By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending the morning getting coffee with retired Kent Roosevelt Hall of Fame football coach John Nemec.

We met to discuss the Foreword that he wrote for the Portage Sports 2025 High School Football Feature Magazine.

Nemec had handwritten his piece on the yellow pages of a notebook. With my coffee in hand, I read through the message carefully. Not because I was editing it, but because I wanted to let the words sink in.

It was like I was one of his football players receiving one of his classic pregame or postgame talks.

When I was done reading his Foreword, I told him that I could take a picture of the pages and re-type them later that night when I got home.

He said, “There are only a few pages left in the notebook. You just take the whole notebook.”

I told him that I always kept my old notebooks so that I could rip off the cardboard from the back of them. They were the perfect, thick stock to write practice plans and game plans on for when I am coaching. I talked about how they were the perfect thickness to sustain the constant pull in and out of my pocket throughout the night.

I had not even finished my sentence and Coach Nemec’s eyes were lit up and a smile had turned onto his face.

“Tom, I have always done the exact same thing!”

Suddenly, we were two friends bonding over cardboard.

At Wednesday’s Roosevelt-Ravenna Captains Luncheon, Nemec shared our moment with the group in attendance.

He brought me a stack of cardboard to share for one of my future practices and to keep them all organized, he had them clipped to one of his old clipboards.

On the back of the clipboard was a motivational quote taped on it that somehow had survived some of his Friday gridiron battles.

It reads: 

“You are not who you think you are. You are not who I think you are. You are who you think I think you are.”

The power of sports … there are signs of it everywhere — even when it comes to random pieces of cardboard.

PORTAGE COUNTY TRACKER

And the winner of the Portage County Tracker at the Randolph Fair is….

Waterloo!

Congratulations!

Portage Sports will make a donation to your athletic department!

Southeast was the runner-up, with Field in third, Rootstown fourth and Garfield fifth to round out the top five.

For those unfamiliar with the contest: We kept track of the school districts that people were from when they came to visit us at our table at the Portage County Randolph Fair.

It was great to meet and talk with SO MANY of you during the last week at the fair. You kept our table busy and full of conversation.

We even met two people from Italy and one from Germany!

AN ALIEN IN PORTAGE COUNTY

The Portage Sports booth had a special visitor on Sunday at the Portage County Randolph Fair.

A visitor from out of this world!

Hubie, Streetsboro High School’s alien mascot, which was introduced by the school district in the fall of 2023, spent time in the Merchants Building with us on Sunday, interacting with families and bringing smiles.

A special thank you to Streetsboro teacher and coach Ira Campbell for helping coordinate everything with us.

It was great to have Hubie with us!

SOUTHEAST NEEDS A VOICE!

The Southeast youth football and cheerleaders need a Public Address announcer for their youth games on Sept. 7, Sept. 14 and Sept. 28.

There are three games each of those days, with start times of noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Please alert the Southeast youth program if you are interested in helping out.

ROOTSTOWN CHEERLEADING TO PROMOTE HEALTH

The Rootstown High School cheerleading program has partnered with Sequoia Wellness for an event to promote health.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 6 p.m. and will be hosted at Sequoia, which is located inside NEOMED in Rootstown.

Talking points will include healthy eating guidelines, hydration and it will also include some physical workouts.

YOUTH FOOTBALL HISTORY IN ROOTSTOWN

Jocelyn McMurdo became the first girl to successfully kick an extra point in Rootstown Youth Football history.

McMurdo nailed the kick during the Rovers’ victory over Southeast on Aug. 17 at Robert C. Dunn Field.

McMurdo followed it up with successful kicks on Sunday in a win over Field.

McMurdo is also a safety on the team and plays tight end.