By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

By Week 4, the timeline part of the season tells us that we are nearing the halfway point.

The coaching timeline tells a different stories.

It can be viewed as a tipping point to a season.

Still enough time to push toward goals of winning a league championship and qualifying for the state playoffs, but also with a sense of urgency to avoid falling into the trap of perceived time.

Also by Week 4, most teams have determined what their identity is.

All of it creates a new level of excitement tonight, with league play kicking off for area teams, and we can’t wait to see what is still waiting from tonight’s results and how they set the stage for Week 5.

THE FANS

In my travels around Portage County during the first three weeks of the season, I can positively report that Fridays have had the special kind of buzz that has long been accustomed to the weekly games.

The communities have come out in large numbers, giving games a heightened sense of excitement.

Fans of all ages, including the student bodies, consume games in more ways now than ever before.

Real-time updates, highlights and outcomes are shared in a variety of ways and long gone are the days when you had to be at the game to find out what happened.

Or that I you had to be at the game to even watch it.

Those are elements that have pulled from larger crowds over the last decade-plus, and, obviously, the COVID seasons didn’t help.

However, there is a feel that the crowds are bouncing back.

There are still occasionally small student sections, which will forever be puzzling to me, but being in Aurora last Friday helped reinstate my hope.

There is no school in Portage County that has students who show up to support their teams like the Greenmen — and it is awesome!

FRIDAY NIGHT FORECAST

We will be blessed with another beautiful night for football.

At kickoff, the temperature is expected to be in the mid-70s and it will remain in the high 60s throughout the rest of the night.

No rain is expected and the skies will be clear.

Pack a hoodie and you should be good to go for the night.

It may be one of those perfect sunset-capturing photo kind of nights.

Be ready.

TOM HANNAN’S MILESTONE

Rootstown head coach Tom Hannan is the senior coach of Portage County.

He is in his 44th career year as a coach overall and 29th year as a head coach.

Remarkable.

He has had multiple stops along the way (Crestwood, Lake, Lorain Catholic, Thompson Ledgemont), with this season being his second with the Rovers.

Rootstown plays at Brooklyn and a win tonight would give Hannan his 100th as a Portage County coach.

In total, Hannan has 139 career wins, which rank him seventh in Portage County history.

UNUSUAL MATH

The number of games that feature two Portage County schools has shrunk in recent years with area teams stretched across five different leagues and independent status (Mogadore).

Running the math, the 12 Portage County schools each play 10 regular-season games for a total of 120 regular-season games.

Of those games, only nine (or 8 percent) will be played with Portage County schools against each other.

Those games are:

Mogadore at Crestwood, Aug. 22

Kent Roosevelt at Ravenna, Aug. 22

Streetsboro at Kent Roosevelt, Aug. 29

Southeast at Garfield, Sept. 26

Crestwood at Rootstown, Oct. 3

Streetsboro at Ravenna, Oct. 10

Kent Roosevelt at Aurora, Oct. 17

Field at Streetsboro, Oct. 17

Ravenna at Field, Oct. 24

MORE WEIRD NUMBERS

Through three games, a season is far from determined, but it is still strange for Aurora and Mogadore to both be 1-2.

Aurora has a losing record after the first three weeks of the season for the first time since 2017, when the Greenmen started 0-3 before winning six of their final seven games.

LEAGUE PLAY KICKS OFF

Week 4 introduces league play across Northeast Ohio.

Aurora and Kent Roosevelt in the Suburban League.

Crestwood and Rootstown in the Chagrin Valley Conference’s Valley Division.

Garfield and Southeast in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference’s Gray Division and Waterloo in the MVAC’s Scarlet Division.

Windham in the Northeastern Athletic Conference.

And, Field, Ravenna and Streetsboro in the Metro Athletic Conference.

The road toward a league title begins tonight.

PLAYOFF UPDATE

When reviewing the list below, remember that the OHSAA qualifies for the top 12 teams from each region for postseason play.

DIVISION III, REGION 9

12. Kent Roosevelt

T21. Aurora

DIVISION IV, REGION 13

4. Streetsboro

T16. Ravenna

T21. Field

DIVISION V, REGION 17

14. Garfield

16. Southeast

T24. Crestwood

DIVISION VI, REGION 21

9. Rootstown

DIVISION VII, REGION 25

8. Mogadore

T18. Waterloo

T18. Windham

WEEK 3 SCORES

Kent Roosevelt 40, Ellet 20

Twinsburg 20, Aurora 19 (OT)

Ravenna 27, Niles McKinley 21 (OT)

Poland Seminary 50, Field 6

Alliance 46, Streetsboro 13

Rootstown 30, Trinity 0

Cuyahoga Heights 36, Crestwood 32

Garfield 40, New Middletown Springfield 21

Southeast 29, Cuyahoga Falls 8

Dalton 28, Mogadore 19

Lisbon 41, Waterloo 14

Jackson-Milton 47, Windham 0

WEEK 4 SCHEDULE

Grand Valley at Windham

Mogadore at Malvern

Crestwood at Beachwood

Rootstown at Brooklyn

Streetsboro at Coventry

Ravenna at Norton

Woodridge at Field

Revere at Kent Roosevelt

Aurora at Highland

Garfield at LaBrae

Newton Falls at Southeast

Waterloo at New Middletown Springfield, canceled

LOOK AHEAD WEEK 5 SCHEDULE

Waterloo at Mineral Ridge

Beachwood at Tallmadge

Woodridge at Ravenna

Springfield at Streetsboro

Field at Norton

Cuyahoga Falls at Kent Roosevelt

Revere at Aurora

Brooklyn at Crestwood

Champion at Garfield

Crestview at Southeast

Ellet at Mogadore

Cardinal at Windham