the same tradition.”
And why not. Tipp did its share of maintaining a high profile of CBC championship and playoff teams under Burgbacher. He resigned after last season following a 26-year run of coaching the Red Devils to join his son Matt Burgbacher as an assistant at Troy. Matt left a successful program at Fort Loramie to succeed Scot Brewer as Troy’s coach.
Tipp (9-3), Kenton Ridge (9-2) and Bellefontaine (8-3) were all part of a mighty CBC Kenton Division that advanced teams to the postseason in 2014. That’s the norm now for Tipp, which has qualified for the playoffs each of the last 10 seasons.
The deepest the Red Devils have ventured was in 2013, falling to Trotwood-Madison in a Division III regional final.
“We don’t plan on backing away at all,” said standout senior Jakob Prall, a versatile running back, receiver, defensive back and kick returner who has verbally committed to play football at Brown University.
“We have a great senior class; it’s really strong. We plan to go as far as possible in the playoffs. We really look up to the seniors a couple years ago who went to the regional finals.”
Prall, 6-feet-2, 179 pounds, will be key if Tipp is to contend for a CBC title and make a deep playoff run. A legitimate triple threat, last season he rushed for 1,001 yards and eight touchdowns and added 24 receptions for 543 yards (22.6 yards per) and seven scores. He also had 19 punt returns (13.9) for two TDs and returned seven kickoffs for 359 yards, a gaudy 51.3-yard average, good for three more TDs.
“He’s a kid who we can count on all the time,” assured Derge. “He can do anything we ask him to do. He’s a leader of the team.”
Prall will join former Tipp record-setting running back Jacob Hall at Brown next season.
Derge previously was an assistant at CBC rival Greenon, where he graduated and played on the last Knights team that won a share of the CBC Mad River title in 2007. He oversaw Tipp’s 2013 regional final team as the Red Devils’ defensive coordinator and switched to offensive coordinator last season after the team returned just one offensive starter.
That kind of two-way coaching knowledge is invaluable. So is essentially being tutored by the veteran Burgbacher.
“Nothing’s changed; we’re still running the wing-T (offense),” Derge said during a recent break in preseason practice. “We’re still running the 50 defense. Everybody knows that.
“Everybody from the coaching staff is back, which is great. A lot of respect to Coach Burgbacher. We text every night. I learned so much about just teaching the game from him. Just keeping it simple for kids.”
Other new CBC coaches: Nick Marino resigned following a great two-year run at Urbana to succeed Bryon Rioch at Anna in the Midwestern Athletic Conference. Marino is succeeded by Jon Daniels, a former Wittenberg University standout and Springfield South graduate who was an assistant at Springboro last season.
Urbana was 7-3 last season but couldn’t land a playoff spot. That snapped a streak of three straight postseasons for the Hillclimbers. Urbana has been a Mad River force since 2001, advancing nine of its 15 playoff teams.
Ironically, another former Urbana head coach, Geron Stokes, also left for MAC member Minster and guided the Wildcats to the D-VI state championship last season in his second year there.
• AJ Woods succeeds John Tullis at Graham. Tullis resigned after one season as the Falcons’ head coach and the previous 26 as an assistant.
Woods was a volunteer assistant at Southeastern, his alma mater, two years ago. He joined Tullis’ staff last year as the JV coach and as a varsity assistant on offense.
Realigned: Tecumseh (D-III), Graham (D-IV), Kenton Ridge (D-IV) and Northwestern (D-V) will likely drop divisions from the last two seasons. They were among teams throughout the state that initially were told by the Ohio High School Athletic Association of a divisional change.
Since then, the OHSAA has said it will not count charter school and STEM school students to enrollment counts. That necessitated an all-sports divisional realignment for the 2015-16 school year that has not yet been announced.
Ones to watch: Senior linebacker Joey Davidson of Indian Lake is the reigning Mad River defensive player of the year. The 6-0, 210-pounder was credited with 107 tackles last season. He doubles as a running back.
• Springfield Shawnee senior QB Alex Bennett passed for 1,885 yards and 14 TDs last season. He rushed for another 493 yards and five scores.
• Senior RB/DB Jayden Davis of Kenton Ridge rushed for 1,226 yards as a junior (8.5 yards per carry) and scored 16 touchdowns.
• Senior Northwestern quarterback Trevor Gebby completed 114 passes for 1,508 yards and 17 TDs last season.
• Senior Northwestern receiver Cole Brewer is a go-to target for Gebby. Brewer had 41 catches for 688 yards (16.8) and eight scores last season.
Noteworthy: The CBC continues unsuccessfully to solicit on its home website page for new teams to replace Tipp and Stebbins. A proposed merger with the Ohio Heritage Conference didn't happen. Instead, the OHC added Madison Plains and Fairbanks.
The future of the CBC is uncertain. If no teams are added, the conference could field two divisions of five teams each or revert to a traditional — but disappearing — 10-team conference.
• The CBC hasn’t budged from a traditional start time of 7:30 p.m. for its varsity football contests. That goes against a recent statewide and area trend to move kickoffs to 7.
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