Remember, nothing is a sure thing

This weekend several football teams will enjoy the euphoria of the playoffs and also the disappointment of early dismissal. For several teams, the state title is a goal. For others, they've reached it by playing this weekend. Regardless, the following story by Bret Bevens reminds us never to count out the underdog. Upsets happen. Nothing is four sure.

A GAME THAT SHOOK A SMALL TOWN

By Bret Bevens

When one thinks about sports stories in the fall of 1989 most recall the earthquake that delayed the World Series and literally shook the sports world.  Just more than two weeks later the Waverly High School football team played a game that shook a small town and shook up the Division III Region 12 playoff picture.

Head coach Ed Bolin guided his Tigers, led by quarterback D.R. Robinson, on a magical run that season that included one of the biggest upsets in OHSAA football playoff history.

On November 3, 1989 the Tigers traveled to Galbreath Field in Cincinnati to face off with the top ranked team in Division III, the Crusaders from the Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education. The Tigers walked onto the field as underdogs, but nonetheless, defeated the top ranked Crusaders 32-12 in what may be the biggest win in the history of Waverly football.

The Tigers opened the ‘89 season with 36-6 dismantling of Southeastern in Richmondale.

“They were trying to build it up as the ‘Battle of the Quarterbacks.’” Robinson said. “Mike Adams who played QB for Southeastern signed with Akron (and Robinson signed with Ohio University). I threw for 204 yards and Southeastern threw for nine.”

The next week Waverly hosted Fairland in the Tigers’ home opener.

“The final score was 34-22, but it was closer than that,” Robinson said. “We scored late. It was 27-22 and we scored a late touchdown. We trailed 14-13 at halftime.”

The Tigers defense forced four second half turnovers to aide in the Tigers comeback win.

The Tigers had another titanic struggle the very next week when the Bulldogs of Athens visited Raidiger Field.

“They had a lot of nice athletes,” Robinson said. “In fact, their tailback, Ryan Adams, ended up being my roommate at OU. He rushed for 126 yards on 29 carries so we made him work for his yards. That one was a battle.”

The Tigers moved to 4-0 with a 49-7 smoking of Jackson. Robinson carved up the Jackson secondary for 304 yards through the air.

The next week the Tigers suffered their only regular season loss that year at the hands of Wheelersburg. Southern Ohio was feeling the effects of Hurricane Hugo and the field conditions were terrible.

“Every other game in the area was cancelled,” Robinson said. “It was ridiculous! I mean it was a downpour. There were rivers on the sidelines. Not standing water, running water. We were drenched the whole game.”

The Tigers did not have a close game for the rest of the season steamrolling their opponents by an average of 35.2  points.

The Tigers’ final regular season contest was at Circleville.

“We didn’t know for sure (if we made the playoffs),” Robinson said.

Waverly finished out of the playoff picture in 1988 finishing out of fourth place by tenths of a point, so everyone was careful about a premature celebration.

“We had a good indication (we were in) but, we thought we needed a little bit of help,” Robinson said. “We were about 99-percent sure, but after getting bit in the tail the last year by tenths of a point we were all gun shy and worried.

“We came in and started listening to scores and we heard a few, then we felt pretty good about it. But we knew our work was cut out for us because we were the No. 4 seed. We knew it was going to be Ironton or CAPE, we knew we were going to have to play a great ball game.”

CAPE was no joke.

 “With Carlos Snow and Vinnie Clark we knew CAPE’s history,” Robinson said. “A lot of times when you play teams like that there is false bravado of ‘We can play with them’ but you don’t really believe it. We really believed it.”

When asked what made the team think that they could compete with CAPE, Robinson replied, “It was just that group of kids.

“It was just the fact we were so close. We had played a lot of football together, but we were all buddies.”

Robinson said that you weren’t trusting teammates you were trusting friends.

“They were one in the same,” Robinson added. “If I got sacked the linemen would have tears in their eyes. It was that type of unit. We had been through some wars together. We had close games.”

Robinson said one thing that he thought helped the Tigers was that nobody gave Waverly a chance against CAPE.

“We had that us versus them mentality and having that close friendship helps,” Robinson said. “That group was just winners. We just wrenched our guts out that night Wheelersburg beat us and we vowed that night it ain’t ever happening again.”

Robinson said the team just had a feeling the day of the CAPE game that it was going to do what it had to to win.

“It was just that mentality and that vibe,” Robinson said. “No matter what was put in front us we were going to overcome it.”

“We started getting after them immediately on defense. They went to the air and I picked it off. I jumped up, gave the No. 1 sign, we looked at each other and said ‘It’s on.’”

Robinson said that was the point he knew that his Tigers belonged on the field with CAPE.

Waverly’s receiver and defensive back Chris Crabtree, who is now the defensive coordinator at Waverly, recalls the defensive effort that night.

“D.R. (Robinson) ended up picking the ball off in the first quarter,” Crabtree said. “As the game progressed, defensively we played lights out. CAPE would run quick screens. Their kids were running out of bounds.”

 That was when Crabtree knew the Tigers had the game well in hand.

Robinson also recalled the CAPE receivers running out of bounds in the second half. It was a pretty good feeling.

Crabtree said that everyone was playing as hard as they could and once the game was over it was like, “Bam, we did it!”

Every great team has one special element that allows it to stand out from other teams and allows them to make history. The 1989 edition of the Tigers was no different.

“The biggest thing was we all were friends, we cared about each other, we hung out with each other,” Crabtree said. “Most of us played together from pee-wee all the way up. We liked each other and had a lot of faith in each other.

“I think it’s representative of all great teams,” Robinson said. “If I had to sum it up in on word I would say ‘brotherhood.’ That’s an overused cliché but it was real. It was absolutely real. Everybody on that team cared about the other guys on that team.”

So as a top seed gets ready to play a No. 8 seed this weekend let’s all take a lesson from the Waverly team of 1989 who reminded us that great teams can achieve great things and reminded us all ‘That’s why we play the game.’