OHSFCA NORTH-SOUTH CLASSIC
When: Saturday, April 27
Where: Welcome Stadium, Dayton
Divisions I-III game: 4 p.m.
Divisions IV-VI game: 7 p.m.
Tickets: $10 at gate
Rosters: Scoreboard page.
Playing sports has always come easy for Troy Mangen. Football, basketball, baseball was his natural progression.
Maintaining an equally high academic standing was another ballgame.
“I’m not going to say school has come naturally for me,” said Mangen, Northmont High School’s 6-foot-5, 225-pound senior.
“I definitely have had to work at it, but it’s come easier to me than other people.”
Mangen has parlayed that classroom and playing-field excellence into an athletic scholarship to play football at Ohio University. He’ll have his final football tune-up on April 27 in the North-South Classic at Welcome Stadium before joining the Bobcats this summer.
The long-running series that features seniors from throughout the state moves to Dayton from Columbus, where it had been held since 2001. It also has been split into two games on the same day. A combined Divisions I-III will play at 4 p.m. and Divisions IV-VI at 7. The Classic is sponsored by the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association.
The Classic doubleheader is separate from the locally produced Miami Valley Football Coaches’ Association All-Star Game. Also known as the Pigskin Classic, that will be held at Welcome Stadium on June 7.
Mangen’s father, Mike, played for the South team in the 1981 game that was held at Canton’s Fawcett Stadium.
Both Mike (1981-84) and his brother Doug (1984-87) were football standouts at OU.
A tight end and defensive end at Northmont, Troy Mangen will graduate in June with about a 3.98 GPA.
“I’ve always known that academics is important because my mom (Teri) is a teacher (at Dixie Middle School in New Lebanon),” he said. “There were times, just like anyone else, I really didn’t feel like doing my homework, but I knew that I needed to because it was important.”
The head coach of the South Divisions I-III team is Bob DeLong of Xenia. Among his assistants are Franklin’s Rodney Roberts, Springboro’s Ryan Wilhite and Matt Bartley of Xenia.
The South team has practiced twice at Wittenberg University and had another session at Springboro. It will also practice next week on Thursday and Friday at Welcome Stadium.
Mangen said New Albany QB/DB Darron Lee has been one of the many who have stood out in practice. He’s signed with Ohio State.
A massive offensive line also has been impressive.
“There’s guys going to Tennessee, Kentucky, Toledo; we’re pretty big up front,” Mangen said. “We’re going to throw it a little bit, but since we’re so big up front, I think we’re going to start by trying to run the ball. We’re going to mix it up.”
The OHSFCA hopes to begin an Ohio vs. Michigan all-star football game in 2014. That potential series was initiated when the association was informed that it was being bumped from the Big 33 Game vs. Pennsylvania at Hershey, Pa.
The first Ohio vs. Michigan game would be held at Toledo and rotate annually among the neighboring states.
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