Notre Dame 2020

[formerfcfan]

Nd’s enrollment is up. What are you even referring to?

By what? 5 kids? Not hard to say the enrollment is up whatever percentage when there was only 90 kids in the school last year.

[RiverBallFan1]

Making a change wouldn’t do anything. Like you said earlier, the fact ND even has an 11-man program these days is commendable. People think it’s Ashley’s fault— uh, no. People need to realize that what’s in the cards is just that, full stop. ND’s lack of football success is a product of 1) declining economy; 1a) an ND education not even being the best in its county (hello, Wheelersburg, Minford and Valley); 2) the dying of Catholicism generation-to-generation; 3) a large core of families that have the means and the slightest bit of interest in private education instead opting to keep their kids at Burg and Minford, for free, rather than paying $6000k+ a year to have them attend school in Portsmouth.

Making a change would not do anything! So, 0-12 is acceptable
?? I disagree, anybody can go 0-12...so stay the same or maybe do better?

Again, what ND is experiencing is largely a product of what the school is up against and the general decrease of kids playing football nationwide. And what they’re experiencing isn’t unique to ND. Plenty of other small Catholic schools across the state are experiencing the exact same thing this season. They have many of the same problems ND does, except with ND specifically those problems are greater in magnitude because of their tiny enrollment and the fact Scioto County isn’t home to the base of families (in numbers) that would alleviate what the school and consequently the football program is up against. I believe ND is still one of the five smallest football-playing schools in the entire state. Like, these problems with football just come with the territory— they’re inextricable, they’re hard and as others have said it is nothing short of remarkable that the Titans are still able to play 11-man football for as long as they have been.

Stop making excuses. In the years past it’s been low numbers, now ND has 31 players, so that’s not the issue. Short of remarkable that they can play 11 man football? Why do people not see the issue. When coaches make excuses and j BK lamenit all on the players...there’s your issue! Anybody v
Can go 0-10!

[RelaxGoat]

Numbers and talent are up in football. Weak conference. Several seniors. A prominent back moved to wide receiver..( they do not pass) Are you dreaming? ND must self reflect on why they can’t win. That division is down. ND quits early. Why is that happening? What is the fix for quitting in the second quarter only down seven?

[RiverBallFan1]

Nd’s enrollment is up. What are you even referring to?

By what? 5 kids? Not hard to say the enrollment is up whatever percentage when there was only 90 kids in the school last year.

130 last year, 185 this year. 22 football players last year 31 this year. Yes, I believe that’s a significant increase. But keep defending 0-10!!

[RiverBallFan1]

I’m stopping on this one. ND will be 2-4 regular season. Green and East are super horrible, but may just end up 1-5. Remember anybody can be 0-10, but ND was the only 0-10 team recently. That being said....their coaching staff is horrible!!

[RelaxGoat]

You are delusional. Numbers are up. They play a weak conference schedule. They run numbers up for certain kids against weak opponents opponents.. I am confused.

[formerfcfan]

Nd’s enrollment is up. What are you even referring to?

By what? 5 kids? Not hard to say the enrollment is up whatever percentage when there was only 90 kids in the school last year.

130 last year, 185 this year. 22 football players last year 31 this year. Yes, I believe that’s a significant increase. But keep defending 0-10!!

185? I call horse. The Diocese of Columbus still says they’re the smallest of the 10 high schools as of this year. 185 means they’re now the seventh largest.

They also did not have 130 students last year. Parent said they had 90, and what was submitted to the OHSAA this summer says they had 31 boys and 37 girls in grades 9-11 in the ‘19-20 school year. 130-68 is 62, and they did not graduate 62 students last year. They graduated 23. So, they had 85 students last year.

[RelaxGoat]

Maybe they need to go to soccer. The coaches aren’t playing the best kids.. weak conference.. if you cannot win, move to soccer.

[RelaxGoat]

So not a football school.. but Buy a spot because they are so desperate. Coaches won’t even Play the best best players only the best donater’s kid. That Is why they lose! Suck ass coaches.

[art_vandelay]

You are so on point! 0-10 last year. Who keeps their job going 0-10? 2-4 this year? Still keep your job? Yes, as long as he wants, nobody else wants it and nobody else wants him. He teaches Minford, they don’t want him, he applied for the NW job, they didn’t want him. Is his wife on the school board or the principal, that may be the only explanation.

Not saying whether ND should have made a change or not as I’m not close to the situation. Just saying that if no changes were made after a 0-10 season, none are coming after they win a few games this year.*

Making a change wouldn’t do anything. Like you said earlier, the fact ND even has an 11-man program these days is commendable. People think it’s Ashley’s fault— uh, no. People need to realize that what’s in the cards is just that, full stop. ND’s lack of football success is a product of 1) declining economy; 1a) an ND education not even being the best in its county (hello, Wheelersburg, Minford and Valley); 2) the dying of Catholicism generation-to-generation; 3) a large core of families that have the means and the slightest bit of interest in private education instead opting to keep their kids at Burg and Minford, for free, rather than paying $6000k+ a year to have them attend school in Portsmouth.

Spot on. People used to pay for the ND education when it was clearly better than public schools. Now, Wheelersburg offers at least as good of an education for free. Coupled with Burg’s athletic success, you can see why so many catholic families send their kids to Burg and that has definitely weakened ND.

As for this thread, I haven’t followed ND football close enough to know whether there any merit or not to the complaints about coaching. Only point I’m making is these posters complaining better get used to it cause this coaching staff not going anywhere if no changes were made after an 0-10 season*

[Jason Vorhees]

The guy who’s making the complaint has been on here for a total of one day. Here’s a few examples of why they have the right guy for the job currently:

1. If their numbers are up, there’s a reason for that. You don’t go 0-10 and then have an increase in football numbers unless the coaching staff is doing something correctly.

2. They competed the whole game with Northwest and lost by 4, who’s by far a much larger school than Notre Dame.

3. In 2018, they beat an 8-3 Green team, lost to both Rosecrans and Symmes Valley by single digits. In 2018, Notre Dame could have finished 5-5. Their opponents W-L record was 48-54.

4. In 2017, Notre Dame went 2-8 but had nobody good on that roster. Their opponents W-L record was 49-52. Not a shabby schedule for a D7 parochial school.

5. In 2016, Notre Dame went 7-3. Their three losses were to teams that had a combined W-L record of 23-9. Of those 3 losses, all of them were by less than 7 points.

6. Notre Dame prepares their schedule and kids probably better than any other school their size and what disadvantages they are having to go through within the city and as a community. When you are still fielding a team in a city whose population has declined by nearly 60% in 2 decades and you have an increase in numbers during a pandemic, I’d say that the coaching staff is doing something right.

[greygoose]

Yeah I'm sorry but complaining about the staff and wondering what the problem is with ND is simply a person who doesn't know the game. This is a small DVII school do you think there wasn't going to be a time where they had a downward cycle of teams?? It took so long to happen I think people forget that it does happen and it will happen. This team barely had enough to field a JH team last year, after initially canceling the season there numbers will always be relatively low which lowers the ability to get quality players as well. 1st 2 weeks of the year they've taken on a West team that while they're young has a lot of talent, they lost 10-6 to a much larger Northwest school that was/is favored to win SOC1 and played for the title last year while losing only a minimal number of players. It's not the ND of many years past and with their enrollment numbers on the low end they will have larger periods of up and down years compared to most teams.

[Buckeye1972]

I sometimes get amazed at what we expect from high school coaches. Every coach - head coach and assistant - do their best with what cards they are dealt. Yes, sometimes the results aren't what we expect but the other team has something to do with that. The coaching staff of ND (and every other staff in the area) prepare their teams to do their best. Losses to West and Northwest were surely not upsets. My biggest problem with this topic is the somewhat personal attack on Coach Ashley. To me that is not acceptable to belittle a high school coach. These aren't the big money college and pro coaches. For what time and effort our local coaches put it, the personal comments aren't deserved.

[bfry]

Wow

[sterling]

Formerfcfan, you don't have a freakin clue! Apparent by you complete lack of inside knowledge of ND and the program and it is obvious you have never been an ND fan or you would know why people pay to send their kids there. (NOT 6000.00 btw).
Basically what you are saying is " ND is a pitiful school that no one should ever want to attend and the fact that they have football at all they should be happy with that. Who cares they dont win a game. Shut up and be glad you have a team!" Yes that IS what you are saying. The numbers ARE NOT down! But they are not up because of football. They are up for girls sports, for kids that arent getting playing time at their last school or they fed up with some of the stuff that was going on where they came from. In the mid and late 80's ND had the same amount of kids on the the field and won conferences year after year. The difference, COACHING. For those saying they are keeping the coaches cause no one else wants it, not true. There have been several former college players want to coach, one who.is coaching at Ironton, only to be told they weren't needed. The staff cannot stand for someone that knows more than they do to be there, they are intimitated. No way ANYONE that is unbiased can defend the stats of this coaching staff. They have wone 5 games since 2017. Since 2012 they have only had 6 wins against teams with winning records. Havent won a conference title since 2000. And HAD the athletes to do it!!!! Everyone says weken their schedule so they can win. How much weaker can you make it. Playing the Sisters of the Poor every week doesnt do anything for your pride either! Heck they went 7-3 in 2016 and couldnt make the playoffs. Do they put kids in positions cause who they are ? Maybe. But you show me a school that doesn"t. Facts are they have run the same gameplan for 20 years no matter who they are playing. The weight program consisted of non mandatory weights for 1/2 hour before school, led by coaches that dont know the first thing about a real weight program. If this staff was at ANY other school in this area you all would think they need to go! It would NEVER be acceptable at Minford, Burg, Valley or anywhere! It should be the same at ND. And they would be, boys or girls sports with coaches with this track record would be gone!!!To suggest that the ND kids arent worth the same quality of coaches cause they are at a small school is shameful! Will they be fired? Nope. They are all best buds with the higher ups who dont have the nerve to fire their buddies. So the finger pointing on the players year in and year out will continue.

[formerfcfan]

Formerfcfan, you don't have a freakin clue! Apparent by you complete lack of inside knowledge of ND and the program and it is obvious you have never been an ND fan or you would know why people pay to send their kids there. (NOT 6000.00 btw).
Basically what you are saying is " ND is a pitiful school that no one should ever want to attend and the fact that they have football at all they should be happy with that. Who cares they dont win a game. Shut up and be glad you have a team!" Yes that IS what you are saying. The numbers ARE NOT down! But they are not up because of football. They are up for girls sports, for kids that arent getting playing time at their last school or they fed up with some of the stuff that was going on where they came from. In the mid and late 80's ND had the same amount of kids on the the field and won conferences year after year. The difference, COACHING. For those saying they are keeping the coaches cause no one else wants it, not true. There have been several former college players want to coach, one who.is coaching at Ironton, only to be told they weren't needed. The staff cannot stand for someone that knows more than they do to be there, they are intimitated. No way ANYONE that is unbiased can defend the stats of this coaching staff. They have wone 5 games since 2017. Since 2012 they have only had 6 wins against teams with winning records. Havent won a conference title since 2000. And HAD the athletes to do it!!!! Everyone says weken their schedule so they can win. How much weaker can you make it. Playing the Sisters of the Poor every week doesnt do anything for your pride either! Heck they went 7-3 in 2016 and couldnt make the playoffs. Do they put kids in positions cause who they are ? Maybe. But you show me a school that doesn"t. Facts are they have run the same gameplan for 20 years no matter who they are playing. The weight program consisted of non mandatory weights for 1/2 hour before school, led by coaches that dont know the first thing about a real weight program. If this staff was at ANY other school in this area you all would think they need to go! It would NEVER be acceptable at Minford, Burg, Valley or anywhere! It should be the same at ND. And they would be, boys or girls sports with coaches with this track record would be gone!!!To suggest that the ND kids arent worth the same quality of coaches cause they are at a small school is shameful! Will they be fired? Nope. They are all best buds with the higher ups who dont have the nerve to fire their buddies. So the finger pointing on the players year in and year out will continue.

lol I see you read at a 9th grade level, if that. Didn't say ND was a bad school, nor did I say "shut up and be glad you have a team!"

ND's high school charges $5800/student for active Catholics. That, plus the fact ND is a huge EdChoice school, makes ND easily the most affordable Diocesan high school. What a weird "gotcha" that I forgot to put a tilde on the 6k... LOL. I'm also correct on what their enrollment was last year, they had less than 90 students. I believe you have me mistaken with the other poster who said they had 130 in the HS last year.

Re: their schedule. Uh... they absolutely should be making their schedule as manageable as possible. Perhaps you missed it where Greenup Co put it on them last year!

[Moses Guthrie]

Relaxgoat/riverballlfan/sterling is one big clown

[Jason Vorhees]

2007: 6-5, Notre Dame made the playoffs and finished 2nd in the SOC1
2008: 6-4
2010: 5-5
2011: 7-3
2012: 7-3
2013: 8-3, Notre Dame made the playoffs and finished 2nd in the SOC1
2016: 7-3

For anyone to say that Notre Dame hasn’t had success in the past 20 years is stating a fallacy. Yes, Notre Dame isn’t as good as they were in the 1950’s-1990’s but you also have to take a look at Socioeconomics of Portsmouth and Scioto County. Since 2000, Portsmouth has probably lost at least 2,000 people. It’ll drop to less than 20,000 as a city on this census for the first time since 1900. Scioto County has also had a major loss of industry, and a new highway that completely by-passes Portsmouth. Scioto County from 1980 to 2010 had a 7,000 person loss. When the census comes out for 2020, it may be a 10,000 person loss in 40 years. That’s a lot of people to lose in an already impoverished part of the state. Is Bob Ashley on the same level as an Ed Miller? No, but he does well for what he has to work with. If I had a child growing up in Scioto County, and they were good at football, I would probably make sure that they were enrolled at Wheelersburg. That’s just stating facts. If someone truly has an issue with him being the coach, put your resume in. I always see three things that an Ashley coached team has:
1. Fairly well disciplined on both sides of the ball.
2. A respect for their opponent/classy before, during, and after the game.
3. They look prepared for every game.

A very wise coach once told me, “It’s not about the X’s and O’s, it’s about the Jimmy’s and Joe’s.”

[Pathfinder278]

End of 1st half.
ND 35
Green 0

[Pathfinder278]

Game called at the half 35-0