[vizio32]

How's the preseason going? What's expected from the team this season? What kind of numbers do you have?

[Bawlhawk]

Lost about a dozen Seniors to graduation. I believe they return most if not all of their skilled positon players. Should be pretty good.

[wls_color]

Best QB in the area (I believe he was only a Freshman).

Urbana will (for the next 2-3 years) be the best team in the area. Look for the playoffs again for the Hillclimbers, this year with a deeper run.

[tigers best]

doesn't WLS Tigers and Urbana scrimage tuesday july 10th

[climbers93]

wondering if the climbers will be competing in any 7 on 7s?

[groundhog]

They're bringing in teams for all day "camps" which include 7 on 7 play. WLS yesterday and next Tuesday and Triad tomorrow. I think they work on skills in the morning and 7 on 7 after lunch. They will also play the burg in 7 on 7 at 6pm next wed. the 18th but not sure where. Last year it was actually at Urbana University.

They're have Marion Harding on Thurs. the 19th but not sure where.

[square_toe]

How did they do yesterday against the Tigers, who played well, how are the numbers?

[vizio32]

I hear the Hillclimbers are very athletic, but lost a lot of depth to graduation and kids not coming out for football. They should easily win the Mad River division. Looking at their schedule, three of the first four games are though. Avoiding injury in preseason they should win two of the four.

[climbers93]

Every year someone always says Urbana may struggle due to kids not going out. Its prolly just one kid. They have a lot of talent on that team. i look for them to go much deeper in the playoffs this season.

[quiet_storm]

I heard Urbana's roster will have less than 40 players.
It doesn't matter much because the kids they have are pretty good but of course their depth will be an issue.

Coach Stokes is tough and has high expectations. Some kids embrace this kind of toughness and some avoid it. In these days most kids avoid it.
I'm pretty sure back in the day Coach Brenning and Coach Carroll were pretty tough but they had kids come out for football who worked hard, performed, and succeeded.

[Urbanaite]

The expectations and toughness are not the issue. "show up, work hard and win 10 games", that is how expectations should be.

The reason less kids come out every year is the same reason the graduating class size has shrunk for every year in recent history: the caliber of the average kid in Urbana high school is not what it was 20 years ago, 10 years ago or even 5 years ago, and I'm not speaking from an athletic point of view.

It's an aging town that has lost a serious amount of good jobs over the past few years. Young, hardworking families are not moving in and a lot that were there previously have left; Not saying that Urbana isn't a great place, I love it regardless, but it's damn sad when we graduate less than 100 kids and have 40 kids come out for one of the most successful teams in the area.

[steelerdan]

my son plays for urbana and i coached a lot of these boys in pee wee for 4 years and let me tell all of you something, you want to see one of the greatest teams to ever come out of urbana show up this season there is a lot of talent heart, and work ethic like ive never seen before ,every player wants full contact and full speed all the time and true 39 to 40 players and two a days just started may loose a couple more ,yes the low numbers are partly the coaches fault and i dont always agree with them but we all stick together, the town moto is "NO WEAK LINKS" we dont always have to agree but stokes is the leader and the whole town has to follow!

[vizio32]

Originally Posted by steelerdan

my son plays for urbana and i coached a lot of these boys in pee wee for 4 years and let me tell all of you something, you want to see one of the greatest teams to ever come out of urbana show up this season there is a lot of talent heart, and work ethic like ive never seen before ,every player wants full contact and full speed all the time and true 39 to 40 players and two a days just started may loose a couple more ,yes the low numbers are partly the coaches fault and i dont always agree with them but we all stick together, the town moto is "NO WEAK LINKS" we dont always have to agree but stokes is the leader and the whole town has to follow!

There is a lot of talent on this team, but to say that they are one of the best team's Urbana has ever seen is a mighty strong statement. Were you around in '03 and not to mention the teams of the late 70's and early 80's. Do you realize that the '81 football team was 10-0 and had 6 or 7 division one college athletes on the team. Doug Rutan, UC QB, Skelly Miami of Ohio Tennis, Rogan OSU football, Rogan JC Coffeeville, Frantz Northwestern Baseball pitcher, Dean Rutan WR Bowling Green, Elmo Mossbarger UC baseball player. This football team missed the playoffs by 0.5 points. There were only 2 teams taken from each region back then. Had they have made it, they would have been State Champions. Many of these players and several other talented athletes from that school went on to win the Baseball State Championship that Spring. Don't forget the '82 and '83 football teams that had playoff runs with one of them ending up being State Runner-up. Yes, this years team is talented and good, but not on the level as these other teams. I wish this years team all of the luck in the world and hope they advance as far as they can.

[quiet_storm]

When/where are the Urbana scrimmages this year?

[sfind]

Originally Posted by quiet_storm

When/where are the Urbana scrimmages this year?

Urbana scrimamge at Marion Pleasant yesterday. The Hillclimbers travel to Mechanicsburg Friday at 10 AM and finish at St. Mary's on Aug. 17 at 7:30 PM.

The Mad River is Urbana's to lose. There's not a lot of good football in that conference. What I want to see is how well Urbana can do against the two best teams on their schedule. Couldn't beat the only other playoff teams they played the whole year in Tecumseh and Shawnee, though they were in both games. Those two games are again their measuring sticks for this year.

[TippyCanoe]

Originally Posted by sfind

Urbana scrimamge at Marion Pleasant yesterday. The Hillclimbers travel to Mechanicsburg Friday at 10 AM and finish at St. Mary's on Aug. 17 at 7:30 PM.

The Mad River is Urbana's to lose. There's not a lot of good football in that conference. What I want to see is how well Urbana can do against the two best teams on their schedule. Couldn't beat the only other playoff teams they played the whole year in Tecumseh and Shawnee, though they were in both games. Those two games are again their measuring sticks for this year.

The "Kenton" will do that to you.